Hatfields & McCoys History Channel Lots of smoke

[Voodoochile]

My wife Becky was born in Norton, Va. & her Papaw still lives in the Pound, his house is practically a stones throw from the Kentucky border & in the late 40's till not too long ago he had a store off of the highway coming from Ky. that sold wine & beer, well he made a killing because the county in Ky bordering the Pound is a dry county.
You do the math.
Told Becky that her & my G-pa have a lot in common, her Papaw sold beer & wine at his location to those from the dry county & my Poppop was a shine runner back in the mid 30's-early 40's before he joined the Army in 41'.

I'll have to ask her Papaw about his memory about the area since he's lived there nearly all his life & he's 87 now.

Watched some of the show but other things got in the way of me finishing it but my oldest asked me some trivia about the show just last night, I told her that I know the real history from what I've read & heard not much about the show.

 

[1911Tuner]

Voodoo...That would be Highway 23 goin' into Jenkins. Letcher County. Some of our kin probably pulled a cork together. My mother was the baby of her family. If she'd lived, she'd be 89. Her brother...18 months older...was a police officer in Coeburn for a time, but all the city police were under the thumb and authority of the Wise County sheriff.

Oh...and it's "over on the Pound" to the locals.

 

[Voodoochile]

Oh...and it's "over on the Pound" to the locals.

LOL I was more than once corrected of that from Becky.

I like the area & would love to have my retirement home out there.
Had to show a few friends here in Fredericksburg that one resident just outside of the Pound has his single wide sitting on his property at what seemed to need a Chinok heli to place it there.

 

[bikerdoc]

My wifes family is from Louisa, mine from Hinton and Beckley, we are retired but we go back for visits but kind of like our little piece of dirt on the VA/NC border.

 

[1911Tuner]

Dang! Lotsa hillbillies on board! Best folks I know of.

 

[aeriedad]

Voodoo...That would be Highway 23 goin' into Jenkins. Letcher County.

My dad went to Dorton HS before it was absorbed by Shelby Valley. I've driven through Norton and Pound, VA on the way to Jenkins and Pikeville, KY a few times, visiting family. My Mamaw and Papaw lived in Jenkins when I was a kid, still got about a hundred cousins there, more or less. I didn't grow up there though, and my dad says even with all our connections to the area, I would still be an outsider if I tried to relocate there.

Haven't seen the H & M series yet...too busy. Got it on DVR, probably will see in the next week or so. Don't really have high expectations for it either...History Channel consistently disappoints...

 

[Dr.Rob]

Just a reminder many 'historical' photos of the era were shot in a photographer's studios with prop guns. Don't be too hard on the prop department.

 

[bikerdoc]

Don't really have high expectations for it either...History Channel consistently disappoints...

And it continues to disapoint with this one. I expected more. Bill Paxton and the writers need to get into another line of work.

 

[Tommygunn]

And it continues to disapoint with this one. I expected more.

Well, I DVD recorded the series and watched Pt 1 this afternoon.
Sorry, it was disappointing. I guess I'm just not that interested in a couple of clans engage in arguments. The stolen pig thing was a little too .... dumb. A lot of it also seemed slow and disjointed.
As for the guns, that too was disappointing; brass-frame Remmie '58s which never existed. Yes, I know propmasters go with what they can get and they don't all know what is real and what is just a fiction created by a modern Italian gun maker pumping out repros, but, still.
I am not sure I will be watching parts 2 & 3 ....maybe this weekend........

 

[TennJed]

I enjoyed it. I will agree that Bill Paxton was over the top, but I thought the rest of it was entertaining.

As far as accuracy, I have no clue, but not too concerned. It was a movie, not a documentary. I am not very well read on the subject. I am interested in the subject now and plan on doing some digging.

maybe it is just me, but I watch MOVIES for entertainment and do not pay too much attention to little details. History and facts are best gained with ones own research then relying on actors.

Keep in mind that is was entertainment and the History Channel has to make money. Personally I think they did something a MOVIE about history should do. Entertain me and peak my interest into a subject. Now I need to read and watch documentaries to get the facts straight. If it had been more factual, but less entertaining there is a good chance the end result would be me knowing less about the Hatfields and McCoys

 

[1911Tuner]

True that, Jed. It was a movie...known as entertainment. It depicted a piece of Appalachian history and had most of the facts straight, but the simple truth is that there would be no way in God's creation to tell the whole, factual story that spanned some 50 years in three nights.

Tommy...in that culture, stealing a man's pig was serious business. It could mean the difference between half the winter subsisting on potatoes, cornbread, and pintos and having meat on the table. If we knew the truth, there were probably more than a few shallow graves filled over a "dumb" pig....and there are a lotta places to bury a body in them thar hills.

To see the topography is to understand just how rugged and remote some of it is to this day. It's said that in Harlan County, "The sun rises at 9 in the mornin' and sets at 5 in the afternoon." The same is true in several locations.

It was also a matter of honor. Thieves were...and are...regarded as some of the lowest forms of life in Appalachia, and a neighbor stealing from a neighbor was...and is...regarded as a serious betrayal of trust. Pigs were allowed to free forage, and if a man found a pig on his property with his neighbor's mark, he was expected to return it. Sort of a "Code of the Hills" thing. Ignoring it could prove fatal.

As another point of interest, "The Pound" is the home of U2 pilot Francis Gary Powers. He attended high school with one of my first cousins, and had sold his guitar...a J-45 Gibson...to my cousin after he enlisted. It was the first guitar that I ever played at age 7 or 8. I sat and picked out the theme to Bonanza by ear after breakfast at my uncle's house, to my father's amazement. After that, he saw to it that a guitar was at my disposal, and I took to it like flies to molasses.

 

[Tommygunn]

Tommy...in that culture, stealing a man's pig was serious business. It could mean the difference between half the winter subsisting on potatoes, cornbread, and pintos and having meat on the table. If we knew the truth, there were probably more than a few shallow graves filled over a "dumb" pig....and there are a lotta places to bury a body in them thar hills.

Yeah, I did get that much from the show. Sorta like it being OK to shoot horsethieves because being without a horse in the old west could leave you stranded & dead. But IMHO the seriousness of the pig-thievery was insufficiently played.
I think it might have been as a result of the apparant "disjointed-ness" of the show.
It is often hard to fit years' worth of history in a 2 hour film so maybe I am being too critical ...... but the show hasn't "lit my fire" so to speak.
Another technical thing is that I recorded from 8:00-10:00PM exactly for three days; in order to fit three episodes on one DVD I used the slowest record speed, but I note atleast part one ran over-time. Things like that tick me off. Now I'm thinking my recording is probably missing the conclusion on all episodes and that sorta sours me on wanting to spend time watching them.

 

[scrat]

Tommy Go to History.com you can watch the video on line that way you will know if it is ok or not. The ending of the first episode was the best. It left you hanging wanting to find out what happened. The ending of the second episode was ehh.

All in all i am glad i watched it. To me it was great. But then i grew up in the land of sun, beaches, mountains and desert. So California. So not really knowing that much about it except where it was mentioned it was good to see it. Heck does anyone remember the Bugs Bunny episode of the hatfields and mc coys.

 

[XD 45acp]

Dang! Lotsa hillbillies on board

Yep! I'm originally from Wheelwright KY, in Floyd county... 1 county over from Pike. My wife is from War, WV. We are all the time messing with each other... she'll call me hillbilly, and I'll call her a Briar Hopper. She hates that. Oh, and she really goes off if I say, " Hey baby, lets go play in the woodpile".

 

[crstrode]

Pig Thievery is serious business.

Swiping a hog, or holding one for ransom was indeed serious business.

As a kid, my family moved to the sticks a few miles from the town of Yamhill Oregon. Anyone familiar with that part of the country in the early 1960's knows that hillbillies of Appalachia had nothing at all on those of NW Oregon. The aroma of sour mash was regularly on the breeze.

The farm was being sold by a fellow that had caught a hog that escaped once too often from his neighbor's pen.

The dispute evolved into an actual shootin' feud, forcing the man to flee for his and his family's life.

We moved in, unbeknownst to the hog's rightful owner. The tires on the tractor were soon slashed along with sugar added to the gas tank.

My father was clued-in to the feud by one of the other neighbors, and quickly make friends without any accusations by anyone.

A wise move on Dad's part.

 

[Ryanxia]

I thought it was a good mini-series. I never knew much about the feud and what I did know I forgot long ago so it was neat to see the whole story.

 

[Jaymo]

If you really want to see stupid people and behavior, just watch Jersey Shore or TMZ.

Harlan County, that reminds me of one of my favorite shows-Justified. Don't know how culturally correct it is, but it sure is fun to watch.

 

[1911Tuner]

Justified is...pretty close. The character of Mags Bennett was based on the real-life Harlan County lady bootlegger, Magdalene (Aunt Maggie) Bailey. I remember my grandparents speaking of her and her locally famous peach and apple "pies."

http://boingboing.net/2005/12/12/rip-maggie-bailey-th.html

 

[david58]

Justified

Grew up in upper East Tennessee - Justified does the redneck, drug-dealin' rebel really well. I'd swear I grew up with some of those folks....

But back to Hatfields and McCoys, I figgered it to be good entertainment, and was right. History it was not, but for Hollywood it was about as historical as one could expect. 'Course the fact that Uncle Jim's dog lived some 23+ years was a bit interesting - and how so many folk didn't age much over that stretch of time - shoot, the preacher baptizing Anse in 1911 hadn't aged much a'tall....

 

[TheBigAR2003]

 

[hang fire]

The Hatfield and McCoy feud was small potatoes when compared with the Graham and Tewksbury (feud) Pleasant Valley war here in Arizona. Over fifty men died in 15 years and only ended when the last Graham was shot in the back and killed on a Tempe, AZ street.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hekALWtiWm0

 

[DMH]

The show piqued my interest and if it was shot on location that is some very beautiful land. It also lead to this thread that has been informative and appreciated.

DMH

 

[junkman_01]

You mean it 'piqued' your interest. That mini-series was filmed in Romania.

 

[bikerdoc]

I am reading Otis Rice's book on my nook. Facinating insight and well written.

 

[mohican]

1. liked the 2nd part of it best. Part 1 was kinda slow.

2. On Pawn Stars, someone came into the shop with a 1892 Winchester they said was passed down through the family and supposedly used by an escaping hatfield. Even if the feud continued to some degree into the 1930s, my understanding that the peak and end of the shooting was in 1888. Rick (of pawn stars) never seemed to pick up that the gun was probably too new for the Hatfield-McCoy feud.