The Hatfields and the McCoys started feuding on either side of the West Virginia-Kentucky line back in the Civil War.
They’re friends now, but, took a while.
The dispute started actually over who was on which side in the Civil War, then escalated after Reconstruction over the disputed ownership of, and I’m not making this up, a hog.
All of that came ahead of a story reminiscent of Romeo & Juliet – one from the one side fell in love with one from the other side – that didn’t end well for anybody on either side.
The family feud also featured a grisly New Year’s Day massacre and a related U.S. Supreme Court case over due process and illegal extradition.
That’s a lot, before the fighting was declared to be over way out in 1891.
The final resolution to the story – an actual truce between the former warring clans signed in 2003 – has a tie to Waynesboro, in the person of Reo Hatfield, who served two terms on Waynesboro City Council.
Money quote from Hatfield, as descendants of the two families signed the truce, more than 20 years ago:
“We’re not saying you don’t have to fight, because sometimes you do have to fight, but you don’t have to fight forever.”
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Hatfield, who is back in town, as the president and CEO of the Madison County-based Prince Michel Vineyard, Brewery & Winery, is headed to Germany next month with truce signatory Ron McCoy to highlight that message of reconciliation at an event being held as part of the German Unity Day festivities.
Germany Unity Day, celebrated on Oct. 3 each year, marks the anniversary of the end of another long, simmering feud, this one between West Germany and East Germany that resulted from the partition of Germany after World War II.
The fall of the Berlin Wall and the Hatfields and McCoys becoming lifelong friends are, indeed, signs that we don’t have to fight forever.
That I’m writing this on the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks is not an accident – I’m using the resolution to the Hatfield-McCoy feud as a lead-in for another pending anniversary: the 25th anniversary of Sept. 12, 2001.
“The day after 9/11, Americans stood together,” said Hatfield, who, I remember – from being, at the time, a cub reporter here in the local market – collected trucks full of items to send to Manhattan and the Pentagon to replenish dwindling supplies of necessities for first responders at the front lines of the rescue and recovery operations.
“We were united by a common purpose, a common love of country, and a determination that we would never forget what happened. But time has a way of making even the strongest promises fade. That is why we believe our story matters,” Hatfield told me this week.
“The Hatfield-McCoy feud lasted for generations. It became one of the most famous family conflicts in American history. Yet in 2003, we came together and declared that the feud was over. We didn’t suddenly start agreeing on everything. We simply learned that we could disagree without fighting,” said Hatfield, adding that the two families hope “the story of the Hatfields and McCoys will continue to remind people that reconciliation is possible.”
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Gotta admit here, it can be hard to see most days – not even people supposedly on the same side on things feel the need to be civil with each other, much less the people on the supposed other side that they treat as mortal enemies.
I’ve had the fortune to know Reo Hatfield since my rookie year in journalism in 1995, and having known him forever, one thing I can say – he’s real, authentic, the kids today would say, 100.
I’d be leaving out an important part to that part of the story if I didn’t point out here: Reo is a Republican, and I am, as the regular readers of AFP know, very much a Democrat.
One of the many things that Reo and I both agree on is, him being a Republican, and me being a Democrat, are way down on the list of the most important things you can know about each of us.
That’s why I’m writing this story – I mean, yeah, it’s cool that a Hatfield and a McCoy are going to Germany to celebrate their reconciliation day with them next month.
This has been a tough week for me personally, with the friendly-fire attacks from people supposedly on the same side of issues as me admittedly making me rethink a lot of things.
When I stumbled upon this item about the Hatfields and McCoys, it felt to me like a lot of us did on a certain Sept. 12.
“Our hope is that the story of the Hatfields and McCoys will continue to remind people that reconciliation is possible,” Hatfield told me. “We came together. If we could do it, others can do it, too. Today, we ask Americans — and people everywhere — to remember the unity we felt after September 11.”
Hear, hear.
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Chris Graham
