Anderson Hatfield (1835-1920)

 

Anderson Hatfield* was born September 24, 1835, to George and Nancy Jane Whitt Hatfield.  He married Mary "Polly" Runyon, born January 25, 1839, on August 2, 1855.  He was a minister and moderator in the Old Pond Creek Baptist Church, one of the oldest churches in the area.  Anderson was elected to the Kentucky House of Representatives in 1898. 

 

He was also the Blackberry justice of the peace.  Anderson, or “Preacher Anse,” was directly involved in two significant events of the Hatfield-McCoy Feud.  He presided over the Hog Trial, a dispute between  Floyd Hatfield and Randall McCoy, which was a precursor to the Feud.  After the 1882 fight in  which the three McCoy brothers mortally injured Ellison Hatfield, Anderson ordered the McCoy brothers arrested and taken to Pikeville, Kentucky.  Subsequently, Ellison's brother, William Anderson “Devil Anse”  Hatfield, overtook the prisoners.  After Ellison died, the McCoy brothers were executed by the Hatfields. 

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Anderson died on March 6, 1920, followed closely by the death of Polly on March 15, 1920.  They are buried in the Anderson Hatfield Memorial Cemetery.