A Feud Romance
Tensions increased at the spring 1880 elections at Blackberry Creek in Pike County. Rose Anna McCoy (left), Randolph’s daughter, slipped away from the election grounds with Devil Anse’s son Johnse, who was visiting from Logan County. Devil Anse believed Johnse was being held by the McCoys against his will and led an armed rescue, which further exacerbated tensions. Rose Anna McCoy’s and Johnse Hatfield’s off-and-on relationship, which may have produced an illegitimate child, galled both families for years to come. This part of the saga was later romanticized by storytellers as a “Romeo and Juliet” love story (right, from A Mountain Feud).