The Family Feud!

Humans attract each other, and that attraction leads to interaction. While the interaction can lead to wonderful things such as business ventures, marriages, and other various collaborations, there can be a negative side. 

Humans being humans we have a certain amount of vanity and pride, with some of us having a smidge more than others. Sometimes we won’t admit we are wrong, and we won’t take any sort of responsibility for our actions.    

Feuds usually begin over something very simple but often escalate to insults, violence, and even murder. Full scale wars have been fought over family feuds including Britain’s the Wars of the Roses.

Feuds were so common during earlier times, societies often instituted rules and laws to help settle them. The process of dueling actually came about to settle disputes.  

In 1804, Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton had different opinions regarding the direction our nation should take. Their differences developed into personal attacks and ongoing bitterness, and eventually led to a duel with Hamilton dying.

Although Aaron Burr became a New York state representative, a New York district attorney, a U.S. Senator and Vice President under Thomas Jefferson, he’s sometimes remembered only as the man who killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel.

A larger feud in American history involved the settlement of the American West.  During the 1880s The Pleasant Valley War was fought in Arizona between sheep herders and cattle ranchers over grazing land and property boundaries.

The Tewksbury family had a large sheep ranch while the Grahams on the adjoining property had cattle.

Their boundary dispute resulted in over 20 deaths and led to them employing mercenaries to do much of the dirty work including Tom Horn, an interesting character you can find more about here. By the end of the feud the Tewksbury family was extinct and only one member of the Graham family was left.

The most infamous feud in American History has to be between the wealthy pro-Confederate Hatfield family and the working class pro-Union McCoys.   

While the war certainly gave the two families something to squabble about, the feud really picked up in 1878 when there was a disagreement over a pig.  

Yes, a pig led to an all out war including murder, beatings and kidnappings. Later on, there was a Romeo and Juliet plot twist when Roseanna McCoy had an affair with one of the Hatfield boys.

This led to more murders on both sides, even though the relationship between the lovers was short-lived.      

The feud finally reached its pinnacle in 1888 during what is remembered as the New Year’s Night Massacre.

The Hatfield faction attacked a McCoy cabin at night, killing the children, beating the mother and burning the house down. The governors of both West Virginia and Kentucky called out the militia to contain the situation and several folks were prosecuted and received life sentences. By 1891, the families ended the feud with a truce, and today both sides actually attend reunions together.

Douglasville residents have also been known to have disagreements. I mean, they ARE human, right?  

One particular disagreement occurred early on in Douglas County history, eleven years after the birth of the county to be exact, in 1881. The feud involved a family-neighbor fuss that had been going on for two years over a fence line that resulted in each side chalking up one death and one injury.  

Just like the Hatfied-McCoy feud, a pig was involved.

The parties involved were William H. Mitchell and James F. Cook who owned adjoining property along Burnt Hickory Road.  

Fannie Mae Davis recounts in her book: As ill will increased each man had his own separate fence and it is said that Cook would shoot the fowls of Mitchell’s when they strayed over the fence and he would toss them back into Mitchell’s field.  

Neighbors tried to make peace between the two men, but without success.

Things escalated when Mitchell’s hog managed to get into Cook’s field, not once but twice.

One of Mitchell’s hired men named Nettingham entered the fray and at some point Mitchell’s son was also involved.

Cook, along with step-son Joe Mahaffy let their dogs loose to chase the hog. 

At some point Cook and Mahaffy met up with Mitchell, Nettingham, and Mitchell’s son in some nearby woods.

The men continued to quarrel.  Cook was carrying a shotgun. Nettingham advanced toward Cook with his hand in his pocket; Cook ordered Nettingham to stop.  At the same time he raised his gun and fired. The whole contents of the gun hit Nettingham directly in the center of the breast. 

Without a word, he dropped. He died without a groan or struggle. As Cook fired at Nettingham, Mitchell sprang on Cook and Mitchell Jr. drew a knife and stabbed Cook in the back twice.

When Cook dropped his gun, step-son Mahaffey picked it up and dealt Mitchell, Jr. a blow which caused him to relinquish his hold on the knife which remained in Cook’s back.

Mahaffy then dealt the elder Mitchell a blow across the left temple, fracturing the skull with the butt of the gun.

At this point Cook, his small son who had joined them and Mahaffy started home.   When they had gone about 200 yards Cook’s little son discovered Mitchell’s knife still sticking in Cook’s back and drew it out.

Dr. Fred Cotton of Powder Springs and Dr. W. H. Poole of Douglasville gave medical care to those that required it, but Mitchell, Sr. died from his skull fracture a few days later.

Mrs. Davis goes on in her book to relate an inquest was held regarding the murder of Nettingham. The Grand Jury returned a decision in favor of Cook stating his actions were in self-defense.   

Court documents regarding the murders and inquest would have been destroyed during the Douglas County Courthouse fire in 1956. At some point I plan to visit the library at the University of Georgia where they have a few copies of The Weekly Star and The New South newspapers that served Douglasville during the early days.   Hopefully, I will be able to find out more about the feud as well as other questions I have regarding Douglasville history.

Seems the more I discover about Douglasville history, the longer my list of unanswered questions become.  

One thing is for certain. I’ll never own a pig. It seems they cause all sorts of trouble!