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Coleman McCoy, Mary Elizabeth wo Larkin FB260210HMcCFeud

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Hatfield and McCoy Feud
10 February 2026

· This photograph shows Mary Elizabeth McCoy, the wife of Larkin “Lark” McCoy, a figure whose life was shaped early and deeply by the violence and loyalties of Pike County, Kentucky.

Larkin McCoy was born on July 11, 1856, in Pike County to Asa Harmon McCoy and Martha Patty Cline. He was raised among the wooded ridges and hollows of eastern Kentucky, a childhood cut short by the coming of the Civil War.

While most families in the region supported the Confederacy, Lark’s father stood apart. Asa Harmon McCoy enlisted in the Union Army, serving in Company E of the 45th Kentucky Infantry, and was discharged in December 1864.

That decision proved fatal. On January 7, 1865, Asa Harmon McCoy was killed by a group known as the Logan Wildcats. Although Anderson “Devil Anse” Hatfield was initially suspected, he was later cleared by a solid alibi.

Responsibility ultimately fell on Jim Vance, Devil Anse’s uncle and a member of the Wildcats. Yet, in more recent times, this has also been questioned by historians.

Lark was only nine years old when his father was murdered.

Lark later married Mary E. Coleman (1857–1924). Census records list their children as: Vicy (c. 1878), Jake (c. 1880), Joe (c. 1882), James Floyd (c. 1885), Terrell (c. 1886), Harmon (c. 1888), Frank (c. 1891), Jessie (c. 1893), and Mary J. (c. 1895).

In 1878, when Lark was 22, his uncle Randolph McCoy accused Floyd Hatfield of stealing a hog—an incident many historians identify as the spark that ignited the infamous Hatfield–McCoy Feud.

By January 1888, the conflict had reached its most violent stage. A posse led by Pike County deputy sheriff Frank Phillips crossed into West Virginia in pursuit of Devil Anse Hatfield’s men. Their first target was Jim Vance. He was shot by Lark McCoy, though Phillips is credited with delivering the fatal blow. That same year, West Virginia Governor Wilson placed bounties on members of the posse for the killings of James Vance and W. D. Dempsey—$500 for Frank Phillips and $100 for Lark McCoy and others.

After Mary’s death in 1924, Lark married his second wife, Amanda “Manda” Caroline Kelly (1865–1929). Following Caroline’s death, he married Nancy Elizabeth O’Bryan, and the couple were living together in Pike County by 1940.

Larkin H. McCoy—his name spelled “Larken” on his tombstone—died on September 14, 1938, and was laid to rest in Billie Dotson Cemetery in Pike County, Kentucky.

In 1975, a monument was erected to five individuals killed during the feud. An Associated Press writer later recorded a haunting memory shared by Lark’s grandsons, Leonard and Joseph McCoy, who recalled that their grandfather often woke screaming in the night and never slept without a cloth over his face—trying, even decades later, to shut out the ghosts of those terrible years.
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Comments
Sue Knickerbocker
In August 1941 I was delivered by Dr. Hatfield in War, West Virginia in a little area called John’s Branch!
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Rodney Eldridge
Very interesting story. I am glad to have known Leonard and Joe McCoy. They were both great people! They did a lot for their community and families in Pike County, Ky.

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Arshy Arshya ·
Such a powerful and haunting piece of history. It’s heartbreaking to think how deeply the violence of those years shaped not only Lark’s life, but generations after him. Stories like this remind us that behind every historical feud were real families carrying real grief long after the fighting ended. Thank you for sharing this thoughtful and human perspective.

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Audrey Hollar
My mother in law was a McCoy

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Mike McCoy
My cousins

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Amy O'Dell Dunham
She’s beautiful.

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Michael Owens
My 2nd great grandmother

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Linda Williams
Very pretty

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Mike Baisden
Not a lot of facts to support any of that Marthas statement never mentioned the Logan wild cats just said rebels and Jim Vance was in the same unit the whole war the 34th Virginia Calvary not the 36th aka Logan wildcats and was, at least 500 miles away when aca was killed plus I'm pretty sure aca and Martha lived at Delemore witch is WV not Kentucky what confused alot of people is that pike court house was closer to Mingo county then Logan was so people on both sides of the river used it because it was further to Logan courthouse

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Edited

Kalawati Kumari
So beautiful

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Pat Cunningham
She is very pretty

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Lolanti Khalkho
Very beautiful ???? ????

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I'Snha Enna
Keren

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See translation

Jharna Barman
Super super pic

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