Matewan Oral History Project Collection
Sc2003-135

Orville McCoy Interview

BECKY BAILEY: This is Becky Bailey for the Matewan Development Center, June 20, July 24, 1990. I'm in the home of Mr. Orville McCoy in Raccoon Creek, Kentucky. My first question, Mr. McCoy is what is your whole name?

ORVILLE McCOY: Orville McCoy is my full name.

B: And when were you born?

OM: January 2, 1922.

B: What were your parents names?

OM: Samuel McCoy and Mary Jane McCoy.

B: Do you know when they were born?

OM: Well, not to be exact right now but hit's in my book. When you have time uh...

B: Okay.

OM: Check it out.

B: Okay. How were they related to Randolph McCoy?

OM: Well, my father's dad was Squirrel Huntin' Sam McCoy and he was a nephew of Randall McCoy.

B: How many children did Squirrel Huntin' Sam have?

OM: Well, I guess about seven or eight. I'm not exactly sure but that would be in the book too.

B: Okay.

OM: You could correct that information from the book.

B: Okay. How many children uh...did your parents have? How many brothers and sister do you have?

OM: Well, altogether, they had about twelve but four of them died young.

B: Un-hun. How did the uh...children die? Did they die about the time they were born or did they get sick?

OM: Well, I don't really know what happened to them but maybe they was up four or five years old, something like that, before they passed away.

B: Un-hun. Okay. Are you the youngest child?

OM: Yes. I am.

B: Okay. What did your father do for a living?

OM: Well, he (was) mostly farmer and logger.

B: Where was your family home?

OM: Well, we've lived here on Raccoon Creek just about our entire life. Various places.

B: Were you born at home?

OM: Yeah.

B: Okay. Who delivered you? Do you know?

OM: Well, I'm not precisely sure about that.

B: I was just wondering if you knew if it was a doctor or...or a midwife?

OM: Hit'd (it would) have been a midwife.

B: Okay. Do you know, did your father or any of his relatives fight in World War I?

OM: Well, I had some uncles was in it. I had an uncle Lark which was in World War II.

B: Do you know where he fought?

OM: Well, he served in Iran for maybe a couple of years and I don't know where he spent the rest of his time.

B: Okay. Did your family ever talk about the flu epidemic?

OM: Yes, I heard a lot about it. I believe it was (in) 1918.

B: Un-hun. What did they say about it?

OM: Well, the information I got they was quite a lot of people around world died of the flu during that time, right after the war.

B: Okay. What kind of stories did you hear about the feud when you were growin' up?

OM: Well, about such materials you'll find in my book. I recorded just about everything I knew about it.

B: Do you know how your uh...grandfather came to write his manuscript?

OM: Yes, he wrote in the year, I believe it was 1931 while he was in St. Louis, Missouri. We all also got that information recorded in the book.

B: How come him to be in St. Louis? Do you know?

OM: Well, he went west in the year about nineteen and ten and I think he first went to California and then back to Kansas and...and then to St. Louis.

B: Did he take his wife and children with him?

OM: Yes. He took his whole family except my dad. He was the only one stayed here at Racoon.

B: Was he the oldest? Is that why he stayed?

OM: No, he wudn't the oldest. Yeah. I guess he was the oldest. He was the only child by my, by him and his first wife. Americky (America) Goff.

B: Did she die or did they divorce?

OM: Well, yeah. She died young.

B: How old was your...your father when...when his father left to go out west?

OM: That would be pretty hard for me to figure, I don't bet. You could go to my book and...deduct and subtract a little there and come up with an answer.

B: He was probably a young man, though, because he had twelve children by the time you were born so he was probably a young man and married.

OM: Yeah. I'd say he's, should have been a round thirty, something like that.

B: Did your father remember any of the events of the feud or...or hear about them?

OM: No, he couldn't remember any of the incidents, I don't think except what was told to him.

B: Un-hun. Alright um...do you have much contact with any of your McCoy cousins?

OM: Oh, yeah. I correspond with them. I got some in Kansas. Joshua Tree, California, and uh...Tacoma, Washington, Remington, Washington, Pennsylvania.

B: We were talking off tape about um...you said that a lot of McCoys didn't stay in this area.

OM: No, they's quite a few of them went out west.

B: Did they go looking for work or...?

OM: I guess they was seekin' adventure.

B: Un-hun. How did you come to have the manuscript that Squirrel Huntin' Sam wrote?

OM: Well, I obtained it from Sam when he was out here to pay us a visit in 1937.

B: What kind of person was he?

OM: Oh, he's quite a tall man. About six foot or better.

B: Un-hun. What do you remember about him?

OM: Well, when he visited us, he came out here to visit us about three times in the '30's. First come in '36. '38. Maybe '39. He died in '40. They shipped him back here.

B: Un-hun. Do you know where he's buried?

OM: Yeah.

B: Where's he buried?

OM: He's buried in uh...Collin's cemetery in the head of Frozen Creek.

B: Okay. Were you always interested as a child in...in your family history?

OM: Well, not in the early years. I always held on to that book though and preserved it. I guess I was around uh...that was about fifty-eight years when I let them publish it.

B: Would you tell me on tape again who published it for you?

OM: Dr. Leonard Roberts of Pikeville College.

B: Why was he interested in it? Do you know?

OM: Dr. Roberts?

B: Un-hun.

OM: Well, he was workin' for the college and that's how he, well, it benefited the college, you know doing Appalachian Study Centers, they called it. He published books and so on for them.

B: Okay. Well, um...a little bit about your life um...when did you go to school?

OM: Well, I started out quite early. I went through the eighth grade education. Started out to high school and then dropped out.

B: Why's that?

OM: Well, I guess one thing. World War II and the draft.

B: Un-hun. Did you serve?

OM: Yes.

B: And...

OM: Three and a half years.

B: Okay. What branch of the service were you in?

OM: I was first in the 10th armored division then I wound up in the quarter master.

B: Un-hun. Did you go over seas?

OM: No. I stayed down at Fort Bening, Georgia, the whole time.

B: What did you do when the war was over?

OM: Well, I...I guess I was discharged and come back to Kentucky.

B: Un-hun. When did you get married?

OM: 1944, while in the service.

B: How did you manage that?

OM: Well, my wife, we went to school together and we corresponded while I was in the army so we just took a notion to get married while I was in the service. Nineteen...April, 1944, I came out on uh...furlough and we got married.

B: Un-hun. What did you do for a living after you got out of the army?

OM: Well, I become a coal miner. Worked thirty some years in the coal mines.

B: Um...What are some of the places, some of the mines that you worked at?

OM: I worked mostly for the Eastern Coal Corporation, Stone, Kentucky.

B: Did you retire because of the year that you'd put in or did you develop problems with your health or...?

OM: Yeah. I had problems with my health. I...I had the black lung.

B: Un-hun.

OM: But a doctor advised me to come out of the mines. I was goin' into the third stage of pneumonocosis(?).

B: Un-hun. Could you describe that for me? I know most people that aren't from a coal minin' area don't know what that is?

OM: Well, hit's a lung disease where you workin' in there so much over the years and breathin' so much of that coal dust. It impairs your breathing.

B: What does the third stage mean?

OM: Well, now you can get to the third stage. It's pretty bad. I had second stage goin' into the third stage. Which is two over three.

B: What have you done since you retired from the mines?

OM: Well, not too much of anything. Maybe a little gardenin'.

B: Do you ever hear from people that are...are writing to find about the Hatfield and McCoy's? Did anybody ever write you?

OM: Yes. They's a few people does. Like when uh...Charlotte had this here write up last year. Quite a few papers got them, people away from here got them papers. I gave them information, you know. They'd order them.

B: Un-hun. This other Orville McCoy that you were telling me about that lives over in Matewan. Is he a relative of Randall McCoy?

OM: Well, I don't know just how much but he can remember Squirrel Huntin' Sam.

B: Have you ever been to Matewan?

OM: No, not as I recall. I haven't.

B: Okay. Was your father still living when you went into the mines?

OM: Yeah.

B: What did he think about you doin' that?

OM: Well, I tell you. They had their way. They didn't...didn't want me to work in the mines but they wudn't nothing else to do around this part of the country.

B: Un-hun. What did they say?

OM: Well, they just had advised me it was a dangerous occupation but, so, I had to work. I had a family.

B: Un-hun. (tape cuts off) How many children do you have?

OM: We raised seven children.

B: Are all seven yours and your wife's?

OM: The oldest one is dead. We got six a livin'.

B: Do you have grandchildren?

OM: Yeah.

B: Do you tell them stories about the feud?

OM: Well, no, really not. We don't talk too much about it.

B: Why is that?

OM: Well, it's past history and I've got it all recorded in a book so they all got one of the books. That's all they had to do was a read it.

B: Well, do you think if I read and...and have questions about it, that I could come back and talk to you some more?

OM: Well, I couldn't tell you more than what's in the book.

B: Okay. Well, I have one last question for you. What do you think about tourists and other people from around the country coming to this...coming to this area to see where the Hatfields and McCoys lived. What do you think about that kind of fame?

OM: You mean tourism? Well, I think you might have some tourists if it's advertised, you know. I guess they've got a special building up there in Matewan, now called the Development Center.

B: That's we're at. There's pictures of the Hatfields and McCoy's. There's not as many photographs of the McCoys. When they put the exhibit together, they couldn't find many pictures.

OM: Well, I've got uh...seventy pictures of old McCoy's in that book.

B: Goodness. Are there pictures that were in your family?

OM: Yeah.

B: Do you have the originals?

OM: Yes.

B: Okay. Okay. Well, thank you for talking to me.

OM: You're welcome.

(she asks him to play a few tunes on his banjo and he does)

Matewan Oral History Project Collection