I walked not in the way of righteousness - part two

Dan — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 04:26:10 +0000

My mom and dad married each other on the rebound.

My mom (Nyla Myrtle Mathews) was unceremoniously dumped by her fiancé when he found out her mother (my Grandmother) was bi-racial. My Grandmother’s father was a freed slave and her mother was Cherokee. When that came up in conversation, my momma’s fiancé walked out on her.

My dad (Press Parsons) had been dating my mom’s younger sister for a couple of month’s when he met this sweet little girl for whom he fell head over heels. They planned to marry but her father put a stop to it. He said that daddy was nothing more than poor white trash and forbade her to marry him.

These two events occurred on the same day. Each broken-heart went to their favorite “speak-easy” for a drink (Pike County, Kentucky, where this transpired was and still is dry.). It happened to be the same place. Myrt and Press worked together so they knew each other, not very well, but they were acquainted. After commiserating about their situation for a couple of hours/bottles they decided to show everybody who had wronged them - by getting married. This was a bad idea for two reasons. First of all one should never plot revenge when they are drunk; it is too easy to overlook small and many details. Secondly, they didn’t know each other’s family background.

Let me say quickly, my Daddy wasn’t prejudiced at all. The sweet little girl with the stern daddy I mentioned above was herself black (as was her daddy). Race wasn’t an issue, family loyalty was.

Let’s now back up a generation or two and pick up “my story” were we left off last month.

Most people are aware of the Hatfield-McCoy feud. It captured the nation’s attention in the mid to latter part of the 19th century. The Hatfield clan lived on the West Virginia side of the Tug River Branch and the McCoy’s lived on the Kentucky side. They didn’t like each other (understatement!!). Anderson Hatfield fought for the Confederacy and was the Patriarch of the Hatfield family and Randle McCoy, Patriarch of the McCoy family saw his sons fight for the Union. That was only the foundation. Anderson was a successful timber merchant, Randle tried but, not so much.

That they were both hard, self-sufficient men who played by their own terms should go without saying. That they both raised large wild families to which they were very loyal - oh, yes. I am not trying to defend or make light of these murderous men or there ‘kin’. However the people they were responsible for killing and the other things they did was all a part of who they were and what our country was at the time. This was the Appalachian Mountains!

The Hatfield-McCoy feud ran off and on for nearly 30 years. This is a brief timeline with added history dates for comparison.
1863 *Anderson Hatfield forms guerrilla band. Raids and thefts follow between McCoy’s and Hatfield’s.
*West Virginia statehood.
*President Lincoln issues Emancipation Proclamation (Jan 1).
1865 *First death in feud - Asa Harmon McCoy. No prosecution.
*President Lincoln shot by John Wilkes Booth (Apr 4). Civil War ends in May.
1871 *Great fire destroys Chicago (Oct 8-11).
1876 *"Tom Sawyer" by Mark Twain is published.
1877 *Ulysses Simpson Grant is elected president.
1878 *Randolph McCoy accuses Floyd Hatfield of stealing his pig. Bill Staton's testimony in court later wins for Floyd Hatfield.
*The first commercial telephone exchange opens in New Haven, CT, (Jan 28).
1880 *Bill Staton murdered by Paris and Sam McCoy in June.
*Sam McCoy tried in September for Staton death; acquitted.
*Randle’s daughter Roseanna McCoy and Anderson’s son Johnse Hatfield meet.
*She leaves to live with him at Hatfield cabin.
1881 *Roseanna returns home, and then moves to aunt's cabin where Johnse is captured by McCoy boys. Roseanna's ride to Anderson's saves Johnse's life.
*Pregnant Roseanna returns to Randle's home, catches measles, miscarries baby, then moves to Pikeville.
*Johnse marries her cousin Nancy McCoy on May 14.
1882 *Ellison Hatfield fatally wounded by Bud, Tolbert and Pharmer McCoy on August 9.
*After Hatfield dies, the trio is tied to bushes and executed.
*Jeff McCoy killed on banks of the Tug.
1883 *The Brooklyn Bridge opens (May 24).
1887 *Kentucky governor appoints Frank Phillips to capture the McCoy boys' murderers.
1888 *New Year's Day raid on Randle McCoy's cabin leaves Alifair and Calvin dead, home burned to ground.
*Roseanna McCoy, less than 30 years old, dies in Pikeville
1889 *Trial of Hatfield clan in McCoy murders begins.
*Johnstown, Pa., flood 2,200 lives lost (May 31).
1890 *Ellison Mounts executed for Alifair McCoy's murder. (Feb 18).
*Ellis Island opens (Dec 31).

So what does any of this have to do with my Momma and Daddy?
About two weeks after they were married, Momma and Daddy were sitting around the breakfast table before work when it came out in conversation that...well, let me first say that Frank Phillips (the man mentioned above in 1887) won the parole of 6 young men who were in prison: four for various crimes; two were on death row in Fort Knox (before the gold) for committing murder. He formed a posse with these men and they acted as special Marshall’s for the State of Kentucky. Their sole purpose was to hunt down Hatfield’s and bring them to trial (wink, wink).
One of those men Phillips got from Fort Knox was a 20 year old named Hiram, ‘Hi’ to his few friends. He was a wretched son from a righteous family. In fact he had three brothers and they would become preachers; two Baptist and one Christian Church. When he was 19 he walked into a Saloon and gunned down two men in cold blood and the first Lawman to make the scene. He never said why, ever (he lived to be 81). He sat silent at his trial and his first words came after he was sentenced to death; when he threatened to kill the judge and jury. This angry, 20 year old murderer was Hiram Parsons, my grandfather. Even though my Daddy was not proud of his father, he idolized Frank Phillips. Phillips himself had spent time in an Oklahoma jail for robbery and attempted murder. Daddy had a love for “the Old West”, that wasn’t really that old when he was a boy. Daddy said that Phillips had that Cowboy presence about him. I really didn’t understand that until we moved to New Mexico.
My Momma, on the other hand...was the Great-Niece of Anderson Hatfield. She despised anything McCoy; she was brought up believing that the only good McCoy was one you could brag about shooting! She despised Frank Phillips, and those associated with him. She hated - because she was raised to and until the day she died, she was a loyal member of the Hatfield clan.
LET THE FEUD CONTINUE!!!!
From that point on, Momma and Daddy never quite got along. They cared for each other, loved each other, but fought almost all the time. That was the first thing that came between Press and Myrtle Parsons - Family Loyalties. This is a recurrent theme in “my story”. Momma was very loyal to her brothers and sisters to the harm of her marriage relationship and the relationship she had with her sons, especially me. Daddy felt that kind of loyalty to Momma but not to any of his blood kin, except for Doug and me.
My early life was a lot of Daddy saying “How high?” on his way up; then complaining about it behind Momma’s back. Not that he necessarily complained about jumping as much as not being appreciated for it. Momma’s family always came first, over me and Daddy (Dougy was a different matter). That was something that was hard to reconcile in my head. I was her son, the child she was told she could never have; even at a very young age I knew she should be taking care of me instead of my cousins. I couldn’t understand why they were more important than I. It got down to the fact that I was a Parsons, the grandson of Hiram, who rode with Frank Phillips, who rounded up Hatfields. I never had a chance!

Next - a story Momma would never tell me and my grandmother - Aunt Betty!

"I walked not in the way of righteousness.But the Almighty God, who sits in the court of heaven, granted what I did not deserve." - Constantine (280-337)