My grandmother's name is Alifair.  She lived to the age of 98 on the Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky lines.  That is the second time I have heard that name - my grandmother and Randolph McCoy's daughter, Alifair, who died in a house fire allegedly started by a member of the Hatfield family as told in the famous Hatfield - McCoy Feud. 

The southern Appalachian coalfields where I live has a wealth of folklore, mountain traditions and wonderful, fascinating history such as the Hatfield - McCoy Feud which began before the Civil War and was settled just a few years ago at a family reunion in Pikeville, Kentucky.  The families lived on the Tug Fork River. 

When I interviewed Buck Wright, War, McDowell County, West Virginia, he told me about his connection with the Hatfield-McCoy familys:   excerpt from "Law and DisOrder in the Southern Appalachian Coalfields"

     "My grandmother's sister was married to Devil Anse Hatfield. So many tales told about that feud that no one knows the truth.  In the first place Anse Hatfield was a wealthy man through owning timber and land and the McCoy's couldn't get it. 
     Then there was the love affair between Jonathan Hatfield and Roseanne McCoy. Then the Civil War came along, Anse was a Captain for the South and McCoy fought for the North. Someone in one of the families supposedly got killed.
     They used to tell this story; Uncle Ellison, Anse Hatfield's brother went to vote, went upstairs to the 2nd floor to vote, as he came down the steps three McCoys, in their teens, drinking moonshine shot him twice as he came the steps and after he rolled down, they stabbed him several times.
     Anyway, the way I was told was the McCoy boys were arrested and they told Devil Anse to let the law take its course. Uncle Anse said, "If he dies, they die."
     He died and after they buried him, Devil Anse's son, Cap, my grandfather, everybody call him "Cottontop" went and took the three McCoy boys away from the Deputy Sheriff on the Kentucky side, killed all 3 of them in a PawPaw patch and the war broke out.  They scouted them out because they had rewards out for them and the fighting and feuding went on until they got a Hatfield elected Governor of the State of West Virginia. Anse died a natural death.
     They had a write up in the Bluefield paper that said, "Devil Anse Hatfield was not a mean man but wealthy and he would give you the shirt off his back but it wouldn't do to make him mad".

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The Bluefield Daily Telegraph reports on January 8, 1921 the following story on "Devil Anse" Hatfield:

"Pneumonia Ends Career of Devil Anse Hatfield"
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
January 8, 1921

*Pneumonia Ends Career of Devil Anse Hatfield
*Noted Feud Leader Had Always Predicted He Would Live to Die Natural Death.
*Had None of Attributes Bad Man in Character
*Spent Last Fifteen Years of His Life Quietly and Peacefully on Small Farm He Owned in Logan County - Will be Buried There Sunday.
*Huntington, W. Va., Jan. 7. - Funeral services for "Devil Anse" Hatfield, noted feud leader, who died at his home on Island Creek, Logan county, Thursday night of pneumonia, will be held at three o'clock Sunday afternoon.
*Williamson, W. Va., Jan. 7. - Reports reaching Williamson tonight were that Devil Anse Hatfield, leader of the clan in the Hatfield-McCoy feud in the 80's and 90's, had died at his home on Island Creek, Logan county, of pneumonia last night. Relatives here were without word of the death.
*Anderson ("Devil Anse") Hatfield was one of the leaders of the historic feud between the Hatfield and McCoy families in the mountains of West Virginia and northern Kentucky. Shot at from ambush and in hand-to-hand combat scores of times with the McCoys, he had always predicted he would live to die a natural death, as he now has at the age of eighty, without bearing any marks of battle.
*"Devil Anse" had a reputation as a crack shot, that was known throughout the mountainous region of the two states, and at the age of seventy he could shoot a squirrel out of the tallest timber. He often turned the trick for admirers, with the old rifle that he carried ready for action at all hours, and with which during the early eighties, he would shoot on sight any member of the McCoy family.

The celebrated feud of the Hatfield family with the McCoys was started over some hogs, one of the Hatfields winning a lawsuit that was brought to determine their ownership. Soon after that a brother of "Devil Anse" was shot and wounded in more than fifteen places by one of the McCoys. The feud then started and did not end until the few remaining McCoys went over into Kentucky, where they now reside.

"Devil Anse" had none of the attributes of the "bad men" in his character. He always was recognized as a loyal friend of the many with whom he was acquainted. Numbered among those who believed he had been right in the position he took during the feud days, were the late Judge John J. Jackson, known as the "Iron Judge," who was appointed to the federal bench by President Lincoln, and former Governor E. W. Wilson, the former protecting Hatfield form [sic] capture when he had been called into court, and the latter refusing to honor a requisition of the governor of Kentucky, for the arrest of "Devil Anse" on a charge of killing some particular member of the McCoy family.

Detectives, real and alleged, had arranged for the capture of Hatfield, spurred by a reward, after they had seen to it that he was indicted on a charge of whiskey selling, in 1888. Judge Jackson was on the bench at the time and was informed of the danger that awaited the accused man. Judge Jackson sent word to Hatfield that if he would appear in court with out an officer being sent for him, the court would see that he had ample protection until he returned to his home in Logan County.

Hatfield appeared and was acquitted of the charge against him. Some of the detectives pounced upon him soon after he left the court room, but Judge Jackson summoned all of them before him, and threatened to send them all to jail, directing special officers to see that Hatfield was permitted to reach his home. After Hatfield was well on his way, Judge Jackson told the detectives that if they wanted their man they would have to get him, just like the McCoys had been trying to do for a number of years. They never went.

"Anse" Hatfield spent the last fifteen years of his life quietly and peaceably on a small farm he owned in Logan County. He raised a good many hogs and but seldom left his community. Once he was prevailed upon by some enterprising amusement manager to go on the vaudeville stage. He made all preparations to do so but abandoned the idea when an old indictment was produced, which had been quashed on condition that the old mountaineer agree to remain at home the rest of his days.

Hatfield was born in Logan county, West Virginia, but then in the domain of the Old Dominion, in 1841, a short distance from the old cabin in which he died.

January 1, 1888: The Hatfield-McCoy feud

The conflict between the Hatfields of West Virginia and the McCoys of Kentucky is the most famous of a series of feuds in Appalachia in the late nineteenth century. Both families lived in the Tug Fork River Valley.

A cause of the feud has never been determined. Some say it started after Floyd Hatfield stole a razorback hog belonging to Randolph McCoy. Others point to the romance between Johnse Hatfield, "Devil Anse's" son, and Roseanna McCoy, Randolph's daughter. Court records indicate troubles between the two families started around the time of the Civil War.

Violence flared between the two families for years until tensions exploded on New Year's Night 1888. A party of Hatfield men, led by "Devil Anse's" uncle, Jim Vance, raided Randolph McCoy's home. The Hatfield raiders feared the outcome of impending trials connected to feud violence and planned to kill those who might testify against them. They set fire to the McCoy home; killed two of Randolph's children, Alifair and Calvin; and severely injured his wife Sarah. Randolph escaped unharmed. Several Hatfields received prison sentences and one defendant, Ellison Mounts, was sentenced to hang.

The feud appears to have fizzled out after the trials. "Devil Anse" moved from the Tug Valley to Island Creek near Logan and became a member of the Baptist church. He died in 1921. Randolph McCoy died seven years earlier.

  Bluefield Daily Telegraph and January 1, 1888 stories from the WV Div. of History and Culture