Editor’s note: This story is the first of a multi-part series on the French-Eversole War of Perry County. Part two will be published next week.
The History Channel’s hit miniseries, “Hatfields and McCoys,” chronicled the feud between two families in West Virginia and Eastern Kentucky. That famous feud is certainly the most well-known in American history, but one of the bloodiest and most destructive took place right here in Hazard and Perry County between 1887 and 1894.
According to The Days of Darkness by John Ed Pearce, and Kentucky’s Famous Feuds and Tragedies by Charles G. Mutzenburg, what was dubbed the “French-Eversole War” was apparently precipitated by a disagreement of business tactics between two Hazard business owners, but the actual fighting ran much deeper than that.
Members of the Eversole family were long-time residents of Perry County, and had made their mark on the county by the time the feud errupted. A branch of the family built what is now the oldest standing structure in the county. The Eversole Cabin in Chavies was built in the late 1700s and exists today much like it did in 1800. It was the site of skirmishes during the Civil War, and remained in the family for over 80 years, until it was given to a member of the Campbell family to pay off a debt.
The French family had only been in the area for a generation by the time the feud began. Coming from North Carolina originally, the patriarch, B. Fulton French, quickly established himself in the community through local commerce.
In the early 1880s, the coal industry was in its infancy in the mountains across Eastern Kentucky, and the resource was not yet heavily mined. Previous to the railroad moving into Hazard in 1912, companies began buying land for little to no money since most landowners did not realize just how valuable that land would become.
Once the railroad moved in and the mining industry came into its own, it became apparent that there was much money to be had in buying land, and the land owners that had already sold out had been bought off for much too low a price.
French was also an attorney, though he worked with the companies to buy land for obscenely low amounts, and then took it from the owners as they began mining the coal.
Joseph Eversole, a young lawyer and local merchant, reportedly saw profiting from the misfortunes of his neighbors as an egregious offense. He tried to warn landowners not to sell out for such low prices. The companies then tried to silence Eversole, pitting French against him.
While their intial dislike of one another stemmed from mineral rights, the traditional story on how the feud began was that a cashier at French’s store had fallen for a female employee. One night he came back to the store and found this employee with French. The cashier was so enraged that he decided to warn Eversole that French had threatened his life. Eversole then formed and army, and so did French, and the fighting began.
While this is the story that was often told in newspapers and in verbal history, it is likely not true, according to Pearce, a former Courier-Journal writer who pieced together the history of the feud through old newspaper accounts and other sources, such as local historians. All that is actually known is that in 1887, the two business competitors moved beyond disliking one another and into feuding.
Hazard at the time has been described as a rough place with only 200 residents. The streets were thick with deep mud and only a few wooden plank sidewalks. It was rumored that judges would often opt out of holding trials because of the frequency of gunfights in town.
As the Perry County feud began, both sides began arming themselves and their employees, and eventually even hired gunmen all before the first shots were ever fired. An Eastern Kentucky newspaper during the time, The Hazel Green Herald out of Wolfe County, reported that in the summer before the official start of the feud the two sides clashed, with Eversole’s side driving French out of Hazard. French then set up a base camp in Harlan, and both men began fortifying their homes, though Pearce noted that the latter part of this account may not be entirely accurate.
The men reportedly paid fleets of bodyguards only two dollars a day. They were able to outfit themselves so cheaply due to the rough state of affairs in Hazard at the time.
While the two sides had clashed on occasion, it was not until the 1887 killing of Silas Gayheart, a friend of French, that the feud truly began. French hired a Knott County native named “Bad” Tom Smith shortly after as a full-time gunman.
Bad Tom became the most infamous person tied to the feud, being known for his hot temper, cool, unforgiving killing, accurate shooting and epileptic fits. He had been known in Hazard for some time for killing three men who were shooting at several of his friends. As legend has it, he was able to knock one man unconscious with a rock and take his gun, and kill the other two before any were able to get a shot off on him.
After the killing of Gayheart, the Eversole group denied killing him, and based on records of the time had nothing to gain from killing him, Pearce wrote. French never believed Eversole’s denial, so the feud was on.
After the shooting, Hazard citizens were on edge despite the limited actual fighting. Shots did, however, begin to ring out at night and the relatively few residents that were not involved in the feud began moving away from the town.
In another instance of fighting, the French group camped on the road near Hazard and waited until a large group of Eversoles had convened for a meeting. The Frenches drove the Eversoles out of Hazard that night.
Only a few days after this fight, a reporter from Cincinnati came to Hazard to cover the feud. He met up with a man that promised to take him to the people involved in the feud. Unfortunately, he was only told the French’s side since the man was affiliated with the group.
The wildly exaggerated story came out several days later in the Cincinnati Enquirer. Another clash arose just days after the article came out and caused casualties on both sides of the fight.
After just a few months of fighting, both sides had nearly depleted their funds and wanted to stop the battle.
They both signed an official truce in 1887 that was turned in to two different judges. The peace was tense, however, and just a little over a month after the truce, both sides were at it again, and more lives would be lost.