Franklin "Frank" Phillips
b.1861 27 Jul - Johns Creek, Pike Co. KY
d.1898 12 Jul - Phillips Branch, Peter Creek, Pike Co., KY
----- Parents -----
William Phillips
Mary May King
----- Siblings -----
Franklin "Frank" Phillips
----- Marriages -----
m01. 1878 05 Jun - Pike, Kentucky + Matilda J Phillips
m02. 1883 17 Sep - Pike, Kentucky + Mary F Rowe (5 Children)
m03. 1895 05 Sep - Pike, KY + Nancy L McCoy (4 Children)
----- Children -----
Elizabeth "Lizzie" Phillips
Epperson Phillips
Frank Phillips, Jr
Pearlie Phillips
Roy Phillips
Elsie Philips
Jessie James Phillips
Flora Phillips
Golda Phillips
Name: Franklin Phillips
Birth Date: 1861
Age: 17
Spouse's Name: Matilda J. Phillips
Spouse's Birth Date: 1861
Spouse's Age: 17
Event Date: 15 Jun 1878
Event Place: Pike, Kentucky
Indexing Project (Batch) Number: I00994-5 , System Origin: Kentucky-EASy
, GS Film number: 839496 , Reference ID: 335
Citing this Record
"Kentucky Marriages, 1785-1979," index, FamilySearch
(https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.2/M6XC-GMZ : accessed 13 Jun 2014),
Franklin Phillips and Matilda J. Phillips, 15 Jun 1878; citing Pike,
Kentucky, reference 335; FHL microfilm 839496
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Name: Franklin Phillips
Birth Date: 1862
Age: 21
Spouse's Name: Mary F Rowe
Spouse's Birth Date: 1865
Spouse's Age: 18
Event Date: 17 Sep 1883
Event Place: Pike, Kentucky
Indexing Project (Batch) Number:I00994-6, System Origin:Kentucky-EASy, GS
Film number:839497, Reference ID:170
Citing this Record
"Kentucky Marriages, 1785-1979," index, FamilySearch
(https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.2/M6XC-GD9 : accessed 12 Jun 2014),
Franklin Phillips and Mary F Rowe, 17 Sep 1883; citing Pike, Kentucky,
reference 170; FHL microfilm 839497.
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Name: Frank Philipps
Birth Date: 1860
Age: 35
Spouse's Name: Nancy Hatfield
Spouse's Birth Date: 1865
Spouse's Age: 30
Event Date: 05 Sep 1895
Event Place: Pike, Kentucky
Indexing Project (Batch) Number:I01745-4, System Origin:Kentucky-EASy, GS
Film number:839876, Reference ID:525
Citing this Record
"Kentucky Marriages, 1785-1979," index, FamilySearch
(https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.2/M6XC-56M : accessed 12 Jun 2014),
Frank Philipps and Nancy Hatfield, 05 Sep 1895; citing Pike, Kentucky,
reference 525; FHL microfilm 839876
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[Report of Samuel Ewing Hill Adjutant General of Kentucky (1887 - 1891)
to the Governor of KY]
Frankfort, Ky., February 6, 1888.
Gov. S. B. Buckner:
DEAR SIR:
.....Pursuant to your order of the 29th ult. I left Frankfort that night
and proceeded to Pike County to investigate the border warfare between
the Hatfields, of Logan County, of West Virginia, and the McCoys, of Pike
County. I reached Pikeville the night of the 31st, and remaining till the
morning of the 3d, made diligent inquiry into the origin and history of
the feuds, and from the most reliable sources I gathered the following
facts, viz: Some time previous to the August election, 1882, the Sheriff
of Pike county appointed Tolbert McCoy a special bailiff to execute some
bench warrants on Johnson Hatfield, which warrants had issued on
indictments found against said Hatfield in the Pike Circuit Court for
misdemeanors, and which warrants the Sheriff himself had been unable to
execute. Tolbert McCoy, with two of his brothers, made the arrest of
Hatfield under the warrants and started to Pikeville with their prisoner,
when they were intercepted by an armed force of the Hatfields, who had
been informed of the arrest by some friends, and who immediately crossed
the Tug Fork of the Big Sandy, and, taking a nearer route than that
traveled by McCoy and his prisoner, intercepted them and rescued the
prisoner. Soon afterwards, at the August election, 1882, several of the
Hatfields crossed over to the Kentucky side to attend the election, as
was their custom, when, during the day, "Big" Ellison Hatfield, brother
to Anderson Hatfield, the present leader of the Hatfield band, and
Tolbert McCoy, engaged in a fight, which was provoked and urged on by
Hatfield, who was a very large man, and far over-matched McCoy, who was a
man of small stature. McCoy soon found that he was over-matched, and drew
his knife and commenced stabbing Hatfield, notwithstanding which,
Hatfield continued to hold the advantage, and was in the act of braining
McCoy with a large stone which he had, when McCoy's brother came to his
assistance and shot Hatfield with a pistol.
.....The McCoys, who had participated in that fight, were arrested by
the Pike county authorities, and were being detained in custody to await
the result of Hatfield's wounds, when Anderson Hatfield and his gang took
them by force from the custody of the Kentucky authorities and carried
them across Tug, near where they detained them till Ellison Hatfield
died, some 36 to 48 hours, when they brought them back to the Kentucky
side, and, tying them to papaw bushes, shot them to death. The McCoys
thus slain were three in number, all brothers, and sons of Randolph
McCoy, one of them being but fourteen years old, whom the Hatfields
accused of complicity in the wounding of Ellison Hatfield. For this
murder of three McCoy brothers the grand jury of Pike County, at the next
term of the Pike Circuit Court, returned three indictments against each
one of the twenty-three persons. Bench warrants were repeatedly issued on
said indictments and were as often returned "not found," notwithstanding
many of the persons indicted frequently crossed to the Kentucky side, but
on such occasions they were numerically so strong and so well armed as to
successfully resist arrest, even if it had been attempted. Thus matters
rested for some five years, the Hatfields, in the meantime, taking an
active interest in Kentucky elections and admonishing the Sheriff, in
whose hands the bench warrants might, at such time, happen to be, to stay
away from the precinct or voting place on the east side of Pike county
and contiguous to the Tug, which they were in the habit of visiting on
election occasions, on the day of their contemplated visit, or, if he
should attend, to leave the bench warrants for their arrest behind; and
their admonitions were heeded till Frank Phillips, whom your Excellency
designated as the agent for Kentucky to receive the persons named in your
requisition upon the Governor of West Virginia for certain ones of said
indicted parties, was appointed Deputy Sheriff; when on one occasion,
when an election was approaching, they sent word to Phillips to keep away
from said election, as they wanted to attend, or, if he attended, to
leave the bench warrants against them behind, for if he was there with
the bench warrants they would kill him. Phillips replied that his
official business demanded his presence there that day, and that he would
be there, and would have the bench warrants, and if they came he would
either take or kill them.
.....Phillips went to the election and the Hatfields approached
within gunshot and fired a volley up through the brush, stampeding all
but some eight or ten persons; the plucky little Sheriff remained till
late in the evening, but, plucky as he is, he did not feel that he could
accomplish their arrest.
.....Nothing further of an eventful character occurred in the history
of the vendetta till last fall, when Frank Phillips, with two or three
men, crossed over into Logan county to receive the prisoners who, he
said, he supposed had by that time been arrested under warrants issued by
Gov. Wilson, based upon your requisition; but learning, after he had
crossed the State line, that no warrants had been issued, or at least
that no arrest had been made, and meeting with Tom. Chambers, who is said
to have taken a prominent part in the murder of the three McCoy brothers
and two others, all three of whom were included in the indictments, he
could not resist so good an opportunity to arrest them, and so he did
arrest them and brought them back to Pike county, where they, were served
with the bench warrants and placed in jail. To avenge that invasion and
arrest, as it is supposed, the Hatfield crowd, on the night of January
1st, ult., crossed the Tug Fork in force, penetrated Pike county a
distance of seven miles till they reached the peaceful mountain home of
old Randolph McCoy, which they surrounded and demanded a surrender. The
faithful watch dog had given warning, however, and old man McCoy and his
son Calvin, about twenty-seven years old, arose (the family had retired
for the night) and made hasty preparations for the best defense possible
against such heavy odds, and to the heavy volleys of the assailants
returned a vigorous fire and held them at bay for some two or three
hours, and until the house, which had been fired from without, was almost
ready to fall, when the young man leaped out and ran towards the corn
crib, having said to his father that if he could reach the crib he would
cover the father's retreat to the same point, and he believed from that
retreat they could yet drive the marauders off; but when about half-way
from the dwelling to the crib he fell dead with a ball through his brain.
The old man then seized a double-barrel shot-gun and leaped out,
discharging both barrels at the enemy, who, somewhat disconcerted for a
moment, did not fire upon him till he was well out in the darkness, and,
although they fired several shots at him, he escaped unhurt.
.....In the meantime, one of the party had commanded his unmarried
daughter, who occupied a room somewhat detached from that occupied by her
parents, to make a light, but she replied that she had neither fire nor
matches. The command was repeated, and, upon her failure to comply, she
was shot through the left breast and instantly killed, though she begged
piteously for them not to execute their threat to shoot her for failing
to make light, assuring them that it was not in her power to comply with
their command. The old mother rushed from her room to go to her daughter;
whereupon she was struck upon the head, knocked down and beaten into
insensibility, and left for dead upon the porch-at least, with part of
her person on the porch. The assailants withdrew just before the house
was ready to fall at one end, first closing what little of the door
shutters which had not been shot away, with the evident purpose of
burning the remaining members of the family; but, after they were gone,
another daughter, about eighteen years old rescued some bedding, upon
which she placed the body of her dead sister, the almost lifeless form of
her mother, and two children of Talbert McCoy-a boy about seven years old
and a little hunchback girl about five-where they remained till the
neighbors arrived, about daylight. The heroic girl had her feet badly
frost bitten, from which she has not yet recovered, and she could not
avoid weeping freely as the old lady detailed to me, in her presence, the
horrors of that terrible night. The little boy, too, is worthy of special
mention, for when he emerged from the burning dwelling, when it was
almost ready to fall, he thought of his little crippled sister, who was
still in the house, and he re-entered and again came forth leading her by
the hand; nor did he even cry during the whole of the battle. Mrs. McCoy
impressed me as a candid, honest old lady, and was still unable to walk
when I saw her, on account of several of her ribs being broken near the
spinal column.
.....About the 8th of January, Frank Phillips, with a number of
Kentuckians, again crossed the Tug Fork to arrest the outlaws and bring
them to justice, when they were fired on by old man Jim Vance and Cap.
Hatfield; and in the fight which resulted old man Vance-who is said to
have been the most desperate man in that entire section, and a fast
friend of the Hatfields-was killed, but Cap. Hatfield made his escape.
.....Subsequently, Phillips and party made another incursion into
Logan county, and were again fired upon (without warning this time); and
in the fight which ensued, one Dempsey, of the Hatfield party, was
killed, and Bud McCoy, of the Phillips party, was severely wounded. In
the two forays made by Phillips and his party during the present year
they succeeded in capturing six more of the indicated parties, all of
whom were brought safely over into Pike, served with warrants of arrest,
and confined in the Pike county jail, making nine in all of the
twenty-three indicted persons now confined in the Pike county jail, and
awaiting trial for the murder of the McCoy brothers.
.....The charge that the vendetta originated during the war is not
sustained by the facts; for while it is true Hurmer McCoy, a brother of
Randolph McCoy, was murdered after his discharge and return home from the
Union army, his murder was attributed to old James Vance, and none of his
kindred ever attempted, so far as I could learn, to avenge his death; and
Johnson Hatfield, son of Anderson, has since married his daughter. The
McCoys and Hatfields belong to the same political party, hence the feud
is, and has been from the start, personal and political. The assertion
that Anderson Hatfield and his sons, Johnson and Cap., are reputable,
law-abiding people, is not sustained, for the stories of their
lawlessness and brutality, vouched for by credible persons, would fill a
volume; while, on the other hand, old man McCoy and his boys are
represented as law-abiding, honest people by reputable men, who have
known them long and intimately, and the young man, Calvin, who was
murdered on New Year's night, is spoken of in terms of the highest
commendation, and I was repeatedly told that Pike county did not contain
a young man of better character or habits. I advised our people to remain
upon our side of the State line, and assured them of your Excellency's
active sympathy for them in all lawful measures to uphold the law and
punish crime, and that you would exert the influence of your high office
to maintain the law and to punish offenders against it; but told them
that you were especially desirous that they should do nothing which would
give the officials of West Virginia just cause of complaint.
.....I took the initial steps towards organizing accompany of State
Guards at Pikeville, there being plenty of good material there for the
purpose, and in which I feel confident we will secure for the State Guard
the service of an excellent company; and I sought to impress them with
the fact that their arms would be used only by command of the civil
authority in maintaining the peace and dignity of our Commonwealth in the
rigid enforcement of her laws.
Respectfully submitted.
Sam. E. Hill,
Adjutant-General.
-----------------------------
Name Frank Phillips
Event Type Burial
Event Date 1898
Event Place Phelps, Pike, Kentucky, United States of America
Photograph Included Yes
Birth Date 27 Jul 1861
Death Date 12 Jul 1898
Affiliate Record Identifier 57395552
Cemetery Frank and Nancy Phillips Cemetery
Citing this Record
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=57395552
"Find A Grave Index," database, FamilySearch
(https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVKB-GMTL : accessed 12 October
2015), Frank Phillips, 1898; Burial, Phelps, Pike, Kentucky, United
States of America, Frank and Nancy Phillips Cemetery; citing record ID
57395552, Find a Grave, http://www.findagrave.com.
-----------------------------
Elizabeth Phillips Fremd My Grandpa...JJ(Jesse James) Phillips used to
tell us about when he was a little boy and they brought his dad ( Frank
Phillips) back to the house after he was shot...that his mother....(Nancy
McCoy Hatfield Phillips) sent him off so he would not see what had to be
done to his father. He "snuck" back and watched through a basement
window...as his father's leg was taken off....I can't imagine being a
small child witnessing something so brutal as this..... Elizabeth
Phillips Fremd 19Jun2013
---------------------------------
Hazel Justice McClenny Bolling Jerry Hatfield I went back through mu
information and found the children of Frank Phillips and Nancy McCoy.
Elsie Philips b. Dec. 1889,Pike Co Ky. Jessie Phillips Feb. 19 1892, Pike
Co. Ky. Flora Phillips B. Aug. 1893, Pike Co. Ky. and Golda Phillips b.
Sept. 1897.
---------------------------------
Inscription:
If I should die to-night,
My friends would look upon my quiet face
Before they laid it in its resting-place,
And deem that death had left it almost fair;
And, laying snow-white flowers against my hair,
Would smooth it down with tearful tenderness,
And fold my hands with lingering caress, --
Poor hands, so empty and so cold to-night!
If I should die to-night,
My friends would call to mind with loving thought
Some kindly deed the icy hands had wrought,
Some gentle word the frozen lips had said,
Errands on which the willing feet had sped;
The memory of my selfishness and pride,
My hasty words would all be put aside,
And so I should be loved and mourned to-night.
If I should die to-night,
Even hearts estranged would turn once more to me,
Recalling other days remorsefully;
The eyes that chill me with averted glance
Would look upon me as of yore, perchance,
And soften in the old familiar way,
For who could war with dumb, unconscious clay?
So I might rest, forgiven of all to-night.
Oh, friends! I pray to-night,
Keep not your kisses for my dead, cold brow:
The way is lonely, let me feel them now.
Think gently of me; I am travelworn;
My faltering feet are pierced with many a thorn.
Forgive, oh, hearts estranged, forgive, I plead!
When dreamless rest is mine I shall not need
The tenderness for which I long to-night.
Arabella Eugenia Smith
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=57395552
-----------------------------