As a backcountry guide I love researching the rich history “some happy and some not so happy” of this area and sharing it with my clients. I’m going to pass along this story as it was told to me.
My 8th cousin William Riley Hatfield also known as WR Hatfield. Born 1824- died from a gunshot wound January 22, 1892. He passed away on the banks of Station Camp Creek in what is now inside the boundary of the Big South Fork NRRA.
On January 22,1892 at age 68 WR Hatfield was on horseback near the banks of the Big South Fork River and Station Camp Creek on the Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee which is now inside the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area when he got into a heated argument with a guy on foot near the trail. As the tempers flared between the two WR spun his horse around in the attempt to trample the man that was on foot. The guy then raised, aimed, and fired a 45-70 caliber rifle striking WR in the abdomen. The large caliber bullet traveled up the body cavity exiting near the face of WR Hatfield. Even with such a devastating and deadly wound WR managed to hang on to life for a few hours before passing away.
He is buried in a small cemetery near Station Camp what is now known as Charit Creek Lodge.
Ironically WR Hatfield’s son William Claiborne Hatfield known as WC was also shot and killed at the age of 51 in 1924. He was killed by a man named Newton Blevins who served one year for the killing of WC.
Newton Blevins was later shot and killed as he rounded up cattle with his wife.
I have been asked several times if WR Hatfield and his family that lived near Station Camp were related to the Hatfield’s from the well known “Hatfield and McCoy feud”.
To the best of my knowledge I would have to say yes. I have traced his family originally coming from West Virginia into Kentucky and then down south on the Big South Fork River into Tennessee and then to the banks of Station Camp Creek where he lays at rest today.
WR Hatfield would be my 8th cousin and the Captain William Anderson Hatfield better known as “Devil Anse Hatfield” would be my 7th cousin. Devil Anse is known as the patriarch of the Hatfield family during the Hatfield and McCoy feud.
My research also shows Devil Anse Hatfield’s Great Grandfather is a brother to WR Hatfield’s Great Grandfather.
I have often wondered if WR moved here to get away from the original Hatfield and McCoy feud and it’s violence just to be killed in an unrelated circumstance.