BIRTH OF THE DEVIL: SON OF BIG EPH AND NANCY VANCE HATFIELD

Nancy Vance Hatfield, shown here with a grandchild, the mother of Anderson “Devil Anse” Hatfield, went into childbirth on Sept. 9, 1839, at the log cabin home she shared with her husband, Ephraim Hatfield, on the Straight Fork of Mate Creek, a tributary of the Tug Fork of the Big Sandy River which marked the border of western Virginia — today’s West Virginia — and Kentucky.

Anse’s birth was normal for that time and place. It is likely that Nancy Hatfield was attended by at least one midwife, known in popular usage as a “granny woman.” Ansie, as the boy was also nicknamed, was the fifth child in Ephraim and Nancy’s growing family, preceded by John in 1829, Valentine in 1834, Elizabeth in 1836, and Martha in 1838.

During the following twenty years, Ephraim and Nancy would have six more children: Ellison in 1842, Elias in 1848, Emma in 1849, Biddie in 1850, and twins Smith and Patterson in 1854. The oldest boy, John, died in 1841, at age twelve.

Ephraim and Nancy Hatfield were typical Appalachians. Anse’s father was 27 the year his fifth child was born, and Nancy was 26 years old.

Though no photograph of Ephraim has survived, historians have interesting ideas about his huge frame and general appearance. He was known as “Big Eph” during his lifetime, which lasted from 1812 until 1881. One descendant jokingly claims that he was at least eight feet tall and weighed six hundred pounds. The more prosaic truth is that he was a mere six-feet-four inches and weighed only 260 pounds.

Ephraim was considered a giant of his day, the “bully” of Mate Creek, and other proud Appalachian men often tested him in wrestling matches. The tales told of Big Eph Hatfield were like those of Paul Bunyan or other American folk heroes. He was a widely respected figure in the Tug Valley.

—Excerpt from the book, “The Tale of the Devil: The Biography of Devil Anse Hatfield,” by Dr. Coleman C. Hatfield and Robert Y. Spence, © 2012, used by permission