Dils Cemetery - The final resting place of Randall, Sarah and Roseanna McCoy
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 23 ม.ค. 2025
- Dils Cemetery is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Hatfield-McCoy Feud Historic District. Buried in the cemetery are: Randolph McCoy (the head of the McCoy clan), his wife Sarah, their daughter Roseanna (who ran away with Johnse Hatfield), their son Sam and his wife, Martha.
While by its nature a somber place to visit, the Dils Cemetery is a must see destination for lovers of history, especially for historians who study Hatfield and McCoy or African American history. The Dils Cemetery is located at the mouth of Chloe Creek and the By-Pass Road in Pikeville, Kentucky. The property was purchased in 1871 by Col. John Dils, as part of a larger tract that ran several miles up Chloe Creek. Later Col. Dils sold the property excluding the cemetery from the deed. The property, previously owned by the Syck family, already contained the graves of this family. Col. Dils set aside a space on the top of the knoll for his own family to be buried and then with his and his descendants’ permission, allowed other person to be buried there.
I watch you guys all the time. Thank you. Guess cause I am in my 70s if anyone would care. I have no kids. I think yes. Maybe somebody would look for me someday.
I have only just recently become aware of your page. I am humbled by your respectfulness to the graves and the stories. Your narration is beautiful. You remind the viewer that these are not just a part of the American history stories, but also these were real people just trying to live their lives. Regular folk who were trying to survive and raise their families. I am struck by the many deaths of infants and children. I think we sometimes forget that for folks who lived in the back woods etc., they didn't have much access to formal medical care. I look forward to exploring the rest of your content.
Thank you very much. Glad you enjoy them.
I love your channel. Both of you are the best history tellers I like listening too!
Thanks so much
Keep the History alive. Wonder what it was like living with the families.I'm sure it wasn't all bad at times.Thank you for your videos.God Bless you both.
I have been watching many of your videos this afternoon and have enjoyed them very much. Places of interest I would have otherwise never seen. Thank you for sharing.
My mother-in-law is a descendant of Devil Anse Hatfield. He is her great x4grandfather. She always told me she was. Me and my daughter did the ancestry and did our family trees from there. So fascinating.
Me and my wife Was up there. We enjoyed it very much. I Enjoy your videos.
Awesome! Thank you!
Beautiful cemetary and so far up on the hill!
Really a nice area for the Cemetery. Sad that there are so many there that are unknown. Same thing happened in other countries. Guess it happened in many more areas that we knew of. My great grandfather is lost in a cemetery in Europe. We know the general area where he is, but no grave site is marked because the marker disappeared. Great history, again! Thank You!
Love these old historic cemeteries. Hopefully they will continue to see the importance of upkeep and documentation for future generations.
Thank you for sharing this with us . This is one place on your tours that I have actually been to and I agree that it is a pretty cemetery or graveyard if you will .
Beautiful cemetery wish I could do what you guys do and you guys do a lovely job . Thank you for showing us some of our history.
Glad you enjoyed it
16:44 went to Dils Cemetery 4/2023 those cedar trees are gorgeous! And the other trees are still down
Thank you from cornwall UK England, love your stories xx
Thanks for watching!
I just found your channel. Wow very interesting! I’m working on my ancestry which has lead me to West Virginia, Kentucky and Virginia. I’m am somehow related to the Hatfields but I haven’t yet figured out how. My family history goes back to coal mining, finding information on my family has been very hard so I plan on coming to that area next year. I’m so happy to have found your channel I’m learning so much. Thank you for sharing.
We looked ours up on ancestry, we found the links leo had to Hatfields and McCoys in about a week. Good luck!
It's really interesting to see graveyards in other parts of the country. I'm from the deep south & I only know of one graveyard way up in the woods. Most of our graveyards are connected to a church or the funeral home. We have paid caretakers living on site. Even those owned by the city have paid daily caretakers. Something like a tree falling is removed immediately. The graves are much much closer together as well. I think this one is quite beautiful but it's a shame it isn't tended to daily so graves aren't lost to nature. No hate, I just think it's quite interesting the difference. We tend to treat the dead much better than the living where I'm from if that makes sense.
I love graveyards & everyone thinks that's odd but I love the history. I would give anything to visit where you are one day. Love your videos ❤
Thanks so much!
My husbands family is from Pikeville Ky and we hope to visit this summer so we will definitely have to go visit this site. Thanks
Pikeville is very interesting, thanks for watching
Do enjoy your videos about the history of that time and place. From the look of those trees they look like they were down for awhile. It's a shame no one would take a chain saw up there and clear those paths and graves though its such a beautiful place.
Thanks John, I'm sure they have fixed the trees by now, the city takes pretty good care of it since it's a tourist spot
@@thehillbillyfiles that's good to hear
Why are they all so buried so far apart from one another? I really enjoy watching you guys. Thank you!
Im not sure about that, and thanks
Because folks didn't think it was decent to bury them one on top of the other.
@@mrliberty8468in Ireland, it’s quite common to bury one’s family right on top of the previous occupant.
It is so interesting, so many unknown stones, so sad. Thank you again Leo and Heather ❤️❤️❤️
I'm glad I just found your channel. This was fun.
Thank you!
Another great job guys love your content I live in tazwell co va and grew up hearing all these stories but you two do such a great job telling them. New favorite channel!!!!
Thanks for watching! great compliment
I can tell you are from around these mountains by your accent. I too live close with same accent and enjoy hearing you tell these great stories!
We are from Williamson WV but live in Kentucky now, but yes born and raised here, and thank you!
So interesting and I agree, a beautiful place. I like old cemeteries and wondering how people lived their lives. Do you know if Roseanna and her parents stayed estranged until she died? I have always wondered that. I have people in my family's histories who stayed estranged until the other person died. So sad
I'm not sure, we plan to do a video on her, so maybe we can learn more
New subcriber here from the UK 🇬🇧. Yr content is really interesting look forwards to watching all yr videos
Interesting cemetery. A lot of history there, as you said. The county really should clean it up a bit, like removing the fallen trees. If Rosanna
Is not buried there, the question presents itself, where is she buried?
I would think trying to get a coffin up
that hill in the winter, or under heavy
rain conditions would have been miserable. Thank you, for a great video.
My father's people were buried in the western Blue Ridge mountains of VA, and only one grave is marked, all the rest are just rocks. The mountains are full of them. I have stumbled across a lot of them over the years, sometimes you'll find a yucca plant, and for newer graves, they'll be sunk in a little, but you can usually find the rock patterns (knowing that they faced east). I've tried over the years to pencil them in on topo maps, but a lot of the history is just being lost it's really sad
We see them.all the time, yes lost history
Yes it is sad 😔. My father and his brother buried a sister aged roughly 3/4yrs òld. My father was 14 and my uncle would've been 12/13..don't know the time of the year but there was a corn field and a train track 😢that she got hit by a train and the 2 brothers had to take her into the mountains and bury her. I've no way of finding her grave..but if I could I'd get her some kinda headstone 😢😊. I believe her name was Billy Jean (😅😊 u know the song by music Michael Jackson) Porter. It was a life long heartbreak 💔 for my daddy. She would've been killed around 1954..but they were very poor and did what they had to do at the time 😢. I'm hoping my children are able to get me back home in 2024😊
I loved the part about people researching the genealogy of the African American graves.
Leo and Heather you both do such a great job...
I would love to know if the tree's have been removed and the damage repaired if you make another visit
I live in Texas but my mom's family is in Floyd County Kentucky and I have heard tons of stories about the fued
I have enjoyed your video!
Loving your videos
Thank you!
Love ur channel brother
Leo and miss Heather, I have a daughter named Heather. I have helped clean many mountain graveyards dug many graves had to dynamite several. I buried over 200 cremated bodies at one church. I am a history buff You think? I border the eastern band of CHEROKEE. THEY CALL ME THE "FIREKEEPER" AS I LOVE MY NATIVE FRIENDS. I've HAD 3 STROKES AND BRAIN SURGERY. IM UNABLE TO GET AROUND AS I ONCE DID. BUT I KNOW MANY OUT-OF-THE-WAY PLACES CHEROKEE AND OLD SETTLERS. Your journeys are a blessing to me. Sorry to ramble. But we are Soul mates. God bless and keep you both safe. My love "old mountain man," Firekeeper" Gary Justice.🙏✌️👍🔥
Well Firekeeper its great to meet you! We plan to take you many places in the future, thanks for joining our journey
That's a large graveyard. The history alone is amazing
I am from Covington, Kentucky and visited Pikeville for a couple of days with some friends of mine that was from the area. Got there and didn’t know what to expect being that Covington, my home town, is pretty good distance north of Pikeville and I’m a city slicker. We drove up this steep road and at the top is a rock that cracked and they chained it with a anchor chain. I think it’s called Chain Rock. There is a place where three states meet Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia, at Chain Rock if I remember correctly. When I say steep road to the place I mean it. It’s a good distance down hill where that rock is cracked also and there’s trees. It would take out a part of the city if it did fall. I loved being there seeing that place.
Great video!
Glad you enjoyed it
Just to give you a little help on reading headstones or tombstones bring a bright flashlight with you and go from the side and illuminate that way instead of taking paper and trying to make a stencil because you actually ruin the stone. But great videos I love the history please keep up the great work
Thank you for the advice! We will do that
Its a pretty well hidden Cemetery in many ways. The trees keep it covered well. Glad they have signage for it too. It is a peaceful Cemetery though.
Love it thanks
That may be the most beautiful cemetery I’ve ever seen🐝🤗❤️
Does the county maintain the all those cemeteries? And do they clean up all the fallen trees and limbs? You should take pictures and document them on find a grave. So ancestors can find them if they are looking for them. It's a great tool to search for Graves of our ancestors.
We use find a grave, we wouldn't be able to find a lot without it. Yes the city maintains the cemetery
Glad found more history of Daddy family members.
Glad you found it too!
That's true is was growed up badly when we visited, and Randall Sally and Roseanne Graves wasn't fenced either
I became drawn into this "Hatfield and McCoy" controversary when I discovered that my brother-in-law was a McCoy descendant from these McCoys. As far as I know, Charles Sr. was connected to the McCoys thru his biological father. So, Charles' s 3x great grandfather was part of this actual feud.
I am a McCoy and Hatfield
Good Post
I wonder if the big ice storm from a few years ago, took down the trees.
It was during the flooding last year in Kentucky
Stark difference between the expense of the gravestones and grandeur of the cemeteries between the well to do Hatfield's and the McCoys. Also interesting is how much better kept the McCoy's Cemetery is compared to the, again, well to do Hatfields.
Fun fact: (I did not know this till a couple years ago lol) The difference between a cemetery and a graveyard; Cemeteries don't have churches on them, graveyards do.
That's true. Also, cemeteries and graveyards can both have upright stones, but memorial gardens are all flat, so you can mow over them.
@@thehillbillyfilesOh my gooseness that is so true, the one where I plan to be buried is a memorial garden, but they have in the past 5 years or so...added other sections that can have raised stones! After sooooo many years of flat stones lol mine will be a flat one because it's toward the front of the cemetery which is older. (Sunset memorial gardens is the name) here in Des Moines, Iowa. I don't know, some might find this topic odd but I don't. I think it's neat.
I loved eating at Dorcie been there doing research thank you
I have a question, was Cotton Top really "slow" as portraid in the mini series?
Its debatable what his issue was. Some think he was slow, some it was mental illness and he was just crazy. He was not normal though.
Hi Leo, where are Tolbert, Pharmer and Bud buried?
They are in hardy ky, it's private property
That’s how it is around here (Rabun County Georgia) , people got field stones for Grave Markers. You maybe lucky to find a old timer that knows who they are.
😂😅I'm gonna guess that you and I are cousins 💓 😮of some kind lol. My great grandmother was Roxy McCoy/George/Steadman. When looking I'm remembering her mother as Margaret or maybe. Martha..I'll have to relook 😊
A lot of folks back then couldn't read nor write, so a stone was all they could put up.
My father was a Thompson and from northern Kentucky I wonder if he was related ?
I’m a DNA match to lots of McCoys from Kentucky on ancestry.The family trees of some of these people have Randolph McCoy as their ancestor.Another name Is Asa Harmon McCoy in their family tree.The funny thing is I’m Australian and have never been to the USA.My ancestry is Scottish so I can only presume that we are descended from the same ancestors back in Scotland.DNA is just amazing.
On those unreadable tombstones, if you shine a small flashlight from the side of the stone over the letters, hopefully they will become more legible. Hope this helps.
My husband was coleman his mom was bevins, her mom biliter, and Justices. I've connected to both Hatfield & mccoy
I’m mccoy-justice related 😊
Hi Lois I'm related to Catherine Coleman who married my grandpa Eugene Bolling/Bolling
Leo sir im filipino and white it warms my heart that some of your forefathers decided to integrate it wont hurt a thing
The story of two men that brought the war home with them, to their families. So sad
That and the abuse of alcohol led to so much pain.
If I was closer I'd gladly volunteer to remove the downed trees for free and fix the fence. I do that in some of our local cemeteries that doesn't get regular maintenance.
What do the tin plates say next to some of the graves?
Names of people buried
Funeral home markers?
Quick question, do you guys know why they don't have a year of death for Sarah on her side of the headstone? Surely they know what year she died?
This has long plagued us, some say she isn't buried there. The reason behind no date is a mystery. Not much info is even available about Sarah in general. We hope to find a answer soon though!
Her death year wasn't exactly known that's why 189 ? She died in Lexington but no one knows the exact year
That pine,had more than it's share of nutrients too tap into!
Where is the pike cemetery?
Nice to meet u both, Leo n Heather. Why doesn't Sarah have her death year on her headstone? I hope they r able to find where everyone is buried n we can learn their stories. I'm glad there wasn't vandalism to the African American graves as there often was during the time. Congrats to all who have maintained n kept the Dils Cemetery a nice, clean, manicured place for visitors now n in the future. I love when pieces of history aren't destroyed n in disrepair. These people were humans n they had stories n lives n tho we agree or disagree, it's history just like how we live n what we do will eventually be history that people will agree or disagree with. I'm thinking they can get help with identifying individuals by contacting someone incharge of Black Lives Matter. Always carry a torch with u. Never know when u come across a headstone where u can shine the torch horizontally n make it easier to read names n date. I bet it was hard to build all those stairs!! Have n e graves washed over the edge? How old do u think the pine tree is, Mr Leo? What is the name n date of the first grave n last grave in this cemetery? Where is the Justice Cemetery in Pike? Seems the Justice families should be buried there, u think? Thank u for the video.
We don't know the answer to some of this. We just visited there a couple times. But Sarahs missing the Faye of her death because the market was made by the city of Pikeville. They couldn't read the original market and Sarah is a very mysterious undocumented woman for the most part. There's also confusion on if she died in a asylum. Far as the first and last person buried there, that's a good question! I'll try and find out
I went there along time ago
Is there not anyway of finding out when Sarah McCoy died?
I did have a movie about the McCoy and Hatfield feud
my youngest daughter is a hatfield i love learning history' was there any lawhorn's there?
Not that I recall, but I will keep a eye out for that name!
Have you researched Bad Frank?
Yes, we have done several stories on him, and cleaned up his graveyard. :-)
Your excursions keep coming up with surnames in my family tree. My maternal grandmother was a Justice.
It's actually a lot smaller community linked together than people realize, the same names do come up over and over
I have to ask, is the Lady in the video the same Lady from History Hunters? You sound so alike voicewise.
No not her, but I will have to look her up lol
@@thehillbillyfiles I just seen her and isn't her, love your videos. They do have really good videos, similar too yours, Thanks and keep up the good work ❤️
O, I forgot you need to stop smoking. 😆 I'm 63, and I have been smoking from the age of 11 or 12. Now I'm stuck in the house with oxygen. You're getting good exercise doing what you're doing. Just a piece of advice, that's all. Keep it up. I really enjoy your channel.
We both quit smoking 6 years ago, once a blue moon Leo smokes a cigar, but we definitely don't smoke as a habit. We learned that thankfully and thank you!
@@thehillbillyfiles good for you both! It’s a tough habit to kick!
I am surprised how many people on both sides stayed there with feelings being so negative.
Who built the stairs?
The city of Pikeville leases the property from the heirs of John Dils, I believe they put it in. It's a major tourism destination
You would think with the history of that cemetery and as many people who visit it the township would clean up those fallen trees and tidy up the place. Lots of history albeit some of it dark there. Not layed out very well but I guess back then you just found a suitable spot and buried someone.
The trees are newly fallen they will clean them. But most cemeteries here do leave something to be desired usually.
Why do they put foot stones?
To mark the end of the grave. Most people are placed facing to the east, but not all.
@@thehillbillyfiles they don't do that in Maryland. That is why i asked. Interesting.
I wonder if there's any Hatfield and Mccoy descendants are living now
Yes a lot! Leo is one of them
Do they have caretakers for these old cemeteries
Love your videos
Not really, they are family cemeteries way out in the country. People volunteer and keep them best they can. But it's a pretty physical job being on a hill .
Thank you 🙏
Is this the same as the ‘Forbidden Cemetery?’
no, the forbidden cemetery is where the McCoy kids are. You cant go up there and its small, only a handful of graves.
@@thehillbillyfiles Thank you! It makes much more sense to me now. Great job on your videos!
When you’re around wooded areas, such as the woods around the hollower, the tress fall unexpectedly and can be dangerous. Never know what’s out to get you.
Wasn't Frank Waller the father of Effie Waller Smith the first black poet from Pikeville to have her book published.
I'll have to find out!
Randolph is my 3rd great uncle
Awesome
Found Samuel Thompson 39 Kentucky (Union) inlisted oct 16 1862 3years
You'd think that they'd be something in place to fix up these old historical cemeteries.
My ancestors were Chambers are they related
I wonder why the state or the county. Did not do the Mccoy Graves headstone and all the stuff that the Hatfields had. I think the Mccoy man should have a big standing of himself also. It's sad.
Devil Anse Hatfield paid for his own headstone and statue, McCoy just had a rock. So pike county gave him that headstone
Thank you. I did later in another of your videos. That there was one of the Mccoy. Just not where his grave is. Right ?
🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌
Iam a 4th cousin of Randolph McCoy.He and Sarah had 18 children
Wow that’s amazing! I suppose they had more children because of the high number of children who didn’t make it…. Life was tough back then!
Why didn't they bury the 3McCoy.boys in the Randall and Sarah's area...
Where are the three brothers executed by the Hatfields buried?
I think you two need to invest in a nice drone.
And I'm looking for Lewis Jeffetson McCoy
What birth year round about and where?
@@thehillbillyfiles I know he got killed by the HatfieldsI in 1888 ? And I'm looking for my Great Grandma his wife..Sarah M.Wolford McCoy. born in 1855. Died. 1909
I have some old history here in Oregon.. stories pics,letters,coal mine news papers and my grandma's braids from 1910.
My Grandpa Bolling was the constable sheriff of the pike ville jail around 1911...he was best friends with Cap hatfield... ugh! My Grandma told me something things about her cousin Rosannah. Thank you so much!
@@Pam-cu1ev so interesting! I hope you find answers to your questions!
Lewis Jefferson McCoy and SarahM.Wolford McCoy. My Great Grandparent
Where are the 3 brothers killed from the Ellison murder buried?
In the "forbidden cemetery" in hardy Kentucky, just a couple hundred yards from their home place.
Why did they call him devil anse?
His first name was Anderson. They said he was mean as a devil, so they called him Devil Anse.
Head stones and foot stones
Randall was my 5 gg pa brother
Johnse and Rosanna had a daughter.
We did a few videos on it, yes.