I have a couple of articles on the Clay Co. feud. One is from the AMERICAN WEEKLY, April 30, 1944, entitled "Will Law or Bullets End the Mountain Feud", with several pictures and illustrations. The article states "The petition and affadavits name some 12 families who have been engaged in a violent feud in Clay County during the preceding seven or eight in which more than 50 persons have been killed..." From the article, it appears that the CUPP's and BENGE's were some of the main culprits. The CUPP's mentioned were descendants of Charles CUPP, who was killed by Confederate soldiers during the Civil War because he refused to sell them his horses. I had thought that the feud had originated from circumstances surrounding Charles' death; however, I recently received an article entitled, "Four Young People Died" http://echandgs0.tripod.com/feuds/id4.html which says that four children of Christopher and Barbara Smith were found murdered, March 23, 1855, fifteen miles west of Manchester(that would have been "before" the Civil War), and that Walter CUPP, aged 23, and Ruben Hibbard were arrested and indicted for the murders. I wonder who this Walter Cupp was, since he would have been contemporary with Charles, and I wonder if this was the same feud mentioned in the AMERICAN WEEKLY article, since there were almost 100 years between the incidents? Many Clay Countians had migrated from Lee Co., including John Hyden (namesake of Hyden, KY.), who was Clay Co. judge for many years after the Civil War, so I'm sure he had to deal with many of the feuders. John was the brother of my g-g-g grandfather, Samuel Monroe Hyden, whose grandson, Samuel Slater Hyden, married Charles Cupp's brother's daughter. If there are no books written on this feud, it would seem a good subject for an aspiring writer to search the newspapers and court records and write a book. Don A. Hyden ________________________________________________________________ Sign Up for Juno Platinum Internet Access Today Only $9.95 per month! Visit www.juno.com