The Story on One Line — 1819 to 1971
A century and a half of one family's story, stop by stop — from a gallows in Virginia to a house in Logan that stayed in the family until 1971. Each stop is a door: the chapters, the notes, and the people are one tap away.
1819
Abner Vance is hanged at Abingdon.
The story opens in Virginia, with a hanging the family never forgot. Abner Vance's line runs down through the Vances and the Dutys to Larry's grandmother, Nellie Duty.
Winter 1864
Asa Harmon McCoy is killed coming home on furlough.
A McCoy in Union blue, home on furlough in the last winter of the war, was killed — and the law said nothing. That silence is a thread the book follows all the way to 1927.
1865
William Cary marries Jennie McCoy.
On July 27, 1865, in Pike County, Kentucky, William Cary and Jennie McCoy were married. Jennie would be Lawrence Carey's mother — the marriage joins the Carys to the McCoys.
1878
The hog trial.
A quarrel over hogs between the McCoy and Hatfield households went before a court in 1878 — the hog trial, remembered as the feud's first fight on paper.
May 14, 1881
Johnse Hatfield marries Nancy McCoy.
A Hatfield son and a McCoy daughter were married at her mother's house in Pike County — a wedding straight across the feud's line, while the feud was young.
1882
The election-day killing — and the pawpaw trees.
An election-day fight in 1882 left a Hatfield dead of his wounds, and the revenge was taken out on three McCoy brothers at the pawpaw trees. The feud had its martyrs now, on both sides.
January 1888
New Year's Night, and Grapevine Creek.
The feud's climax came in January 1888: the New Year's Night attack on the McCoy home, and the fight at Grapevine Creek days later. After that, the feud burned down into memory — and into the world Lawrence Carey grew up in.
1891
Lawrence Carey marries Josephine White.
Lawrence — Jennie McCoy's son, a Logan workingman — married Josephine White in 1891. It was his first marriage, and it did not last.
1896
Lawrence marries Malissa Sansom.
In 1896 Lawrence married Malissa Sansom. She would be his wife for thirty-one years, and then keep his house on High Street for more than forty years after him.
November 8, 1904
Lawrence Carey is elected constable.
The voters put the McCoy's son in office for the first time in 1904 — the first of the badges Logan would trust him with.
1923
Lawrence is appointed fire chief.
On 1923, Lawrence Carey became chief of Logan's fire department — the town's trust in him, in writing.
May 1, 1925
Fire chief again.
Two years later, on May 1, 1925, the town appointed him fire chief a second time.
December 1926
Lawrence Carey becomes chief of police.
In December 1926 the workingman from High Street took the town's hardest badge: chief of police of Logan.
December 30, 1926
Chief Carey arrests a former chief.
Weeks into the job, Chief Carey arrested Henderson — himself a former chief of the same town. The new chief's arrest of the old one made enemies that did not forgive.
May 10, 1927
The Avis shooting.
During an arrest on May 10, 1927, Lawrence Avis was shot and killed. Chief Carey was charged, and put on trial for it at Logan.
May 28, 1927
Lawrence Carey dies in office, mid-trial.
At the noon recess of his own trial, Lawrence walked home to High Street, accompanied by a deputy — and died there. He was fifty-seven years old, and still the town's chief.
November 16, 1928
Brook Carey is killed at the firehouse.
Eighteen months after his father, Brook Carey — the eldest son — was shot and killed at the Logan firehouse by the chief who had succeeded Lawrence.
1928
Chief Lon Browning resigns.
Lon Browning, who held the chief's office in those years, resigned in 1928 with words that say everything about Logan at the time: “I am not yet ready to die.”
April 22, 1930
The Scaggs case is dismissed — unexplained.
The case arising from Brook Carey's killing — the Scaggs case — was dismissed on April 22, 1930. No paper the research has found says why.
December 1930
Chief Roy Knotts is killed.
Roy Knotts, holding the chief's office, was shot and killed in December 1930 — the Logan machine years closing the way they had run.
October 16, 1934
Lona Conley Carey is killed.
Brook's widow Lona had remarried after his death. On October 16, 1934, she was killed by her second husband — one more of the family's losses the paper, this time, recorded plainly.
1970
Malissa dies, the house kept to the end.
Malissa Sansom Carey died in 1970, having kept the house at 41 High Street for almost forty-three years after Lawrence's death.
1971
The house passes out of the family's hands.
One year after Malissa's death, in 1971, the High Street house was sold out of the family — the last page of the family's life in it.
In the finished site, every stop on this line will open the chapter, the source notes, and the records behind it.