Bluefield Daily Telegraph (Bluefield, West Virginia).  November 28, 1909, Pg 7

How We Connect

My paternal Great-Grandmother was Pearl Daniels, the granddaughter of  Floyd Daniels. Floyd had many siblings, among them were Charles Daniels and Comfort Daniels (who married Nathaniel Christian.)

Early Life

Every woman isn't a lady and every grandma isn't a saint. That can especially be said for my 4th Great-Grandmother, Rebecca Rachel Daniels. She was never married a day in her life. She did, however, start affairs with a pair of brothers, both married men, who lived as neighbors nearby. Her first child, Lewis, was born when she was only sixteen. It seems she was pregnant every year for the next two decades. According to various birth and death documents for her children, Rachel had nine children with Elijah Mounts and seven children with Charles Mounts. Richard Floyd and Charlie are believed to have belonged to Charles Mounts and their sister Comfort was documented to be the daughter of Elijah. The fathers were present in all the children's lives growing up but Rachel Daniels kept them in her household as a single mother. Censuses never show her to be working any type of job to provide for her massive brood of sixteen before the year 1870, where she is shown to be a "farmeress" and head of the household. I can only assume that she and the Mounts brothers had some type of tri-parenting system where each man helped carry the load of the children he produced as well as helped with the children of his brother. Oddly, or rather sadly enough, the wives of these men were strong women who stayed married to these men and were documented to be living with them as their spouse throughout all the years, despite the fact that every time the fresh face of a new child popped up looking over the neighbor's fence they knew without a doubt that child came from their husbands and was their own children's sibling.  Rachel Daniels raised her small army of children in Pike County, Kentucky, never straying far from her own parents. She gave birth to Comfort Daniels in 1847 when she was 24-years-old. Brother Charlie was born ten years later, in 1857. Despite being raised in the same house by the same mother, the two siblings differed in many ways and had more standing between them than merely an age gap.

On June 23, 1867, Comfort married Nathaniel Robinett "Weston" Christian, who is rumored to have been a descendant of Shawnee Chief Cornstalk through his son Ellinipsico and a young Cherokee girl named Standing Deer. No documented proof has ever been uncovered to uphold the claims. The odds are just as probable as impossible, so until further descendants compare DNA results we will all have to use our imagination about who his relatives were and what kind of culture he was raised a part of. The 1900 Census lists Comfort as head of the household and mother of 16 children total with only 11 of those children living at the time. Let me reiterate: By the time Comfort was 45 years old, she was widowed and had buried 5 children. Let that sink in for a few moments...

Looking over the census records of that year, you quickly notice that the math doesn't add up. She had 16 children, five had died, five were in the home, and five had moved on to their own homes. There is a child missing but that is another story all on it's own.

Charles Daniels

Charles Daniels married Clarissa Adams on January 19, 1877, when he was only 20 years old. The newlyweds chose Logan, West Virginia to put down their roots and raise their family. By 1880, young Charles couldn't read nor write but he was earning a steady wage for his wife and small son, John, through farming their land. Clarissa helped bring home the bacon by housekeeping for other families who lived in the area. By 1900, Charlie was still working the land but was now taking care of a family of 12, including their children. The census of that year lists the children as:  John, James, Rosa, Jason, Albert, Henry, Ona, Cecil, Holly, and Martha.

John Edward Daniels

During the early part of the 1900s, John Daniels was serving time in Moundsville Penitentiary for grand larceny.  During his second year, his cousins Mose and Bud Christian came to the yellow, two-story home of Charles and Clarissa Daniels, where they commenced to telling Charles a plan which, they claimed, would allow them to get John out of jail.  The plan, they told him, would only cost him about three or four-hundred dollars.  Charles listened to his nephews' story but something about it just didn't sit well with him.  He told them he would need to think about it first before making any moves.  He wrote a letter to his son, telling him about what his cousins had told him, and asked if it were true that he could be gotten out of jail in such a way.  John told his father absolutely not.  He explained to his father that he had no idea what those boys were up to but that nothing could get him released from prison, he had to do his time.  He instructed his father to keep his money to himself and keep a close eye on it.  Reading his son's response angered Charles at his sister's sons.  He cursed them profusely at first for trying to rogue him for some unknown reason but he soon calmed himself, deciding it wasn't a cause worth dividing the family over, and he let it go.

Sparks Ignite

James "Jim" Daniels

Aside from being first cousins, Jim Daniels and Mose Christian were brothers-in-law.  In 1908, Mose married Jim's sister Rosia who was said to have died during childbirth in the earlier part of 1909 while Mose was serving time in the penitentiary with Jim by his side.  Jim and Mose had always had a very close relationship.  That bond led them to receive and serve a prison sentence together for murder and shooting to kill.  Nobody in the family imagined these two bosom buddies would soon fall out and become deadly enemies.

Not too long after being released from prison, Jim Daniels stole a Winchester from Mose Christian, or so is the story.  Jim always denied the charge and Mose always pressed it.  Whether he actually took the gun or not, the world may never know, but regardless, the mere thought that Jim heisted it was enough to send Mose to rally his brothers into a raid upon the Daniels home.  They were going either get the gun or get Jim Daniels, if they had anything to say about it... and they did.  Lots.

On November 13,1909, the knock at the door came as a bit of a surprise to the family, seeing as how remote the location of their small house was, they weren't expecting any outside visitors.  Charles Daniels opened the door to see his nephews Mose and Hiram Christian standing before him.  Charlie asked what was up and the guys told him they wanted Jim's tale on a stick, so to speak.  Charles learned of the blame his son was receiving for the stolen property and attempted to reason with him to calm him down.  

"Boy, what is your problem!?" Old Man Daniels scolded his nephew.  "You come over here talkin' about gonna kill my boy over a damn gun, come here to my house a'sayin' it and you ain't gave nary thought to the fact that when your ass was in the slammer and your old woman took ill with that baby of yourn, it was me who came and got her and took care of her when you couldn't.  That's what family does, yet...you accuse us of taking from you...  So what if he took your damn gun. I'd say what we've done for your family is worth a lot more than that damn gun, wouldn't you?"  With that, Charles turned, walked back into the house and closed the door.  

Frankly, Mose Christian didn't give a rat's ass about his uncle's charity and hospitality.  To Mose, it was the principle of stealing and he wasn't about to let his cousin get away with something that he wouldn't let any average Joe on the creek. His emotions were untouched and his mission wasn't deterred in the slightest.  He wanted Jim Daniels and he wanted him now!

Once inside the house, Charles decided there was no stopping the Christian boys.  They were going to have their altercation with Jim one way or the other.  If they didn't have a word with him there in the supposed safety of his own home, they would most certainly find him alone on the tracks or in town somewhere and have their way with him then.  Charles thought it would be best for his son to confront the situation while he was close at hand.  He called his son down from upstairs to go face his karma and calm things down between the two families.

"What the hell did you do, Jim!?"  He yelled up the stairway toward the second story bedrooms.

"Daddy, I didn't!  I swear!"  Jim trotted downstairs throwing his clothes on in a hurry.

"You know how those boys are!" the Old Man hissed.  "What the hell were you thinking!?  You better get your ass out there right now and handle this mess!"

"When I go out there, they're gonna kill me!" James yelled back.

Bluefield Daily Telegraph (Bluefield, West Virginia), November 16, 1909. Pg 1

Outside, the Christian brothers could hear Old Man Charles and Jim arguing back and forth.  They knew their uncle would have a hell of a time getting Jim to come out to meet them.  They were just starting to put away their guns and leave when the front door flew open and out stormed Jim Daniels and his brother Charles Jr. The two men confronted their cousin Mose in the yard, where Jim and Mose got into a push and shove match, complete with loud voices and name calling.  Hiram Christian, Mose's younger brother, thought a lot like his uncle Charles and believed the two boys ought to calm down and work things out in a civil manner before things escalated.  In true Daniels fashion, a son each of Charles and Comfort Daniels were about to do things they could never take back.  Things that would wreck havoc on, not just their family but, towns across two states.

 The Christians said Jim deliberately drew his gun on Hiram and shot him point blank for trying to stop a fight between him and Mose.  The Daniels version of the event tells that things between Jim and Mose got heated and Bud Christian pulled a knife on Jim, triggering him to shoot just as Hiram attempted to step between the men and create space and peace.  Whatever the precise action was that caused Jim to make the decision he did, whether intentional or accidental, one thing is certain:  Hiram Christian stepped between the fighting men in an attempt to separate them and in doing so, he was hit by the flying shrapnel spent out by the blast of Jim's gun.  The load of the gun tore through Hiram's left arm, tearing away the meat on its way through his heart and two ribs, ultimately ripping away part of his left lung.  Realizing the seriousness of what he had just done, Jim saw his other cousins turn their attention on their fatally wounded brother and seized that opportunity to make a run for it.  He and Charles Jr. mounted two horses and tore a path down the railroad tracks faster than any steam engine that ran on them.  The Christian boys were taken by surprise when Jim fled but with Hiram in dire condition, they chose to let him go until another day.

Retaliation

The Washington Times  (Washington, District of Columbia), Sun, Nov 28, 1909. Pg 1

Bud and Mose Christian rode down to the Pike County courthouse with a group of more than sixty of their comrades and filed for a warrant for the arrest of Jim Daniels on the charge of murdering Hiram Christian.  Because there were no officers in the immediate area near the Daniels home, the group of men were temporarily deputized and given the authority to capture Jim Daniels, dead or alive.  Given the time of year, the men decided to use the upcoming holiday to heir advantage and they waited.  

On the 25th of November, Thanksgiving Day, 1909, the Christians set forth to find their assailant and serve the warrant.  The brothers built a posse of more than sixty men, family and friends, who were hellbent on getting a piece of Jim Daniels.  Because the Daniels home was situated on a creek at the Kentucky-West Virginia border, the posse thought it would be best to split up and hit them from both sides, as to give Jim nowhere to run.  One group headed by Mose Christian and Bob Simpkins came upon the house from the West Virginia side and the other group, headed by John Ferrell and Bud Christian sneaked upon the house from the Kentucky side.  The West Virginia posse took route by way of the railroad tracks.  Many of both the Daniels and Christian family members worked on those tracks as rail men for the Norfolk & Western Railroad.  They suspected familiarity with the tracks might make it a common route for James to travel.  Those on the Kentucky side took a more straight-forward approach and rode right upon his house, surrounding it from all four sides.  None of the men were officers, but they claimed they were deputized as special constables to get Daniels.

The Ohio County News (Hartford, Kentucky), Wed. Dec 1, 1909. Pg 1

One of the next shots fired into the house entered from the rear and went through the fleshy part of the upper arm of Albert Daniels.  Charles Sr. and one of his younger sons claimed to have seen Christian fire this shot and the old man even told how he saw him pump his gun and raise it to his shoulder and then fire.  The shot which struck the younger boy was fired from the back yard, the shooter hiding inside the Daniels family's corn patch.

Charles Sr. cried out aloud with grief and called down the displeasure of the Lord on the murderers of his daughter and his wife. When Jim Daniels, who was upstairs, heard the crying, he knew that someone had been hit and he rushed down the stairs, saw his sister lying dead, his mother dying and his brother injured.  His father told him for God's sake to give himself up and told him he would send a horse to get him away.  Jim said something unintelligible to his father and as he did so dashed out the front door in plain view of the entire West Virginia posse, who fired shot after shot from across the river while he disappeared from sight.  As soon as they realized that he was making good his escape, they ran down the track after him but after the first burst of speed was over Jim was  able to seek a little cover from some outhouses and got away into the mountains.

The Kentucky posse meanwhile rushed into the house and Bud Christian pointed a gun at the old man who had his dying wife in his arms and his dead daughter on the floor beside him.  Charles Sr. told his nephew and his men that the problem that stood between them and his son are just that: between them and had nothing to do with his wife and daughter who were now laying dead on the floor in front of them.  He stressed how they as well as Hiram had died senseless deaths.  He pleaded with the men to just drop it but, as he recalled it, they told him to shut up or they would shoot and kill him, too.  Charles pleaded for his life and it was finally spared when the posse on the West Virginia side kept shouting that Jim Daniels had gotten away.  Jim fled while the bullets were flying from the WV side before they Kentucky posse had even made it to the house.

Bluefield Daily Telegraph, (Bluefield, West Virginia). Sat, Nov 27, 1909, Pg 1

Everyone related to either side of the fight understood that it was only a matter of time before they would get the call to come defend their kinsman and, for the most part, they were loaded, cocked, and ready.  This uniting of the bloodlines was more dangerous than anyone not from Appalachia can imagine.  Merely a few years before this feud riled up, others in the family were wreaking havoc on the hills in a nationally known feud of their own.  Those relatives were none other than the Hatfields and the McCoys.  While Daniels and Christian shared relatives from both the Hatfield and McCoy side of the fight, the Christians held tight bonds with their Hatfield relatives and the Daniels were backed by their Cline relatives, including Perry Cline, the infamous rival of Devil Anse Hatfield.  Having let their own feud simmer down for some years, both sides from that notorious first feud were among those who dreaded getting the call of action to take sides in the new family matter.  It was reported that those of the earlier feud did their best to avoid speaking to their quarreling kinsmen but were willing to take up arms and fight for their families if the new feud escalated to that same magnitude.

Newspapers from all over reported that the feud would never end so long as there was a Daniels or Christian left alive to pull a trigger.  This helped to incite fear in the community because it was a commonly understood fact that the feuding families were among the most ruthless and unruly clans around those parts and even so much as showing favor over one could make you a personal target.  Even the police agencies knew they were powerless to step in.  They admitted to the press that the problem was larger than they could handle, therefore they would not be approaching either family.  Everyone in Devon shared the outlook that if the feud wasn't your own personal battle, you stayed out of it and minded your business.  Because nothing could be done to slow the feud's progression by local law enforcement, the federal government was put on standby with the notice that either Governor Glasscock of West Virginia or Governor Willson of Kentucky will be calling in troops to put an end to the bloodshed.

The Alexandria Times Tribune. Monday, Nov. 29, 1909. Pg. 3

A Shotgun Funeral

The funeral of little Martha Daniels was held on November 27th, 1909.  Her family feared that being gathered together for the occasion might make the family an easy target for anyone heartless enough or intoxicated enough to disturb the service on behalf of the Christian/Hatfield sect of the family.  To protect themselves against potential marksmen, as well as to defend little Martha's lifeless body and the sanctity of her funeral rites, Daniels/Cline men in the family kept armed with their trusty Winchesters throughout the entire funeral and burial rites.

The Alexandria Times Tribune. Monday, Nov. 29, 1909. Pg. 3

In the hours following Martha's funeral, her mother Clarissa succumbed to her own injuries and passed away.  Upon her death,  Charles Sr. worried for the safety of the other youngsters living in the home and stressed to his boys the importance of facing the music in order to preserve the lives of the rest of the family, as he was certain the Christian boys could be kept to their words in terms of wiping out the rest of the family if Jim didn't surface.  Charles Sr. advised his sons to do the right thing and go to Pike County, Kentucky and surrender himself or the whole family would be killed but Jim was reported to have said that if he went to Kentucky it would be in a casket because he intended on killing the whole damned Christian faction.

Father Knows Best

West Virginia Feud Ends, The Washington Post (Washington, District of Columbia). 30 Nov 1909, Tue. Pg 3

Old Man Charlie Daniels managed to talk some degree of sense into his boys.  Following losing their mother just hours after their little sister's funeral, Charlie Jr. and Jim went over what they should do about the matters at hand.  It was assumed that Jim had made a getaway from the slaughter at his home unscathed but that was not so.  As he mounted his horse and rode swiftly out of sight of his enemies, who fired bullets from across the Tug River, Jim had actually been hit by a bullet fired at him from someone in the West Virginia posse. While weighing their options for the best next move, a Dr. Robertson visited Jim at the home of his brother where he was in hiding, and tended to his wound.  By the time news of his bullet wound made its way through the gossip of the people in the Tug Valley, Jim had gone from "getting away unscathed" to "fatally wounded" with reports prematurely factoring him into the total of the feuds victims.  Jim Daniels did not die due to his injuries, however.  Not even close.  The following day, Jim quite ably walked himself into the police station and turn himself in to authorities.  Not only did Jim come forth in his guilt, his brothers Charlie Jr., Jason, and Henry all turned themselves in for their part as well.

Justice for All

25 May 1910

It was reported in the newspaper that Bud Christian was so distraught over imminently facing justice that he was overcome with anxiety, grief, or guilt, and killed himself as a means to not have to serve a lengthy sentence.  It was told to his family by the authorities at the jail that Bud hanged himself in his cell.  His body was released to his family and they took him home and laid him out for viewing.  According to his nieces who were present at the wake, blood started oozing from the back of his body and from his orifices.  His family quickly sent for a doctor who came to the house to examine his body.  When the doctor rolled Bud over, it was discovered that Bud had five bullet wounds to the back in addition to the rope burns around his neck.  Bud Christian had been hanged and shot while awaiting trial.  This would mean that the note he had supposedly written before his alleged suicide was fake.  It is believed by the family that Bud Christian didn't commit suicide behind bars but was rather retaliated upon by fans of the Daniels side of the family.