I am forever amazed by this medium. More than a year ago I posted a blog about
William Anderson "Devil Anse" Hatfield, my great-grandfather's first cousin. It got the usual, few visits to which I have become accustomed. We're not doing this to become rich and famous, right? I was happy. But then last week a cable television channel ran a three-part miniseries on the Hatfield-McCoy feud and suddenly a year-old blog becomes popular.
Devil Anse, better known as Kevin Costner these days, became an item of interest. Very quickly that year-old blog had registered more than 1,500 visits! That may not be a lot for some of you bloggers out there, but for me the numbers were astronomical!
Now if each of those who visited my blog in search of Devil Anse had contributed only one dollar, we would have more than enough money to really fix up his family's cemetery that is so in need of attention.
Disclaimer: I have not seen the miniseries. We watch almost no television to begin with, plus I have very little respect for Hollywood's portrayals of historic events and characters. The Hatfield-McCoy feud is the most famous of the many post-civil-war family vendettas simply because accounts of it sold newspapers in New York City. While there were a very few events of extreme violence scattered through the period, twelve people died after all, there also were long stretches of time, years, in which nothing happened. That did not deter the reporters who filed their stories anyway, making up atrocities perpetrated by ignorant, bare-foot hillbillies to titillate their audience. That fiction persists in accounts being written today. And since "hillbillies" are the last ethnic group that is socially acceptable to ridicule, there apparently is an audience still.
Hope that visiting your blog will give just a few of those people a better grasp of history than their visits to the cinema. A couple of week's ago my post about King's College Chapel suddenly received 30 hits in about fifteen minutes - my guess is that it answered some kid's homework question and word spread rapidly to all classmates. But what is someone in Syria doing reading my ramblings when there's so much trouble going on?
ReplyDeletePresent day Hatfields and McCoys are having the last laugh. The feud now brings tourism to the Tug Valley and people are making money off it!
DeleteLife is funny.
ReplyDeleteEven locally here people make fun of the hillbillies. It's like a running joke to mention something like, "They live up in the hills." It's odd to hear this coming from someone who lives in a tiny backwoods town themselves, but I suppose there is always a bit of a hierarchy where people are concerned.
Had no idea you came from such famous folks! I have an idea for fixing up the cemetery. That sort of thing makes a great Eagle Scout project so if you know a troop near the cemetery you might suggest it as a project. The Eagle gets his honors, the people work together on a project, and the cemetery gets its much needed attention.
ReplyDeleteYou're right, it would make a good Eagle project. (I was a Boy Scout leader for 18 years and raised two Eagle Scouts.) Unfortunately, it's a long ways away and I have no contacts in the area since my mother and her family moved to Kentucky around 1922-23. But the idea is a good one and it has gotten me to thinking. Thanks! Jim
Delete