Rowan Feud

It was August 4, 1884. It started here on the courthouse lawn.

The Civil War had ended 19 years prior, but political emotions still ran high. Tempers flared and whiskey flowed freely on this hot summer day, when a closely contested election for sheriff resulted in a wild melee of fist-fighting, rock-throwing and, ultimately, a gunfight.

When the smoke cleared, one innocent bystander was dead and another wounded.

It was a tale of two feuding families, the Martins and the Tollivers. Naturally, each family blamed the other for what happened that day. The gunfighters, Floyd Tolliver and John Martin, were indicted for murder. After they were released on bail, they met yet again at a local saloon to determine their fate. Martin drew his pistol and killed Tolliver.

To prevent his lynching, officials jailed Martin in nearby Winchester, Kentucky, but the Tollivers were determined to undermine the process. They forged custody papers and had Martin released to two alleged deputies. Martin was put on a train bound for Morehead, which was stopped by armed men in Farmers, Kentucky. The armed men boarded to give Martin a severe case of lead poisoning.

He died the next day. But the feud was still alive.

During the next three years, perhaps as many as 25 men were killed and the same number wounded in what became the Rowan County War. The conflict grew to involve nearly every resident. At the height of the local war, half the population moved away, some never to return, as lawlessness took command of the area.

The State Militia attempted to quell gunfights three times, and the legislature considered dissolving the county. Over time, the Tollivers gained control and ruled ruthlessly.

When his two cousins were murdered and their bodies mutilated, Daniel Boone Logan gained support of several locals tired of the fighting. He bought weapons in Cincinnati and had them shipped under the guise of farm machinery to the town of Gates, just east of Morehead.

The vigilantes, or regulators as they called themselves, now armed, surrounded the town on June 22, 1887, and began to close in. The Tollivers spotted the regulators, and a three-hour gunfight ensued. Three Tollivers and an ally were killed, and one regulator mortally wounded.

The killing stopped, but anger continued for two more years. Newspapers widely reported that two members of the feuding families, Frank Tolliver and Grace Martin, married in 1889, but an official record has yet to be located.

Both families still reside in the community and the feud is, thankfully, a distant memory.