Historical Notes: Pikeville, Kentucky

Pikeville in 1897

In 1897, Pikeville was a remote mountain town accessible only by river—steamboats could travel no further upstream. The railroad wouldn't arrive until 1905. The town served as the county seat of Pike County, which had been named after the explorer Zebulon Pike when it was established in 1821.

Pikeville was still buzzing from the infamous Hatfield-McCoy feud. The trial of several Hatfields had been held in the newly constructed courthouse on Main Street, and the McCoy family had made their home in Pikeville after their house was burned in 1888. Randall McCoy himself operated the lower ferry. The attorneys for both families were Pikeville men.

The Pikeville Collegiate Institute, established by the Presbyterian Church in 1889, brought a hint of refinement to the rough mountain town. But Pikeville remained a place where feuds simmered, whiskey flowed, and strangers were regarded with suspicion—the perfect environment for a young man in a purple costume to cause trouble.

Whether T. Allen McQuary actually passed through Pikeville on his journey south remains unverified. But given his talent for finding trouble and his route through the Cumberland Gap, it would have been nearly impossible to avoid.