In the spring of 1889, while the Hatfield and McCoy conflict of eastern Kentucky and West Virginia was grabbing national media attention, the Portsmouth Daily Times reported on an “old feud” in the area of Upper Twin Creek. “A Night Tragedy” provides an account of the shooting of Willam and Murt Cooper by Ambrose and Sandford Nickels. The Times reporter reinforces emerging stereotypes of lawlessness and feuding in the region, playing off popular interest in the Hatfield and McCoy “Feud,” while referencing the literary works of William Flagg, one-time resident of Buckhorn Ridge, the divide that separates Upper and Lower Twin.
