Top 5 American Family Feuds

The feud between former Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, and sitting Vice President Aaron Burr was more personal and political rather than a family feud; but the duel that resulted is the most famous in American history. After years of increasing tension, the two met at Weehawken in New Jersey on July 11, 1804 and settled their differences with a drawing of guns. Hamilton was shot and fatally wounded, dieing two days later. Burr's political career was fatally wounded.

The Regulator-Moderator War was a land feud or range war in Harrison and Shelby counties in east Texas. Fought pre-Civil War during the Republic of Texas days 1839-1844. The roots of the conflict lay in the frauds and land-swindling that had been rife in the lawless area that lay between the American and Mexican borders. The Regulators organized in 1840 to prevent "cattle rustling" from rivals. In turn, the Moderators organized to moderate the Regulators. Hundreds of men fought, dozens died. The land fraud, cattle rustling, barn burnings, court intimidation, and revenge killings continued until Republic of Texas president,  Sam Houston, grew tired of the lawlessness and formed the Texas Militia to restore order to the region.

The most notorious of Texas' range wars began as a county law enforcement issue between Pitkin Taylor's family and local lawman William E. Sutton. The feud which lasted a decade and claimed at least 35 lives, has been called the longest and bloodiest feud in Texas history. It eventually involved the Texas State Police;the Texas Rangers; and the outlaw John Wesley Hardin.

The gun-fight at the O.K. Corral and the Earp vendetta ride are two of the most famous stories of the old West and they both were born from the Earp-Clanton feud. The gun battle at O.K. Corral occurred October 26, 1881 and was the climax of the Earp-Clanton family feud which had been heating up since the summer of 1880. Tensions between the Earps and both the Clantons and McLaurys increased through 1881. At the O.K. Corral, three deputized Earp brothers along with Doc Holliday had killed Billy Clanton, Frank and Tom McLaury. The Clantons and McLaurys were aligned with the "Outlaw Cowboys," a loose knit group of outlaws living in surrounding counties. The Earp-Clanton story was the subject of the movie "Tombstone."

The most famous of Family Feuds, the phrase "feuding like the Hatfields and McCoys" has become a part of the American lexicon. West Virginia's "Devil Anse" Hatfield and Kentucky's "Ole Ran'l" McCoy were once friends, both fighting in the Civil War. The two families were among the first to settle the Tug Valley along the Tug Fork of the Big Sandy River. The first known violent incident was the 1865 murder of Asa Harmon McCoy, a union soldier returning home from the Civil War, by Jim Vance a member of the Hatfield family. The feud escalated in 1878 over the disputed ownership of a pig. Misunderstandings, resentment, kidnappings and murder on both sides of the feud continued over the next 10 years peaking in 1888 with the New Year's Night massacre in which a Hatfield clan set ablaze and shot up a McCoy cabin full of sleeping family members. Stories of the famous feud reached all corners of the United States. Issues over the feud reached each states Governor's mansion and eventually the U.S. Supreme Court. Tensions finally eased in 1890 after the hanging of Ellison "Cottontop" Mounts, a Hatfield family member. The feud trials went on for years, the last being in 1901. In 2003, descendants of each family authored an official truce between the families as a symbolic end to the feud.