Hanging of “Cottontop” Mounts Traditional Cache

Ellison "Cottontop" Mounts was one of the lesser known roles of the Hatfield-McCoy feud, but perhaps Pike County's greatest scapegoat.

Supposedly the illegitimate son of Ellison Hatfield, Mounts was with the Hatfield boys Johnse and Calvin when they went to the McCoy home on January 1, 1888 and set the house ablaze with McCoy family members still inside.

Sarah McCoy and her children ran outside to escape their burning home and chaos erupted.

Johnse fired a shot before the signal was given to fire on the McCoys and a gunfight ensued between him, Calvin, Ellison, and the McCoy boys. In the panic that ensued, Calvin fired a shot, killing Alifair McCoy.

The blame was not directed at him however. Instead, all eyes turned to Ellison Mounts. Mounts, being somewhat dimwitted, probably did not realize the severity of the charges or what would happen to him next. At trial, Ellison was convicted and sentenced to be hanged. He and his lawyer tried to appeal the case, but were unable to do so with a jury that had already made up their minds, as most of the county had. On February 18, 1890, Ellison Mounts was hanged on the site of the present day University of Pikeville classroom building. Thousands of onlookers turned out to witness the hanging, but laws stated that executions could no longer be public. Workers constructed a fence around the scaffold to hide the sight from prying eyes.

With his last words, Ellison would attempt to point the blame again to the Hatfields.

No one had been sent to the gallows in Pike County for forty years, and after Ellison, no one ever would be again.

All the other Hatfield prisoners received life sentences in prison.

Today, visitors can read a marker placed by the historical society on the site, which tells of the life and trial of Ellison Mounts, and how the nation’s most famous feud claimed yet another young life well before its time.