SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO. 58

(By Senators Chafin, Cole, Stollings, Jenkins and Green)

Requesting the Division of Highways to name a portion of County Route 8, also known as Beech Creek Road, beginning at the Beech Creek Community Park and ending at County Route 8/03, in Mingo County, West Virginia, the “Valentine ‘Wall’ Hatfield Road”.

    Whereas, Valentine “Wall” Hatfield settled his family in a log cabin in 1861 on Beech Creek Road. He married Jane Maynard, who was from a prominent family, and they had eleven children. However, Mr. Hatfield did not live to see his children become adults. His life was interrupted in the 1880s when he was sent to a Kentucky prison for a crime connected with an incident where three McCoy brothers were murdered in the aftermath of the killing of Ellison Hatfield; and

    Whereas, Mr. Hatfield was the eldest brother of Devil Anse Hatfield, a justice of the peace and a partner in Devil Anse’s timber business. Unlike the other Hatfields, he voluntarily surrendered to Frank Phillips. Mr. Hatfield was convicted of the murder of the McCoy brothers and was given a life sentence in the Kentucky prison. He died six months later of unknown causes. Mr. Hatfield’s body was buried in an unmarked grave, and its location remains unknown; and

    Whereas, Mr. Hatfield always maintained his innocence and tried to be the peacemaker among the Hatfields; therefore, be it

    Resolved by the Legislature of West Virginia:

    That the Division of Highways is hereby requested to name a portion of County Route 8, also known as Beech Creek Road, beginning at the Beech Creek Community Park and ending at County Route 8/03, in Mingo County, West Virginia, the “Valentine ‘Wall’ Hatfield Road”; and, be it

    Further Resolved, That the Division of Highways is hereby requested to have made and be placed signs at both ends of the roadway identifying the road as the “Valentine ‘Wall’ Hatfield Road”; and, be it

    Further Resolved, That the Clerk of the Senate is hereby directed to forward a copy of this resolution to the Secretary of the Department of Transportation and to Mr. Hatfield’s only living grandchild, Irma Baisden.