| cmac2012 |
06-05-2012 02:55 PM |
It's hard to say. It appears as though they took serious liberties with the Perry Cline story. Apparently, a detailed account of what went down on the Devil Anse/Cline lawsuit will not be forthcoming. I found this bit from a Cline family website about it:
Quote:
5/31/2012 - The recent mini-series, Hatfields & McCoys, starring Kevin Costner, takes certain liberties with the actual facts as they pertain to Perry Cline. First, in the movie, when Perry Cline first confronts Devil Anse Hatfield, he is portrayed as an attorney representing a client who claims that Devil Anse is cutting timber on his client's land. This is a complete fabrication of the actual facts. In reality, in 1872, a lawsuit was filed by Devil Anse Hatfield against Perry Cline over ownership or timber rights to a 5,000 acre tract of land on Grapevine Creek. Perry, and his brother Jacob Jr., inherited that 5,000 acre tract from their father, Jacob "Rich Jake" Cline, in 1858 when Jacob died. The matter was settled out of court by 1877 when Perry deeded his interest in this 5,000 acre tract to Devil Anse. During this period, Perry was not a lawyer, and he was not representing anyone else's interest as a lawyer. It is unknown how Devil Anse Hatfield got control of that tract of land. However, it was not due to Perry Cline filing a false claim as an attorney on behalf of another, as is claimed in the movie. Perry Cline does not become a lawyer until several years after the beginning of the lawsuit. What is clear is that the writers intended to portray Perry Cline as a "shyster lawyer" from the very beginning.
Second, Perry Cline was married in 1868 to Martha Adkins and had several children with her by the time of the major events of the feud. However, in the movie, Perry is portrayed as a bachelor, with interest in Roseanna McCoy, which never happened. It is true that Roseanna lived with Perry Cline and his wife and children in later years, but as a nanny and nothing more.
The end of the movie is a further attempt to smear Perry Cline when he introduces his bride to Frank Phillips. The insinuation by Frank Phillips, that Perry liked his women "young," is demonstrably false as shown by census and marriage records. The 1870 Logan County, West Virginia census lists Perry Cline as 20 years old, with wife Martha as 21 years old, and their oldest child, John (1 yr old). If the real Perry Cline liked his women "young," he would not have married someone older than himself. As is obvious, the writers were again attempting to paint Perry Cline in a negative light.
Poetic license is sometimes used very effectively to condense real life events, that took place over several years, into a manageable length for a movie. However, this movie unnecessarily takes liberties to portray one side as "good" and the other as "evil." It is unfortunate but it appears that the writers saw it necessary to falsely implicate someone as the "bad guy." It might make good fiction, but it does not make good history.
Jerry P. Cline
|
Cline Family Association
Other sites have about the same info. I've read several times that the latter half of the feud could be more accurately be called the Cline/Hatfield feud and the movie more or less alludes to that. Hard to know who was the bigger villain from this distance. |
