Many years ago, the McElyeas and Smiths were part of a feud of the fiercest kind. What started it was a corn cob battle at the McElyea barn on their homestead. It became heated when Bumguard McElyea hit Loggerhead Smith up the side of his head with a corn cob that had been soaked in cow urine and manure. He flung it so hard that it knocked Loggerhead as senseless as a Bessie-bug. He was out of his head for over an hour. When he came out of that spell, he was madder than an old wet hen.

“I will get even with you,” he said, cursing up a storm.

The devil worked in Loggerhead’s mind as he looked at one of Bumguard’s eating hogs. One day, he discovered that all the McElyeas had gone away from home, so with his pickup truck and some other help, he set out for revenge.

He shot the prize hog. His companions helped him load it on the pickup, and they headed over the small mountain. The Smiths were about to have themselves a big feast of barbecue pork with all the trimmin’s. The whole Smith clan was invited.

“I’ll show them McElyeas you don’t mess around with old Loggerhead,” he said.

When Bumguard came home and discovered his hog missing, he knew right off what had happened, so he grabbed his long gun and headed up the mountainside. When he reached the top, he began firing into the Smith settlement on the other side.

“I’ll show them Smiths who not to fool with!” he shouted.

After firing several rounds, he hollered, “Take that,” and he walked back down the mountain.

It was dark, and the McElyeas were ready to go to bed when bullets began hitting their house and all around it. Bumguard knew it was the Smiths retaliating. The feud went on every day for about a month, then it slowed down to about once a week.

The feud lasted for years.

Then, a strange thing happened. One of the Smith boys saw the most beautiful gal he had ever laid eyes on. There was just one catch — she was a McElyea. He liked her so much that they started meeting secretly. They both knew their families would make them pay if they found out, so they kept slippin’ around, seeing each other on the sly.

They had fallen deeply in love and didn’t know what they were going to do. Jesse told Ruby that he was going to talk to his dad about it. Ruby said, “Good luck.”

Jesse caught his dad in a pretty good mood so he said to him, “Dad, I have found a gal that I am in love with and want to marry.”

His dad smiled until Jesse revealed that she was a McElyea. His dad exploded and said, “Over my dead body! You are not marrying one of those McElyea gals!”

Jesse and Ruby decided to elope, and they didn’t come back home until after Ruby had their first child. One day, they decided to go home because Jesse thought that maybe his dad might accept his grandchild. When they arrived, everyone was glad to have them back. At first, his dad wasn’t very friendly, but things did change as his little grandson stole his heart.

Once home, they learned other Smiths and McElyeas had married. There were trails all over that mountain where the gals and guys had traveled back and forth in hot pursuit.

It would be very difficult today in North Alabama to find a McElyea that didn’t have some Smith blood in their veins or a Smith without a little McElyea blood in theirs. This is proof that all feuds don’t turn out bad.

The McElyeas and Smiths are some of my best and dearest friends. Two of my very closest friends were Richard and William McElyea. We never even had a disagreement. They just thought I was part of the family.

— Dale Lone Elk Casteel lives in the Coxey community, attended Clements High School and was preparing for his senior year when mobilized into active service in the Army in August 1950. When his class graduated, he was in Korea. He wrote his first story and book at age 70.