The Watson - Hooper Feud
Jackson Co., NC

So many people are interested in the Watson-Hooper Feud that I finally decided to put it all on this web site so people would know exactly what I know about it...which isn't a lot, but here it is anyway. If anyone has anything to contribute, please e-mail me and I'll add it in. One little aside before I get started: my database crashed August 1, 2003, and my backups are non-recoverable, so I'm working from uncompiled notes and memory right now. When everything is back up and running, I'll add more detail here, and hopefully polish it up a little.

The first I remember hearing of this feud was from my grandfather Watson's eldest sister, Alice Hudson Wood. On a visit to their home in Norton one day, Aunt Alice and her youngest sister, Dixie Watson Aldridge, recounted stories to me that they'd learned from Daniel A. Watson, who was my grandfather's grandfather. They never told me why the feud started, nor exactly how it ended. Before I tell you what they told me, let me back up and fill in some family information.

Moses Watson was born about 1808 in Haywood Co., NC. He was probably the son of Adam Watson and Catherine Hughs. Moses married Elizabeth Picklesimer, daughter of Abraham Picklesimer and Eleanor Hooper, and they had 12 children: William, John, James, Alfred, Mary Ann, Thomas, Benson, Allison (or Ellis), Henry, Andrew, Moses, and C. C. James, the third child, married Elizabeth Alexander, the daughter of Daniel and Levina Rice Alexander of Pickens Dist., SC. James and Elizabeth had four children: Daniel Alexander, James, Elizabeth, and Levina Jane, who was born in 1864 and died in 1865 (according to her headstone). Those dates are important because they're the only real proof that we have of when this feud took place.

Now, back to the story: one day while I was up visiting Aunt Alice and Aunt Dixie, I asked them what they could tell me about the Watson-Hooper Feud. Aunt Alice was delighted. She'd heard stories from Daniel, her step-grandfather, about these events and allowed me to record the conversation on tape. Unfortunately, I never fully transcribed the tapes, although I do still have them. One day, not long after the birth of Daniel's youngest sister, the Hoopers came calling (only one Hooper has ever been named as the culprit in the murder of the Watson family, but that comes later in the story). Daniel's mother, Elizabeth, was still abed from child birth, and it so happened that Daniel's grandparents, Moses and Elizabeth Watson, were also there that day. When the Hoopers arrived, Daniel and his brother James were playing out in the woods. It is my understanding that they were witness to the Hoopers stringing up Moses, his son James (Daniel's father), and James's eldest brother, William. They left the women folk and the baby (Daniel's youngest sister) alone. Not long after that, probably as soon as she was able to travel, Elizabeth Alexander Watson took her four young children back to South Carolina, where she died not long after. She and the baby are buried in the Salem Cemetery (also called the Alexander Cemetery) in what is now Oconee Co., SC. Daniel and his brother James returned to Jackson County, settling in the Norton area.

A few years ago, Mitch Watson (whose e-mail address I have long since lost) added to the story. He told me that his ancestor, Moses Leander Watson, one of Moses and Elizabeth Picklesimer Watson's youngest children, was at the homestead (for lack of a better term) on that fateful day and managed to slip out a window, thereby avoiding the Hooper lynchmen. In the story handed down to Mitch, Moses Sr.'s wife, Elizabeth, was also killed that day. However, she was later enumerated on both the 1870 and 1880 Federal Censuses in Jackson Co., NC. Another researcher, Paul Stewart, confirmed that Elizabeth had not died that day.

There are two published accountings of this feud that I know of. In 1987, The Jackson County Historical Society published The History of Jackson County, edited by Max R. Williams. On pp. 437 - 438, the Watson-Hooper Feud is discussed:

     "...One family group was made up of young men by the name
     of Hooper that lived at the forks of the river at
     Tuckasegee. When the [Civil War] started, they were 
     involved in a feud with the Watsons, who lived on up the
     south fork of the Tuckasegee River in Hamburg Township..."

The author of this history goes on to relate the cause of the feud, given by the Hoopers (as no Watsons could be found to corroborate the story), as being over grazing rights. And, of course, it was all started by the Watsons. :-) The history continues:

     "...The feud came to a head...in a place locally known as the
     Cold Spring, very close to the present-day location of Emery
     McCoy's store in Glenville. The five Hooper men killed five of
     the six men in a family of Watsons..."

This history goes on to describe what happened to the Hooper boys, even names one of the participants in the lynching, who was then known as Yankee Bill Hooper, but it never gives the names of the Watson men who died that day.

The second publication which mentions this feud is entitled (I think) Hooper and Allied Families. I cannot lay hands on the notes I made from this book, but I vaguely recall that the author had heard the feud started over a silver mine. As soon as I can, I will put that information up here.

If I remember what Mitch told me correctly, from his research Mitch had determined that the Watsons were killed in two separate spots. One was the homestead mentioned above, and the other location I am uncertain about. Perhaps I am mis-remembering, but it seems like Moses Sr., William and James were killed at the homestead, and John and Thomas (possibly Alfred or Benson as well) were killed elsewhere. But I cannot be certain; as I mentioned previously, my notes are all in disarray right now. What I do know is that Moses Leander and Allison (Ellis) survived. Moses the younger married a Stewart woman, and Ellis's death certificate is on file in the Jackson Co., NC courthouse in Sylva.

One bit of speculation: Moses Watson's wife, Elizabeth Picklesimer, was related to the Hooper family through her mother, Eleanor Hooper Picklesimer. I can't help but wonder if there wasn't some sort of bad blood between the Watson and Hooper men involved in this feud, literally since the kinship between the two families would have to be fairly close, even if the two sides didn't get along.

And that's it...all I can tell you about the Watson-Hooper Feud. I think both Paul Stewart and Mitch Watson would have much more information to add; unfortunately, I have lost contact with both of them. If anyone does have something to add or a correction to make of this recounting, please e-mail me.