Two Counties, Two Bloody Feuds, One Man: The Forgotten Connection Between Carter and Rowan County's Deadliest Conflicts

MOREHEAD, Ky. — Eastern Kentucky's history is filled with tales of family rivalries, political disputes, armed confrontations, and feuds that sometimes continued for years.

Two of the region's most notorious conflicts were the Underwood-Holbrook Feud in Carter County and the Martin-Tolliver Feud in Rowan County, commonly known as the Rowan County War.

Separated by several years and fought largely in different counties, the two conflicts might appear to be unrelated chapters in Kentucky history.

But they shared a connection that has received considerably less attention than the violence itself.

That connection was a man named John Martin.

Martin, who became involved with the Underwood faction during the Carter County conflict of 1877–1879, would later become one of the central figures in the Rowan County War of 1884–1887.

The connection is not simply local folklore. Morehead State University's Rowan County War Collection specifically identifies the earlier Underwood-Holbrook Feud as one of the historical origins of the later Martin-Tolliver conflict.

And the story begins not in Morehead, but in the hills of neighboring Carter County.

During the years following the Civil War, eastern Kentucky remained deeply divided by political loyalties, personal rivalries, and lingering resentments.

Among the families caught up in these tensions were the Underwoods of Carter County.

The family, headed by George Underwood, had supported the Union cause during the Civil War and participated in local home-guard activities.

Their property near the Dry Branch area of Tygart Creek would eventually become the center of a bitter and violent struggle involving the Underwoods, the Holbrooks, the Stampers, and their supporters.

The feud's beginnings have been described somewhat differently by historians and contemporary newspaper accounts, but John Martin appears prominently in both versions.

According to an account of research presented by historian James Prichard to the Carter County Historical Society in 2022, Martin and another man, John Taber, became embroiled in a dispute after members of the Stamper family accused them of stealing horses.

The accusation was serious, particularly in a rural society where horses represented transportation, livelihood, and valuable property.

The Stampers reportedly demanded that the men leave the area and warned the Underwoods against providing them shelter.

Taber departed, but Martin remained.

According to Prichard's account, Martin's wife was ill, and the couple stayed with George Lewis Underwood, a son of the family patriarch.

When the demands to remove Martin were ignored, George Lewis Underwood was shot.

Prichard's account identifies Martin and another Underwood family member as participants in retaliatory killings of two men from the opposing faction.

The violence escalated.

Other shootings followed, bringing additional family members and supporters into the conflict.

In September 1878, Squire Holbrook was killed in an ambush attributed to Jesse Underwood.

The struggle continued into 1879, when Jesse Underwood and his father, George, were killed.

Their deaths effectively broke the Underwood faction's power in Carter County, although surviving family members remained elsewhere.

The conflict left behind a legacy of violence and bitterness.

But one of the men connected to the Underwoods had survived.

His name was John Martin.

Martin's association with the Underwoods placed him directly within the circle of people involved in the earlier feud.

That association became particularly significant when political and personal rivalries later erupted in Rowan County.

By the early 1880s, Martin was involved in Rowan County's increasingly contentious political environment.

A Republican, Martin eventually found himself opposed to Floyd Tolliver, a Democrat.

Interestingly, a historical overview published by Rowan County government identifies Tolliver as another former supporter of the Underwood faction.

If that account is followed, Martin and Tolliver had once been associated with the same side of the earlier Carter County struggle.

Their later rivalry demonstrates how quickly alliances could change in the politically charged atmosphere of nineteenth-century eastern Kentucky.

The two conflicts were not a single uninterrupted war. The Carter County feud had largely subsided before the Rowan County violence began.

Nevertheless, the participants, personal connections, and culture of retaliation helped link the two.

On August 4, 1884, Rowan County voters went to the polls amid a bitterly contested sheriff's election.

Political tensions were already running high.

An argument developed into a violent confrontation involving John Martin, Floyd Tolliver, and several other men.

Martin was injured, and a man named Solomon Bradley was killed.

Exactly who fired the fatal shot became a matter of dispute.

Historical accounts describe conflicting accusations, with Martin and Tolliver each blaming the other side for the violence.

The shooting deepened existing divisions in the county.

As the legal proceedings moved forward, the hostility between Martin and Tolliver intensified.

Then, in early December 1884, the two men encountered one another again at a drinking establishment in Morehead.

Another confrontation followed.

This time, John Martin shot and killed Floyd Tolliver.

Martin was arrested, but fears that Tolliver supporters might retaliate led authorities to transfer him from Rowan County to the jail in Winchester, Kentucky.

The transfer was intended to protect him.

It did not.

Following Floyd Tolliver's death, members of the Tolliver faction sought revenge.

Among the most prominent was Floyd's brother, Craig Tolliver, who would become the best-known leader of the faction during the Rowan County War.

Historical accounts describe a scheme in which a forged legal order was used to obtain Martin's release from the Winchester jail and place him in the custody of men supposedly returning him to Rowan County.

Martin was put aboard a train traveling toward Morehead.

When the train reached Farmers, in Rowan County, armed men boarded and opened fire on the prisoner.

Martin was fatally shot.

The killing transformed an already dangerous political dispute into a wider conflict.

It also marked a tragic turning point in Martin's own history.

A man who had survived the earlier Carter County feud had now become one of the central casualties of the Rowan County War.

But his death did not end the fighting.

It helped intensify it.

The Martin-Tolliver Feud continued as supporters of the opposing factions engaged in shootings, ambushes, threats, and armed confrontations.

The conflict disrupted ordinary life in Morehead and surrounding communities.

Political loyalties often influenced which side people supported, while accusations of favoritism and failures of law enforcement further undermined confidence in local authorities.

State militia forces were called upon repeatedly in efforts to restore order.

Craig Tolliver and his supporters eventually established considerable influence in Morehead, but their control faced increasing opposition.

Among the figures challenging the Tolliver faction was Daniel Boone Logan, whose family and allies had suffered losses during the conflict.

On June 22, 1887, the feud reached its bloody conclusion.

An armed force of more than 100 men, associated with Logan and other opponents of the Tolliver faction, confronted Craig Tolliver and his supporters in downtown Morehead.

A prolonged gun battle followed.

Craig Tolliver and three other men were killed.

The confrontation effectively ended the Rowan County War, although its consequences would linger for years.

According to the Kentucky Historical Society, the three-year conflict resulted in approximately 20 deaths.

The violence became so notorious that state officials even considered whether Rowan County should continue to exist as a separate county.

Fortunately, the county survived.

One of the difficulties in researching Kentucky's nineteenth-century feuds is separating documented events from conflicting recollections, sensational newspaper reporting, and stories repeated over generations.

The connection between the two feuds was recognized even before the Rowan County War had faded from public memory.

On September 1, 1887, the Otago Daily Times of New Zealand published an article titled A Kentucky Vendetta, attributed to a correspondent of The London Times.

The account traced the Martin-Tolliver conflict back to the earlier Underwood-Holbrook violence and identified John Martin as a central connection.

However, that report named Squire Holbrook in its account of the original horse-theft accusation, while historian James Prichard's later research identified the Stampers as the initial accusers.

The different versions illustrate why historical details must be handled carefully.

The accusations themselves should not be mistaken for proof that Martin committed horse theft.

Similarly, the number of fatalities attributed to the Carter County conflict varies considerably among published retellings.

Despite those uncertainties, the principal connection is supported by multiple historical accounts: John Martin was associated with the Underwoods during the Carter County feud and later became a central participant in the Rowan County conflict.

It would be an oversimplification to suggest that John Martin alone caused either feud.

The violence emerged from a much larger collection of grievances: political disagreements, allegations of criminal conduct, personal rivalries, contested authority, and the willingness of armed groups to settle disputes outside the courts.

Morehead State University's historical collection also traces the origins of the Rowan County War to the controversial 1874 election of circuit judge Thomas F. Hargis, demonstrating that the conflict's roots extended beyond Martin's individual actions.

Still, Martin's involvement in both feuds provides a striking connection between two of the bloodiest episodes in the history of northeastern Kentucky.

The Carter County feud involved a man accused of stealing horses and a family willing to shelter him despite threats.

Years later, that same man became entangled in another confrontation, this time involving political enemies in Rowan County.

The result was another cycle of killing and revenge that ultimately brought national attention to the streets of Morehead.

Today, more than a century later, the Underwood-Holbrook and Martin-Tolliver feuds remain important reminders of a turbulent period in eastern Kentucky's development.

And their shared history reveals something that is easily overlooked when the conflicts are studied separately.

The Rowan County War did not emerge in isolation. Some of its roots reached across the county line, into Carter County, and into an earlier feud that had already left families shattered by violence.

At the center of that connection stood John Martin.

Historical sources consulted include Morehead State University's Rowan County War Collection; the Kentucky Historical Society's Rowan County War historical marker; the Carter County Times' August 31, 2022, coverage of historian James Prichard's research; historical newspaper accounts from 1887; and historical research concerning the Daniel Boone National Forest.

Rowan County and eastern Kentucky have a remarkable history, filled with fascinating people, forgotten events, and stories that helped shape the communities we know today.

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