Elijah H. Combs who founded Hazard. French, however, was not a Kentuckian. He hailed from Tennessee but married a Kentuckian, Susan Lewis and thereby was related to influential families in Breathitt, Leslie and other Counties. Both Joseph C. Eversole and Benjamin Fulton French had competing mercantile stores in Hazard. Cause of the feud There are two supposed causes of the feud. One is romanticized and probably not true though it is the popular and much more interesting cause. The other is a definite and more reasonable cause for the start of the feud. CAUSE 1 ('On Account of a Woman'): The popular story for the cause of the feud is a disagreement over a woman. As the story goes a clerk that worked in French's mercantile store was madly in love. One day the clerk saw the woman with Fulton French and he became jealous. He went to Joseph Eversole and told him that he had heard French say he sought to take his life. When Eversole questioned the clerk about the allegations he sat silent. Eversole warned him that he was taking his silence as fact that the allegations were true. Initially, Joe Eversole did not believe the clerk. He asked him to sign a sworn affidavit attesting to the plan to murder him. This is what caused Eversole to believe that he needed protection and the reason for him to begin to gather an armed clan. French followed suit closely after and a war was unavoidable. It is believed that this was the clerk's revenge on Fulton French. Cause 2 ('Coal rights'): The more likely story (or a combination of the two) is that the two were businessmen and they came at odds with each other. After the civil war, companies began buying huge amounts of land for the coal underneath the mountains. French worked for one of these companies that was buying coal rights from illiterate farmers while Eversole was a local merchant and had loyalty to long-time citizens (most of whom he was related to). French was worried about getting the land at bottom dollar for the large companies he represented. Eversole saw this practice as cheating illiterate farmers. He began to travel the County and tell farmers that Fulton French was going to try and cheat them with low prices for 'coal rights'. French (as a non-native) has no such considerations regarding the mountain people