During the Civil War, the hanging of Peter Reece, a Unionist who lived near present day Harned Chapel United Methodist Church, revealed the vicious nature of local wars within the war and the years of hatred that often followed. Early in the war, about 400 Unionists occupied nearby St. Tide Hollow, built earthworks, and fashioned a crude cannon from a hollow log reinforced with metal bands. Local Confederate Col. Danville Leadbetter's forces attacked the camp, captured a hundred men, including Reece, and confined them in a large schoolhouse that stood on the hill above the modern town hall. According to local tradition, the prisoners were badly mistreated. Hamilton Yett, one of Parottsville's most ardent Confederate supporters, came from his mansion north of town to the schoolhouse and loudly announced that he wanted to look at the animals. Angered, Reece threw a brick that struck Yett's head, fractured his skull, and injured but did not kill him. Leadbetter's soldiers immediately hanged Reece from a nearby tree and forbade any man from cutting down his body. After three days, Reece's wife, Emily, and two of their daughters removed the body and buried him in the Harned Chapel cemetery. A grandchild later said that Grandmother Reece hated all Democrats, former Confederates, to the day she died because of what they did to her husband.