not long before four of them butted their heads against a slung-shot
hung to a man’s arm, and they went floating from Mobile wharf down the
channel of the river. Old Palmer, one of our clan, near Springhill,
met up with my brother Whin and I: he had made some exposures of our
affairs. Our two rifles made clear fire, and we left him in a situation
where he told no more tales. Sometime after, Tom Powell, another of the
clan, made some threats that he intended to drive the Copelands out of
the country. McGrath and I waylaid him and fed him with the contents
of two double-barrel shot-guns, about forty-eight buck-shot, and put
him in a swamp near Eslaya’s old mill. Another of the clan, Jim Harper,
attempted to betray us by decoying us into the hands of some of our
enemies; Wages, McGrath and I managed to catch him. We took him into an
old house near the old Stage Stand. We then put a rope around his neck,
and we very soon squeezed the breath out of him. We stripped off his
clothes, and left him in the old house, a prey to the buzzards; took
all the clothes some distance off and piled lightwood knots on them,
and burnt them.
Sometime after McGrath was married, Wages went over into Mississippi,
about old Brown’s, and sometimes down about Honey Island, near
Gainesville, and remained there from the summer of 1843 until the fall
of 1844, during which time I had seen him but twice, when he came over
to his father’s on a visit, in the fall of 1844. Wages and McGrath came
over to the vicinity of Mobile and sent for me, and then informed me of
the plan they were about to pursue. That they were going to commence
making counterfeit money: that they had procured a man who could
engrave their dies, and another who was a professed chemist and could
prepare the metal so well that it would take a very acute judge to
detect it. I told Wages that whatever he went at I was in; “but,” said
I, “I feel somewhat fearful.” “Oh,” said they, “we have made a large
acquisition to our clan, we now have Jim McArthur, Jack McArthur, Allen
Brown, Daniel Brown, Jim Bilbo and Wash Bilbo. We are to settle McGrath
at Honey Island; Wages at Catahoula; Allen Brown at Red Breek, and
the Bilbos and McArthurs are to range from Pearl River to Pascagoula;
and,” said they, “your party can range from Mobile to Pascagoula, and
you can pass horses or negroes from Georgia to Florida on this route
through to Louisiana, without discovery, and so from Louisiana in the
same way.” I then told Wages and McGrath both, that I was still afraid
of their new acquisition. I then proposed to them to remove our money
from Hamilton’s Creek, and place it somewhere near where Wages was
going to settle. I made this proposition because I believed that this
counterfeiting business would be the means of getting us into trouble,
and that we could procure our money more easily from that vicinity than
we could where it was.
I had then arrived at the age of majority and began to have a more
reflecting mind, and I never did have any reliance or confidence in
that money arrangement. Wages then informed me that he was engaged to
marry Allen Brown’s daughter, but did not know what time; it might be
a year before he did so. “McGrath,” said he, “is now married, and will
move to Honey Island shortly; I shall be engaged in preparing our shop
and arranging the materials, and making preparations for the settlement
of my home.”
They then told me that Niel McIntosh, would also be one of our clan,
and that he would travel to and from Mobile to our other places, as
a spy, and look out for us. They left the next day for Mississippi,
and I saw nothing more of either of them for over twelve months. Niel
McIntosh made several trips over and back, and always had plenty of
their money, but I was always afraid of it. He passed a considerable
amount in the vicinity of Mobile, and made something by it.
John Harden brought three or four fine horses, one, he said, from
Florida and the others from Georgia; I advanced him the money and
passed them on to Wages, who sold them for me. S. Harden made two
trips to the vicinity of Mobile that year, one from North Alabama, and
one from western North Carolina: The first trip he brought two good
horses and a likely negro boy. I assisted him to sell the horses near
Fort Stoddart, for a fine price, to some men going to Texas. I then
furnished him two ponies and sent McIntosh to pilot him through to
Wages, who paid him for his negro and sent him to Pearlington, where he
again embarked for Tennessee, by way of New Orleans.
About four months afterwards Harden returned again. He had two splendid
horses, fine traveling equipage, and a likely mulatto girl about
sixteen years old, dressed in boys clothes, traveling with him as his
waiter. He said he had traveled through Georgia and Eastern Alabama
to Blakely, and crossed the Bay over to Mobile, and came out to our
place. He told us he feared no pursuit; that he had traveled too far,
that there was no danger. I assisted him in selling the two horses, in
Mobile, and saw them often afterwards. They were fine buggy horses. The
girl he sold to a man in Mobile, who kept her as a wife, and she now
passes for free. He had stolen her from a rich old widow lady in North
Carolina, who had sent the girl on an errand, on a Saturday morning,
some twenty-five miles on the same fine horse, to return on Sunday
evening, and she never did return.
In these two trips of Harden’s he gave me five hundred dollars for
my assistance. I then assisted him to steal a very fine horse on the
Tombigbee River, for which he gave me fifty dollars more, and left for
Tennessee. This had pretty well consumed the fall of 1845.
In December, Wages came home to his father’s; sent for me; told me that
he was going to get married shortly, and invited me to his wedding; I
promised him I would go if my business did not prevent me; but it so
turned out that he did marry a short time after, and I was not present.
After his marriage, he brought his wife to see his father and mother,
and spent some weeks with them. He had with him plenty of counterfeit
coin, and wanted me to take some and pass for him. That I refused to
do, and I then advised him that it would be better for us all to let
that alone; and then reminded him that when there was none but him,
McGrath and I together, that we could get along to better advantage,
do a more profitable business and had a wider field to operate in. But
he seemed to think that they could manage to get along; and I found
from his conversation that old Allen Brown had got control of him, and
I said no more on the subject. I told him frankly that their money I
would have nothing to do with; but in other matters of stealing and
selling horses, negroes and cattle, I would take a hand as heretofore,
to which he assented, and here we dropped the subject for the present.
I again urged upon him the removal of our money. I dreaded an outbreak,
for I then believed that old Brown would blow the whole matter; and
sure enough he afterwards did.
So Wages and his wife left, and went back to Mississippi, to old Brown,
and he went to work building his house on Catahoula, in Hancock County.
He got it completed; moved into it; took his horse; came again to
Mobile; procured his father’s two horse wagon to haul some articles
for house-keeping from Mobile, and on his way back I went with him,
the first night, and we camped near where our money was buried. We
went and got the three kegs; placed them in the bottom of his wagon,
covered them with hay and placed the balance of his load on them. He
hauled them out to Hancock county, and deposited them in Catahoula
Swamp, about a mile and a half or two miles from his house, and
designated the place by a large pine tree that grew at the margin of
the swamp, to the north-east, and about thirty-five yards from where
the kegs were deposited, and a magnolia tree that grew about ten yards
to the south-west. He gave me a diagram of the place, the courses,
and distances which he had measured accurately, marked in lines and
explained in our mystic key. That paper I somehow lost in the famous
Harvey battle.
So it was Wages left and went to his place. Now he and his crowd were
for themselves, and me and my crowd for ourselves. My crowd consisted
of myself, and four brothers, Josh Walters, Jef. Baker and old
McIntosh, our outside striker, to run stolen horses or a negro, when
required. Our range was from Mobile to Pascagoula, and from the Sea
Coast to St. Stephen’s. We fed ourselves and families upon pork, beef
and mutton, in abundance, and we sold enough in the market to pay us
from fifty to one hundred dollars per month—sometimes ready butchered
and sometimes on foot, during the summer and fall season. Those we
sold the meat of, we generally stole in the vicinity of Mobile. Old
man Wages had a farm on Big Creek Swamp, about twenty-five miles from
Mobile, in rather an obscure place. That was our place of resort and
deposit, and many a stolen beef and horse has been concealed there
until we could dispose of them.
We continued that business during 1845, 1846, and until the summer
of 1847. We had stolen a small drove of cattle out near Chickasahay,
and in driving them we gathered a few head near Mobile, belonging to
old Moses Copeland. We sold the cattle to Bedo Baptiste, who paid my
brother Henry and I for them. We claimed them; Whinn, or Isham and John
helped to drive, but received none of the money. My brothers Henry and
John, and Isham or Whinn, were arrested and tried. Henry was convicted
of the larceny and served two years in the penitentiary of Alabama.
Whinn and John were acquitted; I took to the bushes. They did not catch
me that hunt, and I lay in the woods and was concealed among my clan
the balance of that summer, most of the time at old Wages’, on Big
Creek, waiting for Gale Wages to come so as to make a settlement with
him, and to close my business and leave the country.
The time passed on slowly. I stopped all further operations until I
could hear from Wages and McGrath, and, lo! some time late in the fall
up rolled Wages and old Brown, and sure enough old Brown, as I had
anticipated and expected, had blown the whole concern. He had gone into
the little town of Gainesville and passed a few dollars of their money
for some small articles of trade, where the old fool might have known
he would be detected; and sure enough he was. Now the next step was
for him to get out of the difficulty, and when asked where he got the
money, he said “from Bilbos.” They were arrested and brought up, and he
swore it on to them, and they had to give bail to answer the charge of
passing counterfeit money.
Bilbos then swore vengeance against Brown and Wages, who had pulled
up stakes and were leaving Hancock county, and Mississippi, too. The
Bilbos pursued them, and passed them some way; turned back, and the
parties met suddenly on a small hill. While one party ascended on one
side the other party ascended on the other side, and both parties were
within a few paces of each other at first view. Wages had the advantage
of them; he had his double barrel gun well loaded and fresh caps on;
Bilbos had their rifles well loaded and fresh primed, but they had a
rag over the powder in the pan to keep it dry. These rags they had to
remove before they could fire. Wages immediately fired and killed one
of them dead, and then fired at the other before he could get ready to
shoot and broke his thigh. From some cause Bilbo’s horse got scared and
threw him to the ground, and he immediately begged for his life. At
first sight of the Bilbos old Brown ran, so Wages said.
Now it was that Wages and Brown both had to make their escape the best
way they could. They came to Mobile, and there they were on the scout,
as well as myself. McGrath was so well identified with them that he was
watched very closely about Gainesville. He got into some corn stealing
scrape, and broke into Hancock jail, and nothing but the gold or silver
key ever turned him out. He and Wages happened to have a little of
that, and he and his wife then left Honey Island, and were at Daniel
Smith’s, on Black creek, in Perry county. So it was Brown and Wages
managed to get their families, and McGrath and his wife back into the
vicinity of Mobile some time in November, 1847.
Wages and McGrath had very near got through with all their money.
McGrath, in particular, had none, only as he borrowed. Wages had some,
but had spent a large amount in feeding and clothing old Brown and his
gang. Wages and his wife remained on Big creek at the old man’s place,
and I the greater part of the time with him. Brown and McGrath moved
down on Dog river, near Stage Stand, pretending to burn coal and cut
wood to sell, but they were in fact stealing, for they had nothing
to eat and but little money. Brown had sold his possessions in Perry
county to Harvey, and had received all his pay but forty dollars. He
had represented his land to be saved or entered land, when it was
public land, and Harvey refused to pay the forty dollar note, and that
same pitiful note, and Brown’s rascality and falsehood cost Wages and
McGrath their lives, and Harvey and Pool their lives, and have placed
me where I am.
Wages and I while on Big creek held a consultation as to our future
course. Wages then sorely repented any connection that he ever had
with old Brown, “and,” said he, “I intend to get away from him, for
I am fearful the old fool will get drunk and tell everything he does
know.” We then concluded our best way was for Wages to take his horse
and cart, take old Niel McIntosh with him, and his wife and child,
and start west and travel in the vicinity of Pearl river; there leave
his wife; take the cart and horse and he and McIntosh to travel down
Pearl river till they came opposite Catahoula; then turn in and get
our money, and cross the Mississippi river; send McIntosh back to let
McGrath and I know where to find him, and for us to slip off and go
slyly, and not let Brown know where we were going, “and,” said Wages,
“if I can manage to rob old Tom Sumrall on my route and make a raise,
so much the better. And you and your crowd may manage to make a raise
here before you leave.”
BURNING OF ELI MAFFITT’S HOUSE, AND ATTEMPTED MURDER OF HIS WIFE.
The same day Wages and I were consulting thus, my brother John Copeland
came to bring me some clothes, and he informed me that it was reported
that old Eli Maffitt held a large amount of money, and that there
was a project on foot to rob him and burn his house the first good
opportunity; that Maffitt had taken a contract to build a bridge in
Perry county, and would shortly leave home, and that Eli Myrick was to
let the party know what time Maffitt commenced the bridge and would be
absent from home. I then told Wages what was on foot. He then said “let
me leave home about three days before, and I will try on the some night
to rob old Sumrall and burn his house.” In a few days Myrick came down
and told us that Maffitt was up in Perry county, and would not be home
in two weeks. Wages immediately geared up, and started with his cart,
his wife and McIntosh. Three nights after that Allen Brown, McGrath,
John Copeland and I went to Maffitt’s just after dark, about seven
o’clock, on the night of the 15th of December, 1847. Eli Myrick did not
go with us, because he said Mrs. Maffitt would know him too well, but
he was in the secret and shared his part of the money.
On getting near, we stopped to consult as to the safest way to get the
money. Some were for robbing the house and not injuring any of the
family. That I opposed, for I never believed in leaving any living
witness behind to tell what I had done, if there was any way to prevent
it. I always thought that two persons were enough to keep a secret,
and it was safest if one of them were dead, for dead witnesses give no
evidence. It was agreed that we should go into the house and demand the
money, and if given up, to leave the inmates peaceably and unharmed.
John and I went in with a very stern look, thinking we could frighten
the old lady, and make her give up every dollar that was in the
house. But we were as sternly and peremptorily refused. The old lady
said that she knew nothing about the money, and if she did, that we
would not get it; we then told her that we had come after money and
that money we would have before we left that house, or her life; and
she still bravely defied us. John Copeland had in his hand a large
hickory stick and I had another. Perceiving that she was determined,
and our only chance to get the money was to kill her, while the old
lady and I were quarreling about the money, I gave my brother John the
wink, and he struck her a blow on the head which felled her to the
floor. He repeated the blows, and I hit her several blows. We were
then certain that we had killed her. We then commenced plundering the
house, in search of the money; and we ransacked the whole house from
top to bottom, but the amount we did find was small. I do not remember
the precise amount we got, but it did not exceed two hundred dollars,
and to our great displeasure we afterwards found out, that there was a
large amount of gold and silver in the house at the time, that we did
not find.
After we had plundered the house to our satisfaction, of all the money
we could find, and each one of us had his load of the most valuable
articles about, we set the house on fire and burnt everything up,
together as we thought with Mrs. Maffitt who we thought was dead, and
we left with a full conviction in our own minds that she would be burnt
in the house. When I afterwards learned that she was not dead, I often
wondered at her providential escape.
The gold and silver we had overlooked, was all melted, and I understood
that Maffitt afterwards took it to Mobile and disposed of it.
Wages, in his adventure, was not so successful as we were. On the
same night, he and McIntosh camped near Tallahala, not far from old
Sumrall’s and in the vicinity of Bryant Barlow’s. Barlow happened to
pass their camp early in the night and discovered Wages. He raised
a company and got after Wages, themselves and dogs, and Wages had
to leave and take the woods for home again. McIntosh and Wages’ wife
turned back for Mobile on the Big Creek place, where they all landed
about five days after. There we were all in the vicinity of Mobile
again; Wages had made a water haul and we had done worse. Wages was
laying out, Brown and myself were in the same situation. It became
necessary for Wages, McGrath and I to hold a private consultation,
relative to our future operations, and to devise some plan to get rid
of old Brown. We could see no way to do that, unless it would be to lie
to him and frighten him to leave, which we did. Our next plan was to
manage to get our money from Catahoula, and deposit it about the Bay of
St. Louis, near the sea coast, where we could get it on a boat. Wages
and McGrath were to attend to that matter, and I was to assist Brown
over the Mississippi. So Wages went to Brown and told him that there
was a reward for both of them, and said he, “I am going to leave, and
you had better do the same, for Maffitt has a crowd now on the look out
for us.” Brown had but little money. He then enjoined it upon Wages
to take Harvey’s note and give him the money for it. Said he, “if he
won’t pay the note you and McGrath kill the d——d rascal.” So saying,
Wages gave him the money for the note, and loaned him sixty dollars
more, and then told Brown that James Copeland would go with him and
assist his family to travel, while he, Brown, could dodge before and
behind. So the matter was understood, and in a few nights Brown rolled
off and crossed Dog River at Ward’s bridge, where Wages, McGrath and
I joined him; I took charge of the teams and family, and Brown took
his rifle and to the woods, mostly in the daytime. We did not want for
fresh meat; Wages and McGrath left for Catahoula by way of Harvey’s,
and crossed at Fairley’s; we crossed at Robert’s and old Green court
house, and up Black Creek, on by Columbia, Holmesville and so on to the
mouth of Red River. After crossing the Mississippi, I loaned old Brown
twenty-five dollars more, bid him good-by and returned to the vicinity
of Mobile. I was gone over four weeks.
WAGES AND M’GRATH KILLED BY HARVEY.
On my way back I learned at Black Creek, of the death of Wages and
McGrath. They had got into some difficulty with Harvey about the forty
dollar note, and he shot and killed them both. This news sounded in my
ears like thunder; and so astounded was I that I lost for the time all
my senses. However, after a little reflection, I began to think over
my situation, and a thousand thoughts hurled through my brain. Almost
instantly, it seemed that every crime I had ever committed in my life
was then pictured before my eyes and the awful consequences attending
them. The object, for which I committed them, was money; and it was
now doubtful whether I should ever obtain that, or not. Upon further
reflection, I recollected that Wages had given me a diagram or map of
the place where our, now my money was hidden, and a direction of the
course so that I certainly could find it. Stimulated with the idea of
being worth thirty thousand dollars, I began to cheer up and returned
home.
REWARD OF ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS OFFERED FOR HARVEY’S SCALP.
The first thing was to procure my map or diagram, which I did. I found
all my friends grieving. The first word asked me by old man Wages and
the old lady was: “What are you going to do, James? Are you not going
to seek vengeance on that Harvey?” Both then said to me, “James we will
give you one thousand dollars for Harvey’s scalp, if you will kill
the rascal or have it done.” I then told them I would see some of my
friends, and let them know in a short time.
A short time after that I received a notice to attend a meeting of the
clan, at our Wigwam in the city, on a certain night. So I disguised
myself and went into the city and attended, and in that meeting I met
several officers of the city, such as constables, deputy sheriff, etc.,
who all told me not to be afraid; that there would be no exertion to
arrest me. There were a number of resolutions passed commemorative
of the demise of our departed friends and brothers Gale H. Wages and
Charles McGrath. After the adoption of these resolutions, I then raised
the question before the meeting as to the propriety of taking up with
old Wages’ offer; and after explaining that offer to the meeting, it
was unanimously approved; and I was nominated to head and lead the band
on that expedition, with power to select as many, and just such men
of our clan as I thought necessary. So I selected Jackson Pool, Sam.
Stoughton, John Copeland and Thomas Copeland. I selected them because
they were good woodsmen, and I knew that Pool and Stoughton were brave.
After I had made the selection, I called them all together and we held
a consultation. It was agreed that we would go and make the trial on
Harvey; but that we must have five hundred dollars from old Wages in
advance. I went to old Wages, and told him what was our conclusion.
He hesitated at first, and offered to give us security that the money
should be paid when we had done the job; I told him, “no! it was a
dangerous undertaking, and we must be paid something to start with.”
Finally, after consulting with his wife, he agreed to give us the five
hundred dollars. Our only business then was to prepare ourselves with
the best of double-barrel guns and pistols and bowie knives, with
plenty of ammunition and percussion caps of the best quality, and thus
armed and equipped we were ready for our journey.
Now I had a two fold object in view; that was, to go on to Catahoula,
and search for my money, and for that purpose I took with me my diagram
or map. The old man forked over the five hundred dollars, and we made
ready for the start.
On Sunday morning the 8th day of July, 1848, we all set out from Wages’
place on Big Creek, where we had assembled for that purpose. We had
not traveled far before Thomas Copeland was taken sick and turned
back, at Dog River. We then traveled on by Fairley’s ferry, the
O’Neal settlement and by James Batson’s to Harvey’s place. We traveled
leisurely and camped out every night. We did not stop at any house
after we left Pascagoula, and we reached Harvey’s place early in the
day on the Saturday following. I was well acquainted with the place for
I had been there with Wages and McGrath when Allen Brown lived there.
We found the house empty, but from appearances we judged that the farm
was cultivated. We saw signs of foot steps about the house and yard,
from which we inferred that Harvey was in the habit of coming about
there daily. Our next business was to prepare for action. We went into
the house and made many port holes on every side, so that we could
shoot Harvey, let him approach which ever side he would. Our next
business was to examine around the premises for his path, and place a
sentinel there in ambush for his arrival. This sentinel was cautiously
relieved every two or three hours, whilst the balance of us remained
close inside or about the house, eating figs, peaches and water melons
and destroying more than we eat.