Kentucky I should have been frightened. I looked him fully in the
eyes and scanned him closely. His hair appeared as though it had
never been combed, and made me think of old Nebuchadnezzar and his
head ‘like eagles’ feathers.’ He wore no hat; his collar was open
and his breast bare; there was neither shoe nor moccasin on his
feet. I finished my hymn, kneeled down and prayed and took my text
to preach. The man looked for no seat, but stood erect gazing on
the preacher. Before I was half through I saw the tears roll down
his rough cheeks. I closed and told them that on that day four
weeks I would be there again. I rode away, but could not forget
the big man. I was sure he had distinguished himself some way,
which made me anxious to find out his history. I soon found out
that he was brother-in-law to the infamous robber Micajah Harpe,
a character so well known in the history of Kentucky. No doubt
they had been together in many a bloody affray. On my next round
he joined the church, and soon afterward became a Christian. He
could neither read nor write. I procured him a spelling book. His
wife taught him to read, and he soon learned to write. On my fourth
round I appointed him class leader. He trimmed off his hair, bought
a new hat, clothed himself pretty well, and became a respectable
man. I heard of him several years afterward, and he was still
holding on his heavenly way.”«19»
But what was the ultimate fate of the Harpe women, whether hard,
commonplace or tinged with compensatory romance? Draper in one of
his note books gives these last glimpses of them:
“Betsey Roberts [the supplementary wife] was married to John
Hufstetter. They lived on Colonel Anthony Butler’s plantation [near
Russellville] as a tenant, and Mrs. Hufstetter became ‘chicken
raiser’ to Mrs. Butler. Many years ago they moved to Red River, in
Tennessee, and thence elsewhere, probably Duck River.... Her child
grew up and was known as Joe Roberts, and the last known of him he
was enlisted in the army.
“Susan Harpe, as she was called, also lived in a cabin on Colonel
Butler’s plantation, six miles south of Russellville, and being
industrious made a living chiefly by weaving. Her daughter,
‘Lovey,’ grew up to womanhood--very pretty, common size, round
features, handsome form, black hair, rather dark skin and a
dark and sometimes bad, devilish eye. Her temper was bad at
school--always pouting and angry--no one associating with her.
Yet it is thought had Lovey Harpe, with her beautiful form and
naturally pretty appearance, been properly brought up, under the
circumstances she would not only have been a belle, but really a
fine woman. But, soured from neglect and obloquy, it is no wonder
she threw herself away. And both herself and her mother were
finally driven from the neighborhood for their bad character--went
to Christian County on the waters of Pond River, where Colonel
Butler had a mill--there old Susan died, and poor Lovey, destitute
and forsaken, went down the Mississippi to Pearl, where, by this
time, Colonel Butler had removed--and with his family went to
Texas....«20»
“When Sally Harpe was tried, her father, Parson Rice, was present,
a man of fine, irreproachable character, and took his prodigal
daughter home near Knoxville. It was said, and doubtless truly,
that Sally was thought a fine girl until she married Wiley Harpe.
In 1820 Major Stewart was at Ford’s Ferry on the Ohio (a few miles
above Cave-in-Rock) and saw Parson Rice, his family, Sally and her
[second] husband moving to Illinois. He did not recognize them,
but thought he knew them, particularly Sally, who eyed him closely
and, after a little, went to one side, sat down and with her face
in her hands, had a weeping spell, doubtlessly recounting her Harpe
adventures, prompted by the presence of one of the few persons who
had treated her with civility and kindness in her wayward career.
After he left them, Major Stewart recollected hearing the old
gentleman called Rice and the identity flashed upon his mind. Sally
Harpe’s daughter had then grown to womanhood and was a fine looking
young lady.” [12F] The girl referred to by Stewart as Sally
Harpe’s daughter was, in all probability, not a daughter of Harpe.
And so vanished from the scene, swallowed up in the events of the
rapidly developing country, all the principals in this terrible
epic of pioneer days.
But Little Harpe’s career was not finished. He continued the life
of an outlaw and after a few years, as we shall see, received his
deserts at the hands of frontier justice.
Mason--Soldier, Pirate, Highwayman
In the pioneer history of the Ohio and Mississippi valley, Samuel
Mason stands as one of the shrewdest and most resourceful of
outlaws. The Harpes were more widely known and were more terrible
characters; their notoriety was due to their great brutality. Mason
robbed along the roads and rivers solely for the purpose of getting
money; the Harpes killed men, women, and children simply to gratify
a lust for cruelty. The two Harpes were the worst and most abnormal
of their kind, while Mason was one of the shrewdest and therefore
one of the most “successful” of bandits.
These three offer the criminologist a field for study of one of the
phases of pioneer life--a life that has long been of interest from
a historical standpoint. Samuel Mason will be cited in history and
criminology as a striking example of a lawless man receiving his
just reward. In the meantime, genealogists will probably continue
to exclude this “black sheep” from his family. An attempt was made
long ago to tear his “branch” from the family tree so that his
name and those of his children would not mar the beauty of a stem
honored with the names of famous men and women. It was without
doubt the frontier life that Samuel Mason entered, and not the
family from which he sprang that made him what he was.
Mason was a most striking and interesting figure. He had excellent
birth; he had been a fighting soldier on the western frontier in
the American Revolution, acquitting himself with courage. It
is not clear how such a man in time of peace developed into a
highwayman and after years of outlawry came to such a terrible
death. A portion of his history is missing and probably will always
remain a mystery, but his criminal exploits will lack the proper
contrast unless his origin and his early services as a patriot are
presented.
He was born in Virginia about the year 1750. Thirty-five years
after his death Draper recorded in one of his note books
that “Mason was connected by ties of consanguinity with the
distinguished Mason family of Virginia, and grew up bad from
his boyhood.” [12H] This has been assumed in some quarters to
connect him closely with George Mason, one of the signers of the
Declaration of Independence, but there is no proof of it. He
was a captain in the American Revolution. Two of his brothers,
Thomas and Joseph, were among the useful, honest pioneers in the
West. They started with George Rogers Clark on his expedition to
Vincennes, but “when Clark reached Louisville he scattered some
of his men among the neighboring stations of Beargrass [near
Louisville].... Of this party were ... Thomas and Joseph Mason,
brothers of Captain Samuel Mason.” [12C] Another brother, Isaac
Mason, married Catherine Harrison, sister of Benjamin and William
Harrison, and as early as 1770 moved from Virginia to Pennsylvania
where he became one of the wealthiest and most influential citizens
of Fayette County. [76] These three Mason brothers, like Samuel
Mason himself, were, each in a different way, products of their
environment and their times. Pioneer times, like most other
periods, produced a variety of characters and Samuel Mason rapidly
developed into a product quite distinct from most men of his day.
It is not often that the lineage of a highwayman can be traced back
to a position so honorably distinguished as that of an officer in
the American Revolution, yet such was Samuel Mason. After fighting
for the freedom of his country he drifted down the Ohio to western
Kentucky and the Cave-in-Rock country and there began a wild and
free career unrestrained by either human or divine law.
Before taking up Mason’s military history it may be well to recall
a few facts pertaining to the American Revolution: The first battle
in that war was fought at Lexington, Massachusetts, April 19, 1775;
the surrender of Cornwallis took place at Yorktown, Virginia,
October 19, 1781. While these and other battles between were being
fought in the colonies along the Atlantic coast, the frontiersmen
west of the Alleghenies were engaged in the same war with the
British and their Indian allies. On June 24, 1778, George Rogers
Clark left Louisville with about one hundred and fifty men and
floated down the Ohio, passing Cave-in-Rock, and at Fort Massac,
near the mouth of the Cumberland, began his march through Illinois;
he captured Vincennes August 1 and thus saved the west for the
American colonies. Between Vincennes and the Old Settlements lay
a vast country held, after many hard fights, by the settlers who
occupied it.
It was in this frontier defense of the upper Ohio River region
that Samuel Mason took part. A complete history of his career as
a Revolutionary soldier cannot, at this late day, be compiled;
but, from the few statements regarding him that appear in printed
history and from a few old documents still extant, sufficient
evidence can be gathered to show that Mason was not only a
soldier, but that he took a very active part in the struggle.
When and where he enlisted is not known. He probably did so
in Ohio County, Virginia (now West Virginia). In the _List of
the Revolutionary Soldiers of Virginia_, issued in 1912 by the
Virginia State Library, his name appears as a captain of the Ohio
County Militia. The earliest record of his military life is one
showing that in May, 1777, he pursued some Indians who had robbed
and killed a family about fifty miles below Pittsburgh. Mason
started from one of the forts above Fort Henry, now Wheeling, West
Virginia, and “at the head of ten militia gallantly followed the
murderers.” Although he killed only one Indian he frightened and
scattered the others so badly that the expedition was regarded a
success. “This brave young man,” says the report written a few days
later, “will no doubt meet a reward adequate to his merit.” [131]
About two months later we find him at Grave Creek Fort, twelve
miles below Fort Henry. He started on another Indian pursuit July
15. On the 17th he wrote an account of this chase and forwarded it
from Fort Henry to General Edward Hand, whose headquarters were at
Pittsburgh. The original letter is in the Draper Collection. More
than a dozen documents signed by Mason are preserved in the Draper
Collection; all are signed Samuel Mason, except one letter, dated
August 12, 1777, which is signed Samuel Meason.«21» The letter of
July 17, 1777, like other documents just referred to, shows that
Samuel Mason was at least sufficiently familiar with the “three Rs”
to attempt to report in his own handwriting some of the operations
of the militia under him. In it he describes how a number of men,
led first by Lieutenant Samuel Tomlinson and then by himself, had
gone in pursuit of Indians and returned after two futile scouting
expeditions. The suggestion made in this letter that he and his
company be transferred to Fort Henry was carried out. [12J]
Fort Henry was a comparatively old place when this letter was
written. The three Zane brothers and a small party of emigrants had
settled there in 1769. The fort was built in 1774 and was at first
called Fincastle. In 1776 the name was changed to Fort Henry in
honor of Patrick Henry, Governor of Virginia. Up to the latter part
of August, 1777, it was not garrisoned by regular soldiery, but its
defense, like that of some of the other frontier forts, was left
to those who might seek shelter within its walls. By 1777 it had
become a flourishing settlement with about thirty houses around it.
Scouts were employed to watch for Indians and a warning from the
men on guard made it possible for all the inhabitants of the place
to retire to the fort on a moment’s notice.
General Hand, expecting an Indian attack on the fort, ordered
Captain Mason and his men to proceed there immediately and help
defend it. Captain Mason arrived August 12, and sent a report the
same day to General Hand that he would “urge and push” the work
and expected to be fully prepared in a few days to resist the
enemy. [12J] By the middle of the month there were less than one
hundred militia stationed at the fort. After all preparations had
been completed the men became impatient, for there was nothing to
indicate the approach of Indians.
On the night of August 31 Captain Joseph Ogle, who with twelve
other men had been watching the path leading to Fort Henry, came
in and reported that no signs of the enemy had been discovered.
That same night, however, four hundred Indians, led by a few
whites, succeeded in placing themselves in ambush near the
fort. They lay in two lines concealed by a corn field. Between
these lines, along a road leading through the corn field, were
stationed six Indians who could be seen by any one entering the
road from the fort, and who were placed in that position for the
purpose of decoying some of the whites within the line. The next
morning--September 1--two men going out after some horses walked
along the road and passed some of the concealed Indians, unaware of
their presence. They had proceeded but a few steps when, to their
great surprise, they discovered the six Indians standing not far
ahead. The two men turned and ran for the fort. One of them was
shot, but the other was permitted to escape that he might give the
alarm.
Mason, hearing there were only six Indians near the fort, proceeded
with fourteen men to attack them. He soon discovered that he had
been trapped by several hundred and that retreat was impossible.
All of his men were massacred. Captain Ogle and twelve scouts,
ignorant of the strength of the enemy, rushed from the fort
expecting to rescue their comrades, but most of them were killed
in the attempt. Of the twenty-eight soldiers who took part in this
bloody battle only five escaped, among them Captains Mason and
Ogle. Mason, after being severely wounded, concealed himself behind
a fallen tree until the Indians withdrew. [140]
Mason’s venture from the fort, it seems, was a daring deed
performed without consideration of its various possible
consequences. Dr. Joseph Doddridge, in one of his manuscripts
written about 1820, says that the garrison was too hasty in
concluding that the warning sent by General Hand was a false alarm,
and further comments that Mason’s act was another instance of the
“folly and rashness of our militia of early times.” [130]
In the light of a knowledge of Mason’s later life, this act of
bravery, foolish though it may have been, suggests that he then
may have had in him the daring necessary for an outlaw, whose
self-assurance of success was too great to give the possibility of
failure serious consideration.
Captain Mason remained at Fort Henry until the autumn of 1779.
His presence there is shown by a score of receipts now in the
Draper Collection, one of which reads: “Fort Henry 27th April
1778 Received fourteen Flints of Zephaniah Blackford for the Use
of my Company Given my hand. Samuel Mason Capt.” [12N] He was on
Brodhead’s Allegheny campaign in August and September, 1779. [130]
After this expedition he retired from active service at Fort Henry
and was succeeded by Captain Benjamin Briggs. Mason was, however,
militia captain in Ohio County, Virginia, as late as May, 1781, as
his attendance at the Courts Martial proves. [76]
Such is, in brief, a glimpse of Mason’s military career as gleaned
from scattered records. In 1845 Draper filed among his manuscripts
a letter which states that “Capt. Mason resided where Daniel
Steenrod’s house now is, two miles east of Wheeling, and kept a
tavern there in 1780.” [12M] Another of his notes is to the effect
that Mason lived on Wheeling Creek at the Narrows, and that in the
spring of 1782 Indians stole some of his negroes. He and a man
named Peter Stalnaker went in pursuit. The Indians, seeing the two
men coming, concealed themselves behind a large rock a little above
the Narrows and from that position they shot and killed Stalnaker.
Mason fled and escaped unhurt. [12A]
Captain Samuel Murphy, whom Draper interviewed in 1846, gave the
historian a number of facts pertaining to the siege of Wheeling
and in his comments on Mason said: “Mason, many years before [i.e.
before he was wounded at Wheeling] had stolen horses from Colonel
Hite [in Frederick County, Virginia] was pursued and overtaken, and
Mason wounded and the horses recovered. Mason’s brother, Colonel
Isaac Mason, was a very respectable man. When Mason subsequently
turned robber, he would give the up-country people a sufficient
sum of money to take them home.” [12B] In _The Casket Magazine_
of July, 1834, William Darby writes: “Well would it have been for
Captain Samuel Mason if he had fallen with his gallant companions
on the field at Wheeling.” Mason evidently did not remain around
Wheeling longer than a year or two after the close of the
Revolution. Why or when he drifted to east Tennessee is not known.
What character of man Mason was when he reached the prime of life
can be gathered from an unpublished paragraph written by Draper
about 1840, after an interview with Colonel G. W. Sevier: “He first
took possession, without leave or license, of some unoccupied
cabins belonging to General John Sevier in Washington County,
east Tennessee, with several worthless louts around him; one was
named Barrow. Mason and his party were not known to work and were
soon charged with stealing from negro cabins on Sabbath days when
their occupants were attending church; and articles thus stolen
were found in their possession. General Sevier gave notice to
Mason, who had by sufferance remained on his place, that he and his
party must leave the country within a specified time. Knowing the
character of General Sevier, that he was a man not to be trifled
with, Mason and his friends wisely took themselves off.” [12H]
We next hear of him in western Kentucky. It is likely that one of
his purposes in going to that section of the country was to take
up the land granted to him for services rendered as a Virginia
soldier in the Revolution. When he moved west is not known. Finley
says he settled on Red River, south of Russellville, in 1781. His
youngest son, as we shall see later, was born in western Kentucky
about 1787, showing that the Masons had arrived some time during or
before that year. In 1790 a petition was circulated by the settlers
in Lincoln County, Kentucky, who were living on the Virginia
military grants between Green and Cumberland Rivers, asking the
General Assembly of Virginia to establish a county south of Green
River. As a result, two years later, all western Kentucky was
formed into a new county called Logan. This petition was signed by
one hundred and fifteen men, among them Samuel Mason and one named
Thomas Mason, who may have been the eldest son of, or one of the
brothers of, Captain Samuel Mason. Inasmuch as its signers, as far
as is known, were “respectable citizens,” it is likely that Mason
was considered such when he signed, either because he tried to be
one or because he succeeded in passing as such.
The petition recites: “That your Petitioners find themselves
sensibly aggrieved by their distance from Courts of Justice, it
being near two hundred miles from this settlement to Lincoln
Court House, by which, when business renders our attendance
indispensably necessary, we are frequently exposed to much danger
in traveling through an uninhabited country, being subject to
fines and other inconveniences, when from high waters, enemies
near our frontiers, or other causes, it is impossible to attend.”
[106] Mason possibly did not then dream that in the near future he
himself would become one of the worst “enemies near our frontiers”
and be regarded as one of the great dangers to which men were
exposed “in traveling through an uninhabited country.”
Mason’s domestic life in the wilderness of the lower Ohio evidently
was, in the beginning, up to the standard of the average early
settler. But in the wild woods, far away from companionship and
influence of law-abiding citizens, the best of men were subject
to deterioration. Men of education, illiterates, and all other
pioneers were alike exposed to this strong influence of frontier
life. Many men who, by their inborn nature or by their own choice
disregarded law and order, necessarily became, by one route or
another, outcasts. Mason fell and fell fast, and became not only
an outcast, but a notorious outlaw. The only argument that can
be presented in his defense is that he was, to some extent, a
peculiar product of his times--only more “highly developed” than
contemporaneous outlaws who were products of the same influences
and environment. It should be added in justice to Mason that,
unlike the Harpes, he was out for booty and that he personally
never shed blood unless it became absolutely necessary for his own
safety.
To what extent Mason had fallen by 1794 can be gathered from an
entry quoted from Benjamin Van Cleve’s diary, made in July of that
year on his return to Cincinnati from Fort Massac. Van Cleve, with
Major Thomas Doyle and a number of other men, left Fort Washington,
now Cincinnati, on March 16, 1794, with ten boats to repair Fort
Massac and to supply the place with provisions. They arrived at the
fort June 12, and three weeks later some of the men, including Van
Cleve, started on their return up the river. On July 8 they landed
at Red Banks, now Henderson. Here are the entries taken from _The
American Pioneer_, published in 1843:
“July 8. [1794] Came to Red Banks.
“July 9. The weather unpleasant, and the company of soldiers
disagreeable. We [four men] determined to quit the boat and travel
the residue of the way by land. Made preparations to set off in the
morning. This place is a refuge, not for the oppressed, but for
all the horse thieves, rogues, and outlaws that have been able to
effect their escape from justice in the neighboring states. Neither
law nor gospel has been able to reach here as yet. A commission of
the peace had been sent by Kentucky to one Mason; and an effort had
been made by the southwest territory (Tennessee) to introduce law
as it was unknown as yet to which it belonged; but the inhabitants
drove the persons away and insisted on doing without. I inquired
how they managed to marry, and was told that the parties agreed to
take each other for husband and wife before their friends. I was
shown two cabins, with about the width of a street between them,
where two men a short time ago had exchanged wives. An infair was
given today by Mason to a fellow named Kuykendall who had run away
from Carolina on account of crimes, and had run off with Mason’s
daughter to Diamond Island station, a few weeks ago. The father
had forbid him the house and threatened to take his life, but
had become reconciled, and had sent for them to come home. The
parents and friends were highly diverted at the recital of the
young couple’s ingenuity in the courtship, and laughed heartily
when the woman told it. She said she had come down stairs after all
the family had retired, having her petticoat around her shoulders,
and returned with him through her parents’ room, with the petticoat
around both; and in the morning she brought him down in the same
manner before daylight. This Kuykendall, I was told, always carried
in his waistcoat pockets ‘devil’s claws,’ instruments, or rather
weapons, that he could slip his fingers in, and with which he could
take off the whole side of a man’s face at one claw. We left them
holding their frolic.
“I afterwards heard that Kuykendall was killed by some of the party
at the close of the ball.
“July 10. Left Red Banks.”