licensed to solemnize marriages according to the laws established
by the state. But a compliance with the church law was, in the
eyes of the Masons, a useless form. They disregarded all laws,
as it suited them. In that section of Kentucky the execution of
the laws was in the hands of Captain John Dunn, a Revolutionary
soldier who was one of the first settlers at Henderson and who, in
1792, was appointed its first constable. Starling in his _History
of Henderson County, Kentucky_, says that Captain Dunn was “the
only recognized officer of the law in all this territory” up to
September, 1796, when he was authorized to “raise three men to
act as patrol at the Red Banks.” This increase in patrol became
necessary not only because the number of settlers was gradually
growing larger, but also because the wild conduct of such men as
Mason made it imperative.
That the presence or absence of the patrol was a matter of equal
indifference to the Masons is shown by some notes Draper received
from Mrs. William Anthony, daughter of Captain John Dunn. [12K]
In her letter she writes that Mason and his family were among the
original settlers of Henderson County and that with Samuel Mason
were “a brother-in-law named Duff, and perhaps a son-in-law.”
Whether or not this Duff to whom she so briefly refers was the
counterfeiter Duff is not known. She states that about 1795
Samuel Mason requested Captain Dunn to sign “some instruments of
writing.” Captain Dunn declined to sign the paper, saying he would
have nothing to do with any such “rascal” as he was. This refusal
aroused Mason and a few days later he and four of his men “fell
upon Captain Dunn in Henderson, drew their concealed weapons and
beat him entirely senseless and until they thought he was certainly
dead, and then threw his body over a fence close by. But Captain
Dunn unexpectedly recovered.” Their hatred of Dunn then grew
greater than ever.
Shortly after Captain Dunn experienced this narrow escape from
death Hugh Knox, afterwards Judge Knox, of Henderson, “incurring
the displeasure of the Masons, was badly beaten by them. Others
fared no better.” One day the Masons stole a negro woman and
her two children belonging to Knox and took them to “their then
quarters at the mouth of Highland Creek.” Knox raised a party,
including Captain Dunn, and managed to regain the three negroes.
Dunn’s participation in this rescue aroused the Masons against him
to an even greater degree. One day Thomas Mason, the oldest son
of Samuel Mason, came to Red Banks with his rifle and threatened
to kill Dunn. Mrs. Dunn, hearing of the threat, begged Thomas
Durbin, Dunn’s cousin, who had just arrived with a flatboat going
down the river, to try to pacify young Mason and take the gun from
him. Durbin being a stranger, it was thought he would succeed. But
Durbin had little more than begun talking to Thomas Mason and made
known the object of his interview, when Mason, without any comment,
shot him dead, and fled.
Mrs. Anthony in the same letter to Draper writes: “Late in
December, 1797, early on a cold morning, Captain Dunn, accompanied
by Thomas Smith, started on horseback for Knob Lick, carrying out
corn meal and intending to bring back salt. As they were coming
near the ford on Canoe Creek, three miles below Henderson, Captain
Dunn remarked that many a time, in former years, he dreaded the
crossing of that creek on account of the Masons, as it was so well
fitted to waylay the unwary, but now that the Masons had gone so
far below [to Cave-in-Rock] he no longer apprehended danger from
them. The words were scarcely uttered--they were about midway
the small stream--when the crack of a rifle told too plainly
that villainy yet lurked there. Captain Dunn fell from his horse
into the partly frozen stream. Thomas Smith got but a glimpse of
the person who did the deed; he could not, in the confusion of
the moment, define his features. The wretch darted off and Smith
conveyed Dunn home, where he died in a few hours. When asked if
he knew the person who shot him he answered that ‘it was that bad
man.’ This allusion was probably to Henry Havard, a young man who
was a friend and supposed accomplice of the Masons.” Thus ended
the life of the first constable of Red Banks, and with this killing
the work of the Masons in Henderson County ended. And with his
departure from there, Mason’s life went from bad to worse.«22»
About the time Mason and his gang left Henderson County there
appeared in Red Banks and on Diamond Island a man named May. Mrs.
Anthony calls him Isaac May, some refer to the same man as Samuel
May, but he is best known as James May. He later played a very
important part in Mason’s history. Writing of this outlaw’s early
career, Mrs. Anthony says: “May loitered about Henderson and had
a lame sister with him--at least she passed as such and thereby
excited some remarks. At length May stole some horses and he and
his sister made off and were pursued and overtaken at Vincennes.
May was brought back to Henderson, and the very first night after
they got him there he managed to break away and make his escape,
which he effected by making an extraordinary leap. He joined
Mason’s gang....” He joined Mason in the South and there performed
another extraordinary act of which, as is shown later, Mrs. Anthony
has more or less to say.
During the greater part of 1797 the Masons were established at
Cave-in-Rock. Their headquarters while in and near Henderson seems
to have been changed from time to time. For a while they had a camp
at the mouth of Highland Creek, as stated by Mrs. Anthony, but
most of their time previous to 1797 was spent not far from what
now is the town of Hitesville, in Union County, Kentucky. A small
stream, tributary to Highland Creek, on or near which the Masons
lived, still bears the name of Mason’s Creek. About twenty miles
south of this old camp is “Harpe’s Head,” where two years later the
head of Big Harpe was placed on the end of a pole. About ten miles
northeast of the Mason Creek country is Diamond Island, where many
early pioneers going down the Ohio in flatboats became the victims
of the Masons.
Fortesque Cuming stopped at Diamond Island May 16, 1808, about ten
years after Mason had left it. Commenting on the place, Cuming
says, in his _Tour to the Western Country_: “Nothing can be more
beautifully situated than this fine island.... It is owned by a Mr.
Alvis, a Scotchman, of great property in South Carolina, who bought
it about two years ago [1806] of one Wells, the original locator.
Alvis has a negro quarter, and near one hundred and fifty acres of
land cleared on the Kentucky shore opposite the Island. This used
to be the principal haunt of banditti, from twenty to thirty in
number, amongst which the names of Harper [sic] five Masons, and
Corkendale [Kuykendall] were most conspicuous. They attacked and
plundered the passing boats, and frequently murdered the crews and
passengers. At length the government of Kentucky sent a detachment
of militia against them. They were surprised, and Harper, one of
the Masons, and three or four more were shot, one in the arms of
his wife, who escaped unhurt though her husband received eleven
balls. The rest dispersed and again recruiting, became, under
Mason, the father, the terror of the road through the wilderness
between Nashville in Tennessee and the Mississippi Territory.”
Cuming’s account is fairly accurate, but if by “Harper” he refers
to Big Harpe or Little Harpe, he is mistaken. The “detachment of
militia” that ran out this band of Diamond Island outlaws could
more properly be called a “regiment” of local regulators, for
there is nothing on record to show that any state militia was ever
sent to the island. In pioneer days regulators, as a rule, relied
upon their own “military strength” and exercised it without formal
orders from “official headquarters.”
Diamond Island is about fourteen miles below Henderson. It is
some three miles long and a half-mile wide, and more or less
diamond shaped. In Mason’s day it was covered with gigantic trees
and luxurious vines and presented so wonderful a scene that it
attracted early travelers who passed it. In pioneer days it was,
according to comments written by many travelers, the most beautiful
island in the Ohio. Zadok Cramer in _The Navigator_, published in
1806, says it is a “large and noble looking island.” J. Addison
Richards in his _Romance of American Landscape_ refers to it as
“the crown-jewel in this cluster of the Ohio brilliants.” Thomas
Ashe, whose trip down the Ohio was “performed in 1806,” goes so
far as to say it is “by far the finest in the river, and perhaps
the most beautiful in the world!” About a generation after Mason
and other outlaws abandoned it as a trap for victims, Edmund Flagg
visited the Island and found that “it is said to be haunted.” In
1917 it was, according to one man’s idea, “sure ha’nted.” This
once luxuriant forest island is now a cornfield, celebrated for
its wonderfully fertile soil and for its “Diamond Island Canned
Corn.” All that is left of its former splendor is its size. Its
heavy fringe of cottonwood and willow still attracts attention and
helps repicture the Island as it was in the olden days. The gnarled
roots along the bank and the driftwood piled here and there on the
beach seem to hold dumb the secrets of Mason and his men and the
tragedies enacted there more than a century ago.
Robbery and its booty were uppermost in Mason’s mind and were the
object of his every act. Nevertheless, in selecting Cave-in-Rock,
seventy miles down the Ohio River, as his next headquarters he
chanced to choose a place, judging from the present appearance of
the landscape, that was far more picturesque than Diamond Island.
All the primeval beauty of the Island has long ago disappeared, and
some of the wild charm of Cave-in-Rock and its surroundings has
vanished with the original forest. Flatboat pirates have come and
gone; the Ohio still flows on as majestically and as mysteriously
as ever, but all its flood of waters will never wash away the
legends of tragedies connected with the two places.
Mason made Cave-in-Rock his headquarters during the greater
part of 1797. River pirates were numerous in the old flatboat
days--especially before 1811 when the first steamboat was run from
Pittsburgh to New Orleans. Travelers were warned by those who had
made trips down the river and knew the usual methods followed by
river pirates; but with all their intended precautions and in
spite of all the instructions received many of the inexperienced
became easy prey for the robbers. The Cave had often been used by
travelers as a temporary stopping place and had become a well
known shelter. But the fact that it had also served as a temporary
abode for outlaws seems not to have been widely circulated before
this time. Mason recognized in it a hiding place that offered him
the shelter of a good house and also one that was very convenient
and reasonably safe. Besides, it was peculiarly fitted for his
purpose, for its partially concealed entrance commanded a wide view
both up and down the river.
He also recognized the necessity of enticing his intended
victims into the Cave in an innocent manner or by some unusual
method. Mason’s reputation as an outlaw was beginning to spread.
He overcame the obstacle of publicity by changing his name to
“Wilson.” In order to lull any suspicion he concluded to convert
the Cave into an inn and he and his family therefore fitted it up
for the purpose of accommodating guests. On the river bank where
it could be seen by those going down the stream he raised a large
sign: “Wilson’s Liquor Vault and House for Entertainment.” And
thus it came about that Cave-in-the-Rock was transformed into
Cave-Inn-Rock and finally to Cave-in-Rock.
Daniel Blowe, in 1820, briefly recorded that “Mason’s gang of
robbers made Cave-in-Rock their principal rendezvous in 1797,
where they frequently plundered or murdered the crews of boats
descending the Ohio.” Most historians who touched on the subject
after Blowe’s time publish, with equal brevity, the same statement.
Henry Howe, in his _Historical Collections of the Great West_,
published in 1852, says: “Sometimes Mason plundered the descending
boats but more frequently preferred to wait and plunder the owners
of their money as they returned.” Comparatively few men returned
north by river and it is therefore likely that not many single
boats or small flotillas going south floated by unmolested. In
this connection Judge James Hall comments that the boats that were
permitted to pass the Cave and Hurricane Island, six miles below,
were pointed out by Mason, who on such occasions would jokingly
remark: “These people are taking produce to market for me.” [61]
Mason discovered that many of his men who went south with captured
boats never returned to report, and he realized that sooner or
later an attempt would be made to capture him if he continued his
work at the Cave. He therefore decided to go south. For these and
probably other reasons he, as stated by Monette, “deserted the Cave
in the Rock on the Ohio and began to infest the great Natchez Trace
where the rich proceeds of the river trade were the tempting prize.”
By what means and under what circumstances Mason and his family
moved south is not known. After leaving Henderson County he
remained longer at Cave-in-Rock than at any other one place. His
name is inseparably associated with Cave-in-Rock, both in history
and tradition, but neither history nor tradition has preserved an
account giving the details of any definite robbery committed by
him while there. It is likely that he left the Cave in ample time
to avoid being driven out by a body of men who had been organized
by the merchants of Pittsburgh for the purpose of trying to
exterminate him and all other river pirates. No record of Mason’s
whereabouts during 1798 and 1799 can now be found. During these two
years many robberies occurred along the Mississippi River and along
various trails on the American side of the river from Kentucky to
New Orleans, but the guilty men were seldom captured. A number of
these robberies, on both river and land, were doubtless perpetrated
by Mason under one or more assumed names.
According to Audubon, the ornithologist, the Masons made their
headquarters for a while on Wolf Island, in the Mississippi,
twenty-five miles below the mouth of the Ohio. About 1815, or a
number of years after Mason’s career was closed, Audubon gathered
the following about the famous outlaw’s stay on this island:
“The name of Mason is still familiar to many of the navigators of
the Lower Ohio and Mississippi. By dint of industry in bad deeds,
he became a notorious horse-stealer, formed a line of worthless
associates from the eastern part of Virginia (a state greatly
celebrated for its fine breed of horses) to New Orleans, and had
a settlement on Wolf Island, not far from the confluence of the
Ohio and Mississippi, from which he issued to stop the flatboats,
and rifle them of such provisions and other articles as he and his
party needed. His depredations became the talk of the whole western
country; and to pass Wolf Island was not less to be dreaded than to
anchor under the walls of Algiers. The horses, the negroes, and the
cargoes, his gang carried off and sold.”
In March, 1800, Mason appeared in New Madrid, Missouri, then
Spanish territory, and applied for a passport. This was issued
to him, as appears later, on the recommendation of a man whom he
had met casually at Red Banks (Henderson, Kentucky) and who was
unaware of the real character of the person he introduced. The
passport not only permitted Mason to settle on Spanish territory
with the privilege of purchasing land, but it also served as a
document designating him as a desirable citizen. When he applied
for this permit, he may have resolved to open up a farm and lead
a respectable life. If so, the resolution to reform was of short
duration, for he made no attempt to select a site for a permanent
home. In the meantime he carefully preserved the passport, knowing
it might some day serve, in its way, as a letter of recommendation.
It would also serve as evidence that he had taken an initial step
toward becoming a Spanish subject. Should he confine his land
operations to the American side, and his river piracy to the
waters of the Mississippi, and make none but American citizens
his victims, the chances were he might some day find a safe and
convenient retreat in the Spanish domain west of the river.
During 1800 and the three years that followed, Mason moved over the
country with remarkable activity. A report of a robbery committed
by him on the Natchez Trace, says Monette, was soon followed by an
account of another perpetrated on the Mississippi many miles away,
and vice versa. Men going down the Mississippi, as those going down
the Ohio, encountered many troubles incidental to the running of
boats. They were always exposed to river pirates of whom Mason was
one. Among other hardships to which they were subjected was the
unrestrained authority of the Spanish, who were then in possession
of the land west of the Mississippi and who practically controlled
the navigation of that river.
Mason On the Natchez Trace
Much has been written about the old Natchez Trace, the narrow
Indian trail leading from Natchez, Mississippi, to Nashville,
Tennessee, at which place travelers took other trails leading
to Illinois, Kentucky, and Virginia. In the flatboat days many
merchants who had disposed of the goods they brought down the Ohio
and Mississippi returned north with the proceeds of their sales
by this overland route; others took the ocean route by way of
Philadelphia, back to their homes. Many of these pioneer merchants
refer to their experience in this wilderness and many early western
travelers who rode over this old trail describe it in their books.
We shall, however, confine our glimpse of the early days on this
historic trace to the facts concerning Mason.
It is more than likely that Mason had committed a number of crimes
along the Natchez Trace before he appeared in New Madrid in
March, 1800. Many pioneers traveling over this route encountered
highwaymen, but none of them succeeded in identifying the men
by whom they had been robbed. The first record of a case with
which Mason is definitely connected is that of a party of boatmen
riding from Natchez to their homes in Kentucky. An account of this
incident is told in _Old Times in Tennessee_, by Josephus C. Guild,
who received his information from John L. Swaney. Swaney told Guild
that more than fifty years before, while carrying the mail over the
old Natchez Trace, he frequently met Samuel Mason and talked with
him.
Swaney began carrying the mail over this old Indian trail about
1796 and was familiar with the route before Mason appeared on the
scene. The distance from Nashville to Natchez he estimates at about
five hundred and fifty miles. It was, in his mail-carrying days,
a mere bridle path winding through an almost endless wilderness.
He rode it for eight years, making a round trip every three weeks.
Traveling at the rate of about fifty-five miles a day permitted
him a day’s rest at either end of his route. He frequently met
Indians along the Trace. At Colbert’s Ferry, on the Tennessee
River, he always found the Indian ferrymen “contrary,” for they
would not cross the river for him if he got to the landing after
bed time. At the Chickasaw Agency, about half-way between the two
places, he changed horses. The only white men he saw were the few
settlers, scattered forty or more miles apart, the occasional
traveler returning north and, now and then, Samuel Mason and some
of his band. Swaney rode a good horse and carried with him, besides
the mail (consisting of a few letters, newspapers, and government
dispatches) a bushel of corn for his horse, provisions and a
blanket for himself, a pistol, a tin trumpet, and a piece of flint
and steel.
Merchants and boatmen brought their provisions and other
necessities on pack-horses or pack-mules. It was from these that
Mason captured much of the food and most of the clothing he and
his people required. These travelers, as a rule, sewed their money
in rawhides and threw the hides in the packs with supplies. At
night, before making a fire, they hid their valuables in the bushes
some distance from the camp in the event of a surprise at night by
robbers. It was in this wilderness that Mason looked for and found
many of his victims. He and his band were the terror of all who
traveled through the Indian nation, except Swaney.
Mason frequently sought interviews with Swaney, with whom he had
many friendly chats. The outlaw often asked what was said about him
by the public. He told Swaney that no mail-carrier need fear being
molested by him and his men, for mail was of no value to them, and
that he “did not desire to kill any man, for money was all he was
after and if he could not get it without taking life, he certainly
would shed no blood.”
“Among Mason’s first robberies,” continues the historian who
interviewed the mail-carrier, “was that of a party of Kentucky
boatmen returning home from Natchez. They had camped at what
was called Gum Springs, in the Choctaw Nation. They ate supper,
and, as a matter of precaution, were putting out pickets before
retiring for the night. In going to their positions one of the
pickets stepped on one of Mason’s men, who were hidden in the grass
awaiting an opportunity to pounce upon the boatmen. The robber thus
carelessly trod on jumped up, gave a yell, and fired off a gun,
calling upon his comrades to shoot and kill every boatman. This was
so unexpected to the Kentuckians that they became panic stricken
and ran off in the wildest confusion, leaving everything, some
even their wearing apparel. Mason and his men went to the camp and
carried away everything.
“The next morning, just at daylight, Mr. Swaney came along, and
seeing the camp fires burning, rode out, but could find no one. He
was going toward Natchez, and having met no party that morning, he
instinctively knew that something was wrong, and began to blow his
bugle. The boatmen recognized the familiar sound and commenced
coming to Mr. Swaney, one and two at a time. He asserted that they
were the worst scared, worst looking set of men he ever saw, some
of them having but little clothing on, and one big fellow had only
a shirt. They immediately held a sort of council of war, and it
was unanimously agreed to follow the robbers and recapture their
property. It was an easy matter to follow their trail through the
cane and grass. Their plan was, as they had no arms, to provide
themselves with sticks and knives, and should they overtake Mason
and his men, attack them by a vigorous charge, knocking them down
right and left with their shillelahs, and if those in front fell
at the fire of the robbers, those in the rear were to rush upon,
overpower and capture the robbers and recover their property.
“They started in pursuit of the robbers under the lead of the big
Kentuckian. They had gone about a mile when they began to find
articles of clothing which had been thrown away by the robbers. The
big Kentuckian found his pants, in the waistband of which he had
sewed four gold doubloons and, to his great joy, the robbers had
not found them. After this it was noticed that the big Kentuckian’s
valor began to fail him, and soon he was found in the rear. The
pursuit was kept up about two miles further, when they were
suddenly hailed by Mason and his men, who were hid behind trees,
with their guns presented, and who ordered them to go back or they
would kill the last one of them. This caused a greater stampede
than that of the night before, and the big Kentuckian out distanced
the whole party in the race back to camp. They abused the big
Kentuckian at a round rate for his want of courage, but he only
laughed at them, saying he had everything to run for. But, to his
credit be it said, he spent his last dollar in procuring supplies
for his comrades.”
Mason was an active man and this comparatively insignificant
robbery was doubtless preceded and followed by others of greater
consequence of which, however, no written record or oral tradition
now exists. Then occurred the Baker robbery on the old Natchez
Trace--a robbery that became widely known through the current
newspapers and soon convinced the public that Mason was an outlaw
of dangerous character, working over a large territory.