approved December 18, 1800, for the relief of the widow of John
Tully, extending the statutory time of payment for lands taken up
by him on the south side of Green River under a settlement act and
exempting her in the interval from paying interest. The extension
was given until December 1, 1810. The preamble of the act recites
its enactment because “Tully ... having obtained a certificate for
a settlement of two hundred acres of land ... having settled on
said land, was assassinated by the murderers called Harpes, and
consequently left his wife, Christiana Tully, a desolate widow
with eight small children.” This is a notable instance of pioneer
liberality and sympathy for a widow in distress, particularly in
spite of the fact that, according to Colonel Trabue, Tully not only
knew the Harpes, but also, less than a year before they murdered
him, had carried messages to them from the Harpe women when the
outlaws were making for Cave-in-Rock.
«11» Tradition says Major William Love’s charred corpse was buried
near the site of the Stegall house. His widow survived him many
years and is buried at Piney Fork Camp Ground, about six miles east
of Marion, Kentucky. On the marble slab at the head of her grave is
the inscription: “My name was Esther Love, daughter of Wm. & Nancy
Calhoun of Abbeville, South Carolina, born Sept. 30, 1765, died
Mar. 2, 1844. My husband Wm. Love was killed by the Harpes Aug.
1799. Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord.”
«12» Draper in his “Sketch of the Harpes” places Big Harpe’s
head “in the forks of a tree,” but in a later note [12G] he has
it “placed or rather stuck on the sharpened end of the limb of a
tree.” Breazeale has it “upon the top of a lofty pole, or in the
fork of a tree.” Collins, in one version, says the men “stuck it
upon a pole where the road crosses the creek,” and in another, that
“a tall young tree, growing by the side of the trail or road, was
selected and trimmed of its lateral branches to its top, and then
made sharp. On this point the head was fastened. The skull and
jaw-bones remained there for many years--after all else had been
decomposed and mingled with the dust.” In his sketch on Webster
County, Kentucky, Collins states that “Big Harpe’s head was stuck
upon a pole” near an oak tree which was still standing, and that
the letters H.H. for Harpe’s Head, carved upon it in 1799, were
still legible in 1874.
Robert Triplett, in his anonymous autobiography, _Roland Trevor_,
publishes an absurd story to the effect that the two Harpes had
stolen the daughter of a pioneer living near Henderson. The father
pursued Big Harpe, wounded him, and shortly thereafter captured
him. This confused and confusing writer says: “Harpe lay near a
tree. The father lifted him, and set him up against it, and then
went a little way to a branch, from which, in the brim of his hat,
he carried Harpe some water, and while he was drinking reloaded his
rifle, and shot him. Then with his knife he cut off his head and
stuck it on a pole at the fork of the road between Henderson and
Madisonville, which place, from that circumstance, was called, and
is to this day, ‘Harpe’s Head.’”
Another absurd story of the Harpes appears in _History of Great
American Crimes_, by Frank Triplett who with a few facts and a
vivid imagination succeeds in covering some twenty pages on the
Harpes. According to his account, Leiper and Stegall organized
a pursuing party, and when the wounded outlaw was overtaken one
end of a rope was adjusted around Big Harpe’s neck and the other
thrown over a limb of a large tree under which the wounded man lay.
“Appalled by the blasphemies of Harpe, the word was given, and,
with a strong pull, his body was run up some six or eight feet from
the ground, and whirling round and round in the rapidly gathering
twilight, it quivered convulsively for some moments; there was a
fierce death struggle and the soul of the most demoniac murderer
that ever cursed our continent had gone out into the limitless
realms of eternity. When satisfied that Harpe was dead, the corpse
was lowered to the ground, the head cut off and fixed in the fork
of the tree which had served his executioners as a gallows.”
«13» Samuel Hopkins was a Revolutionary general. He was born in
Virginia and, in 1797 went to Henderson and there represented
Richard Henderson & Co., owners of a large tract of land lying
in that section, granted them by the legislature of Virginia. He
continued to make Henderson his home until 1819, the time of his
death. He served several terms in the Kentucky legislature and from
1813 to 1815 represented his district in Congress. During the war
of 1812 he was commissioned a major-general. [124]
«14» The recorded expense items show six men were allowed $7.50
each for guarding the Henderson jail during the ten days the Harpe
women were imprisoned. One man was given $4.32 “for victualling
Susannah Harp, et al. in the jail for eight days.” Andrew Rowan,
the sheriff, was allowed $71.25 “for removing prisoners from
Henderson to Logan jail, 190 miles--95 miles one way--and also
$4.54 for cash advanced for diet for said prisoners from Henderson
to Logan jail.” Five men were allowed $5.70 each for guarding the
prisoners en route to Russellville. William B. Blackburn, “attorney
for the Commonwealth in this county,” received $60.00 and John D.
Haussmann, the county clerk, and the sheriff, each $30.00 “for his
ex-officio services.” These items, with $4.17 paid the sheriff “for
summoning and attending the court,” make a total of $281.78.
«15» Maj. William Stewart was one of the most eccentric characters
in early Kentucky history. His life is full of suggestions for
romance and song. He was born in South Carolina about 1772, and, at
the age of eighteen, “getting into some difficulties, he left his
native state.” He went to Nashville, says Finley, and from there
started for Henderson--possibly with the intention of continuing
to Cave-in-Rock. On his way north he joined a man and wife going
to the Green River country. To what extent they influenced him is
not known. However, when the three travelers reached the place that
later became Russellville, they decided to settle there. In 1791
he left Logan County and “after years of toil, hunting, and nobody
knows what else, he finally settled in Stanford and, in 1795,
became a dry goods clerk for one Ballenger”--the same man who, a
few years later, went in pursuit of the Harpes. In 1796 he returned
to Logan County and died there in 1852. He was the first sheriff of
Logan County. Collins says: “He was one of the celebrities of the
place ... faithful to his friends, and dangerous to his foes.”
Smith in a chapter devoted to Stewart calls him William Stout:
“Always eccentric in his material and style of dress--often he
appeared attired in an entire suit made of various colored ‘lists,’
taken from the finest broadcloths sewed together, fantastically
cut and fitted to his person, while the buttons on his coat and
pantaloons were quarter dollars, United States coin, with eyes
attached by his own ingenuity (for he was a worker in metals) and
his vest buttoned with genuine United States dimes. This dress,
however, was rather for high days and holidays.... On the morning
of the day on which he died, he, with but little aid, drew on his
curiously constituted, many colored suit of clothes, and in that
attire he died and was buried.” [121]
«16» When, in 1860, the town of Dixon was laid out to be the seat
of justice for the newly established county of Webster, one of the
principal streets forming the court house square was named after
John Leiper and another after Moses Stegall. These pioneers were
thus honored, not to show that “the evil men do lives after them,”
but to reward two men whose names were “linked with one virtue” at
least--that of being responsible for the capture and death of Big
Harpe.
«17» Whether or not the Harpes were brothers and Big Harpe’s two
“wives” were sisters is a question that can never be decided
definitely by history, but it is one over which psychologists may
long argue. If the two men actually were brothers and the two women
actually were sisters, it is an anomaly in nature. The Harpes were
not ordinary criminals. They were abnormalities in a type that is
itself abnormal. It is well recognized that abnormal products of
all kinds in nature are exceptions or variations and are not the
rule, and that genius in creation, in destruction, in crime, in
art, etc. is very seldom duplicated by the same parentage. Abnormal
criminals are extremes of a type opposed to abnormal geniuses
of the creative or imaginative type. Brothers or sisters in
either class occur seldom, if ever. For these reasons, a parental
connection between the two Harpes and between the two women may
properly be doubted. It is true that Big Harpe was the heartless
leader and that Little Harpe might have been an ordinary weakling,
obedient to Big Harpe because he feared him or because he failed
to recognize the inhumanity of the crimes he was called upon to
commit. No other record is now recalled showing such a horrible
partnership between blood brothers.
«18» Lewis Collins prints this description of Big Harpe in his
edition of 1847, and his son and successor, Richard H. Collins,
likewise republished it in his _History of Kentucky_ in 1874. By
both it is credited to Colonel James Davidson. The elder Collins
says Colonel Davidson was “personally cognizant of most of the
circumstances.” Judge Hall’s _Harpe’s Head_ had been published in
1833 and there can be no doubt that Colonel Davidson copied his
description of Big Harpe, word for word, from the book, relying
upon Judge Hall’s opportunities for and good character in accuracy.
«19» It is probable that in the early days many an outlaw was “said
to be” a kinsman of the Harpes. The case of Mrs. George Heatherly,
referred to in the _History of Caldwell and Livingston Counties,
Missouri_, 1886, is one instance discovered. The Heatherly Gang,
according to this account, operated in the Upper Grand River
country of northern Missouri in 1836 and a few years preceding.
They robbed many white settlers and often stole horses from the
Indians. “Old George Heatherly was regarded as a thief in Kentucky
and Mrs. Heatherly (his wife) was a sister of the notorious
Kentucky murderers and freebooters, Big and Little Harpe.... Old
Mrs. Heatherly is said to have been the leading spirit of the gang,
prompting and planning many a dark deed, and often assisting in its
execution.” There is no proof advanced, however, that this woman
was a sister of the Harpes.
«20» It is interesting to note that Susan Harpe, wife of Big
Harpe, many years after his death tried to convey the impression
that Little Harpe, not Big Harpe, was the greater villain. Draper,
recording some statements made to him by George Herndon who lived
near Russellville, says that Big Harpe’s wife told Mrs. Herndon
that “Big Harpe said to Little Harpe that he thought they had
better quit killing people and go to some backwoods country, for
if they did not, he feared they would be detected and killed.
Whereupon, Little Harpe flew into a passion, cursed his brother
for a coward, and said if he ever talked that way again he would
shoot him.” In order to defend him further, she declared that “Some
days before Big Harpe’s death he fancied the ground continually
trembling beneath his feet.” In this way she tried to show that Big
Harpe actually did suffer great fear and remorse of conscience and
insinuated that Little Harpe was beyond the reach of such feelings.
[12F]
«21» Family names were spelled indifferently in colonial and
republican times. In the fashion of English speech Meason was
pronounced Mason.
«22» In her account to Draper Mrs. Anthony states that in addition
to Henry Havard, Samuel Mason had, besides his own family, at least
two other accomplices while living near Henderson: Nicholas Welsh
and a man named Hewitt. Henry Havard, after the assassination
of Captain John Dunn, fled to his father’s home on Red River,
Tennessee. The regulators there, upon hearing that he had been
employed by Mason to kill Dunn, “raised and went to old Havard’s,
found Henry hid between two feather beds and shot through the beds.
They made the old man pull out the body of his son and when they
found his brains were oozing out they knew he was quite dead.”
Hewitt was captured on the Kentucky shore opposite Diamond Island,
by regulators who were “strongly inclined to kill him, but finally
refrained, but made him break his gun.” Nicholas Welsh, who ran
the tavern in which Mason and his men made their headquarters when
in Red Banks, disappeared immediately after Captain John Dunn was
shot, and was never again heard of.
«23» One of Mason’s daughters-in-law, Mrs. Tom Mason, continued
to live for a short time at the Rocky Springs rendezvous after
the camp had been abandoned by the others, who rightly suspected
that the governor’s reward would result in a thorough search along
the Trace. It is possible Mrs. Mason’s condition made flight
impossible, but it is more probable she concluded to remain behind
and, in time, find a home in some law-abiding community. Guild, who
interviewed Swaney, gives us only one glimpse of this woman:
“After the band had left she started to the Chickasaw Agency where
she would be able to communicate with her friends. When Mr. Swaney
met her she was on her way, carrying her babe, together with some
provisions. Mrs. Mason begged Mr. Swaney to assist her.... He spent
nearly a whole day in assisting the woman, and then made up lost
time by riding all night. Mrs. Mason told Mr. Swaney that Mason’s
band was safe out of reach of their pursuers, and that before
leaving they buried their gold in the bottoms near the river and
cut the initials ‘T.M.’ on trees near the spot so they could easily
find it in the future.”
According to one tradition [114] Mason crossed the Mississippi
River and went westward to the highlands northwest of Vicksburg
“which are known to this day as Mason Hills” and there hid some
booty. “To the present day,” continues this chronicle, “many people
believe that rich treasures lie buried out in the Mason Hills.”
«24» Cramer’s _Navigator_, 1818, says: “Stack or Crow’s Nest
Island has been sunk by the earthquake [of 1811] or swept by
the floods.... Stack not long since was famed for a band of
counterfeiters, horse thieves, robbers, murderers, etc. who made
this part of the Mississippi a place of manufacture and deposit.
From hence they would sally forth, stop boats, buy horses, flour,
whiskey, etc. and pay for all in fine, new notes of the ‘_first
water_.’ Their villainies (after many severe losses sustained by
innocent, good men, unsuspecting the cheat) became notorious, and
after several years’ search and pursuit of the civil law, and in
some cases the _club-law_, against this band of monsters, they have
at length disappeared.”
«25» The author is indebted to Dr. Dunbar Rowland, of the
Mississippi Department of Archives and History, for the privilege
of having a translation made of the record of Mason’s trial.
«26» Samuel Mason probably had heard of “money growing on trees.”
It was a common practice for travelers to hide their money over
night in the bushes near the place they camped. It is likely that
Mason sometimes “found” the money of highway travelers while they
were asleep, or “found” it after he had surprised the campers
and driven them off before they could procure their brush-hidden
valuables.
«27» The story of John Setton’s life up to this time, as recited
by Setton himself, doubtless appeared very plausible to the
officials. There was, nevertheless, very little truth in it. This
court identified him by the names Setton, Taylor, and Wells. It
apparently disregarded Samuel Mason’s statement that the prisoner
sometimes went by other names which he, Mason, could not recall.
These three names were equally unfamiliar; none were connected
with the known history of any crime. Mason himself may have been
ignorant of the real name and true history of Setton. Be that
as it may, Draper in one of his early note books, written about
1840, gives the following facts regarding the man who passed as
one John Setton and whose identity, it seems, was then unknown by
the historian himself. He states that John Setton was originally
from North Carolina and, while traveling along the Natchez Trace,
lingering more or less among the Indians, he fell in company with
a young man named Bass, who lived in Williamson County, Tennessee.
Then, in the words of Draper:
“Bass was not very well and Setton, very friendly, would catch
Bass’ horse and do him other offices of kindness. When Bass reached
his father’s residence he invited Setton to sojourn a time, recruit
his horse, etc. Setton did so and courted a sister of young Bass
and married her. He started with his new wife for North Carolina.
When they reached the North Fork of Holston, in Hawkins County,
East Tennessee, Setton gave information that his wife’s horse ran
away and her feet being in the stirrups, had dragged and killed
her. This is the story he told negroes. The white persons being
absent from home, he had his deceased companion buried hurriedly.
He disposed of her clothing and saddle for little or nothing and
in a few hours put off with both horses. After he had gone, his
conduct led some of the people thereabout to disinter the dead
body, and found she had evidently been killed by heavy blows on the
head. Setton fled, went first to Louisiana, then down the river,
enlisted at Fort Pickering at the Chickasaw Bluffs (Memphis) into
Captain Richard Sparks’ company. By his conduct he was soon made
a sergeant. He was in the habit of going out hunting. One day he
borrowed Captain Sparks’ elegant rifle, took a canoe and some
provisions and started on a several days hunt down the Mississippi.
Setton steered up the Arkansas and then joined Mason.” [12H]
«28» Nothing in the records indicates whether or not the officials
recognized the connection in the testimony given by the Masons and
Setton.
«29» Practically all the province of Louisiana, including New
Orleans, was transferred from France to Spain in 1769. Spain
secretly ceded the same territory to France September 1, 1800, but
the French did not take formal possession until November 30, 1803.
On April 30, 1803, or about seven months before this formality
was performed, Napoleon secretly sold Louisiana to the United
States and accordingly, December 20, 1803, at New Orleans, lower
Louisiana was formally transferred to the American Republic, and
March 9, 1804, at St. Louis, the same ceremony took place for upper
Louisiana, which included New Madrid.
«30» Under what circumstances Mason was trapped by May and Setton
and whether or not he really knew by whom he was snared has not
been ascertained. Mrs. William Anthony, in her letter to Draper,
states that on one occasion when Mason and his party were crossing
the Mississippi River, May was acting as ferryman and “Mason said
the others might all go over first and he would remain till last.
When all were over but Mason, May returned for him, and as Mason
was alone with his bag of money, May killed him and took the head
to Natchez.”
Audubon, in one of his _Journals_ under the head of “Regulators”
gives another version: “At last a body of Regulators undertook, at
great peril, and for the sake of the country, to bring the villain
to punishment.... One day as he was riding a beautiful horse in
the woods he was met by one of the Regulators, who immediately
recognized him, but passed him as if an utter stranger. Mason, not
dreaming of danger, pursued his way leisurely, as if he had met no
one.... At dusk, Mason, having reached the lowest part of a ravine,
no doubt well known to him, hoppled (tied together the forelegs of)
his stolen horse, to enable it to feed during the night without
chance of straying far, and concealed himself in a hollow log
to spend the night. The plan was good but proved his ruin. The
Regulator, who knew every hill and hollow of the woods, marked the
place and the log with the eye of an experienced hunter, and as he
remarked that Mason was most efficiently armed, he galloped off to
the nearest house where he knew he should find assistance. This was
easily procured, and the party proceeded to the spot. Mason, on
being attacked, defended himself with desperate valor; and as it
proved impossible to secure him alive he was brought to the ground
with a rifle ball. His head was cut off, and stuck on the end of
a broken branch of a tree, by the nearest road to the place where
the affray happened. The gang soon dispersed, in consequence of the
loss of their leader, and this infliction of merited punishment
proved beneficial in deterring others from following a similar
predatory life.”
Such may have been the end of one of the sons of Mason. There
is nothing in history or tradition connecting this act of the
Regulators with the career of Samuel Mason.
«31» All the early records prove beyond a doubt that John Setton
and Wiley Harpe or “Little” Harpe were one and the same man. A few
of the later writers confuse May and Setton and, apparently as a
result of a superficial knowledge of the careers of these outlaws,
state that Wiley Harpe had assumed the name of one May.
«32» The counsel for the defense evidently objected to the
jurisdiction of the court, claiming that the alleged “robberies
by Mason’s men” did not occur within the bounds of Mississippi
Territory. The question of jurisdiction is commented on in two of
the letters written in 1804 by Thomas Rodney to Caesar A. Rodney.
[52]
«33» Greenville, originally called Hunston, was an important town
on the old Natchez Trace. It lay about twenty-five miles northeast
of Natchez, and was a thriving village as early as 1798, when the
United States took possession of Mississippi Territory. A number
of the state’s wealthiest and most aristocratic pioneers lived
in or near the town. In 1825 the seat of justice was moved from
Greenville to Fayette and soon thereafter the old town passed out
of existence. The site of old Greenville has been under cultivation
for many years. The court house and the jail stood in what is now
known as “Courthouse Field.”
The city of Greenville, Mississippi, on the Mississippi River,
which was established long after old Greenville became an extinct
town, is a thriving place of more than 10,000 inhabitants.
«34» What became of Mason’s men is not known. A frontier rowdy
named Edward Rose is described in Washington Irving’s Astoria.
Lyman C. Draper wrote on the fly-leaf of his copy of this book that
“Rose was probably one of Mason’s gang.”
«35» Finley says Philip Alston was born in South Carolina and in
early manhood became “a full grown counterfeiter.” After living
in Natchez and “attaining to the highest respectability ... his
avaricious eye rested on a golden image of the Savior, in the
Catholic Church, ... and he went immediately and counterfeited some
coins from it.” He fled from Natchez to Kentucky and settled in
Logan County, where he established a salt works and store at Moat’s
Lick. While running these he managed the Cedar House, a tavern near
Russellville. He also farmed, preached, and taught school, and
incidentally “flooded the country with spurious money.” Thus he
became, “not only the first farmer, manufacturer, and merchant, but
he established the first depot of exchange and the first bank, and
also the first mint in western Kentucky.” About 1788, “the whole
people rose up in their majesty and banished him.” He next appeared
in Livingston and Henderson counties and then fled to Cave-in-Rock.
After a short stay at the Cave he returned to Natchez where “he
found his old enemies, who became his fast friends. He rose in the
estimation of the Spaniards until he was appointed an _empresidio_
of Mexico, when in the midst of his success and returning fortune
death stepped in and sealed his fate.”
Finley, who never cites authorities, states that “Peter Alston,
Philip Alston’s youngest son, became an outlaw and robber, and
joined Mason’s band at Cave-in-the-Rock and was allied to the
Harpes, and with one of the Harpes was executed at Washington,
Mississippi ... for the killing of his chief, Mason, for the
reward.” No records have been found that contradict any of Finley’s
statements, except the one to the effect that Peter Alston killed
Samuel Mason.
Nancy Huston Banks in her novel _’Round Anvil Rock_ presents Philip
Alston as a kind but mysterious gentleman who, although generally
trusted by the community, is regarded by some with suspicion
because of his frequent absences and ever-replenished supply of
imported cloth, laces, and jewelry. In the novel Alston refers to
Jean Lafitte as “my resepected and trusted friend,” and admits that
he, Alston, makes business trips to Duff’s Fort, near Cave-in-Rock,
although “it was no longer a secret that regular stations of
outlawry were firmly established between Natchez on the one side
and Duff’s Fort on the other.”