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Footnotes

1 Charles Alexander Lesueur (1778–1857) French naturalist and artist, was a member of Robert Dale Owen’s communal colony at New Harmony, Indiana, forty miles northeast of the cave. His drawing of Cave-in-Rock has never been published except in a doctoral thesis by Mme. Adrien Loir entitled, Charles Alexandre Lesueur, artiste et savant Français en Amérique de 1816 a 1839; issued in 1920 by Museum d’Histoire Naturelle, Le Havre. In this thesis are reproduced forty of Lesueur’s drawings.

2 The first, and in a sense the only standard guide book of this kind ever published, was Zadok Cramer’s The Ohio and Mississippi Navigator. It made its appearance about 1801 and was followed by a number of revised and enlarged editions until 1824, when the last edition was printed. It was practically the only printed guide for flatboats.

3 Conflict with pirates, cut-throats, and counterfeiters was only one of the perils to which the boatmen were exposed on their long and trying trips into the western wilds. Floating ice, heavy winds and rains, treacherous currents, hidden bars, and large snags were among the natural dangers that constantly engaged the attention of the steersman. Many boats, managed by careless or inexperienced men, were overturned, the craft and cargo damaged or lost, and, as was frequently the case, some or all on board drowned. Poorly constructed boats were put out of commission after meeting with only a few minor obstacles.

4 Prior to about 1824 Harpe was spelled Harp.

5 After killing Langford the Harpes probably continued to travel along the Wilderness Road until they reached Crab Orchard, from which place radiated, besides the Wilderness Road to Cumberland Gap, at least four other routes: the Louisville route, the Frankfort and Cincinnati route, passing Logan’s Fort (or Stanford) Danville, and Harrodsburg, the Maysville route, and the Tennessee route. Crab Orchard, being a converging point of roads, many travelers going east waited there until a crowd of a dozen or more was organized, thus assuring each a greater safety in making the trip through the Wilderness. Settlers passing through the Wilderness going west usually left home in a crowd sufficiently large to protect itself. ¹²³ Langford, as is shown later, met the five Harpes in the Wilderness and, notwithstanding their appearance, he doubtless felt that they would at least serve as protection in the event of danger. The Harpes, after killing Langford, probably passed through Crab Orchard and continued northwest via the Frankfort road, toward Stanford and in or near Stanford turned west for the purpose of misleading anyone who might pursue them as that course threw them toward both Tennessee and western Kentucky.

6 In 1799 Stanford was a frontier settlement of less than 200 persons, including slaves. In 1780, when Lincoln County was formed, Logan’s Fort or St. Asaph’s became the seat of justice. In 1787 (on land presented by Colonel Benjamin Logan, a site about half a mile east of the fort, where the brick court house now stands) the county erected a log court house thirty feet long and twenty feet wide, with a small jury room on each side, the structure forming a T. Near it stood a log jail of two rooms, each twelve feet square.²⁸ In these log buildings the Harpes were tried and confined.

7 A perusal of the accounts kept by Joseph Welsh, the sheriff of Lincoln County, reveals many interesting facts. John Gower against the Commonwealth of Kentucky runs: “For making a pair of handcuffs for Wiley Roberts 9s. And putting on and taking off when committed and before trial 2s. 6d. To putting on and taking off the handcuffs after trial and before removal to the District jail 2s. 6d.,” making a total of 14s. For this same service on Micajah Roberts, Gower received, respectively 2s. 6d., 1s. 3d., and 1s. 3d., a total of only 5s.

The sheriff received the following sums: “For summoning a court for the examination” of the five prisoners, £1. 5s. “For summoning twelve witnesses vs. Micajah Roberts and others, at 1s. 3d. each, 15s.” “For imprisoning, 2s. 6d., keeping in jail 10 days at 1s. a day, 10s., Removing to District jail, 7s. 6d., total 20s.,” making a total of £5.

Another bill presented by the sheriff was for eight men guarding the five prisoners in the Lincoln County jail for fourteen days at 4s. 6d. each per day, making a total of £25. 4s. The last bill shows he paid seven of the guards “for one day and traveling twenty miles in removing the above prisoners to the District jail and returning at 2d. per mile, 6s. 4d. [sic]” making a total of £2. 4s. 4d.

The total of all these accounts is a little more than £35. or what would today be about $175.00.

8 Danville, in 1799, with a population of a little over 200, was one of the most important towns in Kentucky. In 1784 the court authorized the building of “a log house large enough for a court room in one end, and two jury rooms in the other end on the same floor... and a prison of hewed or sawed logs at least nine inches thick.” ⁸² The buildings were still in use when the Harpes were taken there to await trial.

9 The account of the Danville jailer shows that the two men had been confined 71 days, Sally and Betsey 102 days, and Susanna 103 days, for which a charge of 1s. per day for each was made; 449 days £22. 9s. In the same record is a memorandum to the effect that the three infants had been in jail 69, 43, and 9 days, or a total of 121 days. The jailer evidently intended to make a charge for this item, but there are no figures to indicate the contemplated amount. Four men for guarding the jail 103 days received a total of £6. 6s. An item shows: “April 12, 21¾ cords wood from the 5th of January until this day for the use of guards, court, and prisoners @ 6 [sic] cutting the wood for the above, 2s. 6d., £2. 14s. 4d.” The total of the three items is £31. 9s. 4d. The seven Danville items previously noted amount to £5. 7s. 11d. This makes the Danville expense a grand total of £36. 17s. 3d., or what would today be about $185.00. This, with the $175.00 Stanford account makes a grand total of the now known expense items a sum that would today be about $360.00.

10 A special act of the Kentucky legislature was passed and 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.”

36 Duff secured metal from the veins of lead ore on the Saline and, as it contained a little silver, he separated the silver from the lead as best he could and made counterfeit coins. In this connection the author of A History of Union County, Kentucky, further comments:
“The traditions of Duff’s great wealth have acted upon many of the citizens of Caseyville much as the tales of Captain Kidd’s plunder affected the inhabitants of Long Island. Youthful imaginations have been inflamed with thoughts of the fabulous wealth stored away in some cavern along the Caseyville cliffs. Many a ramble has turned into a search for the caves in that vicinity, but so far as the public knows, none of them has ever eventuated in any discoveries.”

36a Sturdevant’s stockaded fort stood on the long bluff immediately above what later became the town of Rosiclare, Illinois, and commanded a good view of the Ohio. Dr. Daniel Lawrence, of Golconda, saw the ruins of the Sturdevant house as late as 1876. The place had then been in a dilapidated condition for some time, but enough remained to show that in its day it was a substantial log structure, a story and a half high, with three rooms on the ground floor, including a log L on the north side. Digging into some of the old logs, he discovered many small holes made by bullets. A new stone quarry was in operation at the time of his visit and he was present when a blast blew out of a crevice a set of dies for making counterfeit half dollars. The foreman took the plates home for souvenirs, but their whereabouts is now unknown.

37 The Chicago Times published an article July 17, 1879, entitled “Hell on the Ohio,” which, in 1888, was republished in The Life of Logan Belt, a book by Shadrack L. Jackson, who then lived in the village of Cave-in-Rock. This distorted account of Ford is here reprinted as an example of one of the many absurd and almost groundless stories that have gained wide circulation:

“Not far from Cave-in-Rock is Ford’s Ferry, which gets its name from a man who was one of the noted criminals of pioneer history. He lived on the Kentucky side about two miles above Cave-in-Rock and was ostensibly a farmer, owning a large tract of land. He also kept a hotel. Ford was always surrounded by a gang of desperate men, highwaymen and murderers, and, while nothing was ever proved on him, he was looked upon as equal to his companions in guilt. He was a robber of flatboats and of emigrants. Dead bodies were found near his house, and isolated and freshly made graves were discovered in that neighborhood. Men were known to start West with a little money, to locate, and were never after heard of. Their friends would inquire, follow them to Ford’s and there lose all traces of them. It was one of his habits to cut down trees and obstruct the road to rival ferries, until the owners would be compelled to quit and leave, thinking retaliation only a means of provoking death. But Ford brought on himself the penalty of his lawlessness.

“An old feud existed between him and the father-in-law of a man named Simpson, and Ford killed his enemy. Simpson gathered a crowd of friends and went armed to Ford’s house for the purpose of killing him. They found him on the Illinois side loading a boat. He knew at once why they had come, begged for his life and appealed for protection to one of their number, Jonathan Brown by name. Brown was touched by the appeal and interceded for the terrified man. The plea was so far successful that the crowd waited two or three hours, but when darkness came, they took him out and shot him dead when he was begging hardest to be spared. It is said that none of the crowd proper did the shooting, but that Simpson compelled his negro to do the deed.”

38 It may be proper here to record that descendants of James Ford, like the descendants of other crude but strong pioneer stock, rose to deserved prominence in the business and social life of several western cities. The family is scattered, but the respect its members command and the success they have achieved bears testimony to the strain of ability and energy inherent in the blood. It leads also to deeper consideration of one of the theories in the Ford’s Ferry mystery, that James Ford was perhaps a victim of circumstances growing out of his peculiar personality in a dangerous surrounding.

39 The crime was committed in that part of Gallatin County which in 1839 (when Hardin County was formed out of parts of Gallatin and Pope counties) became the eastern portion of Hardin. Previous to the organization of Hardin, Cave-in-Rock was a “corner” at the southern extremity of the line separating the two original counties.

40 The fact that the names Murrell and Mason sound somewhat alike is sometimes the cause of confusion. For example, occasionally one hears that Little Harpe cut off the head of Murrell, whereas Harpe was hanged when Murrell was four or five years old.

On a map of the Ohio, compiled 1911–14 under the supervision of the Ohio River Board of Engineers on Locks and Dams, Cave-in-Rock is erroneously designated Merrell’s [sic] Cave.

One absurd tradition has it that James Ford’s first wife was a sister of Murrell, and another is to the effect that both Ford and his wife were related to Mason, Murrell, and the Harpes.

41 An exhaustive search through the fiction printed during the first part of last century probably would result in finding all the Cave-in-Rock tales referred to by early writers.

Henry R. Schoolcraft visited the Cave in 1818 and in his Personal Memoirs commented that “as a scene of a tale of imaginative robber-life it appeared to me to possess great attractions.” Later in his book entitled The Indian in His Wigwam he adds: “The Cave’s associations of the early robber era... have been commemorated by the pen of fiction of Charles Brockden Brown.” In 1834 Charles Fenno Hoffman writes that “its peculiar form has suggested one of the most agreeable tales to an admired Western writer.” Edmund Flagg, in The Far West, written in 1836, states that murdering and boat robbing perpetrated at the Cave by Samuel Mason and his band “has suggested a spirited tale from a popular writer.”

Judge James Hall wrote for a number of magazines. Among his articles may be one on the outlaws at Cave-in-Rock, or a story in which he pictures the activities of the Harpes, the Masons, and others during their stay there. My search for any of his Cave sketches has been fruitless.

Note

Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a predominant preference was found in the original book; otherwise they were not changed.

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