He was expert and dexterous in everything he engaged, but, as time developed, with an ultimate object of fraudulent gain in one way or the other. He was a scholar, yet this capacity only enabled him to attain greater heights of rascality with less liability of detection. Politeness, civility, and the most consummate of gentlemanly airs he could assume when his nefarious purposes could be best served by so doing. He was cruel, but not brave. It is said that the sister of his now brother-in-law received cruel treatment from him in youth; and for years this brother-in law determinedly bore it in mind, and at maturity beat Shoemake unmercifully for the same. This is a case with one man that Shoemake childishly dreaded ever afterward.
But his wife, formally called Muggy Worbington, was made of different material. She was brave sure enough, which was sufficiently evidenced on a number of occasions; one of which was in making two men, who had before vehemently offended her, jump precipitately into the river from a flat to avoid the contents of a revolver which was too resolutely presented to be mistaken.
And again, in the malignant feud between the Shoemake and Fisher family, which culminated in a pitched battle with shot-guns and pistols, near a brickyard, half a mile north of old Marion, Lauderdale county, Miss., in the fall of 1844, or early in 1845. Shoemake and his wife against Fisher and two sons, William and Theophilous. The fire from the Fisher family was too hot and severe for Shoemake; he left in haste and deserted his wife, who fought inch by inch with unfaltering fortitude until shot down by the greater opposing force with which she was in conflict.
Shoemake, before leaving Kemper county, made intimations as if disposed to divulge the interesting historical part of his life; and, at the same time, in reference to the tremendous disaster he sustained on the trial of Dr. Pitts; made significant remarks of a double meaning, but really of a nature to warrant the impression that the publisher of the Life and Career of Copeland would pass off this stage of existence, which would be certain to leave mystery behind for future contemplation.
Shoemake resided in and around Kemper county for a number of years. His conduct was always suspicious, but his address, his ingenuity, and his whole movements were so profoundly managed as to evade penal detection. Years had to elapse to fully develop the man for anything like a common consent as to his real Character. It but required time to satisfy the judgment of all that he tainted everything he touched. And this is the man who was so sensitive because Copeland confessed him to be “a big dog among the clan.”
THE TWO HARDENS AND THE MURDER OF SHERIFF SMITH.
The names of the two Hardens were given by Copeland as forming a part of the clan. More about them has since been collected, which will now be read with interest.
About the year 1853 John Harden, from the State of Alabama, stole a fine animal, buggy and negro man, and succeeded in getting them safely to Marion county, Miss., where his mother resided. The Sheriff, Mr. Smith, from the county in Alabama where said property was stolen from, pursued Harden, and on reaching this State, Mississippi, he employed the services of Philip James, of Greene county, to accompany him. Finding Harden in the night at his mother’s, he was by them taken on surprise, but made a desperate resistance, though being overpowered, was compelled to surrender. The horse, buggy and negro man were all found. Sheriff Smith had Harden confined within the buggy, and the negro man ordered to ride the horse. On returning, and when they reached the residence of Philip James, Sheriff Smith made no further request on Mr. James, and thought he could then manage without any further assistance. Accordingly they started, but shortly after they had crossed Chickasahay river the Sheriff was killed—appearances indicating that he had been beaten to death by a club. But whether by Harden or the negro man, none ever were able to ascertain. The buggy was rolled off under a hill. The horses and the two persons made their escape for the time being. Nothing positively definite, but the report followed that in some six or eight months afterward Harden was apprehended by Smith’s friends, and by lynch operations finished his career by being hung to the limb of a tree.
His brother, also mentioned by Copeland, who married a daughter of Gideon Rustin, was hung in Columbia, Mississippi, about the year 1843, for the murder of his wife. Immediately after the murder, he made his escape, and got into the State of Georgia, where he remained for some months; but subsequently returned and gave himself up to the sheriff, but had not been long in prison till he broke out, and would probably made his escape, but was captured by some parties in a boat near by while he was in the act of swimming Pearl river.
John Harden was a powerful man, not only in physical strength, but also in determined energies and resolution. Years ago, it is said that he and Hampton H. Nichols, of Perry county Mississippi, disagreed—followed by a fight betwixt the two in the usual manner, and that Harden came out the best; although, for nerve and surpassing strength, it was before thought that Nichols had not a superior. Thus, one by one do the members of the “clan” drop into eternity by violent and unnatural terminations.