Dated Lexington, Kentucky, September 10, 1799, and published in the Carolina Gazette, Charleston, S. C., October 24, 1799
Thus ended the career of “one of the most brutal monsters of the human race.” And Little Harpe, having escaped the pursuers, resumed elsewhere, as we shall see later, his life of outlawry. The capture of Big Harpe is briefly described by Breazeale, Collins, Hall, and a few other historians, but none goes into details as does Draper in the sketch quoted. Each of these writers, however, presents some circumstance not mentioned by the others. Some writers say Big Harpe made a confession before he was killed; others are absolutely silent on that feature, neither affirming nor denying it. Local tradition, the current newspapers, and Breazeale are among those who state that Big Harpe made a confession. It is more than probable that he did. The Kentucky Gazette of September 5, 1799, prints a statement to the effect that he confessed to killing about twenty people. Colonel G. W. Sevier, about 1840, recalled the number as about thirty-one. [[12G]] The number of their victims noted in this sketch up to the death of Big Harpe is twenty-eight, exclusive of the Triswords of whom there were probably about ten.
The report that Big Harpe had been captured and beheaded and that Little Harpe had escaped spread rapidly throughout Kentucky and Tennessee, and was soon verified by the state press. Among the newspapers beyond the boundaries of these two states that announced this news was The Carolina Gazette, of Charleston, which, in its issue of October 24, 1799, published a paragraph on the subject, dated Lexington, Kentucky, September 10, which is here reproduced in facsimile.
History and local tradition have it that Big Harpe was killed in Muhlenberg County, two miles west of Unity Baptist Church [[110]] near what has since been known as Harpe’s Hill. An oak tree four feet in diameter, which until 1910 stood about a hundred yards from Pond River on the old Slab Road leading from Harpe’s Hill to “Free Henry” Ford, was always pointed out as the tree under which Big Harpe was beheaded and his headless corpse lay until it was devoured by wild animals. On the south slope of Harpe’s Hill, about a mile and a half east of Pond River and a few steps off the road leading to “Free Henry” Ford, is a large isolated rock known as Harpe’s “House.” It was at this so-called “rock house” that the Harpes were camping when overtaken by the pursuers. [[109]]
After Big Harpe had been disposed of and the women held as prisoners, the pursuers began their victorious march to Robertson’s Lick, a distance of some thirty-five miles, there to display the head and to warn Little Harpe and all other outlaws what to expect should they attempt any depredations. Draper, as we have already seen, states that before the men started on their return, Stegall placed the severed head in one end of a wallet and some articles of corresponding weight in the other end and then swung it across his horse. The same historian, in one of his note books, wrote: “Big Harpe’s wife was made to carry the head by the hair some distance; while slinging it along she kept muttering, ‘damn the head!’” [[12G]] Another account is that the men, knowing they would be obliged to camp out for the night and require more food than still remained, took some roasting ears from a field along the route and having no other means of carrying them, put them unhusked into the bag with Big Harpe’s head. Later, when the corn was taken out and prepared for supper, one of the men refused to eat “because it had been put into the bag with Harpe’s head.” [[21]]
The head was carried to the neighborhood where the two Harpes had committed their last crime. Authors vary somewhat in the details of just how this gruesome object was displayed as a warning to outlaws, but all agree that it was put up by the side of the highway (about three miles north of what later became the town of Dixon) near the forks of the road running south from Henderson, one branch of which extended to Marion and Eddyville and the other to Madisonville and Russellville, Kentucky. The old road became known as Harpe’s Head Road, and its successor, the Henderson and Madisonville Pike, still bears that name.[12]
The captors had traveled about thirty-five miles before they reached the spot decided upon as the most fitting place to display the head. Continuing their journey some twenty miles further they arrived in Henderson and there placed the three women in “the little log dungeon, then located on the river bank near the present bridge”—the railroad bridge erected in 1885. [[124]] About a week later they were taken to the court house for trial. The minute book of the Court of Quarter Sessions briefly shows, on pages 4 and 5, what disposition was made of them by that court, an exact copy of which is here given as extracted from the records in the curious courthouse jargon of that day:
“At a Court of Quarter Sessions called and held for the County of Henderson on Wednesday the 4th day of September, 1799, for the examination of Susanna Harpe, Sally Harpe, and Betsey Roberts, committed to the jail of this county for being parties in the murder of Mary Stegall, James Stegall an infant, and William Love at the house of Moses Stegall in this County and in burning his house and robbing and stealing the horses, goods and effects of the said Moses Stegall on the night of the 20th day of August last.
“Present Samuel Hopkins and Abraham Landers Esquires.
“The said prisoners were set to the bar in custody of the Sheriff of this County and being charged with the felony aforesaid denied the fact sundry witnesses were thereupon sworn and examined and the said prisoners heard in their defence by their att’e on consideration whereof it is the opinion of the Court that the said prisoners are guilty of the facts charged against them and that they ought to be tried for the same before the Judges of the District Court holden at Logan Courthouse on the first day of their next October Court, and it is therefore ordered that the said prisoners be remanded to the jail from whence they came there to remain until removed by due course of law.
“John Leiper, Nevil Lindsey, Matthew Christian, and Isham Sellers severally acknowledged themselves indebted to his Excellency James Garrard Esquire, Governor of this Commonwealth in the sum of fifty pounds each to be levied on their lands and tenements goods and chattels respectively and to our said Governor and his successors rendered in case they fail to appear as Witnesses, on behalf of the Commonwealth before the Judges of the District Court holden at Logan Courthouse on the first day of their next October Term, and then and there give evidence against Susannah Harpe, Sally Harpe, and Betsey Roberts charged with felony.
“(Signed) Sam Hopkins.”[13]
A search recently made for details regarding this examining or preliminary trial resulted in the finding of a bundle of papers labeled “1799,” in which were discovered four depositions pertaining to the arrest of the Harpe women. They were made September 4, by the four men who on that day were put under bond to appear at the trial in Russellville, to which place the case was ordered for trial. These old documents substantiate the statements made by Squire McBee to Lyman C. Draper who wove them, with other details, into his account of the capture of the Harpes. The depositions show that Moses Stegall arrived at Robertson’s Lick on August 22, 1799, to procure volunteers to join in the chase.
Matthew Christian in his testimony recites that immediately after Stegall came to Robertson’s Lick with the news of the murder he started for Stegall’s farm and became fully convinced that the report with all its terrible details was true. He then proceeded to Grissom’s house, which had been designated as a rallying point, preparatory to going to Squire McBee’s the following morning. Although it was not known that Grissom’s family had left home and gone to McBee’s to remain during the proposed pursuit, the men, nevertheless, met at this designated place “where they tarried all night.” Christian “found a paper fas’d to the door of Wm. Grayson’s [Grissom’s] house, signed by Silas Magby and directed to Moses Stegall in the following words: ‘Come to my house without delay,’ and a jacket hanging up at the said door supposed by the company to belong to Major William Love. That he from there went to Silas Magby’s in company with John Leiper, Nevil Lindsey, and Moses Stegall, that on their way to Magby’s he heard a gun go off which he supposed was fired by one of the prisoners who had committed the felony.” This note was apparently a forgery and shows that the Harpes had planned to kill Stegall; and since it is more than likely that the outlaws had already started on their flight, this attempt to waylay Stegall indicates that the Harpes must have been associated with some accomplice living in the neighborhood, with whom they prearranged this move.