Then followed the trials of “Betsey Roberts, spinster,” and “Sally Harpe, spinster,” both of whom were found “not guilty of the murder aforesaid.” No depositions or other records of the proceedings of these three trials can now be found among the various old documents still preserved in the Logan County Court House. The women were liberated and the act seems to have met the approval of the public.
Major Stewart, in his capacity as sheriff, had many opportunities to talk to his prisoners. Some of the incidents in their lives could not have failed to touch the heart of any man, especially when heard from the lips of the women themselves. Forty years after the Harpe women had been captured, an interview with him on the subject was arranged to procure facts for publication. From this interview we quote:
“Major Stewart said the women seemed grateful to him, and related with apparent candor the story of their lives and their connection with the Harpes. They told him that their husbands had once been put in jail in Knoxville, Tennessee, upon suspicion of crime, when they were innocent; when released, they declared war against all mankind, and determined to murder and rob until they were killed. They said they might have escaped after the murder and robbery at Stegall’s, but for the detention at the branch where Smith was shot. Big Harpe, expecting to be pursued, proposed that the three children be killed, that the others might flee without that encumbrance. His two wives and brother consented after some discussion, but the wife of Little Harpe took her child off to the branch where she had seen a projecting, shelving rock, under which she placed it, and lay down at its outer side, determined to remain and die with her child. As her husband came to the branch to let her know they had concluded to put the children to death, he saw Smith, the horse hunter, approaching. He moved toward him, and sounded the shrill whistle on his ‘charger’—the understood signal of impending danger. Big Harpe almost in a moment made his appearance at the branch mounted on Love’s mare, when the firing commenced. Smith was shot down and the Harpes fled. Big Harpe did not go directly to the camp, but circled around it, fearing the pursuers might already have taken it. These sudden and unexpected events saved the lives of the children by allowing no time for their execution. Little Harpe’s wife and child hastily returned to the camp, when the firing took place a little distance below the shelving rock, and were made prisoners with the wives and children of Big Harpe.” [[28]]
The same delay that resulted in the capture and death of Big Harpe brought about a great change in the lives of the Harpe women. But Major Stewart, in the interview given forty years after the women had been in his charge, evidently was somewhat mistaken in some of the details and in the identity of some of the characters he recalled. There never were more than three Harpe children and all of them were born in the Danville jail. We have seen how the child of Little Harpe’s wife was killed a few weeks before the women were arrested and taken to Henderson; it is later shown what became of Big Harpe’s children, both of whom were with their mothers in the Russellville jail. It is quite likely that when Big Harpe realized the pursuers were close at hand, he proposed that the children be killed and that then Little Harpe’s wife took the two infants and “determined to remain and die” with them. A few weeks before, she had seen her own child cruelly murdered by Big Harpe, and probably had, ever since, awaited a chance to escape from the violence and villainy of the lives led by the Harpes. She doubtless concluded it would be far better for her and the two infants to fall into the hands of the pursuers than to kill the infants, even though the killing of them would relieve the five Harpes of an encumbrance which they considered sufficient to interfere with their escape. At any rate, the desire of Little Harpe’s wife to free herself, combined with her effort to save the two infants, exercising itself as it did at this critical moment, delayed the attempt to escape and resulted in the capture and killing of Big Harpe.[15]
The Harpes—Mysteries and Fate of Survivors
Big Harpe was dead, Little Harpe had vanished into the wilderness and the women had again been spared through public sympathy with their apparent helplessness and misfortunes. What was to become of them and of Little Harpe and of the seven determined men who had run down the gigantic monster? How were these men rewarded for their heroism? The records, hunted down with the utmost patience, constitute a new story in which mystery, tragedy, suspicion and pathos all enter to bring about poetic justice. It enables us also to get closer to these terrible personalities.
First as to the seven avengers. On December 16, 1799, the Kentucky Legislature passed “An Act directing the payment of money to John Leiper and others.” The preamble stated that “Micajah Harpe, a notorious offender” had committed “the most unheard of murders” and the Governor on April 22, had offered a reward of three hundred dollars “for the apprehension of said Harpe.” It recites its enactment because “sundry good citizens ... were, while in the attempt to apprehend him, reduced to the necessity of slaying him,” and further declares by its enactment all doubt as to the right of these men to the reward is removed. The money was ordered paid to “John Leiper, James Tompkins, Silas McBee, Mathew Christian, Moses Stegall, Neville Lindsey, and William Gresham ... one hundred of which shall be appropriated to the said John Leiper, and the residue to be equally divided among the others.”
The second clause shows that “Alexander M’Farling, John M’Farling, Daniel M’Farling, and Robert White, who from motives of public good incurred very considerable expense and toil in the pursuit of the said Harpe and his associates ... be allowed one hundred and fifty dollars.” These four men probably lived near Danville, and, as previously noted, had been appointed by the governor to take charge of the Harpes should they be found “in any adjacent state.”
Five of the men who captured and killed Big Harpe fared well. Tompkins and Matthew Christian continued to live in Henderson County, where they died old and highly respected citizens. William Grissom, about 1810, moved to southern Illinois where he continued the life of a well-to-do farmer. Neville Lindsey was identified with the development of west Tennessee. Squire Silas McBee opened up a plantation in Pontotoc County, Mississippi, and ranked among the best and most prominent men in that state. It was there, in 1841, he met the historian Draper, to whom he supplied much data relative to King’s Mountain and also the facts used for his “Sketch of the Harpes.”