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.