“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.”