Audubon, in one of his Journals under the head of “Regulators” gives another version: “At last a body of Regulators undertook, at great peril, and for the sake of the country, to bring the villain to punishment.... One day as he was riding a beautiful horse in the woods he was met by one of the Regulators, who immediately recognized him, but passed him as if an utter stranger. Mason, not dreaming of danger, pursued his way leisurely, as if he had met no one.... At dusk, Mason, having reached the lowest part of a ravine, no doubt well known to him, hoppled (tied together the forelegs of) his stolen horse, to enable it to feed during the night without chance of straying far, and concealed himself in a hollow log to spend the night. The plan was good but proved his ruin. The Regulator, who knew every hill and hollow of the woods, marked the place and the log with the eye of an experienced hunter, and as he remarked that Mason was most efficiently armed, he galloped off to the nearest house where he knew he should find assistance. This was easily procured, and the party proceeded to the spot. Mason, on being attacked, defended himself with desperate valor; and as it proved impossible to secure him alive he was brought to the ground with a rifle ball. His head was cut off, and stuck on the end of a broken branch of a tree, by the nearest road to the place where the affray happened. The gang soon dispersed, in consequence of the loss of their leader, and this infliction of merited punishment proved beneficial in deterring others from following a similar predatory life.”
Such may have been the end of one of the sons of Mason. There is nothing in history or tradition connecting this act of the Regulators with the career of Samuel Mason.
[31] All the early records prove beyond a doubt that John Setton and Wiley Harpe or “Little” Harpe were one and the same man. A few of the later writers confuse May and Setton and, apparently as a result of a superficial knowledge of the careers of these outlaws, state that Wiley Harpe had assumed the name of one May.
[32] The counsel for the defense evidently objected to the jurisdiction of the court, claiming that the alleged “robberies by Mason’s men” did not occur within the bounds of Mississippi Territory. The question of jurisdiction is commented on in two of the letters written in 1804 by Thomas Rodney to Caesar A. Rodney. [[52]]
[33] Greenville, originally called Hunston, was an important town on the old Natchez Trace. It lay about twenty-five miles northeast of Natchez, and was a thriving village as early as 1798, when the United States took possession of Mississippi Territory. A number of the state’s wealthiest and most aristocratic pioneers lived in or near the town. In 1825 the seat of justice was moved from Greenville to Fayette and soon thereafter the old town passed out of existence. The site of old Greenville has been under cultivation for many years. The court house and the jail stood in what is now known as “Courthouse Field.”
The city of Greenville, Mississippi, on the Mississippi River, which was established long after old Greenville became an extinct town, is a thriving place of more than 10,000 inhabitants.
[34] What became of Mason’s men is not known. A frontier rowdy named Edward Rose is described in Washington Irving’s Astoria. Lyman C. Draper wrote on the fly-leaf of his copy of this book that “Rose was probably one of Mason’s gang.”
[35] Finley says Philip Alston was born in South Carolina and in early manhood became “a full grown counterfeiter.” After living in Natchez and “attaining to the highest respectability ... his avaricious eye rested on a golden image of the Savior, in the Catholic Church, ... and he went immediately and counterfeited some coins from it.” He fled from Natchez to Kentucky and settled in Logan County, where he established a salt works and store at Moat’s Lick. While running these he managed the Cedar House, a tavern near Russellville. He also farmed, preached, and taught school, and incidentally “flooded the country with spurious money.” Thus he became, “not only the first farmer, manufacturer, and merchant, but he established the first depot of exchange and the first bank, and also the first mint in western Kentucky.” About 1788, “the whole people rose up in their majesty and banished him.” He next appeared in Livingston and Henderson counties and then fled to Cave-in-Rock. After a short stay at the Cave he returned to Natchez where “he found his old enemies, who became his fast friends. He rose in the estimation of the Spaniards until he was appointed an empresidio of Mexico, when in the midst of his success and returning fortune death stepped in and sealed his fate.”
Finley, who never cites authorities, states that “Peter Alston, Philip Alston’s youngest son, became an outlaw and robber, and joined Mason’s band at Cave-in-the-Rock and was allied to the Harpes, and with one of the Harpes was executed at Washington, Mississippi ... for the killing of his chief, Mason, for the reward.” No records have been found that contradict any of Finley’s statements, except the one to the effect that Peter Alston killed Samuel Mason.
Nancy Huston Banks in her novel ’Round Anvil Rock presents Philip Alston as a kind but mysterious gentleman who, although generally trusted by the community, is regarded by some with suspicion because of his frequent absences and ever-replenished supply of imported cloth, laces, and jewelry. In the novel Alston refers to Jean Lafitte as “my resepected and trusted friend,” and admits that he, Alston, makes business trips to Duff’s Fort, near Cave-in-Rock, although “it was no longer a secret that regular stations of outlawry were firmly established between Natchez on the one side and Duff’s Fort on the other.”