One absurd tradition has it that James Ford’s first wife was a sister of Murrell, and another is to the effect that both Ford and his wife were related to Mason, Murrell, and the Harpes.

[41] An exhaustive search through the fiction printed during the first part of last century probably would result in finding all the Cave-in-Rock tales referred to by early writers.

Henry R. Schoolcraft visited the Cave in 1818 and in his Personal Memoirs commented that “as a scene of a tale of imaginative robber-life it appeared to me to possess great attractions.” Later in his book entitled The Indian in His Wigwam he adds: “The Cave’s associations of the early robber era ... have been commemorated by the pen of fiction of Charles Brockden Brown.” In 1834 Charles Fenno Hoffman writes that “its peculiar form has suggested one of the most agreeable tales to an admired Western writer.” Edmund Flagg, in The Far West, written in 1836, states that murdering and boat robbing perpetrated at the Cave by Samuel Mason and his band “has suggested a spirited tale from a popular writer.”

Judge James Hall wrote for a number of magazines. Among his articles may be one on the outlaws at Cave-in-Rock, or a story in which he pictures the activities of the Harpes, the Masons, and others during their stay there. My search for any of his Cave sketches has been fruitless.

Index

Transcriber’s Notes

Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a predominant preference was found in the original book; otherwise they were not changed.

Spelling errors and inconsistencies within quoted passages have not been changed.

Simple typographical errors were corrected; unbalanced quotation marks were remedied when the change was obvious, and otherwise left unbalanced.