| SPOUSE | CHILDREN | ||
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Maria Davidson aka Betsey Roberts unm. Blount Co. TN b. 1782? d. 1860's Hamilton Co. IL |
?James b. by 1790 ?KY d. after 1830 ?Cumberland Co. KY |
son b. Feb 1799 Danville, KY k. Jul? 1799 KY |
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Susan Wood aka Susannah Roberts m. Sep 5, 1797 Blount Co. TN b. 1781? AL d. TN |
Lovey (dtr) b. by Mar 16, 1799 Danville KY |
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Micajah's father and uncle knew a Revolutionary War soldier named Frank Wood,
and a Regulator named John Davidson. Micajah's two women, possibly kidnapped by
him, were a younger sister of Frank Wood and a daughter of Davidson [Musgrave,
1998]. |
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The Harpe cousins are believed to have fought under British General Ferguson at
the battle of King's Mountain in 1780.
Map of Western
Carolinas during the Revolution shows location of King's Mt. and Quaker Meadows,
where the Patriots assembled before the battle. |
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In 1781, the Harpes participated in the Indian attack on the Bluffs Station in
the Cumberland Settlement in Washington Co. NC.
Map of
the Cumberland Settlement in 1780. |
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Washington Co., previously Washington District, was formed by North Carolina in
1777 and extended west to the Mississippi River, mostly containing land inhabited
by five different tribes of Native Americans, but mostly Cherokee. In 1779, the
Cumberland Settlement was created by the granting of land by the NC government.
In 1783 this settlement was mostly contained in the newly formed Davidson Co. and
surrounded by Indian Lands, and Virginia and Kentucky to the North.
Map of
the Cumberland Settlements showing Forts, known as Stations, in present-day counties. |
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On Aug 19, 1782 the Harpes were part of a war party of Chickamauga Cherokee
Indians, supported by the British, to the Battle of Blue Licks in Kentucky,
claiming victory over a group of Patriot settlers. For the next dozen years,
they continued to live among the tribe in a village named Nickajack,
which was located near Chattanooga. |
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On Jun 1, 1797 cousin Wiley Harpe married Sally Rice, the
daughter of Baptist minister John Rice. Wiley (known as "Little Harpe") and Micajah
shared 3 different women as wives while committing crimes between 1797 and 1799.
The women had children, including one that was killed by Micajah for being a bother,
and were briefly jailed but were set free and were said to have lived regular lives
afterwards. |
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On Christmas day 1798 Wiley Harpe, Micajah, and
their three very pregnant women were arrested for the murder of Thomas Langford,
whom they had met in Crab Orchard KY. They were jailed at Stanford KY and indicted
on Jan 4, 1799. After all five were transferred to Danville KY, Maria ("Betsey")
had a son at the start of Feb 1799 and Susan had a daughter about a month later. |
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On Mar 16, 1799, the two Harpe fathers escaped leaving their women and two
children behind. On Apr 8, the third woman, Sally, gave birth to a son. The three
women were tried and acquitted. |
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In Apr 1799, 32 year old Frederick Stump Jr., son of
Frederick Stump became the latest victim of
the outlaws known as the Harpe Brothers. On Apr 22, the Governor of Kentucky
issued a $300 reward "on each of the Harpe's heads" and one of the Harpes, Micajah,
was soon captured by bounty hunters and his head hung on the Wilderness Trail in
Warren Co. KY, where Frederick and his wife, Anna Maria ("Mary") lived. |
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The "Harpe brothers" went on the run after bounties were placed on their heads
by the Kentucky Governor but were still able to reunite with their families in
Illinois. They then went on a killing spree that spanned from Knoxville TN to
Kentucky. One of the victims was Micajah's own son because he was annoying. They
briefly hid out with Samuel Mason's gang in Cave-In-Rock IL (on the Ohio River
across from KY). The Harps were forced by the gang to leave after they viciously
sent a man on a horse off a bluff to their deaths. The gang was soon forced to
leave and headed south [Webster Co. KY, website]. |
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In Kentucky, the cousins were tracked down by bounty hunters in Muhlenberg Co. KY
on Aug 24, 1799. Micajah Harpe was soon killed by the husband of one of their
victims. |
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Historical
marker in western KY 3 miles north of Dixon at the place, then along the
Wilderness Trail, where the severed head of Micajah Harpe was displayed after he
was caught and killed nearby. |
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Cousin Wiley Harpe, known as "Little Harpe", escaped the
bounty hunters in KY and fled down the Natchez Trace where he hoped to rejoin the
Samuel Mason Gang under an alias John Setton. He continued the crime spree with
a Mason Gang member Peter Alston, son of Philip
Alston. |
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Map of
the Natchez District as it may have looked between 1779 and 1799. |
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On May 16, 1801 John Stump, twin brother of
the Harpes' victim, married Rebecca Wilkins Hyde (1780-1853) in Davidson Co. TN. |
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On Sep 27, 1803, Micajah's widow Betsey married John Huffstutler, raised a
large family in Illinois and both died in the 1860s. |
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Miss. Territory Governor Claiborne raised the reward for capture of
Wiley Harpe to $500. Wiley was finally found in 1804
when he and Peter Alston tried to collect the reward, now over $2,000, for his
head with the head of gang leader Samuel Mason. He was recognized and the two
were imprisoned. |
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One month after Wiley Harpe was executed, on Mar 24, 1804,
John Stump, twin brother of the Harpes' murder
victim in 1799, claimed a lot in Natchez in the Mississippi Territory.
Lot no. 4, Square no. 26 in the town of Natchez was originally granted on Oct 3, 1795
to Louisa Higdon, the wife of
John Wylie. Louisa and John Wylie
deeded the lot to John Stump "of Davidson Co. Tennessee" [McBee, p. 450]. A niece
of John Stump was named Louisa Guice when she was born in 1807. |
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John Stump's son John and sister Anna's daughter
Louisa were both born after John and Louisa Wylie
deeded a Natchez lot to John Stump after the outlaw Wiley Harpe was
captured and the reward of over $2,000 claimed. The brothers of John Wylie and
John Stump could have been two of his victims. |
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In 1810 a "James Harper" was listed in the Claiborne Co. portion of the Claiborne
& Warren Co. MS Census on line 6 of
microfilm image 12.
He was a single head of household aged over 21 years old [MS Territory census
returns 1810, microfilm]. |
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In 1820 possible son "James Harper" was listed in the Cumberland Co. KY Census
on line 36 of
microfilm page 150.
He was head of a household of three young children and a wife younger than 26.
Next to him, on line 37, was a similar household of a William Ford
[familysearch.org, website, Cumberland Co. KY, 1820 Census, microfilm]. Many
members of the large family of
John S. Ford were in the Franklin Co. MS
census in 1816, including his son William who was born about 1788 and had a
wife born by 1795 and three children [Rowland, 1816 Franklin Co. Census].
James may have travelled up the Natchez Trace with William between 1816 and 1820.
James Harper is still in Cumberland Co. KY in 1830 but William Ford is not
[ancestry.com website] |
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Cumberland Co. KY was founded in 1798. It bordered Tennessee not far from
Nashville and the terminus of the Natchez Trace.
Modern map
showing the region. |
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Sources: Cumberland Compact, original document signed May 13, 1780, Washington County NC, website. Clayton, Prof. W.W., History of Davidson County Tennessee, reprod. 1971 by Charles Elder, Nashville TN. Cumberland Co. KY census 1820, familysearch.org website, microfilm, page 150. Drake, Doug, Jack Masters and Bill Puryear, Founding of the Cumberland Settlements, The First Atlas, 1779-1804, Warioto Press, 2009, pp. 23, map E7. Imbert, J. Leopold, map maker, Carte des Possessions Angloises... 1777, reprinted by the Museum of the American Revolution from map image at the Norman B. Leventhal Map Center, Boston Public Library. McBee, May Wilson, comp., "Land Claims", in Natchez Court Records, 1767-1805, Book F, p.21, Book D, pp. 450, 458. McBee, May Wilson, comp., Natchez Court Records, 1767-1805, Greenwood MS, 1953, v. 2, p. 450, 541. MS Dept. of Archives & History (MDAH), Jackson MS, rootsweb, Americans Arriving in Spanish-Held Natchez 1780-1790. MS Territory census returns 1810, Claiborne and Warren Cos., familysearch.org website, microfilm # 004822295, image 12. Musgrave, Jon, "Frontier serial killers: The Harpes", article in American Weekend, Oct 23, 1998. North Carolina Land Grants, vol. 2, at Morganton NC Library, p. 6, #1476, transcribed by Lisabeth M. Holloway Oct 9, 1987. Rowland, Dunbar, "1816 Census for Franklin Co. Miss.", taken from The Official and Statistical Register of the State of Mississippi,Centennial Edition, 1917, rootsweb website. Webster Co. KY, "The Story of the Harp Brothers", website. Wells, Carol, Natchez Postscripts 1781-1798, Heritage Books, pp. 101, 144-5, 151, |
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