|
| A Cave in the S. part of the county, 10 miles
from Greenville, is worth attention. In Oct., 1872, an exploration for
half a mile "reported" the discovery of two petrified figures, man and
woman, dressed in the old Roman costume, and each holding in the arms a
child--the man one of 10 years, and the woman a babe of 1 to 2 years. It
was first discovered in the winter of 1852-3 by a person who tracked
raccoons into it. In Aug., 1853, G. P. McLean, of Mississippi, and others
explored it for about 2 miles--to a pit beyond which they could not pass
over for want of a ladder. Eight or ten branches led off in different
directions, some of them apparently larger than the direct avenue. A
petrified monkey, as perfect in shape as if alive, was found in the cave,
a few weeks previous. |
|
|
| This cave is known as Lovell's Cave or Shutt's
Cave, and is located south of Long Creek. Local tradition says it was
first discovered in 1839 by Archibald Duvall, whose dog "treed" a "coon"
in it. The opening was then a very small one, and "digging out the coon"
resulted in the discovery of the cave. The "main hall" leads off from the
entrance, and is about one hundred and twenty-five feet long and
twenty-five feet wide. A much narrower hall, a passage three or four feet
wide and about twenty-five feet high, leads to the left from the "main
hall," winds in various directions, and finally comes back into the wider
passage a short distance from where it started. A number of short branches
turn off from the narrow hall, one of which goes to two "bottomless pits,"
that are about three feet wide and twelve feet deep. Recently a
measurement was made with a string (but no compass) of the heretofore
explored portions of the cave, which shows that the two halls have a
combined length of about three hundred yards. It is probable that other
halls exist, and that their discovery may show that this cave is (as is
popularly reported) "a couple of miles long." Old citizens who are
familiar with the history of the cave declare that no petrified figures
were ever found in it, and that no signs indicating that the place was
once occupied by prehistoric men have ever been observed.Site of A
Prehistoric Mound, Judge Godman Farm, Near Moorman, 1912 |
|
|
| Other small caves have been discovered in the
Long Creek country within the past fifty years. The best known and most
interesting of these is the John Jenkins Cave, three miles east of
Lovell's Cave and near the Green F. Walker farm. The passages in this cave
are walled with vertically fluted columns, while in Lovell's Cave the
evidences of erosion are in the form of a series of small horizontal
benches of rock projecting from the high walls. South of the John Jenkins
Cave and within a mile of it are two caves, one on the farm of Charles
Butler and the other on that of Riley Gates. These caves are in a rock
which is more of a sandstone than a limestone. I found no stalactites,
stalagmites, or gypsum in any of them. However, I noticed in places an
incrustation resembling miniature stalactites. |
|
|
| There are a number of picturesque bluffs in the
southern part of the county. Three miles south of Mud River Mine and near
New Hebron Church is a small cavern, known by some as "Eternal Hole" and
by others as "Internal Hole," which is said to have been occupied by
Indians, although no evidences of such use are now visible. On Long Creek,
on the Old Jones Peach Orchard Hill, two miles above Lead Hill Church, is
a concave bluff known as "Saltpeter Cave." On one of the forks of Clifty
Creek, between Dunmor and Cisney, is a high bluff and an old spring called
"Sulphur Springs." Many of the bluffs in Muhlenberg along Clifty Creek and
its branches are very picturesque, one of which is the Jesse McPherson
"Cave Hut Cliff." The cliffs of Clifty increase in height and beauty as
one goes up the creek into Todd County, and are there seen at their best
as "Buzzards' Bald Yard," and "Wildcat Hollow." |
|
|
| There are many beautiful scenes and historic
spots along the Muhlenberg bank of Green River. Pond River and Pond Creek
are picturesque at all times, even during the driest seasons, when both
streams become little more than broken chains of short and long ponds.
Hence the names of the two streams. |
|
|
| Gen. Baron Steuben, the distinguished Prussian
general of our Revolutionary war, located his Virginia military warrants,
granted him for services in the war, in what is now Muhlenburg county. It
was all lost (some 4,000 or more acres) to his estate, under the occupying
claimant limitation law. |
|
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| The land here referred to lies in the vicinity
of South Carrollton. |
|
|
| In the War of 1812, the late Judge Alney McLean
... commanded a company at the battle of New Orleans, Jan. 8, 1815. His
lieutenant, E. M. Brank (still living, 1871), while the battle was raging
hottest, mounted the breastworks to repel the British. The late L. N.
Akers was taken prisoner at the battle of the River Raisin, and compelled
to run the gauntlet; he drew a pension on account of wounds received.
|
|
|
| Biographies of these three soldiers appear in
the chapter on "Muhlenberg Men in the War of 1812." |
|
|
| During the War of the Rebellion, Greenville was
for some time an outpost of both armies, or rather neutral ground between
them. It was taken by Gen. Buckner in Feb., 1862, and some time after by
John Morgan, and was once or twice partially sacked by guerrillas.
Muhlenburg county sent 836 men to the Federal army. |
|
|
| This statement is quoted in the chapter on
"Muhlenberg in the Civil War," where attention is called to the errors
that occur in it, among them being the date on which Greenville was
"taken" by General Buckner. |
|
|
| Edward Rumsey was a prominent man of Muhlenburg
county and of S. W. Kentucky, for more than forty-five years; represented
the county in the state legislature, in 1822, and the district in
congress, 1837-39; was an eloquent speaker, and a man of decided ability.
Only his remarkable modesty and timidity prevented his taking a more
leading part in the polities of the state and nation. 9R.
Y. Thomas, 1912 |
|
|
| Charles F. Wing was a captain at the battle of
the Thames, and saw Tecumseh after he was slain. He was clerk of the
Muhlenburg courts from the organization of the county in 1798 to 1856-58
years; a longer period than any other man ever held a clerkship in
Kentucky. |
|
|
| Among the first chapters in this history is one
on Edward Rumsey and another on Charles Fox Wing. Collins ends his notes
on the history of Muhlenberg County with brief biographies of Generals
Buell and Muhlenberg. Sketches of the lives of these two distinguished
generals appear elsewhere in this volume. |
|
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|
Appendix |
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|
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|
A, Judge Hall's Story of the
Harpes |
|
|
| About a year after Muhlenberg County was formed,
Big Harpe, one of the most brutal outlaws in the West, was killed. The
following is a copy of the first written account of this affair. It was
published in 1828 by Judge James Hall, of Cincinnati, in his "Letters from
the West." At least four versions of the story of the Harpes have been
printed since Judge Hall's was published. I reprint his account because it
is the oldest, and as his books are rare it has become the least
accessible version. Collins, in his "History of Kentucky," under the head
of Hopkins County, gives two versions; Allen's "History of Kentucky" has
one; T. Marshall Smith, in his "Legends of the War of Independence and of
the Earlier Settlements in the West," published in 1855, gives another.
Judge Hall's being the oldest, as already stated, is probably the truest.
T. Marshall Smith's is by far the longest and most interesting. None of
these, nor do any of the oral versions, agree on the details of any
important point. Nevertheless all are, in a general way, the same. |
|
|
| Judge Hall's statement that the two wives of Big
Harpe remained in Muhlenberg does not agree with local traditions nor with
any of the other printed versions. T. Marshall Smith gives the names of
the two Harpes as Bill and Joshua and shows that they came originally from
North Carolina, were cousins, Tories and sons of Tories, and that neither
had more than one wife. Writing about the unfortunate women who became the
involuntary wives of the heartless Harpes, he says: "Susan Woods (wife of
Bill Harpe) told them (deputy sheriff of Logan county and others) in the
most humble and suppliant terms her own sad story and cruel sufferings.
Maria Davidson (wife of Joshua Harpe) confirmed her statement, and related
her own intolerable sufferings. ... They both lived in the county of Logan
many years after, where they were often seen, known and conversed with by
the author of this narrative, and who received from the lips of Susan
Woods herself most of the facts narrated in the foregoing pages, in
reference to herself, Maria Davidson and the two Harpes, from the time
they became so unhappily connected with them. ..." |
|
|
| Edmund L. Starling, in his "History of Henderson
County," published in 1887, says that on September 4, 1799, a court of
quarter sessions was called for the examination of the three Harpe women,
then committed in the Henderson jail as parties to the murder (on August
20, 1799) of Mrs. Moses Stigall, her infant son, and William Love, a
school-teacher, and that the three prisoners were found guilty and
remanded to jail, but were subsequently taken, under order of court, to
Russellville, there to await the action of the grand jury, where they were
tried and acquitted. |
|
|
| Joseph R. Underwood, in his account compiled in
1871, based on information supplied in 1838 by John B. Ruby, of Hopkins
County, and published in Collins' history, writes: "The pursuers, armed
with rifles, got on the trail of the Harpes and overtook them at their
camp, upon the waters of Pond river; but whether in the present boundary
of Hopkins or Muhlenburg county I have not satisfactorily ascertained."
|
|
|
| Local tradition says Big Harpe crossed Pond
River at Free Henry Ford and was killed in Muhlenberg County, near what
has since been known as Harpe's Hill. An oak tree four feet in diameter,
which until 1910 stood on the bank of Boat Yard Creek near the Slab Road
leading from Harpe's Hill to Free Henry Ford, has always been pointed out
as the tree under which John Leeper or Lieper, Moses Stigall or Stegal,
and the other members of the pursuing party, killed Big Harpe, and under
which the headless corpse of Big Harpe lay until it was devoured by wild
animals. Clara Garris, who became the wife of James Stanley, and who
during her long life lived near Harpe's Hill, frequently pointed out this
spot, declaring that Big Harpe was killed near this tree and that when a
child of about ten years she saw his headless body lying there. |
|
|
| The Harpes. |
|
|
| Many years ago, two men, named Harpe, appeared
in Kentucky, spreading death and terror wherever they went. Little else
was known of them but that they passed for brothers, and came from the
borders of Virginia, They had three women with them, who were treated as
their wives, and several children, with whom they traversed the
mountainous and thinly settled parts of Virginia into Kentucky, marking
their course with blood. Their history is wonderful, as well from the
number and variety, as the incredible atrocity of their adventures; and as
it has never yet appeared in print, I shall compress within this letter a
few of its most prominent facts. |
|
|
| In the autumn of the year 1799, a young
gentleman, named Langford, of a respectable family in Mecklenburgh county,
Virginia, set out from this state for Kentucky, with the intention of
passing through the Wilderness, as it was then called, by the route
generally known as Boon's Trace. On reaching the vicinity of the
Wilderness, a mountainous and uninhabited tract which at that time
separated the settled parts of Kentucky from those of Virginia, he stopped
to breakfast at a public house near Big Rockcastle river. Travellers of
this description--any other indeed than hardy woodsmen--were unwilling to
pass singly through this lonely region; and they generally waited on its
confines for others, and travelled through in parties. Mr. Langford,
either not dreading danger, or not choosing to delay, determined to
proceed alone. While breakfast was preparing, the Harpes and their women
came up. Their appearance denoted poverty, with but little regard to
cleanliness; two very indifferent horses, with some bags swung across
them, and a rifle gun or two, composed nearly their whole equipage.
Squalid and miserable, they seemed objects of pity, rather than of fear,
and their ferocious glances were attributed more to hunger than to guilty
passion. They were entire strangers in that neighborhood, and, like Mr.
Langford, were about to cross the Wilderness. When breakfast was served
up, the landlord, as was customary at such places, in those times, invited
all the persons who were assembled in the commons, perhaps the only room
of his little inn, to sit down; but the Harpes declined, alleging their
want of money as the reason. Langford, who was of a lively, generous
disposition, on hearing this, invited them to partake of the meal at his
expense; they accepted the invitation, and ate voraciously. When they had
thus refreshed themselves, and were about to renew their journey, Mr.
Langford called for the bill, and in the act of discharging it imprudently
displayed a handful of silver. They then set out together. |
|
|
| A few days after, some men who were conducting a
drove of cattle to Virginia, by the same road which had been travelled by
Mr. Langford and the Harpes, had arrived within a few miles of Big
Rock-castle River, when their cattle took fright, and, quitting the road,
rushed down a hill into the woods. In collecting them, the drovers
discovered the dead body of a man concealed behind a log, and covered with
brush and leaves. It was now evident that the cattle had been alarmed by
the smell of blood in the road, and as the body exhibited marks of
violence, it was at once suspected that a murder had been perpetrated but
recently. The corpse was taken to the same house where the Harpes had
breakfasted, and recognized to be that of Mr. Langford, whose name was
marked upon several parts of his dress. Suspicion fell upon the Harpes,
who were pursued and apprehended near the Crab Orchard. They were taken to
Stanford, the seat of justice for Lincoln county, where they were examined
and committed by an inquiring court, sent to Danville for safe keeping,
and probably for trial, as the system of district courts was then in
operation in Kentucky. Previous to the time of trial, they made their
escape, and proceeded to Henderson county, which at that time was just
beginning to be settled. |
|
|
| Here they soon acquired a dreadful celebrity.
Neither avarice, want, nor any of the usual inducements to the commission
of crime, seemed to govern their conduct. A savage thirst for blood--a
deep-rooted malignity against human nature, could alone be discovered in
their actions. They murdered every defenceless being who fell in their
way, without distinction of age, sex, or colour. In the night they stole
secretly to the cabin, slaughtered its inhabitants, and burned their
dwelling--while the farmer who left his house by day, returned to witness
the dying agonies of his wife and children, and the conflagration of his
possessions. Plunder was not their object: travellers they robbed and
murdered, but from the inhabitants they took only what would have been
freely given to them; and no more than was immediately necessary to supply
the wants of nature; they destroyed without having suffered injury, and
without the prospect of gain. A negro boy, riding to a mill, with a bag of
corn, was seized by them, and his brains dashed out against a tree; but
the horse which he rode and the grain were left unmolested. Females,
children, and servants, no longer dared to stir abroad; unarmed men feared
to encounter a Harpe; and the solitary hunter, as he trod the forest,
looked around him with a watchful eye, and when he saw a stranger, picked
his flint and stood on the defensive. |
|
|
| It seems incredible that such atrocities could
have been often repeated in a country famed for the hardihood and
gallantry of its people; in Kentucky, the cradle of courage, and the nurse
of warriors. But that part of Kentucky which was the scene of these
barbarities was then almost a wilderness, and the vigilance of the Harpes
for a time ensured impunity. The spoils of their dreadful warfare
furnished them with the means of violence and of escape. Mounted on fine
horses, they plunged into the forest, eluded pursuit by frequently
changing their course, and appeared, unexpectedly, to perpetrate new
enormities, at points distant from those where they were supposed to lurk.
On these occasions, they often left their wives and children behind them;
and it is a fact, honourable to the community, that vengeance for these
bloody deeds was not wreaked on the helpless, but in some degree guilty,
companions of the perpetrators. Justice, however, was not long delayed.
|
|
|
| A frontier is often the retreat of loose
individuals, who, if not familiar with crime, have very blunt perceptions
of virtue. The genuine woodsmen, the real pioneers, are independent,
brave, and upright; but as the jackal pursues the lion to devour his
leavings, the footsteps of the sturdy hunter are closely pursued by
miscreants destitute of his noble qualities. These are the poorest and the
idlest of the human race--averse to labour, and impatient of the
restraints of law and the courtesies of civilized society. Without the
ardour, the activity, the love of sport, and patience of fatigue, which
distinguish the bold backwoodsman, these are doomed to the forest by sheer
laziness, and hunt for a bare subsistence; they are the "cankers of a calm
world and a long peace," the helpless nobodies, who, in a country where
none starve and few beg, sleep until hunger pinches, then stroll into the
woods for a meal, and return to their slumber. Frequently they are as
harmless as the wart upon a man's nose, and as unsightly; but they are
sometimes mere wax in the hands of the designing, and become the
accessories of that guilt which they have not the courage or the industry
to perpetrate. With such men the Harpes are supposed to have sometimes
lurked. None are known to have participated in their deeds of blood, nor
suspected of sharing their counsels; but they sometimes crept to the
miserable cabins of those who feared or were not inclined to betray them.
|
|
|
| Two travelers came one night to the house of a
man named Stegal, and, for want of better lodgings, claimed under his
little roof that hospitality which in a new country is found at every
habitation. Shortly after, the Harpes arrived. It was not, it seems, their
first visit; for Mrs. Stegal had received instructions from them, which
she dared not disohey, never to address them by their real names in the
presence of third persons. On this occasion they contrived to inform her
that they intended to personate Methodist preachers, and ordered her to
arrange matters so that one of them should sleep with each of the
strangers, whom they intended to murder. Stegal was absent, and the woman
was obliged to obey. The strangers were completely deceived as to the
character of the newly arrived guests; and when it was announced that the
house contained but two beds, they cheerfully assented to the proposed
arrangement: one crept into a bed on the lower floor with one ruffian,
while the other retired to the loft with another. Both the strangers
became their victims; but these bloody ruffians, who seemed neither to
feel shame, nor dread punishment, determined to leave behind them no
evidence of their crime, and consummated the foul tragedy by murdering
their hostess and setting fire to the dwelling. |
|
|
| From this scene of arson, robbery, and murder,
the perpetrators fled precipitately, favoured by a heavy fall of rain,
which, as they believed, effaced their footsteps. They did not cease their
flight until late the ensuing day, when they halted at a spot which they
supposed to be far from any human habitation. Here they kindled a fire,
and were drying their clothes, when an emigrant, who had pitched his tent
hard by, strolled towards their camp. He was in search of his horses,
which had strayed, and civilly asked if they had seen them. This
unsuspecting woodsman they slew, and continued their retreat. |
|
|
| In the meanwhile, the outrages of these
murderers had not escaped notice, nor were they tamely submitted to. The
Governor of Kentucky had offered a reward for their heads, and parties of
volunteers had pursued them; they had been so fortunate as to escape
punishment by their cunning, but had not the prudence to desist, or to fly
the country. |
|
|
| A man, named Leiper, in revenge for the murder
of Mrs. Stegal, raised a party, pursued, and discovered the assassins, on
the day succeeding that atrocious deed. They came so suddenly upon the
Harpes that they had only time to fly in different directions. Accident
aided the pursuers. One of the Harpes was a large, and the other a small
man; the first usually rode a strong, powerful horse, the other a fleet,
but much smaller animal, and in the hurry of flight they had exchanged
horses. The chase was long and hot: the smaller Harpe escaped unnoticed,
but the other, who was kept in view, spurred on the noble animal which he
rode, and which, already jaded, began to fail at the end of five or six
miles. Still the miscreant pressed forward; for, although none of his
pursuers were near but Leiper, who had outridden his companions, he was
not willing to risk a combat with a man as strong and perhaps bolder than
himself, who was animated with a noble spirit of indignation against a
shocking and unmanly outrage. Leiper was mounted on a horse of celebrated
powers, which he had borrowed from a neighbor for this occasion. At the
beginning of the chase, he had pressed his charger to the height of his
speed, carefully keeping on the track of Harpe, of whom he sometimes
caught a glimpse as he ascended the hills, and again lost sight in the
valleys and the brush. But as he gained on the foe, and became sure of his
victim, he slackened his pace, cocked his rifle, and deliberately pursued,
sometimes calling upon the outlaw to surrender. At length, in leaping a
ravine, Harpe's horse sprained a limb, and Leiper overtook him. Both were
armed with rifles. Leiper fired, and wounded Harpe through the body; the
latter turning in his seat, levelled his piece, which missed fire, and he
dashed it to the ground, swearing it was the first time it had ever
deceived him. He then drew a tomahawk, and waited the approach of Leiper,
who, nothing daunted, unsheathed his long hunting-knife and rushed upon
his desperate foe, grappled with him, hurled him to the ground, and
wrested his only remaining weapon from his grasp. The prostrate
wretch--exhausted with the loss of blood, conquered, but unsubdued in
spirit--now lay passive at the feet of his adversary. Expecting every
moment the arrival of the rest of his pursuers, he inquired if Stegal was
of the party, and being answered in the affirmative, he exclaimed, "Then I
am a dead man!" |
|
|
| "That would make no difference," replied Leiper,
calmly. "You must die at any rate. I do not wish to kill you myself, but
if nobody else will do it, I must." Leiper was a humane man, easy,
slow-spoken, and not quickly excited, but a thorough soldier when roused.
Without insulting the expiring criminal, he questioned him as to the
motives of his late atrocities. The murderer attempted not to palliate or
deny them, and confessed that he had been actuated by no inducement but a
settled hatred of his species, whom he had sworn to destroy without
distinction, in retaliation for some fancied injury. He expressed no
regret for any of his bloody deeds, except that which he confessed he had
perpetrated upon one of his own children. "It cried," said he, "and I
killed it: I had always told the women, I would have no crying about me."
He acknowledged that he had amassed large sums of money, and described the
places of concealment; but as none was ever discovered, it is presumed he
did not declare the truth. Leiper had fired several times at Harpe during
the chase, and wounded him; and when the latter was asked why, when he
found Leiper pursuing him alone, he did not dismount and take to a tree,
from behind which he could inevitably have shot him as he approached, he
replied that he had supposed there was not a horse in the country equal to
the one which he rode, and that he was confident of making his escape. He
thought also that the pursuit would be less eager, so long as he abstained
from shedding the blood of any of his pursuers. On the arrival of the rest
of the party, the wretch was dispatched, and he died as he had lived, in
remorseless guilt. It is said, however, that he was about to make some
disclosure, and had commenced in a tone of more sincerity than he had
before evinced, when Stegal advanced and severed his head from his body.
This bloody trophy they carried to the nearest magistrate, a Mr. Newman,
before whom it was proved to be the head of Micajah Harpe, they then
placed it in the fork of a tree, where it long remained a revolting object
of horror. The spot, which is near the Highland Lick, in Union (then
Henderson) County, is still called Harpe's Head, and a public road which
passes it, is called the Harpe's Head Road. |
|
|
| The other Harpe made his way to the neighborhood
of Natchez, where he joined a gang of robbers, headed by a man named
Meason, whose villanies were so notorious that a reward was offered for
his head. At that period, vast regions along the shores of the Ohio and
Mississippi were still unsettled, through which boats navigating those
rivers must necessarily pass; and the traders who, after selling their
cargoes at New Orleans, attempted to return by land, had to cross immense
wildernesses, totally destitute of inhabitants. Meason, who was a man
rather above the ordinary stamp, infested these deserts, seldom committing
murder, but robbing all who fell in his way. Sometimes he plundered the
descending boats; but more frequently he allowed these to pass, preferring
to rob their owners of their money as they returned, pleasantly observing,
that "those people were taking their produce to market for him." Harpe
took an opportunity, when the rest of his companions were absent, to slay
Meason, and putting his head in a bag, carried it to Natchez, and claimed
the reward. The claim was admitted; the head of Meason was recognized but
so also was the face of Harpe, who was arrested, condemned, and executed.
|
|
|
| In collecting oral testimony of events long
past, a considerable variety will often be found in the statements of the
persons conversant with the circumstances. In this case, I have found
none, except as to the fact of the two Harpes having exchanged horses. A
day or two before the fatal catastrophe which ended their career in
Kentucky, they had murdered a gentleman named Love, and had taken his
horse, a remarkably fine animal, which Big Harpe undoubtedly rode when he
was overtaken. It is said that Little Harpe escaped on foot, and not on
his brother's horse. Many of these facts were disclosed by the latter,
while under sentence of death. |
|
|
| After Harpe's death the women came in and
claimed protection. Two of them were the wives of the larger Harpe, the
other one of his brother. The latter was a decent female, of delicate,
prepossessing appearance, who stated that she had married her husband
without any knowledge of his real character, shortly before they set out
for the west; that she was so much shocked at the first murder which they
committed, that she attempted to escape from them, but was prevented, and
that she had since made similar attempts. She immediately wrote to her
father in Virginia, who came for her, and took her home. The other women
were in no way remarkable. They remained in Muhlenburgh county. |
|
|
| These horrid events will sound like fiction to
your ears, when told as having happened in any part of the United States,
so foreign are they from the generosity of the American character, the
happy security of our institutions, and the moral habits of our people.
But it is to be recollected that they happened twenty-seven years ago, in
frontier settlements, far distant from the civilized parts of our country.
The principal seene of Harpe's atrocities, and of his death, was in that
part of Kentucky which lies south of Green river, a vast wilderness, then
known by the general name of the Green river country, and containing a few
small and thinly scattered settlements--the more dense population of that
state being at that time confined to its northern and eastern parts. The
Indians still possessed the country to the south and west. That enormities
should sometimes have been practiced at these distant spots, cannot be
matter of surprise; the only wonder is that they were so few. The first
settlers were a hardy and an honest people; but they were too few in
number, and too widely spread, to be able to create or enforce wholesale
civil restraints. Desperadoes, flying from justice, or seeking a secure
theatre for the perpetration of crime, might frequently escape discovery,
and as often elude or openly defy the arm of justice. |
|
|
|
B, Weir's Trip to New Orleans in
1803 |
|
|
| Pioneer James Weir, of Greenville, made a number
of trips from Lewisburg, or Kincheloe's Bluff, to New Orleans in the early
days. The date of the first was about six years after he settled in
Muhlenberg, when he was about twenty-seven years old, and as far as known
it is the only one of which he ever wrote a description. The original
manuseript is still in existence, and for a copy of it I am indebted to
Judge Lucius P. Little, of Owensboro, who will publish the story in his
forthcoming book on "Old Stories of Green River and Its People." |
|
|
| Journal, by James Weir, 1803. |
|
|
| I arrived at Natchez on the 9th March. It is a
beautiful little town situated on a high bluff rising from the river by a
gradual ascent, & a fertile & level country seems to make off from
the town. From the eligibility of this place I think it is found to be the
center of trade for the Western Country. There are about 500 dwellings in
this place. They are mostly Americans from South Carolina & Georgia.
There is a number of large stores there. Goods are sold about the same
price with Nashville. I suppose from what I have seen that Natchez is, or
the inhabitants of the town are, as much given to luxury & dissipation
as any place in America. There is great abundance of cotton in the
vicinity of Natchez. That is their staple commodity. There were 5
sea-vessels (schooners or brigs) lying there waiting for loading. It is
thought that in time shipping will come there in great numbers as it will
not take them more than 5-6 days, if so long, to come up from Orleans if
the wind is moderately in their favour. I left the Natchez on the 12th for
the New Orleans and on the morning of the 13th I arrived at Loftier
Heights just as the soldiers were firing the morning gun. Loftier Heights
is a place of defense occupied by the troops of the United States under
the command of Gen. Wilkinson. The garrison is in good order and the
troops look well. This place is 45 miles below Natchez on the line between
the Spaniards & Americans. The river is from there to the Orleans very
good and we sailed night and day. From the Heights to the Atchafalaya is
15 miles. This is a place that boatmen dread as it has been said that
boats were sucked out there and were not able to return but were taken
into lakes that empty into the sea, though I found no difficulty in it,
nor do I believe that it is so dangerous as has been represented. From
this to Point Copee is 25 miles. |
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| At Point Copee the French are settled on both
sides in one continuous village which yields a beautiful prospect. From
Point Copee to Baton Rouge is 35 miles. Here is the principal Spanish
garrison that is kept on the river & here did I experience some of
their tyranical laws. |
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| I arrived there in the evening and went to the
Commandant & got my passport signed. He sent down to my boat &
bought a ham of bacon. I thought from this example I might sell on without
hesitation. I continued to sell till the next day at 12 o'clock when I was
taken by a guard of Spanish Regulars who told me that I must go into
confinement together with all my crew, save one to take care of the boat
for selling without permission. I desired to see the Commandant for I
hated the thought of going into a calaboose, but all in vain. |
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| We were hurried into a nasty prison amongst a
number of Spanish transgressors who were almost naked. I then began to
think of Baron Trenk in the jail of Magdaburg & that it might perhaps
be my lot to be there without cause, possibly for months or years as our
liberation or confinement depended wholy on the will of a capricious
tyrant. I walked through this nasty prison very uneasy still looking
through the iron grates and ruminating on my sad misfortune. I sat down at
length on the straw & began to console myself that I was not the first
that had been in confinement unjustly & that I was not alone as I had
one of my company with me, a Mr. Hobbs who was merely a passenger in my
boat. After we had been there about half an hour the interpreter came
& told us we must come out & go before the Commandant. We went out
cheerfully expecting to be liberated knowing ourselves to be innocent.
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| We were brought before the Commandant who sat in
his judgment hall. He demanded of me why I had sold bacon &c without
permission from him. I told him that I did not know that it was necessary,
and if I had transgressed against his laws it was through ignorance I
being a stranger in their land & also that he was the first to
purchase from me himself and that he did not tell me that it was necessary
to have a permit & therefore I thought it ungenerous of him to put me
into confinement. He took offense at this mode of expression and ordered
us both back to confinement. The interpreter began to intercede for us but
all in vain. Then Mr. Hobbs, who was with me, began to plead that he was
only a passenger & that he ought to be set at liberty. The commandant
agreed he should be liberated but I was sent back to confinement. I
directed Hobbs to stay by my boat & not to leave the place till he saw
the result. He said he would stay by me if it was for 6 months & use
every exertion to get me out. He went to the boat & I to my prison
with a heavy heart. |
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| The poor dejected Spaniards that were my
companions in this solitary place began to eye me with attention & one
of them got up and made signs for me to sit down on his blankets. I sat
down and mused to myself. I had no company for I could not understand
them. While I sat thus in dejection & had no hopes of coming out
shortly there came a messenger to the door & asked me what I had to
advance in my behalf respecting the affair for which I was confined. I
told him I had nothing more to say than what I had already told the
Commandant, his master, & that he might tell him that if he did
confine me here without a cause I would see the Governor at the New
Orleans who would certainly see justice done & perhaps by his removal
from office. In about 10 minutes the messenger returned & told me I
was to be set at liberty. The iron bolts were again turned & I was
once more set at liberty. |
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| When I returned to the boat the crew was
overjoyed to see me once more. We then pushed off our boat & set out
for the Orleans, resolving to stay at that unfortunate place no longer.
From Baton Rouge to Orleans, 180 miles, nothing more particular occurred
on our voyage. We sailed night & day as in this part of the river
there are no sawyers. When we came within 100 miles of Orleans the river
is levied on both sides to keep the water from over flowing the
settlements. Here you are presented with beautiful prospects on the levy
on both sides of which are houses, large & beautiful farms, orange
groves, sugar cane & sugar houses all the way to the New Orleans. When
we came in sight the masts of the vessels that lay in harbour appeared
like a forest of old trees. We got in amongst them with some difficulty
and landed just above the Gate. |
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| I arrived at the New Orleans on the 23d of March
1803 a handsome city much larger & better situated than I did expect.
There is a number of wealthy American merchants residing there & they
carry on business largely; houses that may be relied upon either to
deposit property with or to do business by consignment. Orleans is not a
place of defence. Their garrisons and forts are out of repair. They have
about 400 Spanish Regulars. They are a poor looking starved like crew. I
am persuaded that 100 Kentucky men could take the place if it was the will
of Government for I suppose that one third of the inhabitants of the
Orleans are Americans in possession of the place. |
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| New Orleans is situated low. The country falls
off from it. About 3 miles back it is so swampy that no person can settle
on it. It is a fine place for fish & oysters in the lake that lies
about 3 miles back from the city. New Orleans is a very rich place and a
great place for doing business & would be a great acquisition to the
United States if they were in possession of it. The French & Spaniards
living there are for the most part very much of gentlemen & more to be
relied on than many of our American citizens that are settled there. Some
of them that I became acquainted with treated me with the greatest
civility & freindship. 1 |
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