TRIAL OF THE HARPE WOMEN.
Big Harpe, one of the brutel murderers of Mrs. Moses
Stegall, her little son and William Love, having been pursued and killed,
and the three wives of Big and Little Harpe captured, the three women were
brought to Henderson and placed in the county jail. On the fourth day of
September, 1799 following, a Court of Quarter Sessions was called and held
for the axamination[sic] of Susannah and Sally Harpe, and Betty Roberts,
wives of Big and Little Harpe, and commuted for being parties to the
murder of Mrs. Stegall and others, and the burning of the house on the
night of the twentieth of August, General Samuel Hopkins and Abraham
Landers, presiding. The prisoners were set to the bar by the Sheriff, and
being charged with the following, denied the fact; witnesses were sworn,
and upon the evidence being heard, it was adjudged by the court that the
women were guilty and that they ought to be tried before the Judges of the
District Court at Russelville[sic]. They were remanded to jail and, guards
placed over them. John Rieper, Neil Lindsay, Isham Sellers and Mathew
Christian were recognized to appear before the district court at its next
session. Andrew Rowan, High Sheriff, and Amos Kuykendall, John Standley,
Green Massey and Gibson Hardin, guards, were ordered to proceed with the
Harpe women to Russellville, which they did. The wives of Big and Little
Harpe were the first prisoners incarcerated in teh first prison house of
the county.
History of Henderson County, Kentucky
by Edmund L. Starling
pps. 104 - 105
published in 1887
public domain material
