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| history of kentucky | |
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The Harpe Brothers were murderous outlaws that operated in Tennessee, Kentucky and Illinois in the late 1700's. Unlike most outlaws, their crimes were motivated more by blood lust than financial gain. There are so many versions of their story that it was difficult to separate fact from legend 150 years ago. The Harpes are believed to have been brothers, born in North Carolina. Micajah, "Big Harpe", was born around 1768. Wiley, "Little Harpe", was born around 1770. It was said that their parents were Tories who fought along side the British during the Revolutionary War . For a time they lived with renegade Creek and Cherokee Indians, who were committing atrocities not only against whites, but also against their own tribes. Big Harpe had two wives: Susan and Betsey Roberts. Little Harpe married Sally Rice. In 1797 the Harpes were living near Knoxville, Tennessee . They were driven from there on the accusation of stealing hogs and horses. They were accused of murdering a man named Johnson, whose body was found in a river, ripped open and weighted with stones. This was to become a characteristic of Harpe murders. From Knoxville they fled north into Kentucky. They entered the State on the Wilderness Road , near the Cumberland Gap . They are believed to have murdered a peddler named Peyton, taking his horse and some of his goods. They then murdered two travelers from Maryland. Big Harpe was shot in the head by a man who was a victim of his atrocities in 1798, Moses Stigall. Stigall then proceeded to decapitate the Harpe's head and stuck it on a pole, where the current, "Harpe's Head" location remains to this day, on the border of Hopkins , and Webster county, Kentucky . His brother, Little Harpe alluded the authorities for some time, until finally being caught in an effort to get a ransom of his own, eventually killed as well. REFERENCES
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