A Dark and Bloody Ground: Part 1
Wiley and Micajah Harpe: America's First Serial Killers
"You have bought a fair land, but there is a cloud hanging over it; you will find its settlement dark and bloody".-Dragging Canoe, Chickamauga Chief
These words, spoken by Chickamauga Cherokee Chief Dragging Canoe at the negotiations for the Treaty of Sycamore Shoals in 1777, proved prophetic in nature.1 The frontier that embraced the western border of the young American Republic posed numerous dangers. Yet as cultivated fields replaced primeval forests, and the native inhabitants were pushed further and further into the west, the Anglo-settlers would quickly learn that the most dangerous creatures in the forest would be of their own likeness and pattern. Very little is known about Wiley and Micajah Harpe, but in the early 19th century, these two men would spread fear and terror across the west and would earn the title of the first serial killers in U.S. History.2 “They murdered all classes and sexes, without distinction; not for plunder, but for the love of shedding human blood…murder was their everyday occupation,”3 and the atrocities that they committed would surpass anything that could be attributed to the American Indians in the colorful Dime Novels later in the century.
Shortly after the western portion of North Carolina became the State of Tennessee in 1796, the Harpes4 settled near the hamlet of Knoxville. Their early roots are shrouded in mystery. Early chroniclers comment that they originally came from Georgia, the Empire’s penal colony in the New World.5 Recent articles have purported that Wiley and Micajah Harpe came from a family of British Loyalists that supported King George III during the American Revolution6, but early writings about the Harpes do not state this, and this has no basis in historic fact. It is even unclear whether they were brothers, although they told everyone that they were. One early historian stated that, “Whether their real names were Harp or not, no one knew; nor was it ever ascertained where they had been born and brought up, or who were their relatives.”7 Micajah Harpe, who was supposed to be the elder, was described as being six feet tall with curly black hair, “of robust make”8 and “a most vicious, savage, and ferocious countenance.”9 Although Wiley Harpe looked older than Micajah, he was assumed to be the younger, and was “meagre in his face…(with) a downcast countenance”, and of small stature.10 These men dressed in the frontier suit comprised of homespun and buckskin, and always carried large butcher knives and hatchets in their belts, which they would use for destruction rather than protection.11 Nothing about their appearance set them apart from their neighbors, and they were easily able to disappear and strike at the most opportune times.
The village of Knoxville was a rough and tumble settlement when the Harpes arrived sometime in 1797 or 1798. Just ten years before, it was a log outpost constructed by James White on the banks of the Holston River. In 1793 the town was attacked by a mixed force of Cherokee and Creek warriors who killed thirteen settlers before retreating into the forest.12 Micajah Harpe started a homestead on Beaver Creek with his wife. Bachelor Wiley Harpe soon married Sarah Rice, a daughter of an old pioneer in the region. At this point, Micajah rode into the mountains between Knox and Blount Counties and returned home with another woman with the last name of Roberts who cohabitated with him and his wife. Other than this unconventional living arrangement, the Harpes lived peacefully among their neighbors for the first year.13
It isn’t known who first noticed sheep missing from their fold or hogs from their pen, but word came that Wiley and Micajah Harpe had been selling a lot of pork and mutton to merchant John Miller in the town. Edward Tiel had some horses stolen from his barn and formed a posse and rode to the Harpes’ homestead. Finding the place abandoned, Tiel tracked his horses into the Cumberland Mountains where he found Wiley and Micajah Harpe camped in a large cave with the horses nearby. Tiel recovered his horses and took the thieves into custody. After crossing the Clinch River toward Knoxville, the Harpes escaped into the wilderness.14
This brush with the law caused something to snap in the minds of the Harpes, and they began a reign of terror that would span a decade. Tennessee historian J.W.M. Breazeale wrote that, “the Harps commenced the bloody work of inhuman and ruthless murder…to an extent that alarmed and terrified the inhabitants of the whole country. Their relentless and furious rage, spared neither the aged, or the young, nor regarded either size, sex, or color.”15 Because of the remote setting of their activities and their transitory nature, it is possible that many of their murders went unrecorded.16 Even the details about killings attributed to them are sparse.
Their first recorded victim was a young man named Coffey who was killed on Copper Ridge as he traveled to the gristmill. They next murdered a man named Johnson on the road two miles south of Knoxville. He had been shot in the head and disemboweled, his body filled with stones and thrown in the Holston River. No motive for these killings were ever discovered.17
These murders put everyone in the settlements on high alert and men formed a makeshift militia to hunt down the Harpes and to protect their families. The country was scoured for signs of the fiends, and rewards were offered up for their arrest. A man named Ballard was found murdered next. It was believed that his murder was a case of mistaken identity, and that the Harpe Brothers were trying to kill Hugh Dunlap. Dunlap had worked diligently to bring the Harpes to justice, and they had threatened him with savagery for his efforts.18
Micajah and Wiley Harpe, along with their three wives, fled the settlements and moved to the borderland between Tennessee and Kentucky. This region was sparsely settled and belonged to the Cherokee Nation until the Second Tellico Treaty of 1805 allowed for white settlers to advance into the area.19 The dividing line between Kentucky and Tennessee was disputed, and would be a subject of contention until Kentucky passed a resolution to permanently set the boundary in 1820.20 The Harpe Family spent time hiding out in this wild country and routinely made passes into the settlements to plunder and kill.21
In 1799, the Harpes ventured through the Cumberland Gap and up the Wilderness Road to Knox County, Kentucky where they murdered a peddler named Peyton on the banks of Richland Creek, taking his horse and the merchandise that he had been carrying. They arrived at a tavern along the Rockcastle River on “two very indifferent horses, with some bags swung across them, and a rifle gun or two.” Their appearance “denoted poverty, with but little regard to cleanliness,” and they looked “squalid and miserable, (and) they seemed objects of pity, rather than of fear.” The Harpes arrived at breakfast and were invited to sit at the table, but demurred because of their lack of money, at least that was the reason they gave. Upon hearing this, a young Virginian named Langford with a “lively, generous disposition” invited them to eat at his expense. The gentleman paid their bill, mistakenly displaying a handful of silver coins, and rode on toward the Kentucky settlements. This was the last time that he was seen alive.22
Several days later, some drovers were driving a herd of cattle to Virginia when they discovered the body of young Langford thrown behind a log, covered in brush. His corpse was taken to the inn where he had dined with the Harpes, where his body was positively identified by witnesses and identification sewn onto his clothing. A posse was quickly formed and the Harpe family was arrested near Crab Orchard, Kentucky. They were delivered to the jail in Danville but escaped before they could stand trial.23 After extensive efforts failed recapture the fugitives, Kentucky Governor James Garrand offered a $600 reward for the capture of Wiley and Micajah Harpe.24 It was rumored that the jailer soon after resigned his position and purchased a large farm with bribe money from the Harpes and became a wealthy planter.25
To be continued…
The Myth of Kentucky As A “Dark And Bloody Ground” https://heritage.ky.gov/Documents/Myth%20of%20Dark%20and%20Bloody%20Ground.pdf
Murder By Gaslight: Big Harpe and Little Harpe https://www.murderbygaslight.com/2010/10/big-harpe-and-little-harpe.html
Life As It Is Or Matters And Things In General. J.W.M. Breazeale. University of Tennessee Press. p.141
A Note On Spelling: Sources vary on the spelling of Harp(e). I have used the spelling used by Judge Hall in his Letters From The West unless it is quoted differently in another source.
Breazeale. p.137
See the Wikipedia page for the Harpes https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harpe_brothers
Breazeale. p.137
The Palladium. Frankfort, Kentucky. Thu, Apr 25, 1799 Page 3
Breazeale. p.137
The Palladium and Breazeale p. 137
The Palladium. Frankfort, Kentucky. Thu, Apr 25, 1799 Page 3
Knoxville. Tennessee Encyclopedia. https://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entries/knoxville/
Breazeale. p.137
Ibid
Breazeale. p.138
Breazeale. p142
Breazeale. p.138-139
Ibid
Chuqualataque. Tennessee Encyclopedia. https://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entries/chuqualataque/
Williamson Herald. Tennessee History: A closer look at why state’s northern border is askew. Whyhttps://www.williamsonherald.com/features/w_life/tennessee-history-a-closer-look-at-why-state-s-northern-border-is-askew/article_fa390acc-5383-11ea-ab72-9bfcdc4177a8.html#:~:text=In%201779%2C%20two%20teams%20of,as%20the%20%E2%80%9CWalker%20line.%E2%80%9D
Breazeale. p.139
Letters From The West Containing Sketches of Scenery, Manners, And Customs. Honorable Judge Hall. p.266 and 267 accessed through Google books
Ibid p.267-268
The Palladium. Frankfort, Kentucky. Thu, Apr 25, 1799. Page 3
Breazeale. p.141