Note 30 — Mason and Harpe—Double-Cross and Double Death
Reading edition
Under what circumstances Mason was trapped by May and Setton and whether or not he really knew by whom he was snared has not been ascertained. Mrs. William Anthony, in her letter to Draper, states that on one occasion when Mason and his party were crossing the Mississippi River, May was acting as ferryman and “Mason said the others might all go over first and he would remain till last. When all were over but Mason, May returned for him, and as Mason was alone with his bag of money, May killed him and took the head to Natchez.”
Audubon, in one of his Journals under the head of “Regulators” gives another version: “At last a body of Regulators undertook, at great peril, and for the sake of the country, to bring the villain to punishment.... One day as he was riding a beautiful horse in the woods he was met by one of the Regulators, who immediately recognized him, but passed him as if an utter stranger. Mason, not dreaming of danger, pursued his way leisurely, as if he had met no one.... At dusk, Mason, having reached the lowest part of a ravine, no doubt well known to him, hoppled (tied together the forelegs of) his stolen horse, to enable it to feed during the night without chance of straying far, and concealed himself in a hollow log to spend the night. The plan was good but proved his ruin. The Regulator, who knew every hill and hollow of the woods, marked the place and the log with the eye of an experienced hunter, and as he remarked that Mason was most efficiently armed, he galloped off to the nearest house where he knew he should find assistance. This was easily procured, and the party proceeded to the spot. Mason, on being attacked, defended himself with desperate valor; and as it proved impossible to secure him alive he was brought to the ground with a rifle ball. His head was cut off, and stuck on the end of a broken branch of a tree, by the nearest road to the place where the affray happened. The gang soon dispersed, in consequence of the loss of their leader, and this infliction of merited punishment proved beneficial in deterring others from following a similar predatory life.”
Such may have been the end of one of the sons of Mason. There is nothing in history or tradition connecting this act of the Regulators with the career of Samuel Mason.