Appalachia has always had its share of outlaws, men who defied the law and lived by the code of the mountains. Yet, for all those who blazed a trail of violence through those hills, none were meaner than Moses Harshal, a fellow who was so hated that when he finally died, they planted a thorn bush on top of his grave and placed a tombstone that reads, " Died and gone to hell. This is his incredible true story.Our story begins in 1794 in Burke County, North Carolina, on a bitter cold winter night. Snow lay deep on the ridges, and the temperatures hadn't risen above freezing for nearly two weeks. That night, a moon rose blood red and hung over Pine Mountain, as if the sky itself had been cut open.
And as the midnight hour approached, a wind came down off the high ground and rattled the shutters on a lonely cabin, as if something was trying to unlatch the door. Inside that cabin was a young mother in the throes of labor, and around midnight she gave birth to a baby boy named Moses. It was said that when the midwife saw the eyes of the child, she refused to take payment for her services.
Old timers said the moment Moses drew his first breath, the flames in the fireplace turned blue. Others say the fire went out altogether, like it had been sucked up in a vacuum. Whatever the case was, one fact that nobody disputes is this.
When that boy opened his eyes that night, he grew into a man so mean that the ground itself seemed to resent him. Now little is known about Moses' childhood, since the family moved about many times through those Carolina hills. Everywhere they went, strange things began to happen.
And because mountain folks firmly believed in omens and superstitions as warnings, elders in those communities would tell the family that they weren't welcome there. So the Horseshaws would load their wagons and move on. But one thing we can say with certainty is that someone in that household saw to it that Moses got an education that was uncommon for a child of the backcountry.
Because by the time he was in his 20s, he was practicing law, and the law in Moses Horshaw's hands became a weapon. Well, anyway, by 1814, Moses took on a new wife named Nancy England, a young girl who was about 17 years old, and whatever softness she had hoped for in a husband would soon be burned out of her. A few years later, in 1822, 61 families left the North Carolina high country and began to cut their way towards Georgia.
Moses and Nancy were among those in the first wave. They left Burke County, North Carolina, and crossed the mountains until they made their way into the Nacoochee Valley, which had once been the heart of the Cherokee Nation. But you see, the U.S. government had taken this land from the Cherokee in 1818, and Moses Horshaw was one of the very first white men to plant himself permanently in this place before the ink on the treaty was even dry.
There, Moses and Nancy would raise seven children. He built a spectacular farmhouse overlooking his kingdom, mountains, valleys, and creeks that were full of gold. But Moses never worked that land, no?
Instead, he used 20 slaves for that, because Moses spent his days practicing law in Clarksville. He was a cutthroat businessman and owned property near the town square. He had his hands in all sorts of businesses.
Not only that, but he was a planner, a miner, a lawyer, and above all, a man who settled arguments with a knife, a pistol, or even his own fists. But for all the backdoor dealings that Moses did, he was a far worse neighbor. That's right.
From 1829 to 1844, Moses Horshaw found himself in court for assault and battery and even manslaughter seven times. And even though he represented himself in court, he was found guilty on six of the seven charges. One time, he beat a neighbor so badly that the court made Moses settle it by handing over a beautiful six-year-old horse.
But a month later, Moses beat the man again and took the horse back. And the neighbor—well, he knew better than to go back to that courthouse. Instead, he took that weapon and kept his mouth shut.
That's right. In a country of few laws, Moses Horshaw was one of the few who knew how to twist the law until it served no one but him. And then came those land lotteries.
Now, you might not be familiar with those Georgia land lotteries. So let me give you a little bit of background. You see, in 1832, the Gold Baron Mountains of North Georgia were still held by the Cherokee.
And in one of the most brazen thefts in American history, the government simply took the land. They decided to hold a lottery on the steps of the state capitol and just give the land away. They set up two great iron cage wheels.
In one wheel, there were thousands of slips of paper where land lots of 160 acres and gold lots of 40 acres of stolen soul were written upon them as if they belonged to nobody. The other wheel, well, it had the names of white men who were hungry to make a fortune. And for an $18 fee and the turn of those drones, a man could walk away owning a tract of this ancient territory.
Day after day for months, the wheels spun, and the Cherokee nation shrank. And by the time it was all done, more than 18,000 land lots and some 3,500 gold lots had been given away. Moses Harshall came away from that lottery with more ground, and his holding swelled to a massive 1,500-acre plantation.
And when Moses got that land and found that native families were still living on it, well, he burned their cabins and their crops and even slaughtered their animals. And then he warned them that his next visit wouldn't be so gentle. You see, he was the type of man who grew rich off manipulating the law and other people.
Now don't get me wrong, he didn't have any friends, but he had plenty of enemies. Even his wife came to despise him. But in those days, a wife had no way out of a cruel marriage since divorce was illegal.
Whenever Moses needed to make the 13-mile journey into town to purchase supplies, he would take along one of his enslaved workers to do the loading and the unloading. But Moses, well, he would never allow a black man to ride in that wagon. Instead, he buckled a leather strap around the poor soul's neck and tied the other end to the tailgate and then forced him to run behind the wagon the whole way into town.
Yeah, he was a wicked man. And some say he didn't have a soul. And when those workers became too old to work on his farm, it's said that Moses took them to the top of a nearby mountain where he would force them at gunpoint to jump to their deaths.
Even to this very day, that mountain is named Lynch Mountain. But for all the things he did, the most evil took place in 1849, when a 14-year-old enslaved girl who had been sick for weeks on his plantation finally died. Moses' wife took pity on the girl and went to town and purchased a simple white dress so that she could have a decent burial.
Yet, when Moses found out about it, he promptly ordered that the grave be dug up, the dress removed, and taken back to the store for a full refund. Indeed, there was never a more despicable man than Moses Harshal. And in 1850, when divorce finally became legal, his wife was the very first woman in the state to file for and be granted a divorce.
And eight years later, when Moses finally died, his ex-wife and her children inherited much of his estate. So, she instructed the undertaker to dig a hole and bury that bastard in the cheapest pine box. And then she used Moses' money to carve his tombstone that reads, Moses Harshal, 1794-1858, died and gone to hell.
Today, Moses' final resting place is in the old Clarksville Cemetery, where a thorn tree grows from the soil of his grave. As for his house, it still stands as a bed and breakfast. And for $169 a night, you can sleep in Moses' bedroom.
So, what do you think, my friend? Was Moses Harshal the meanest man? Was his wife right to put up that brutal tombstone? Or perhaps it was the perfect epitaph for an evil man? And finally, would you spend a night in his house today? I look forward to reading your thoughts in the comments below.
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