He met her on a mountain. And that’s where he killed her. Did it with his knife, he did. Well now, boys. Maybe it’s no surprise to you that the hang down your head miscreant made famous by the Kingston Trio’s song was a real fellow who grew up in Wilkes County, North Carolina, and fought with the South in the Civil War. After the war Tom Dooley returned home to Wilkes County - but he had some trouble settling down. He had some problems - women problems. Tom Dooley was twice tried and twice convicted of murdering a local girl, Laura Foster, with his knife, and he was sentenced to death by hanging. But he wasn’t executed down in some lonesome valley, swinging from a white oak tree, as the song suggests. He was hung from a scaffold in front of hundreds of spectators in downtown Statesville on May 1, 1868. But it is true that except for a guy named Grayson, Tom Dooley might have lived out his natural life in Tennessee.
Tom Dooley (actually spelled “Dula” though apparently pronounced “Dooley”) was a handsome, banjo-pickin’ (or maybe a fiddle-playin’) n’er do well. After returning from the war, he lived with his mother and sister on Reedy Branch, close by the little community of Elkville which had grown up where Elk Creek flows into the Yadkin River in western Wilkes County. In 1866, he was a twenty-two year old with a complicated love life - probably more so than we will ever know. He had several simultaneous romances. These included Laura Foster, and the woman who may have been the real love of his life, Ann Melton - a beautiful, but married, young woman who lived nearby.
Early on the morning of May 25, 1866, Laura Foster packed some clothes, saddled her father’s horse and left her home in Caldwell County and headed for Elkville. On the way Laura met an acquaintance and told her she was riding to meet Tom Dooley that morning at the Bates place near Elk Creek and that she and Tom planned to marry. Several people saw Tom Dooley in the vicinity of the Bates place on that same morning. Later that day Tom was seen near the Bates place with a digging implement known as a mattock. No one ever saw Laura alive again.
On the morning of 26 May, Laura’s horse returned on its own to her home in Caldwell County. The horse’s lead rope was broken and dangled from the halter. A search for Laura in the vicinity of the Bates place proved fruitless. In late June the other end of the lead rope was found tied to a dogwood tree near the Bates place. People began to say openly that Tom Dooley had murdered Laura. On the night of June 25, 1866, Tom said goodbye to a tearful Ann Melton and left Elkville. More on that later.
In late August of 1866, based on public comments she had made, Ann Melton’s cousin, Pauline Foster, was arrested on suspicion of being an accessory to the murder of Laura Foster. Jail worked its magic on Pauline and in early September she led a search party to a shallow grave on a ridge above the Bates place. Two and a half feet down, they found Laura Foster’s corpse together with the bundle of clothes she had taken with her on that late May morning. She still wore her checkered cotton dress. Laura had been stabbed in the left breast between the third and fourth ribs. Ann Melton was arrested soon afterward. Tom Dooley had already been chased down and caught in Tennessee on July 10. He was returned to the Wilkesboro jail a few days later where he was held without bail. After the body was found, Dooley was officially indicted for the murder, as was Ann Melton.
Justice was swifter in those days. Ann Melton’s request to be tried separately was granted and Tom Dooley’s trial began the next month, on October 19, 1866. He was represented by the former governor of North Carolina, Zebulon B. Vance. The trial was completed in three days and Dooley was convicted and sentenced on October 21. But Attorney Vance appealed on Dooley’s behalf and the North Carolina Supreme Court ordered that Tom Dooley deserved a new trial. Dooley was tried again and convicted again in January of 1868. Vance appealed once again to the Supreme Court but this time the verdict was upheld. Tom Dooley would hang.
The evidence presented by the prosecution suggested that Tom Dooley and Ann Melton conspired to murder Laura Foster, perhaps because of a social disease that they believed each of them had contracted as a result of Tom’s relationship with Laura. Only Ann and Tom knew, however, whether it was Tom or Ann who actually stabbed Laura. Pauline Foster’s testimony, if true, did appear to establish that Ann Melton was at least an aider and abettor of the crime. Nevertheless, at her trial which took place after Tom’s hanging, Ann Melton was found not guilty. There are those who still claim that the evidence against Tom was all circumstantial and that he was not guilty of the murder of Laura Foster. Seems unlikely to me though. But it’s also unlikely that we will ever know what really happened on Laura Foster Ridge on May 25, 1866. We do know something, however, about Tom Dooley’s last lonesome road trip - when the public accusations of his involvement with Laura’s murder caused him to flee Elkville and head for Tennessee.
In the evening of June 25, 1866, Tom Dooley visited Ann Melton for the last time as a free man. Pauline Foster, who lived with the Melton’s and was present during this visit, said Tom seemed depressed, and that Tom and Ann lay down on the bed together and both began crying. Pauline asked Tom what was wrong and he said they were telling lies about him and that he was going to have to leave the county. He said he would return by Christmas to take both his mother and Ann Melton away with him. Later that night Tom embraced the weeping Ann for the last time and he left Elkville, walking north toward Watauga County.
I’m driving southwest from Wilkesboro on State Road 268 which runs besides the Yadkin River. I drive across Beaver Creek. Daniel Boone once lived near here - where Beaver Creek flows into the Yadkin. Soon I see the historical marker for Thomas C. Dula, which states that he is buried 1.5 miles to the southwest. I continue past the left turn for Tom Dula Road and I cross the bridge over the Yadkin River and drive into the community of Ferguson. Soon I come to the bridge over Elk Creek and the sign that indicates that this is Elkville. There’s not much there now. I turn the car right onto old Elk Creek Road, following the path Tom Dooley took on the night he left home headed toward the communities of Darby and Triplett and then on up to the crest of the Blue Ridge. Elk Creek Road is a lovely drive. It parallels the pretty Elk Creek through farmlands and wood, constantly climbing up to the old Boone Trail - about where the Blue Ridge Parkway is today. The old road that runs beside the creek offers many gurgling cascades and pools to soak weary feet. But walking the road must have been long and hard - particularly hard and lonely for Tom Dooley, as he left his home and Ann Melton behind without knowing if he would ever see either again.
The old path Dooley took, Elk Creek Road, finally stops climbing where it runs underneath the Blue Ridge Parkway and then intersects Highway 421. Tom likely followed the old trails to Perkinsville and Sands on his way to Meat Camp. I turn left on 421 and drive to Perkinsville where I turn north on Highway 194. At Meat Camp Creek I turn left on Meat Camp Road and begin the climb up to Rich Mountain Gap. I turn left again onto State Road 1300 and continue climbing. In 1866 this was the main route to Zionville and Trade, Tennessee. The gravel road winds up between the great bulks of Rich Mountain (elevation 5,372 feet) and Snake Mountain (elevation 5,574 feet). I stop and park in the middle of the Gap. Much as Tom Dooley must have done 136 years ago, I gaze back down from where I’ve come - back at North Carolina. Then I walk over to the old road heading down on the other side of the Gap. I stare down into Tennessee - the same view that confronted Dooley as he contemplated what he must have thought was his successful escape. And the beginning of his new life.
Back in the car I head down the mountain into Tennessee. A flock of wild turkeys cross in front me. Further down the mountainside is all residential development. Then I am in Trade, Tennessee, just down the road from Zionville. Tom Dooley probably arrived in Trade on about July 2, 1866. In Trade, Dooley found work on the farm of Colonel James Grayson. Perhaps tipped off that he was being pursued, Tom left Trade after about a week and headed deeper into Tennessee. Deputies from Wilkes County met with Colonel Grayson on July 10 and together they set out in pursuit. The posse overtook Tom Dooley in Pandora, Tennessee, about nine miles west of Mountain City. The story goes that Colonel Grayson picked up a rock and told Tom he was under arrest. They took Dooley back to Trade, riding behind Grayson on Grayson’s horse. Grayson and the deputies carried Tom back to the Wilkesboro jail on July 11, 1866. Tom would remain incarcerated from that time until his hanging in May of 1868. On 30 April 1868, the day before his hanging, with the knowledge that Ann Melton would be tried for the murder after his death, Tom Dooley wrote out a statement that he was “the only person that had any hand in the murder of Laura Foster.”
From Trade, I turn back toward North Carolina on Highway 421. Soon I’m driving through Boone, and then turning under the Blue Ridge Parkway to head back down Elk Creek Road to Elkville. Arriving at the intersection of Elk Creek Road and State Road 268, I turn right on 268 headed away from Wilkesboro. Very shortly I cross the county line into Caldwell County. And soon, in a field on the south side of the road I see the lonely grave of Laura Foster, on the banks above the Yadkin River. There is a turnout on the north side of the road and a metal plaque dedicated to Laura’s memory. After awhile I start up the car and continue on 268 through the Yadkin River Valley, also known as Happy Valley, until I reach Highway 321. Then I turn for home.
As the asphalt rushes by, my mind wanders back to Tom’s tearful departure from Ann Melton and his long, solitary hike up Elk Creek Road. And I still envision him lingering awhile when he reaches Rich Mountain Gap, pondering what he had done down in Elkville, what he had left behind there, and what new life awaited him in Tennessee. I do feel some sympathy for the poor boy despite his unforgivable crime. Maybe, in part, it’s because of the song’s suggestion that Tom did indeed hang down his head and cry. Maybe he cried for Laura Foster or maybe for Ann Melton. Or maybe for himself. If it hadn’t of been for Grayson, though, we’d never have heard the song.
For a detailed, factual account of the Tom Dooley story see John Foster West’s The Ballad of Tom Dula (Moore Publishing Company, 1977, reprinted by Parkway Publishers, 2002).