The Twin Poplars

The Twin Poplars of Peace

Local legend has it that over 280 years ago the Catawba and the Cherokee Indians were locked in a brutal and savage conflict in the smoky hills around Lenoir, North Carolina.  So many warriors were killed on both sides that the leaders came together to talk peace, not as victor over vanquished, but as equals.  Distrust an enmity were conquered and peace was made..at least temporarily.  The symbol of that peace would be two trees and their ability to grow together.

Written language was an unknown to these fearless people on both sides. Sequoyah did not develop the Cherokee written language until over 70 years later, consequently there is no known text of this conflict and treaty. The historical record from our own Revolution seem to at least confirm the opposing relationships between these two tribes. The Cherokee aligned with the British and the Catawba fought alongside of the Patriots almost 40 years afterward.

Near the headwaters of the Catawba River we find road signs like Warrior Rd., Twin Poplar Ln. and Indian Grave Road that seem to memorialize what the history books do not.  Boone NC beckons the modern-day traveler, but coves cut into the mountains just off of Highway 321 harbor the stuff of local folklore. 

The war ranged all through these coves and valleys. Some of the burials are rumored to have occurred in the caves that are shared by bear and coyote to this day. Dirt roads now cover the foot trails and hunting paths from the past.  Black top and development roll over the creeks and crevices where the warriors would drink and hide. Private land with title and tax have replaced the free range of the Indians of a bygone era.

With the energetic and knowledgeable help of Cindy Day, the Director of the Caldwell Heritage Museum, and her equally magnanimous colleague Lisa Ward, the Twin Poplars were found rising  like ancient pillars in the secluded local lands.  With each cautious step down the wet and steep terrain, we were transported back in time. 

The mountains in this part of the country breath and give off a haze that paint the landscape blue as the peaks rise with a smoky mist.  The trees were draped in this phenomenon as we made our way to their base.  Nature would paint a sacred picture to this cathedral of peace and lend itself to bolster the story even more.

The Legend of the Twin Poplars suggests that the leaders of this ancient and violent war came together and tied two poplars as a symbol of the peace.  If the poplars were to grow together, then their peace would survive. 

To the naked eye it does appear that the bases of each tree, separated as they are, have their own individual root systems.  Their trunks being so far apart, it would seem implausible for them to have grown together without some artificial help from man.  Whether that help came from the indigenous tribes of yesteryear or some farmer thereafter is but speculation.

When hurricane Hugo came through in 1989 much of the forest was decimated by the high winds that swept up into the mountains from the coast.  Old growth trees were a natural victim and many feared that the twin poplars would not survive.  As the curious probed the deadwoods after the storm they rejoiced to find them still standing tall and proud.

We may never know if the Legend of the Twin Poplars is fact or fiction.  It is certainly, though, a story of folklore that resonates within us and causes us to reapply ourselves to the convictions of peace and harmony.  Their natural appearance in the wood certainly gives majesty to our walk upon this earth and heaps credit on the Creator for His good work.  Whatever the origin of their union, these ancient poplars and their union are a natural monument to the better parts of our human nature.

Isaac Shelby

Isaac Shelby was definitely not a “fence sitter” during the war with the mother country.  He was, as a son of his father Evan Shelby, a proponent by deed of the Fincastle Resolutions and had resolved to "live and die" while never surrendering his "inestimable privileges".(1)  He understood Freedom and slavery.  He understood the Quebec acts as intolerable to his Protestant background, his sense of justice and his rights as a citizen to have a say in how one is governed.

Later in life he would be called “Old King’s Mountain." 

He won that nickname at the age of 29 on the wet, steep hillsides of King’s Mountain. There, British Col. Patrick Ferguson waited for his approach. Along with Shelby came over a thousand Patriot warriors from Over the Mountain.  

Ferguson had a poor view of Shelby and the Over the Mountain men.  In his mind they had run from him at Wofford's Iron Works (Battle of Cedar Springs) in Spartanburg. The band of rugged Patriots had taunted the King's men from a hill and led them on a merry chase that left Ferguson frustrated.

The British leader also considered them a group of thieves who had settled in the lands off limits to British subjects.  

Having just missed Shelby and the others at the battle of Musgrove Mills on August 19th, 1780, he set out in pursuit towards Gilbert Town, near present day Rutherfordton, NC.  

Ferguson was seeking a fight and grew more confident as the Loyalist poured into his camp for safety.

His letter to Cornwallis revealed a positive attitude towards the number of loyalists coming into camp. Ferguson then made ready to gather more supplies and search for cattle to feed his growing army. (2)

But Ferguson was unaware that he was being tricked and was in a chess match with his betters. Shelby, along with his fellow leaders at Musgrove Mill, convinced the inhabitants of the mountain regions around Gilbert Town to take shelter under the King's protection. By doing this they would be able to save their cattle that they had hid away in the mountain passes for the Patriot cause.

Ferguson's soldiers sallied forth out of camp in search of beef among the Patriot farmers.  Finding a herd they began their work of preparing the meat for the meals.  As they were well into their work, Ferguson was informed that they had been decimating the herds of three of his own loyalist men.  Ferguson had been duped by Colonel Shelby and British influence in the area suffered even more.

About that same time, Colonel Ferguson paroled an Over the Mountain prisoner in his entourage and sent him with a message to Isaac Shelby in particular.  Samuel Philips found Shelby and relayed the message, "If they did not desist from their opposition to the British arms, he would march his army over the mountains, hang their leaders, and lay their country waste with fire and sword."  Philips, ever the soldier, then set about giving particulars on the makeup of Ferguson's army to Colonel Shelby.

Shelby and the leaders at Musgrove Mills had foreseen that Ferguson had plans for their mountain homeland even before he had left the South State.  They had agreed to begin recruiting an army to confront Ferguson as soon as the opportunity presented itself. Now was the time. 

Shelby would take the lead and find John Sevier and other leaders and start towards the invading army.  Dispatches and messengers were sent throughout the mountains.

They came in droves.  Hundreds from different counties and valleys converged on the meeting places in Morganton and Gilbert Town.  They came, on horseback and on foot, with a purpose to confront the threats of Colonel Ferguson and the British realm.  These were wild hunters of hearty stock who understood Freedom and self government.  They were armed with rifles and were expert marksmen. They came over the snow covered mountains and down through the valleys.  They forded mountain streams and rivers while keeping their powder dry.  They came on knowing that they might not come back.  They came in droves. With Colonel Shelby....They came for a Reckoning!

Ferguson, at first, did not comprehend his peril. He allowed his personal biases to not see his enemy for what it was...a battle-hardened foe led by Colonel Shelby (and others).  He either couldn't or wouldn't see that Shelby was neither awed by British might nor one to lose a fight.  Colonel Ferguson lingered, hoping to cut off Georgia Patriot Col. Elijah Clarke coming from Augusta, Ga. He would wind his way back down the mountain passes, stall for a little more time for Clarke to appear.  The Redcoats would then feint southwest towards Ninety Six and ultimately head east to draw on support from Lord Cornwallis. Clarke never showed, but Shelby and company came on with a purpose and closed the distance.

Cornwallis was easily within reach at Charlotte, NC had Ferguson simply been prudent. But Ferguson chose the small mountain spur of King's Mountain to make his stand.  He had trained and bragged about his group of Loyalists in his camp and now that confidence would be tested. Ferguson trusted in his position and his loyal troops numbering close to 1000 men at arms.  He would even boast about his chosen defensive position and swore it could not be taken.(3)  

After being on the march for 2 weeks, Colonel Shelby made sure the British threats were answered. On October 7, 1780 the Mountain men surrounded the summit and were urged to do their duty; and if they did, the day would be won.

Drawing on his experience fighting the Shawnee, Shelby would tell his men at King’s Mountain, “Be your own officer...If in the woods, shelter yourselves, and give them Indian play; advance from tree to tree, pressing the enemy and killing and disabling all you can.”(4) 

The battle raged for just over an hour and Ferguson was left dead on the field.  His words to Colonel Shelby had inflamed the Patriot zeal and left the British leader cold and prostrate.  Shelby, by contrast, stood erect, unscathed and was every bit in control of his men and his duty.

After the battle of Kings Mountain and before the march off the precipice, the prisoners were ordered to line up and shoulder rifles that were stacked. An elderly loyalist of King George feigned old age as a reason for not picking his up.  Shelby slapped him with the flat edge of his sword and said, that he(Shelby) had brought one so the tory could take one away.  The tory jumped to, grabbed a rifle and got into line.(5)

In 1781 Shelby would fight under Francis Marion and add more wins to his war record.

He would later become the first and fifth governor of Kentucky and serve in the War of 1812.(6)

Fearless, determined and able, Colonel Shelby was one of the many heroes of King's Mountain and the Revolution in the South.  He was followed and feared in the cause of Liberty all throughout his life and the Country owes him great respect and gratitude.

Many towns and counties were named in his honor, including the North Carolina city just north of Kings Mountain.  Freedom Reigns!

(1) http://www.holstonia.net/files/GlanvilleFR2010.pdf
(2) https://allthingsliberty.com/2018/08/skulking-shots-on-the-flank-the-skirmish-at-cane-creek/

(3) Before They Were HEroes at King's Mountain, Randell Jones
(4) The Battles of Kings Mountain and Cowpens: The American Revolution in the Southern Backcountry, Melissa A. Walker

(5) History of the Upper Country of SC, Logan

(6) https://www.battlefields.org/learn/biographies/isaac-shelby

Musgrove Mill

Ferguson was frustrated.

 

At the Battle of Wofford’s Iron Works (Spartanburg) on August 8, 1780 American Col. Isaac Shelby and his frontiersmen played cat and mouse with Cornwallis’ man and eluded his British force with taunts and jeers on a hillside out of musket range.(1)  This came just a little over a week after Loyalists surrendered to Col. Shelby’s Indian fighters at Thicketty Fort without firing a shot.

 

That frustration would mount as on August 19th the Patriot bands of warriors under Shelby, SC militia Col. James Williams and Patriot Col. Elijah Clarke slipped in behind Ferguson's lines during a night-time ride and engaged Loyalists at Musgrove Mill (present-day southern, Spartanburg County) that morning.  The American Revolutionaries numbered about 300 men at arms. 

After halting in an open Indian field about a mile from the Ford of the Enoree River, scouts were sent out to gain intelligence on the enemy just before dawn.  Shots were fired and the scouts, though some wounded, made it back to camp and reported enemy numbers to be over twice the anticipated force of 200.

Sometime during the night reinforcements, intended for Col. Ferguson, had arrived at the British camp and were anticipating joining up with the left wing of the Red Coat army on their march northward.  Among these in camp at Musgrove Mill were two hundred Provincials from New York under the command of Colonel Alexander Innes.  

Shelby was outnumbered, his horses were spent, and his enemy would be reinforced by Ferguson soon. 

Shelby needed to draw again from his tactical skills forged in the furnace of Indian wars.  He chose to fight. He ordered his men to build breastworks of fallen logs and brush across the expanse of the open field in a rough semi-circle.  His plan to use cover and concealment during the battle would equal the playing field to the benefit of his men, as the British would be attacking a more fortified position without cover of their own.  Shelby and his contingent of frontiersmen under the bold Josiah Culbertson were on the right. Williams and his South Carolina militia were in the center. Clarke’s courageous Georgia troops were on the left.  Reserve troops were within earshot and hidden nearby; while the horses were staged in the rear.

The trap was set.

Now for the bait.

Looking up towards the British encampment

British Colonel Innes urged his reluctant peers in the war council to make haste and give fight to the rebel band who he had little regard for.  Some in the council wished to finish their breakfast and wait for Ferguson, but Innes was insistent.  As they made ready, Patriot Captain Inman and 25 men sallied in towards the King's camp and fired at the British from across the river, enticing them to give chase.  Innes did not hesitate nor disappoint.  

Innes’s whole force, save one hundred in reserve at the house, followed down and then up the hill on the heels of Inman and his party of Whigs; whom they believed represented the whole of the rebel band.  Unknown to them, Josiah Culbertson's party were concealed on their flank as they moved up the hill.(2)  The loyalists, answering the bugle calls, drums and shouts of their leaders, formed up and advanced to within 70 yards of the breastworks, bayonets at the ready.

Looking up towards the Patriot breastworks

Suddenly a deadly accurate fire was unleashed at the British just when they had let out a “Huzzah for King George!”  The attacking British staggered but for a moment.  They checked their lines and resumed their march.  Disciplined and steady, they came on with bayonet and determination.  The Patriot riflemen were much slower in their reloads than the British soldiers and their muskets. To make matters worse, the British cold steel was pressing in.  These anxious moments were observed by Shelby and Clarke and orders were given with haste.

The forty men in reserve were called up and filled the ranks of the riflemen who were being pressed hard.  At this critical juncture, Colonel Innes was killed by one of the Over the Mountain men and in the ensuing moments the tide changed for the advancing British.  

The frontiersmen let out an Indian war cry and rushed into the fray of smoke and powder and into close quarter combat.  The screams, the gun fire and the battle yell of charging wild warriors were all mixed with the smoke that made it impossible to see beyond 20 yards.  

The loyalist militia in front of Clarke gave way and began to fall back. Soon it was a full-blown retreat as the British ran back down the road from which they had come.  The dead and wounded lay scattered along the route as the Patriots were in hot pursuit and continuing to engage their enemy, even into the river ford.

One of the Tories, still bold despite the retreat, decided to drop his trousers and show his mooned cheeks to his pursuers as he made his way up the opposite hill.  He was paid in full with a bullet to his pasty white backside and carried off in shame and discomfort.(3)

In just about an hour of heavy fighting the smoke clears, and Shelby is the victor.  He has now beat the enemy three times in the field under less than favorable conditions, all within 3 weeks time. 

The victory is short lived as an express rider comes in from Colonel Davie at the Waxhaws informing the victors of the defeat of Gates at Camden, SC. 

Davie, who was riding to help in the battle at Camden, had observed Gates fleeing northward. Davie adjusted his own orders and turned back. He then prudently sent out messages to leaders still in the field, to include Thomas Sumter and Shelby's command structure.  Sumter suffers defeat at Fishing Creek above Great Falls, SC and flees to Charlotte.  Shelby and his army dispersed and seemingly vaporize into the mountains with their prisoners above present day Rutherford, NC.  The reality is Shelby would not let them rest till they were safely in the mountain passes and many of his warriors were starving and fatigued when they got home.

 

As Ferguson arrives too late to assist in the battle it is evident that Shelby has eluded the British Colonel once again.  His subsequent pursuit into the North State is met with equal results.(3,4)

But South Carolina is without a formal army to oppose the British and Cornwallis has his sights set on Charlotte and beyond.  Cornwallis sends Ferguson into the mountains where he imprudently threatens to lay waste to Scots-Irish Patriot homes and hang their leaders.  

General Washington sends Nathaniel Greene and Daniel Morgan south to raise an army and continue the fight.  

The Over the Mountain men begin raising their own army and are helped in recruitment by the bold and aggressive talk of Ferguson.

A reckoning is coming! 

Freedom Reigns!

(1)King’s Mountain and It’s Heroes: History of the Battle of King’s Mountain, October 7^th, 1780, and the Events Which Led to It, Draper, Allaire
(2)http://sc_tories.tripod.com/battle_of_musgrove_mill.htm

(3)Before They Were Heroes at King’s Mountain, Randell Jones

(4)Parker’s Guide to the Revolutionary War in South Carolina, John C. Parker

Thicketty Fort

Captain Johnson had a hard time wrestling Tory Captain Patrick Moore into submission.  Moore and his Loyalist sympathizers had been on the run from their defeat at Ramsour’s Mill near Lincolnton, NC for 12 days and were not too willing to fall into the hands of these Liberty Men. At six foot seven inches tall(1), Moore was giving his fair share and was able to open up multiple cuts on Johnson’s head and thumb. Despite it all, Captain Johnson was hauling him in towards the rest of the Patriot contingent.  The spilled blood; however, got into the Johnson’s powder and he misfired as reinforcements arrived for the Loyalist leader.  While Johnson retreats through the bushes, Captain Moore escapes and is able to make it home on Thicketty Creek, outside of Gaffney, SC. (2)

Captain Moore had reinforced a fort there and commanded a body of loyalist men with good stores of weaponry.  Undaunted by his near fatal encounter with Johnson, Moore’s command had become a staging point for the Tories to launch raiding parties on the Patriot homes and farms in the back country. So much so that it raised the ire of not only General Sumter in South Carolina, but also Col. McDowell from NC.  Both were in the area of conflict attempting to win and subdue the land for the cause. Independently they had both sent out warriors to attack Fort Thicketty.  Elijah Clarke, Isaac Shelby, Andrew Hampton and Charles Robertson met and combined their forces to put and end to the threat. 

The fort itself was surrounded by abatis that made it difficult to approach without impaling oneself on the pointed timbers.  Similar structures were used at the star fort at Ninety-Six and other conflict areas. Fort Thicketty sat upon a rise above the creek and had loopholes in the walls from which to fire at the enemy from cover. To overcome even a crude abatis takes coordination and firepower under extreme exposure.  To make offensive operations against the fort even worse, the fort had only one opening by which to enter the enclosure.  Moore’s men were more than confident that they could repel the forces that approached their bastion in the back country.(3)

Colonel Shelby and his men of daring were not ones to shrink from a fight.  Shelby arrived at the fort on July 26, 1780 and sent word to Moore to surrender at once.  Moore refused, and he and his Tory militia steeled their nerves for the fight. Col. Shelby then arrayed all 600 of his men into firing positions in a way that was meant to intimidate.  All along the wood line surrounding the fort, Moore and his militia observed the Liberty Men step out with their rifles and storied hunting shirts.  Certainly, they had the set jaws and determination of men used to conflict on the Indian frontier and mimicked their leader as they put on a show of force.  Shelby, again, called out for a parley with Moore.  Moore assured his men, as he left out for the discussion of terms, that he would not be surrendering and that he intended to fight.

Perhaps it was his recent brush with death at the hands of some of these same men outside of Lincolnton.  Or perhaps it was his subsequent near-death experience near the Wofford’s Iron works at the hands of Captain Johnson not 24 days removed.  Or perhaps it was a combination of so many seasoned fighting men standing before Moore’s little fort of friends and neighbors. Whatever the single or combination of reasons, Captain Moore agreed to surrender the fort if his men were spared and paroled.  To the dismay of his men, the Loyalist Captain walked back to the fort under Patriot escort and turned the fort over without firing a shot in defense.

 

Col. Shelby’s ruse worked, and the Sons of Liberty were fortunate, indeed.  Among the stores of weaponry were found ready muskets loaded with “buck and ball” at the gun ports of the fort.  Had Captain Moore fought it out, Colonel Shelby may have been hard pressed to win without cannon.  At the very least he would have paid dearly with the lives of his men to win the day.   Captain Moore’s capitulation without a fight saved many lives that day on both sides, but he held the title of coward in the eyes of his superiors in General Cornwallis’ camp.(2, Ibid)

The month was a sore one for the British in the upstate.  Having taken Charleston, the British had set their sights on the upcountry, but suffered some setbacks.  Lt. Col. Turnbull wrote Cornwallis about his Ramsour’s Mill investigation and chastised the Loyalist timing at Lincolnton.  He also warned of the Scots Irish,  "As for the majority Scots-Irish inhabitants of the Catawba River Valley," Turnbull wrote: "I wish I could say something in their favor. I believe them to be the worst of creation - and nothing will bring them to reason but severity.”(4)  

But Cornwallis did not understand what the threat in this quarter really was. He was on the move and was concentrated on the Continental army.  He had a destiny with Gates at Camden.  His response for the left flank of his army was to send Major Patrick Ferguson.  He would write later, after the blinders were off, "A numerous and unexpected enemy came from the mountains.  As they had good horses, their movements were rapid."(3,ibid)

 

A reckoning was coming!  And for the next 72 days Liberty was in question.  Freedom Reigns!

(1)      Kings Mountain and It’s Heroes:  The Battle of King’s Mountain, October 7^Th, 1780, and the Events Which Led to It, Lyman Copeland Draper, Anthony Allaire

(2)      Parker’s Guide to the Revolutionary War in South Carolina, John C. Parker Jr.

(3)      Before they were Heroes at King’s Mountain, Randell Jones

(4)      Neighborhood in Constant Alarm: The Battle of Ramsour’s Mill and Partisan Divisions in the Carolina Backcountry Communities During the American Revolution, Austin William Smith

The Ulster Scots of the Revolution in the Carolinas and Virginia.

They came in droves, as if the flood gates had opened on some Scots Irish dam across the sea. With their recent inclusion into the United Kingdom they sought freedom and land in the British colonies as new British subjects. They disembarked at New York, Philadelphia, Wilmington and Charleston. They pooled money and families together and set out on the Great Wagon Road in their Conestoga wagons. Different from the planters of the Pee Dee and Coastal regions, they preferred the Piedmont and Mountains of Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. Men of force and iron were needed in this wild unsettled region that was a buffer between the Indians of the upstate and the gentry of the sandy regions. The wilderness filled up with families of hardy stock, willing to forge a living in the outer territory of the new land. 

When the French and Indian War broke out in 1756, the British treated these stout immigrants with the same disdain that their grandparents and parents had been treated in Scotland and Ireland…not as equals, but as second-class citizens. All the while they were expected to die for the mother country in preservation of the empire. And they beat back the French and the Indians and forced their capitulation in the name of the Crown, but they did not win their full measure of citizenship.

By 1776 generations of Ulster Scots lived free and without encumbrances from the empire seat so far away. Petitions to government for redress against grievances were met with either unrighteous force or general apathy, and never timely. The Empire had stretched beyond the limits of the infrastructure of its government.  New Bern, Charleston and Williamsburg were a long way from the Holston river valley or the Yadkin, Broad and Catawba rivers in Virginia and the Carolinas. This distance only added to the bad experiences of the governed concerning the government. 

And grievance upon grievance mounted year after year until an enlightened leadership made a stand against the tyranny. Across the colonies the conversations turned to common rights and common ideas of government…self-government. And though it was based on a natural law known in the breasts of every free man, they were radical in terms of sitting governments in world history. The Scots Irish had learned to live and flourish on their own in terms of self-government with the moral compass of these natural laws. They, as a people, understood the building blocks of a civil society and recognized when a form of government was not working and had become tyrannical.  These, after-all, were the literate, pious and independent children of the great Scottish Enlightenment.

And all the remonstrations still could have been for naught, and these men and women of the empire would have stayed willingly as faithful subjects, had the King and his generals acted rightfully. Instead, the British came with threats to hang the leaders of the Ulster Scots and lay waste to their towns with fire and sword unless they came and took an oath to this King who was so far away. This same King that bribed the Cherokee to wage war on the settlements from Spartanburg to Nolichucky. The King’s men burned houses, arrested clergy, and confiscated livestock without due payment. British Officers enlisted the local thieves as soldiers and gave them authority to legally ply their formerly illegal trade. Chaos was fomented by the very government that wanted their allegiance.

So, they came in droves.  Not by the tens or dozens, but by the hundreds...each time they were called in from their fields for service. They chose to live life on their own terms and fight back. 

At Fort Thicketty, in the upstate of South Carolina, they rode with Colonel Isaac Shelby and their mere presence forced a capitulation without a shot being fired. At Musgrove Mill in Spartanburg County, South Carolina they combined forces and routed the British with ease. At Kings Mountain, near the North and South Carolina State line, they combined forces again with independent commands, surrounded and obliterated one third of the standing British army in the Carolinas. And at Cowpens they helped the Continental army win the day and decimate still more of Cornwallis’ standing army, thereby starting the chain of events that ended the war and established a new nation.

We can still walk where the intrepid heroes once raised rifle and saber in defense of Liberty. On the trails and roads of old we can stroll under the canopies of the white oak and tulip poplar while our ankles brush by the green ferns along the way. Squirrels and fox, deer and owl, all co-exist on these sacred grounds. The whispers of the wind are all that is left of those awful conflicts, save the man-made markers and graves that dot the anointed landscape. Thankfully we are fortunate to be able to reflect upon these noble deeds of men and women who may have been poor in terms of wealth, but were rich in their determination to live free.

Protected now from the conquest of civilization’s steady roll,

where man made monuments stand with the beauty of nature’s soul. 

Envision yourself amid the battle cries and smoke while charging into the fray…

but remember dear friend,

you do so with liberty won on that hallowed day. 

Eric K. Barnes

Sources for this article include:

The Winning of the West, Theodore Roosevelt

Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution in the Carolinas and Georgia, Benson J. Lossing

King’s Mountain and It’s Heroes: History of the Battle of King’s Mountain, October 7^th, 1780, and the Events Which Led to It, Lyman C. Draper and Anthony Allaire

History of the Upper Country of S.C., John H. Logan

Before They Were Heroes at King’s Mountain, Randell Jones

Parker’s Guide to the Revolutionary War in South Carolina, John C. Parker Jr.

The Legend of Tom Dula

Tom Dooley was innocent! Hanged for a murder he did not commit? There is no one happy in Happy Valley, NC as Tom Dooley (Dula) is last seen on the back of a wagon, pickin’ a banjo and heading for Statesville to meet his Hangman. Word on the street is that Laura Foster was killed by one of Tom Dooley’s other women; possibly Anne Foster. That “word on the street” never made a difference for Tom in the late 1860s.

The events surrounding this murder just after the Civil War galvanized the small and isolated community. Happy Valley was anything but…Happy. The microscope of public scrutiny revealed a lover’s triangle with a twist of STDs. It was discovered that Tom had more than two lovers in the community that could have given him syphilis. His anxiety led him to make heated and inflammatory statements that were used against him in trial. But, no one keeps a secret better than a spurned lover. It is rumored that Laura Foster was stabbed in the chest and buried in a shallow grave by one of them, possibly Anne…Laura’s cousin.

Today the truth is but a whisper among the old trees in this beautiful corner of the North State. The Kingston Trio immortalized the tale in their 1958 hit song. The lonely grave can be seen, still, off of NC Highway 268 in Happy Valley (between Caldwell and Wilkes Counties). A small white fence guards the final resting place of Laura Foster in a field across from a stone marker erected by the Woodmen of the World. A lonesome place for one of the more morbid chapters of Southern folklore.

https://northcarolinaghosts.com/mountains/tom-dooley/

http://www.murderbygaslight.com/2010/01/hang-down-your-head-tom-dula.html