DOOLEY LEGEND LIVES AS GROUP SEEKS PARDON

By Marshall McClung
Graham Star Correspondent

(Editor’s note:  The legend of Tom Dooley continues to live in the North Carolina Mountains.  A move was begun last year seeking a posthumous pardon for the ladies’ man that was hanged over 130 years ago for murdering his pregnant girlfriend.  The following story, first published in the Graham Star last year, is being published again at our readers’ request.)

The story of Tom Dooley might well have faded into the pages of history and been forgotten had it not been for the ballad that became a major hit for the Kingston Trio on Capitol Records.  The ballad had been recorded earlier in the 1950’s.

Many people are familiar with the song which starts with “Hang down your head Tom Dooley, hang down your head and cry.”  Many may have thought it was just a song, but it actually happened in northwestern North Carolina in Wilkes County.  Tom Dooley was actually Tom Dula.  Dula was pronounced “Dooley” in the ballad as it is often by mountain people.

Early on the morning of May 25, 1866, Laura Foster was awakened by Tom Dula at her bedroom window.   Tom and Laura had been intimate lovers since their mid-teens.  This was no secret to the community.  They were both 21 years of age at this time.  After a brief conversation, Tom left and Laura dressed, got a change of clothes, and left on her father’s horse, not taking time to saddle it.  Following a road along the Yadkin River, Laura met Betsy Scott who did the washing for the people in the community.  Laura told Betsy that she was supposed to meet Tom at the Bates place, and that they were going to be married.   There were rumors that Laura was pregnant at the time.  It was the last time that anyone other than her killer or killers would see Laura Foster alive.  The Bates place Laura referred to was six miles from her home.   Laura lived in Caldwell County, but the Bates place was in Wilkes County.  It had once been a blacksmith shop, but was now abandoned and overgrown with weeds and bushes.

The third part of the so-called “love triangle” was Ann Foster Melton, a cousin of Laura Foster.  Ann and Tom were also intimate lovers and Ann was fiercely jealous of Laura as she had let it be known on several occasions.  On the day before Laura left home, Tom had gone to Ann’s parents to borrow a mattock.  Later that day, Ann got a quart of bootleg whiskey.  That afternoon, she and Tom left and were gone all that night.   Ann was seen later the next morning wearing wet clothing as if she had been outside overnight.

Later that day, Laura’s father, Wilson Foster, came to the Melton’s home looking for her.  The next day, the horse that Laura had ridden showed up at home, part of a chewed tether line still attached to it, indicating that the horse had been tied up so long that it had chewed the line in order to free itself.

A month went by with no clue as to the whereabouts of Laura Foster.  Suspicions began to brew that Tom Dula had something to do with her disappearance, so much so, that he decided to flee to Tennessee.  Tom left, changed his last name to Hall, and went to work on the James Grayson farm at Trade, Tennessee.

In late June, although no body had been found, Pickens Carter, a Justice of the Peace in Elkville, issued an arrest warrant for Tom Dula.  Two Wilkes County deputies, Jack Adkins and Ben Ferguson, went to the Grayson farm to pick Tom up.  Tom had left shortly before the deputies arrived, so Grayson accompanied them in their pursuit.  They overtook Tom at Pandora in the Doe Valley community, nine miles from Mountain City on a road leading to Johnson City, Tennessee.  Tom surrendered without incident and was taken to the jail in Wilkesboro, N.C.

In early August, Ann Foster Melton approached her Cousin Pauline Foster weeping and concerned that Tom might be hanged.  Ann told Pauline “I want to show you Laura’s grave. They have just about quit looking for her.”   She spoke about digging up the body and reburying it in the garden or cutting it into pieces and disposing of them.  They then went from her home past a relative’s house, then down a hill, across Stony Fork Road and across Reedy Branch.  From there, they climbed up what is now called Laura Foster Ridge.  Pauline refused to go on up to the grave which Ann said was between some trees and laurel bushes.

Near the end of August, after having made many remarks in public about knowing where Laura Foster was buried, Pauline was picked up for questioning.  She told authorities of the visit to the woods with her cousin Ann, and agreed to take them to the area.

Horse Led Searchers to Grave

On September 1, searchers spread out and began combing the woods in the area Pauline Foster led them to.  After the search had been in progress for some time, one of the searcher’s horses shied away from a certain spot.  After probing in what appeared to be a mound of soft earth, the body of a woman that appeared to be Laura Foster was found in the grave a little over two feet deep.  A bundle of extra clothing was lying on the body.  Further examination was conducted by Dr. George Carter at the site.   Dr. Carter found that there was a cut place in the dead woman’s dress over her left breast.  Further examination revealed a deep stab wound between the third and fourth ribs.  Dr. Carter identified the woman as Laura Foster.

Tom Dula was defended in court by former North Carolina Governor Zebulon D. Vance.  Vance was successful in getting the trial moved to Statesville.  Tom was eventually found guilty and sentenced to be hanged.  Tom had written and signed a statement that he alone had killed Laura Foster, stabbing her in the chest with a six inch bowie knife, and dragging her body to a grave he had dug earlier.  On May 1, 1868, Tom Dula was hung on gallows in Statesville, not “in some lonesome valley from a white oak tree” as in the ballad.  Tom had ridden to the gallows on a cart with his own coffin.  The hanging did not instantly break Tom’s neck as was supposed to happen.  Instead, according to witnesses, it took a good ten minutes for him to choke to death.

Ann Foster Melton was tried in a later term of court as an accomplice in the murder of Laura Foster, and was acquitted, even though she had been held in jail for two years.  Apparently, Ann Melton took any knowledge of Laura Foster’s murder with her to her own grave.  Stories persist that she confessed on her deathbed and spoke of seeing black cats climbing the walls, and hearing the flesh of condemned souls frying in hell.  She died in the mid 1870’s.

Laura Foster is buried near Highway 268 close to Ferguson in Wilkes County.  Her headstone reads, "Laura Foster Murdered in May 1865 (it should read 1866), Tom Dula Hanged for Crime." Tom Dula is buried on Tom Dula Road (Highway 1134), across the Yadkin River from Ferguson.  His headstone reads:   Tom Dula Hanged for The Murder of Laura Foster.  Ann Melton, although found not guilty, was thought by many to have helped kill and bury Laura Foster.    Ann is buried near Old Stony Fork Road  now called Gladys’s Fork Road (N.C. Highway 1159).