Hang Your Head and Cry

"...it was merely two uprights, with a space between them of about ten feet and a cross piece on top..."
N.Y. Herald, May 2, 1868

                                                                                                                                                                                      

In this fast paced world we live in I'm one of those oddballs who can't drive a car.  I do however own a bicycle which, along with my size 7 Skechers, provides my main means of transportation.  

I also live in the country but fortunately close enough to where the rural world meets the modern world that I can be on the main road in 5 or 10 minutes by bike. 

Were I to go on the main road and head due north, in about 20 minutes I'd be at Depot Hill.  Oddly, just before you reach Depot Hill there is, in fact, a building that was once the train depot.  It's now a police station, before that it was occupied by the non-profit Iredell-Statesville Community Enrichment Corporation and Welcome Center, before that some business and before that it was somewhere else.  We call it the "old depot"  but it's actually the new depot (built in 1911), the oldest one having been burned down during the American Civil War.  The "somewhere else" where the old depot and the oldest depot had both been located was, not surprisingly, on Depot Hill, little more than a stone's throw away (from the other side of the tracks that no longer exist).

You may recall opening lines to the song by The Band, a Canadian group and one-time back-up band for Bob Dylan, (a song more famously recorded by Joan Baez but with the wrong words), "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down."

Virgil Caine is my name and I served on the Danville train
'Til Stoneman's Cavalry came and tore up the tracks again.

George Stoneman conduced a series of vengeful raids mostly through North Carolina from late March to mid May of 1865. The "Danville train" refers to the Richmond (VA)-Danville (VA) rail line.
 
This same Gen. Stoneman raided Statesville, N.C. on April 13, 1865 with 5000 troops.  The day before he had been in Salisbury about 25 miles away.  It's recorded that residents standing on the top floor of the Concord Presbyterian Female College in downtown Statesville could see the orange lights of the flames emanating from the Salisbury conflagration over the trees.  Statesville was a budding railroad town boasting two depots. Stoneman burned to the ground the one closest to town, just constructed in 1858,  ripped up the rails and tore through the town searching for a sign of Jefferson Davis.

A man named Thomas Caleb Dula was executed by hanging on Friday, May 1, 1868 at 2:24 p.m. just a month before his 23rd birthday.  This was three years after the Civil War had ended, so on that fateful afternoon the the depot itself was gone and the field where it once stood was an open space except for the gallows.

Thomas Dula's saga has been immortalized, though rather speciously, through the well-known song titled "Tom Dooley"

Some people have written that Dula was hung outside the courthouse but that's not true.  After having spent 3 weeks in the jail, he was carted, procession-like, almost a mile from downtown, accompanied by his sister and her husband, in the same wagon that toted his casket to the killing field. His sister had been authorized to haul his body to the family's preferred burial ground.

About a half block down the street from the aforementioned Concord Presbyterian Female College was the temporary home of Zebulon Vance.  This wartime governor of North Carolina was both somewhat anti-secessionist and very focused on assisting the boys, volunteers but especially conscripts, from his state. He was extremely popular.  When  William Tecumseh Sherman occupied the state capitol of Raleigh on the day before Lincoln was assassinated, Vance fled to Greensboro, then Statesville.  While Vance was trying to conduct state business there, Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston surrendered to Sherman ending the war (Lee's earlier surrender to Grant was just a preview) and the new president, Andrew Johnson, appointed William Woods Holden (who had lost to Vance in the 1864 election and later became the only NC governor to be impeached and removed from office) to replace Vance as governor.   By order of U. S. Grant  Vance was arrested in his Statesville home on May 13.  It was his birthday.  He applied for a pardon, received a parole on July 5th and, although he was never officially charged with any crime, was officially pardoned in 1867.  During that time he was operating a law practice in Charlotte.

During the war Dula served as a drummer. I've often seen it said that drummers get the girls.  I don't know how true that might be but Thomas Dula found himself involved with too many women all too close to home. 

Before the war, 16 year old Tom Dula of Wilkes County was having an affair with Ann Melton, Melton being her married name. This affair began years before when she was still Angelina Triplett (a book could be written just about her various names). After the war Dula stayed with James and Ann Melton at times and, according to her cousin, Pauline Foster, who also lived in the one room house (she was hired farm help), the affair continued under James' nose.  Pauline and Tom also had been having intimate relations. During the subsequent trial, Pauline admitted she had syphilis at the time. Tom came to know Laura Foster, probably through Pauline who was also her cousin. Laura and Tom also started having relations and when Tom was also diagnosed with syphilis, he allegedly attributed it to Laura.  Ann had also contracted the STD and gave it to her husband.   

When Laura Foster took her father's horse out without his permission on May 25, 1866, and failed to return, her father became concerned about his horse.   But when the horse returned rider-less, a search was conducted for Laura.  The searchers found nothing in the days that followed.  In the end of June There was a warrant issued for Tom Dula  on hearsay evidence, but he had already fled for Tennessee and was doing farm work for a former North Carolinian and Confederate veteran, Lt. Colonel James W. M. Grayson under the alias Tom Hall.   Two Wilkes County deputies had traced Dula to Tennessee and though he had already left Greyson's farm, the Colonel recognized him from the description and led the posse that quickly found and arrested Dula in early July.

On August 1 Ann Melton and Pauline Foster went to where Laura had been buried to make sure it wasn't disturbed.  Pauline had been making suspicious comments about Laura's death and was arrested in early August.  She told the authorities about her visit with Ann Melton to where Laura's body had been hidden.  Supposedly when she and Ann had gone to check on the grave, Pauline has stopped short of where the body was hidden while Ann did the checking.  So, when Pauline was directed to show the authorities where the body was, she only showed them the general area. But after 30 minutes of poking around, they found Laura Foster's body.  The coroner determined she died from a single stab wound to her chest.

Since Pauline's actions indicated that it was Ann Melton who really knew where the body had been buried, Pauline was released from custody and Ann was arrested.   In October 1866 the grand jury trial in Wilkesboro determined there was sufficient evidence for a trial.  Zebulon Vance, the chief defense attorney for Dula and Melton, requested a change of venue to Statesville, about 35 miles South of Wilkesboro (and in Iredell county, not Wilkes County, guaranteeing a different jury pool) where the jury wouldn't be so personally involved. The motion was granted.

The trial was expedited in October 1866 and Dula was found guilty (Ann remained in jail because her trial as an accomplice would be separate) and sentenced to hang in November. But Vance appealed the decision.  The N.C. Supreme Court determined the trial was flawed and called for a new trial. It was to be held in April of the next year. Because some witnesses were unavailable, the trial was postponed until October of 1867 but the unavailability of several witnesses again postponed the trial until January 1868.  Dula was again found guilty and sentenced to hang in February but, as expected, the verdict was appealed. The appeal was denied and Thomas Dula was sentenced to hang on May 1, 1868. 

While Zebulon Vance failed in exonerating Dula twice, he succeeded with Ann Melton.  After having been imprisoned for two years, her separate trial for the murder of Laura Foster took place in October 1868 and the state failed to prove her guilt.  Ann died a few years later in a wagon accident. 

The story and the trials were far more complicated than the above brief summary suggests. There were 80 witnesses, accounts were highly conflicted, dates were confused, there were blatant lies and/or omissions and nothing was really clear, including Dula's guilt.   This was never meant to be a scholarly examination of the legend of Tom Dooley, but rather a counterpoint against which the song(s) can be appreciated. 

While one might think it doesn't get much more sordid than murder, the story of  the death of Laura Foster proves otherwise.  The only reasonably likeable person in the above tale is Zebulon Vance who was handling this cases pro bono, and even he possibly had an agenda.  No one knows for sure if Laura was killed by Dula, Melton, Pauline Foster or even Wilson Foster (Laura's father) but they all come across as somewhat despicable humans.  Even the murder victim, like the other women in the story, was widely known for her wantonness.  This isn't really a criticism since none of these people were blessed with even the slightest advantages in life but an observation how this might look to the jurors, the media and the general public.

The story and the trial made national, even international news. 

I clipped this from the "Toowoomba Chronicle And Queensland Advertiser" July 11, 1868

Cincinnati Commercial, Feb. 9, 1868

I think this may be partly attributed to the Civil War in which Dula had been a Confederate soldier and to the characters having been so unappealing.  In relating an eyewitness report of the execution day, the N.Y. Herald found a way to portray Southerners, at least those in attendance, in a poor light:

So long had the execution been pending, and as the murder was committed in one county and the trial had taken place in another, it became generally known throughout the entire western section of the state, By eleven o'clock a.m., dense crowds of people thronged the streets the great number of females being somewhat extraordinary. These, however, came merely because it was a public day, and afforded them an opportunity to make purchases, but a certain class indicated by a bronzed complexion, rustic attire, a quid of tobacco in their mouth, and a certain mountaineer look, were evidently attracted by that morbid curiosity to see an execution so general among the ignorant classes of society.

The below fragment from a much longer article found in the Australian paper, "Maitland Mercury And Hunter River General Advertiser" (7-15-1868) shows that any attempt to marginalize the area was having an effect

This was the beginning of the Reconstruction Era.  Perhaps highlighting nationally a heinous crime by a socially deprived individual played into politics of the day. 

At any rate, 3000 spectators lined the streets and accompanied the wagon on its own peculiar green mile to witness this singularly gruesome event.  Thomas Dula proclaimed his innocence to the end despite having written (or dictated) a note the night before that read simply: 

The Statement of Thomas C. Dula
I declare that I am the only person that had any hand to the murder of Laura Foster.
April 30, 1868.

This seemed less a confession than an attempt to distance Ann Melton from the incident.  Dula never apologized nor displayed any remorse. Given the opportunity to speak freely from the gallows, Dula rambled on for about an hour about his life but never mentioned Ann Foster or the murder other than making a weak attempt to discredit some of the witnesses.  In fact, his final words seem to be have been mostly an understandable delaying tactic to cling to his life for as long as possible.   

Even before his execution there was at least one poem written about the incident.  It's referred to by different titles: "The Tragic Murder of Laura Foster," "The Ballad of Laura Foster," or "the Death of Laura Foster"  and it's a good bit longer than song lyrics (see the postscript).   The poem was written in 1867 by a Wilkes County school teacher named Thomas Charles Land who had entered the Civil War as a volunteer private and attained the rank of Lt. Col.  Thomas C. Land was acquainted with Laura Foster and the Dula family -- in fact, his brother Linville Land built Dula's coffin which Dula's sister and brother-in-law brought with them down from Wilkes County. 
Although it was written as a poem and not a song, it's been put to music.  Here is Shelia Clark singing a truly beautiful a cappella rendition of "The Ballad of Laura Foster"

James Larkin Pearson was the N.C. Poet Laureate from 1953–1981. In his youth he had met Thomas Land and was impressed by his writing. In 1965 Pearson published an autobiographical book called "Poet's Progress" in which he talks about Land and his involvement with Dula-Foster case.  It's in this book that I first found Land's poem.  But Pearson clearly chose to take a romanticized view of the incident rather than a historical view. 
For example, he refers to Laura as "a lovely country lass."  I can't speak for Laura's attractiveness but it was mentioned in the trial that when her partially decomposed body was uncovered, she was identified by both Pauline Foster and Wilson Foster (Laura's father) by her unusually large and protruding front teeth.  He describes Dula as "a handsome and dashing mountaineer" in contrast to the Herald's eyewitness description of Dula as "five feet eleven inches high, dark eyes, dark curly hair, and though not handsome, might be called good-looking."  Pearson gushes over Ann Melton, drenching her in hyperbole: "Ann Melton was a very beautiful woman with the most perfect features and the most adorable complexion in the world."  Ironically, in this he may not have been too far off base as a contemporary account said,  "She had jet black hair, dark eyes and red lips. No man could look at her and remain unaffected"  Other accounts noted her beauty. 
Then Pearson credits Land with making Dula famous (ignoring the fact that the trial was covered both nationally and internationally) and claims that Land's poem was put to music and sung all over North Carolina and Virginia.   But the poem was almost impossible to find outside of Pearson's book and a couple scholarly tomes on the legend of Tom Dooley, just as all attempts to find any reference to it having been put to music have proven fruitless. 

Even if Land's poem wasn't as widespread or as popular as Pearson seems to assume, there are indications that songs about Tom Dula and Laura Foster did exist, perhaps even as early as 1867 but most definitely sometime during the last quarter of the 19th century (see Postscript).  These songs, other than "Tom Dooley's Lament,"  are somewhat similar to the one made popular by the Kingston Trio:

The Kingston Trio started their song with this narrative:

A group called the Folksay Trio recorded the song in 1953.  It's been mentioned that this is the version the Kingston Trio copied for 1958 commercial hit.  I couldn't find an accessible version of that song either.  The Folksay Trio seems to have been a makeshift group rather than established one.  The only recoding I can find they made was on an album called "American Folksay Ballads and Dances" with mainly featured Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly and Cisco Houston. The only song credited to the Folksay Trio on that album was "Tom Dooley."
Whatever the case,  the Folksay Trio included Roger Sprung on banjo with Bob Carey and Erik Darling on guitars.  
Erik Darling, who would go on to replace Pete Seeger in the Weavers in 1958, is the key.  Around 1955-6 Darling, who was playing in a group called the Tunetellers, started (or morphed into) a group called the Tarriers (Clarence Cooper, Bob Carey, Marshall Brickman and Erik Darling) who also recorded "Tom Dooley" in 1957.  I would guess it was similar to that by the Folksay Trio.

It's very close to the Kingston Trio's version,  just a lot livelier.  The only significant difference in the lyrics was the the Kingston Trio  say "Grayson" and the Tarriers say "Sheriff Jason."

Between the recordings by Folksay Trio and the Tarrier another artist recorded a version of "Tom Dooley" though it was titled, "Tom Dula."  Paul Clayton was a folklorist with a M.A. degree in Folklore from the U. of Virginia. He was also a performer with a good many albums under his belt. Although focused on whaling and seafaring ditties, Clayton, who's been noted as having been one of the most active folk musicians in the late 1950s as well as Dave Van Ronk's mentor, had a broad repertoire.  Bob Dylan based his "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright" on Clayton's "Who's Gonna to Buy You Ribbons When I'm Gone" (this generated a lawsuit).  Clayton's version of "Tom Dooley" is slow and mournful.  Discounting some of the factual errors, it's possibly one of the best versions. 

These were all pre-Kingston Trio.
There have been some pretty good post-Kingston Trio versions of "Tom Dooley,"
for example, The Grateful Dead...

...who seemingly were inspired by Doc Watson.  Doc Watson, who plays both the harmonica and the smooth, lightning fast guitar, produced another candidate for the best recording:

Now we arrive at the doorstep of the Kingston Trio and it's a long, long way from Depot Hill.

I have mixed feeling about this group.  I have three of their vinyl albums in my little collection and have listened to them over and over, so it's obvious they have a certain appeal to me.  I learned to play "Hard Travelin'" from listening to the Trio, but upon hearing Guthrie's original, it became very apparent who actually had some hard travelin' and who just sang about it.  Given their popularity both in their prime and even today, they must have possessed something reserved for an elite selection of modern performers (by modern, let's say post-big band era just to have a reference point).  They almost singled handedly ushered in the commercial folk music boom and their recording of "Tom Dooley" started it all (not that I believe the commercialization of the genre was totally positive).   Some writers credit them with paving the way, I suppose by creating a market for folk music, for people like Dylan, Baez, Peter or Paul and Mary  -- an idea I find presumptuous.  Those artists just possessed a lot more talent.

Personally, I find them marginally talented folk musicians - which is to say, there were far better instrumentalists around, far better singers, far better arrangers and harmonizers.  They didn't write their own stuff and never embraced the activism ingrained in the folk culture.  Their target audience was the white, mostly middle-class male, college crowd who exuded a superficial appreciation of folk music. 

While all that sounds harsh, it's not how I intend it.  I'm of the opinion that folk music is the people's music and everyone has the perfect right, maybe obligation by integrity, to take any uncopyrighted song, keep it or change it however you want and create your own thing.  To whom the artist appeals is really rather irrelevant.  Whether your target audience are college kids, pre-teens, societal drop-outs or wealthy old ladies doesn't matter if you're true to yourself.   I also don't feel folk is all about activism, anymore than it's all about repeating traditional songs from England, Ireland, Scotland, the Catskills or Appalachia.   I do tend to think it should be all acoustical, though even that point may negotiable in my mind, and portable.  Additionally, I don't think only the better instrumentalists, singers and writers are important or should be heard but I do think every artist/band should be appreciated for what they are. Making them into something they're not isn't productive.   I've always considered the Kingston Trio as another Weavers but without the edge, courage or raw talent.   But they were undeniably successful.

I've looked at various recordings of as well as various lyrics for "Tom Dooley."  All of them are flawed in that none tell the real story. But ballads are generally all like that. I like the Kingston Trio's tempo better that some earlier recordings but find their lyrics the most banal and the least interesting of the whole lot:

Throughout history there have been many songs
Written about the eternal triangle
This next one tells the story of a Mr. Grayson,
A beautiful woman, and a condemned man named Tom Dooley
When the sun rises tomorrow, Tom Dooley must hang

(chorus)
Hang down your head, Tom Dooley
Hang down your head and cry
Hang down your head, Tom Dooley
Poor boy, you're bound to die

I met her on the mountain, there I took her life
Met her on the mountain, stabbed her with my knife

(chorus)

This time tomorrow reckon where I'll be
Hadn't-a been for Grayson, I'd-a been in Tennessee

(chorus)

This time tomorrow reckon where I'll be
Down in some lonesome valley hangin' from a white oak tree

(chorus)

After their "Tom Dooley" became a money machine, Frank Proffitt, along with Warner and Alan Lomax (in whose book Proffitt's lyrics appeared) sued the Kingston Trio and they settled out of court.  I'm sure there were legal experts involved, but personally, I cant see how any of the claimants could prove intellectual ownership of lyrics that had been around since before they were born and were at least as different from those use by the Kingston Trio as they were from those passed down.  When it was later discovered that there had been a much earlier version of "Tom Dooley" than the field recording of Frank Proffitt,  the idea of a countersuit was considered but dismissed.  Such things tend to erode the idea of "people's music."

Postscript
or
Where the Bodies Are Buried

"The Death of Laura Foster" by Thomas Charles Land

The Murder

The tragedy I now relate
Is of poor Laura Foster's fate
How by a fickle lover she
Was hurried to eternity.

On Thursday morn at early dawn
To meet her groom she hastened on,
For soon she thought a bride to be
Which filled her heart with ecstasy.

Her youthful heart no sorrow knew
She fancied all mankind were true.
And thus she gaily passed along
Humming at times a favorite song.

Ere sun declined toward the west
She met her groom and his vile Guest;
In forest wild they three retreat
And look for Parson there to meet.

Soon night came on with darkness drear
Yet still poor Laura felt no fear.
She thought her lover kind and true
Believed that he'd protect her too.

Confidingly upon his breast
She laid her head to take some rest;
But soon poor Laura felt a smart,
A deadly dagger pierced her heart.

No shrieks were heard by neighbors round
Who were in the bed sleeping sound.
None heard the shrieks so loud and shrill,
Save those who did poor Laura kill.

The murder done they her conceal
And vow they'll never reveal
To dig the grave they now proceed
But in the darkness make no speed.

But dawn appears, the grave not done,
Back to their hiding place they run,
And there in silence wait till night
To put poor Laura out of sight.

The grave was short and narrow, too.
But in it they poor Laura threw,
And covered with some leaves and clay,
And hastened home at break of day.

The Search

Since Laura left at break of day
Two days and nights had passed away;
The parents now in sorrow wild
Set in search of their lost child.

In copse and glen, in wood and plain
They search for her but all in vain;
With aching hearts and pensive moans,
They call for her in mournful tones.

With sad forebodings for her fate
To friends her absence they relate,
With many friends all anxious, too,
Again their search they do renew.

They searched for her in swamps and bogs,
In creeks and caves, and hollow logs;
In copse and glen, and bramble too;
But still no trace of her they view.

At last upon a ridge they found
Some blood all mingled with the ground.
The sight to all seemed very clear
That Laura had been murdered there.

Long for her grave they search in vain.
At length they meet to search again,
Where stately pines and ivies wave,
At last they found poor Laura's grave.

The Resurrection and Inquest

The grave was found as we have seen
Mid stately pines and ivies green.
The Coroner and Jury too,
Assembled this sad sight to view.

They take away the leaves and clay
Which from her lifeless body lay.
They from the grave her body take
And close examination make.

When soon the bloody wound they spied,
Twas where the deadly dagger pierced her side;
The inquest held, this hapless maid
Was then into her coffin laid.

The Jury made the verdict plain,
Which was, poor Laura had been slain;
Some ruthless fiend had struck the blow,
Which laid poor luckless Laura low.

Then in the church yard her they lay
No more to rise till judgment day
Then robed in white we trust she'd rise
To meet her Saviour in the skies.

From the "Journal of American Folk-Lore,"  vol. 45, January-March, 1932.

From Dr. Frank Clyde Brown's "Collection of North Carolina Folklore," vol. 2,  amassed between 1912 and 1943 and published in 1952 (including Land's poem). 

 
            










Lyrics Frank Proffitt dictated to given to Frank and Ann Warner in 1940:

(Chorus)
Hang down your head, Tom Dooley
Hang down your head and cry;
You’ve killed poor Laurie Foster
And for that you’re bound to die.

You met her on the hillside
And there you took her life
You met her on the hillside
And stabbed her with your knife.

(Chorus)

This time tomorrow,
Reckon where I’ll be—
Down in some lonesome valley
Hanging on a white oak tree.

(Chorus)

Take down my banjo
I’ll pick it on my knee
This time tomorrow,
It will be no use to me.

(Chorus)

You met her on the hillside,
And there, I suppose,
You killed her on the hillside
And there you hid her clothes.

(Chorus)

Rings on her fingers
And bells on her toes,
She makes the sweetest music
Wherever she goes.

(Chorus)

This time tomorrow,
Reckon where I’ll be—
If it hadn’t a-been for Grayson,
I’d a-been in Tennessee.

(Chorus)

Lyrics passed down through Doc Watson's family:

Hang your head, Tom Dooley,
Hang your head and cry;
You killed poor Laurie Foster,
And you know you're bound to die.

You left her by the roadside
Where you begged to be excused;
You left her by the roadside,
Then you hid her clothes and shoes.

Hang your head, Tom Dooley,
Hang your head and cry;
You killed poor Laurie Foster,
And you know you're bound to die.

You took her on the hillside
For to make her your wife;
You took her on the hillside,
And there you took her life.

You dug the grave four feet long
And you dug it three feet deep;
You rolled the cold clay over her
And tromped it with your feet.

Hang your head, Tom Dooley,
Hang your head and cry;
You killed poor Laurie Foster,
And you know you're bound to die.

"Trouble, oh it's trouble
A-rollin' through my breast;
As long as I'm a-livin', boys,
They ain't a-gonna let me rest.

I know they're gonna hang me,
Tomorrow I'll be dead,
Though I never even harmed a hair
On poor little Laurie's head."

Hang your head, Tom Dooley,
Hang your head and cry;
You killed poor Laurie Foster,
And you know you're bound to die.

"In this world and one more
Then reckon where I'll be;
If is wasn't for Sheriff Grayson,
I'd be in Tennessee.

You can take down my old violin
And play it all you please.
For at this time tomorrow, boys,
It'll be of no use to me."

Hang your head, Tom Dooley,
Hang your head and cry;
You killed poor Laurie Foster,
And you know you're bound to die.

"At this time tomorrow
Where do you reckon I'll be?
Away down yonder in the holler
Hangin' on a white oak tree.

Hang your head, Tom Dooley,
Hang your head and cry;
You killed poor Laurie Foster,
And you know you're bound to die

Here are two images clipped from the "Statesville Record & Landmark" April 8, 1974

The above image shows a platform.  Duly's sister's wagon was actually used as the scaffold.
It also shows a fiddle.  Many stories have Dula playing either a fiddle or a banjo. The best I could determine, the only instrument he is known to have played is the drums during the war. 

a clipping from the "Philadelphia Daily Evening Bulletin," Feb. 4, 1868

early 20th century postcard (this depot was built in 1911)
The train depot  on its original location on Depot Hill where Thomas Dula was hanged.

clipping from the Wilmington Post, Jan. 30, 1868

A headline from the "Cincinnati Examiner," May 7, 1868
copied from the "Herald" (see below)

I like this book cover depicting the 2 poles and crosspiece, the buckboard scaffold and the crowd.
I've only perused the novel but it seems well researched.

Click image for full size
"New York Herald," May 2, 1868