PowerPoint by Meredith Harley Inserra from various sources on the internet.

A Civil War soldier This is the story of a handsome young Civil
War soldier.
He was tried and found guilty of the murder of
Laura Foster, but some say he didn’t do it.

His real name was Tom Dula, often pronounced
Dooley , so most people now know him as Tom
Dooley .
photo from the outdoor drama by the Wilkes Playmakers.

There are many versions to the story, so we don’t know exactly what happened, and we probably never will, but we do know it happened right here in North
Carolina, in Wilkes County, in 1866.

Before the war, two of Tom’s girlfriends were Laura Foster and Ann Melton.
They were cousins.
Ann got married to someone else before the war ended, so
Laura thought she could have Tom all to herself.

But after the war
Ann Melton saw
Tom and fell in love with him again, although she was married to someone else!
Ann Melton

Tom told Laura to gather up her things, sneak out at night, and meet him.
They planned to run away to get married.
She was never seen alive again.
photo from the outdoor drama by the Wilkes Playmakers.

After weeks of searching, her body was finally found in a shallow grave.
Her legs were broken and she’d been stabbed in the chest. A small bag of her clothes were also found.
No one knew where Tom was.

Bob Grayson
Laura’s other boyfriend,
Bob Grayson , led a search party for Tom.
They found him in
Tennessee and brought him back in chains.
As a crowd gathered Tom asked to be unchained.
Tom sat and played a song on his banjo, or was it a fiddle? It depends on who you ask.

Tom’s lawyer asked for the case to be moved to
Tom was jailed in Wilkesboro to await his trial.
was charged with "influencing him to commit murder.”
This is the actual jail where Tom Dooley was held.

Tom was tried in court in Statesville and found guilty for the murder of
Laura Foster.

Tom’s lawyer was
Zebulon Vance, who had been governor of
North Carolina.
Our neighboring town, Vanceboro, is named after him.

On the night before his execution Tom wrote a note: Statement of Thomas C. Dula-"I declare that I am the only person that had any hand in the murder of Laura Foster." Ann was released from jail based on this confession.
But was he confessing to help
Ann? Some people believe Ann actually killed Laura so she could marry Tom.

On May 1 st , 1866 Tom Dooley rode through the streets of Statesville in a wagon. He sat on the top of his coffin with his banjo on his knee, joking with the people walking along.
He played his banjo, laughing as the wagon neared the gallows. When the rope was placed around his neck, he joked with Sheriff
Watson, "I would have washed my neck if I had known you were using such a nice clean new rope". Asked if he had any last words to say, Tom held his right hand and replied, “Gentlemen, do you see this hand? Do you see it tremble? Do you see it shake? I never hurt a hair on the girl's head". And he was hung.

Laura was buried on what is now known as “Laura Foster Hill” in
Caldwell County, NC.

Tom is buried by the Yadkin River
Road marker on
NC
Highway
268 in
Wilkes
County.

Tom Dula’s gravestone is on private property on the
Tom Dula Road in Elkville, NC, now known as
Ferguson, NC. The access road has been closed.

People have chipped away at the stone to keep a souvenir.

you

The photo on the second slide may be an actual photo of Tom Dooley, although I cannot verify this. This photo is associated with Tom Dooley on at least two web sites on the internet, but that is not a definitive verification.
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Lake/4713/tomdooley.html
http://www.wilkesplaymakers.com/contente.asp?page_id=dooleye http://library.thinkquest.org/03oct/00492/page34.html
http://www.main.nc.us/graham/mcclung/Dooley%20Legend.html
http://www.davidholt.com/photos/tomdula.html
http://www.mce.k12tn.net/johnson/legends/tom_dula.htm
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?GRid=2473&page=gr http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMDT9 http://www.americanahomeplace.com/news.LifeLegendTomDooley.htm
http://blueridgecountry.com/FavoriteArticles/TomDooley/index.html
http://www.dailyyonder.com/tom-dula-murder-sold-10-000-guitars http://joski56.blogspot.com/2008/01/story-of-tom-dooley.html