The Ballad of Tom Dooley

A couple of weeks ago I read a review for a book that caught my interest.  First of all, it is based on an actual historical event and being a boomer, I grew up hearing the song.

The book is by Sharyn McCrumb and the title is The Ballad of Tom Dooley.    She is not an author I generally read but after reading this review I ordered it from my library.

Plug for Amazon here.   I will say, I usually do check them out to see how many stars the books get and how the reviews are going.

I believe the most well known song about Tom Dooley (whose real name was Tom Dula ) was made popular by the Kingston trio.

 

Sharyn McCrumb unearthed real evidence that all we may have thought we knew about this lover's triangle may not have been the whole truth.

The story takes place in the mountains of Wilkes County, North Carolina just after the Civil War.  Tom Dula and Ann Foster had known each other from childhood and had silently staked their claim on each other early.  Tom was not known for his strong work ethic, but rather the lack of it.  Ann, the beauty of the family, decided she had better marry for security instead of love, so she accepted the offer of James Melton, just 6 years her senior, when she was 15 years old.  Both James and Tom went  off to war and returned, much to Ann's dismay.  She had hoped only Tom would come home. 

So there is this triangle.  Tom, living with his mother, and romancing Ann, along with many other local ladies willing to overlook his lack of funds, but enamored with his good looks.  Ann is not pleased with this situation but accepts that Tom will always come back to her.  That is until he shares his favors with her cousin Laura Foster, over the mountain, about 5 miles away.   Throw into that mix  another cousin, Pauline, who is living with Ann and James as a servant basically, because she has her own issues.  Pauline fuels the fire at every instance.  

Another version of Tom Dooley was recorded by Doc Watson and is a little closer to the truth, but not completely.

The songs say Tom and Laura were running away to get married, but both were over 20 years old and both were single . They didn't have to run. 

The author visited the locations and read court transcripts that are still in existence today.  That trial went on forever, much like O.J.'s and the Casey Anthony trials of today.  It was big news in the Appalachians.  Pauline was very much at the center of things.

The grave of Laura Foster is still well marked today.

photo by David Spiceland

As we know, from both songs, Tom did hang for her murder.

photo by David Spiceland

But, did he do it?

I found the book a very quick read.  I was enthralled with the story.  What really happened?

New From Old

I have been playing around with a mixed media art form that has inspired me to take and go in different directions,

Back in the summer I found a couple of old photos, one a tin type, at our local flea market.  I later found old doilies, post cards, an old book, pearls, a broach I had for ages, and various other pieces.  This is what I did with them.

It's a glimpse into a past era.

Now I have been on the hunt for photos and postcards I can use to tell the stories of days gone by.  I have a couple of pieces from the mid 1940s WWII time.  I need a photo of a soldier of that decade.  I'll keep looking.

I can take the same idea and use broken wine bottles, corks, wineglass pieces,  old china, teacups, etc, and go in all different directions.

                                            Right now I have these 2 beautiful young ladies.

The back is blank.  There is no hint at what was going on in her life or when this was taken.  I'm thinking it was a communion day, but she seems a little old for that.  Her shoes are very fancy indeed. 

The back of this one does tell us something, but I have no idea what language this is or what it says.  The only thing I can see is April 1918, in the left bottom corner.

Both of these came from an antique shop near Charleston.

Maybe there is a slim chance someone can read it and tell us something about this little girl in black.

 

Bonaventure Cemetery

The residence of Bonaventure began in 1762.  It was a 600 acre estate located about 3 1/2 miles from the Savannah colony.   The first Bonaventure Plantation burned in 1771.  It was soon replaced with a brick structure. The second house burned somewhere between 1803 and 1817.   The "story" about it says that when the fire started, the owner was having a dinner party.  He was informed by house staff they needed to vacate.  He then asked his guests to pick up the table/ or their wine glasses and proceed onto the lawn where they continued with their party while watching the fire.  Somehow, I doubt this.  The property was sold 1846 to establish a cemetery.

Angel on the gate post.

Bonaventure has long been known for the massive live oaks with the arched limbs, covered in moss.  Many are over 250 years old, having been planted by the second owner.

                                                                 Little Gracie Watson

"Little Gracie Watson was born in 1883, the only child of her parents. Her father was manager of the Pulaski House, one of Savannah's leading hotels, where the beautiful and charming little girl was a favorite with the guests. Two days before Easter, in April 1889, Gracie died of pneumonia at the age of six. In 1890, when the rising sculptor, John Walz, moved to Savannah, he carved from a photograph this life-sized, delicately detailed marble statue, which for almost a century has captured the interest of all passersby." From About.com

Gracie, some say, can still be seen as a blue orb, moving about the upper floor of the bank that replaced her home.  Because police kept getting calls that someone was in the building, the currant owners have installed a pink light so Gracie's blue orb can't be seen.

The bank from our Ghost Walk.

 When the cemetery first opened, some Savannah citizens had their deceased relatives relocated from other burials spots to be interred here.  As time went on, it became a game of keeping up with the Jones on which family had the biggest and most impressive statues.  There was a statute passed that only graves purchased before 1943 can have more than one monument. 

You're right if you are a fan of  Midnight in the garden of Good and Evil,   that this is the cemetery featured in the both the book and the movie and where "that statue" used to live.   

The 50 inch tall " Bird Girl", who had been standing for nearly 50 years, drew such  attention after the book and the movie it was moved to the Telfair  Museum of Art.

The Wilmington River flows by  the back of the cemetery.  Some say this is the river Johnny Mercer had in mind when he wrote "Moon River".   He's here too, resting along with other family members. He also wrote "Old Black Magic", "Come Rain or Come Shine",  "In the Cool, Cool, Cool, of the Evening" and my favorite, "Days of Wine and Roses"

We were here about 90 minutes.  There were few people milling about. A couple of others, like me, taking pictures.  The trees are enormous and covered in moss. To me, it is so picturesque.  It was also very quiet, very haunting, and very beautiful.

Hello Savannah

James Oglethorpe came to Georgia in 1732 from England, with 114 people he had arranged freedom for from debtor's prison.  He had lost a dear friend in debtor's prison some years earlier.  He also forbade lawyers in Savannah because a lawyer was responsible , he felt, for sending his friend there to being with.  For Savannah he thought a judge was good enough.  During the first year, one half of these people died. there were outbreaks of yellow fever and malaria.  A cemetery was needed immediately.  That began Savannah's relationship with the dead and buried.

When the city was designed, it had 24 square park areas.   Today there are 22 remaining squares all with names and personalities. like Forsyth Park,(The Victorian area)  Wright Square, and probably the most well known is Chippewa Square.  This is where a certain movie was made showing a young man sitting on a park bench eating a box of chocolates.  Around each square are streets so it's easy to navigate and easy to get great views of all the beauty.  One of those cross streets, however, has been paved over that first cemetery of settlers.  oops....   So too has the old Jewish cemetery been built upon. 

The Kehoe house was built in 1892 for $25,000, by William Kehoe, owner of the iron foundry.  So, what do you do when you want to show off your iron making wealth?  Everything that is painted white is wrought iron. ( And most of Savannah has wrought iron trim.  I thought I had seen a lot in Charleston.  That pales in comparison.  It is gorgeous here.)

More than a century later, the home of Mr. and Mrs. Kehoe and their 10 children was sold, in 1980 to Broadway Joe Nameth for $80,000.  He wanted to make a "Gentleman's Club" out of it.  That was not going to happen, so, as the story goes, in 1989, he sold it for  $530,000.  I also heard $250,.000.... so the truth probably lies somewhere between.  He did all right anyway.  After it was sold, the new owner renovated and turned it into a Bed and Breakfast, as it is today.

I had to show you Paula Dean's Lady & Sons Restaurant.

I had heard that it was buffet and part of it is.  You can order off a menu as well.  Go on line to see the menu.  To me the buffet looked average for $15.99.  On the dinner menu is a Chicken Pot Pie for $18.99.  I had no desire to eat there myself.

The Mercer-Williams Home was built by General Hugh Mercer, Great Grandfather to composer Johnny Mercer, in 1860.  The building was interrupted by that war so it wasn't completed until 1968.

In 1969, Jim Williams,an antiques dealer,  (any fans of  Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil   remember this?) bought the empty house and took 2 years to restore it.  Then there is that whole other thing that happened there.

                                                              The Forsyth Park Mansion.

It does have 126 guest rooms and suites. The hotel is open for us tourists to go into but we didn't.  Maybe next time because I can not find any history on that house anywhere.  Maybe one of you know something about it.

Broken glass on a wall to keep out spirits.  Slaves from the western coast of Africa and from Haiti brought their spiritual beliefs with them.  One being spirits will not cross water so they mixed lime with natural dies to make paint the color of the Caribbean water.  It was then painted around windows, porch ceilings and door frames.  Sometimes even the underside of floor boards.  The lime deterred termites and mosquitoes, therefore saving many from malaria and yellow fever.  Even today, wasps will not build a nest in a porch ceiling painted blue.  They think it is sky.

  The old Candler Hospital.  Founded in 1808 as a seaman’s hospital and poor house, Candler is the oldest hospital in the state of Georgia. The original structure, which has been empty for nearly three decades, was once used as a Union hospital, as well as a hospital where hundreds of patients died of Yellow Fever. It has also been used as an insane asylum.   There was a tunnel connecting it to Forsyth Park, where they illegally buried many yellow fever victims, so as not to worry the people in the city, about the epidemic. ( I don't know what they told the relatives of those missing family members.??)  In the last few years, the Savannah Power company was burying lines when they found graves of dozens of bodies, also believed to be yellow fever victims.  I did find information that there were or are plans to develop the space for retail and condos.  Seriously?  Who is going to line up for that space? 

Colonial Park Cemetery the oldest ,still in use,  cemetery in Savannah, began in 1750. (after that other one was full)   More than 700 victims of the 1820 Yellow Fever epidemic are buried here.  "There are also many victims of Savannah's  dueling era of 1740 and through 1877. Many of the duels left a number of men dead from what one source calls acts of "too much honor." 

There are 2 orbs captured here, in the Colonial Cemetery, from our Ghost Tour.  One is just below the Spanish moss and the other is to the left.

We did the 90minute walk with one other couple about our age and the guide.  She told us to take 3 photos at a time for comparison.  These are my second and third photos, of this shot.  Looking at them while on the camera, the orbs are blue, not white like lights.   Weird, huh?  They have moved.  I took a lot of photos through our walk and didn't get anymore.  The other man with us got more.  I think his camera was better 'cause we were both clicking away. 

To me Savannah is a beautiful mixture of gracious manners, fabulous homes, sweet tea and wrought iron.  It goes hand in hand with an acceptance of spirits, ghosts and superstition.   I did learn that if your grandmother visits you long after she died, you do not call her a ghost.  That's just rude.  You know who she is.  She's your Grandma, not a stranger.  Maybe not your whole grandma,but a shade of Grandma, so you have a Shade in your house, not a ghost.  Now I know.

So on that note, tomorrow we go to Bonaventure Cemetery, just outside the city.  It's a perfect place to visit with Halloween near.  To me, it is hauntingly beautiful.

 

Drayton Hall

Drayton Hall is 12 miles from Charlton.  You can see the front and back door ares open to allow the breeze to blow through.  The house took 4 years to build.  1738-1742, by 23 year old John Drayton.  In it's prime there were 38 out buildings as well.  John was born on Magnolia Plantation just down the road.  It's gardens are open to visit.  Drayton Hall had very little color as far as it's gardens. They plantings were mostly greenery.  You can see the carriage mound in front of the house still.

It survived the Revolutionary War and the Civil War.  The second by being draped in black sash declaring there was yellow fever in the house. 

The house has never had electricity, plumbing, or any form of heat other than the fireplaces.  The air conditioning was open doors and windows.  The family used the house into the late 1960s for a "Coming Out" party and for "camping" as they called it, since there were no conveniences.  It took tremendous up keep and was falling into disrepair when an offer came in to buy it.  The buyer wanted to turn it into a club house and put a golf course on the property.  The owners at that time were elderly brothers and decided to give it instead to the Historic Preservation Society, in 1974, for safe keeping.  They didn't want to see their family's home commercialized.

The home was built by free and slave labor.  The bricks were probably made on site.  The pattern of laying them, long and short, was a show of wealth.   There is little public information available. The family still holds on to diaries and documents.

We enter into the great hall.   The paint is from about 1885.

(Terry with his yellow arms)  This is the 3rd ceiling the great hall has had in it's life.  It dates to the mid 1880's as well.  Directly above it is the ballroom.  That could explain why the plaster cracked.  Tours are not allowed in the ballroom nor did they even show it to us. Darn! 

The mantle from the fireplace in the Meeting Room, was stolen in the 1970s.  It shows the brick and just between that and the blue is a faint mustard yellow... that was the original color of the home.

Looking at the house, this room is to the left of the great hall and to the right was a room used as a library.

The second remaining plaster ceiling.

In Georgian architecture, balance is required.  This was a false door that was always bricked.  The door  was either stolen, or possibly used as a stretcher and not returned.

Hidden stairway in the library.  Very narrow and very steep.  I cannot imagine the ladies in long skirts going up and down it carrying stuff, no doubt..  Of course we are talking about slaves, not the owners.

The River Entry to the home featured this elaborate staircase with right and left stairs.  When it was first built, red paint pigment was expensive. So, of course, these rails were painted red to feature the wealth.... of that 23 year old John Drayton.  I'm thinking that the 1700's 23 year old was equal to our 30 something year old.

All of the rooms had those beautiful fireplaces.  They all shared remients of the same paint.

But not all had this balcony and this view.  (This bedroom was the only one we saw, so I really don't know what the river side had.  But I'll take this one anyway.)  In an attempt to keep the rooms as cool as possible, the second floor ceilings were 14 feet high as well as the lower level.

Back down the stairs we went, passing the entry door.  Does anyone remember the movie "The Others" with Nicole Kidman?  She carried a ring of huge keys attached to her waist.  This key had to be a big one too.

Outside entry into the basement area.  There were 3, I believe other rooms to hold supplies.  The other end of this space held a huge fireplace, so some cooking was done down here in it's later years.

Recently, in the last couple of decades, a painting of the original home was discovered that showed 2 buildings to the north and south of the land side of the home, connected by colonnades.  The footings are still visible today.  One had a fireplace so it may have been a kitchen, as that was the safest place to build one.   To me, that also shows, the river side of the house was the entry ( like houses on the lake or ocean today)   and the carriage side was the back.

I have said many times that I am a history lover.  It gives me goosebumps to walk the floors and touch the railings that people from generations ago touched.   I can picture the long skirts of the ladies and see the buttoned up vests and waistcoats of the gentlemen.  I know there were slaves struggling to work and live as well.  As the centuries came forward, it was always hot and humid for most of the year. The women dragged those long skirts out to the outhouses.  (which was connected to the Ashley River by brick tiles, so that when the tide came in and went out again,  it cleared out the "debris")  Real people lived here.  I got just a peak at them. I hope you did too.

Mysteries and Conspiracy Theories

I admit, I'm "one of those" people that question certain "truths" as told to us by "the powers that be".

I had 3 favorite theories, for years. Just a few years ago I had to give up a hope I,  and others,  had held onto for decades.

1.  I had hoped that the youngest daughter of Tsar Nicholas and Alexandria, Anastasia Romanov, had some how escaped the slaughter of her family in the wee morning hours of July 17, 1918, at Ipatiev House, in Ekaterinburg, Russia.  I wanted the woman, found in a German hospital , in 1920, following a suicide attempt and known as Anna Anderson, to be the lost Grand Duchess.

We now know that in the late hours of July16, 1918, the Romanov family was awakened and led to a basement room  in the house they had been living for weeks, in exile.  The Empress Alexandria, Granddaughter of England's Queen Victoria, suffered debilitating migraines and sciatica and had spent most of her time in bed or in a wheelchair.   Both she and her daughter Olga were bone thin by that summer.   Little Alexei was weak from constant battles with hemophilia and had to be carried down the stairs.   The Tsar was resigned to another move and lacked interest in events around him.   That makes 7 family members, Dr. Botkin who had cared for the family for years, a female servant carrying 2 pillows, stuffed with jewels along with 2 other servants.  11 people in one small room.  They were told to wait for transport to another location. 

Upstairs, the band of executioners were drinking alcohol in order to gain courage. Only a few are known. Most were from the village and not military trained.  They had been given pistols, as rifles were too noisy.  Each had been given the name of their target so the assassinations would happen quickly.  Most were balking now at having to shoot a child and the girls..  When the time came and they did bound into the doorway, it was cramped and awkward.  The  Tsar was fired on first and then pandemonium broke out.  Bullets were bouncing off the girls corsets, where they had sewn precious gems to take into exile with them.  Some of the assassins aimed off, not wanting to be responsible for shooting a child.  Next they drew bayonets and tried to stab their prey.  Again the gems in the corsets deflected the blades direct hits.  Rifle butts were used to smash heads.  Moans were still heard from the daughters and little Alexei.  More shots were fired.  All in all, it was a total scewed up mess.  Still, they weren't finished with their destruction.  I have read varying accounts that this took anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes.  I am leaning more towards 40 minutes of terror due to chaos.

Not prepared for such blood and broken bones, removing the bodies proved more difficult than anticipated.  They were carried to a flat bed truck.  11 bodies... nearly 2000 pounds hampering the speed of the old truck.   The plan had been to drop all the bodies down an old well, deep in the Serbian forest.  When the bodies were dropped into the water, to the horror of the assassins, the well proved to be only 9 feet deep.  So,  a grenade followed, hoping it would collapse the walls,  but the well was so well constructed it didn't cave in as hoped.  By then it was morning and the group still had not gotten rid of the bodies.  That led to them being removed, the faces obliterated with rifle butts, acid poured on them and then set on fire.  They did not realized the length of time it took to burn a body, let alone, 11 of them.  So, the remains were buried in a shallow grave just off the road.  Later,  they would again be moved.  9 bodies in one location and 2 in another, a short distance away.  That is where they stayed for decades.
    
I know.  Hard to read isn't it?  Lenin was in power.  Communism ruled.  I didn't know all of this in the 1970s when I first learned of Anna Anderson.  I only knew this woman could have been a young girl that had survived an extinction of her family.

She was a young woman when she was found in 1920, in a German hospital after a suicide attempt.  She had jumped in a river.  She had scars that looked like bayonet wounds.  She was the same height, had the same hair color and eye color, same shoe size as the Grand Duchess.  They both had hallux valgus deformity (bunions).  They shared scars on the same fingers that Anastasia had injured by slamming a door on hers.  They both had scars on their backs where Anastasia had a mole removed.  Anna knew inside family jokes and answered correctly questions asked of her by The Tzar's brother.
Who is this Anna Anderson?

Or was she Franziska Schanzkowska, a missing polish factory worker?

She refused to speak Russian, due to the traumatic episode she said. She would not speak the language of the people that murdered her family.  Remember, her mother was Queen Victoria's granddaughter. 

She spoke English well.

She knew palace layouts.   She had courtly manners.  All of this made the idea of her being the Grand Duchess plausible.  The few remaining Romanov's that had been able to escape Russia never validated her claim.

Anna Anderson lived with wealthy advocates, one after another, all over the world, from then on.  She was cared for twice in mental institutions and suffered many illnesses  In 1968 she married one of her supporters, John Manahan of Virginia.  He was 20 years younger. She died of pneumonia on June 18, 1984.

It wasn't until 1991 that the truth would be told.  Gorbachev had torn down that wall of silence and the fate of  "most" the RomanovsTsarovich Alexei may have escaped.    Was it really Maria missing.  Could Anna Anderson still be the real Anastasia?   Family DNA from Prince Phillip, the Queen's husband had been used.   I wanted to believe it could still be Anastasia.

But it wasn't.   The 2nd grave was discovered in 2007 and DNA proved those missing, Maria and Alexei had been found.

Still, for me, that answers who Anna Anderson wasn't, but who was she?   How would a Polish factory worker know the lay out of palaces, the answers to inside family matters, and have courtly manners? She certainly had issues.  I think she may, very well  have truly believed she was Anastasia Romanov.

So that's my first favorite Conspiracy theory.  I have 2 others.  Marilyn was murdered to protect the Kennedy's and Lee Harvey Oswald did not act alone.   But, I do believe Elvis is indeed dead. Do you have a pet theory?  What is it?