Society & Politics

3 Forgotten Folk Legends of America


Through history there have been many tales about people whom have become folk legends. People such as: John Henry, Casey Jones,David Crockett,Kit Carson,Jim Bowie, Billy The Kid,Paul Bunyan,and Wyatt Earp. Alas, where you have your well known legends there are some whom are rarely mentioned in history. Here are the stories of: Tom Dooley, Snowshoe Thompson, and Jim Bridger.


1. Tom Dooley



In 1866, Laura Foster was murdered.Confederate veteran Tom Dula (pronounced Dooley in the Appalachian Southern English dialect) , Foster's lover and the father of her unborn child, was convicted of her murder and hanged May 1, 1868. Foster had been stabbed to death with a large knife, and the brutality of the attack partly accounted for the widespread publicity the murder and subsequent trial received.



Foster had been Dula's lover before he left for the Civil War as had her cousin, Anne Melton. Although Anne had married an older man named James Melton, during the war, when Dula returned, he became a lover again to both Anne and Laura. Anne's comments led to the discovery of Foster's body, but Melton was acquitted in a separate trial based on Dula's word that Anne had nothing to do with the killing. Dula's enigmatic statement on the gallows that he had not harmed Foster but still deserved his punishment led to press speculation that Melton was the actual killer and that Dula simply covered for her. (Melton, who had once expressed jealousy of Dula's purported plans to marry Foster)



Thanks to the efforts of newspapers such as The New York Times, and to the fact that former North Carolina governor Zebulon Vance represented Dula pro bono, Dula's murder trial and hanging were given widespread national publicity. A local poet, Thomas C. Land, wrote a popular song about Dula's tragedy soon after Dula was hanged, titled "Tom Dooley". This, combined with the widespread publicity the trial received, further cemented Dula’s place in American legend.



Dula's role in the murder is unclear.He fled the area before Laura's body was found, after locals accused him of murdering Laura. Under the assumed name Tom Hall, he worked for about a week for Colonel James Grayson, across the state line in Tennessee. Grayson would enter folklore as a romantic rival of Dula's, but this was not true. It was simply an incorrect inference drawn from the lyrics of the song and became more widespread as the facts of the case were largely forgotten.Grayson did, however, help the Wilkes County posse bring Dula in, once Dula's identity was discovered. The trial was held in Statesville, North Carolina the next county over instead of Wilkes County where the murder took place due to the fact it was not possible for a fair trial to take place there.


2. Snowshoe Thompson
Forgotten folk legends of America



Snowshoe Thompson (April 30, 1827 – May 15, 1876) was a nickname for the Norwegian-American John Albert Thompson, an early resident of the Sierra Nevada of Nevada and California. Between 1856 and 1876, he delivered mail between Placerville, California and Genoa, Nevada and later Virginia City, Nevada. Despite his nickname, he did not make use of the snowshoes that are native to North America, but rather would travel with what the local people applied that term to: ten-foot skis, and a single sturdy pole generally held in both hands at once. He knew this version of cross-country skiing from his native Norway, and employed it during the winter as one of the earlier pioneers of the skill in the United States. Thompson delivered the first silver ore to be mined from the Comstock Lode. Later he taught others how to make skis, as well as the basics of their use. Despite his twenty years of service, he was never paid for delivering the mail.



Thompson typically made the eastward trip in three days, and the return trip in two days. Thompson carried no blanket and no gun; he claimed he was never lost even in blizzards. A rescue attributed to him was that of a man trapped in his cabin by unusually deep snow. Thompson reached him, realized the damage to the man's legs from frostbite was sufficient to kill him, skied out to get chloroform, skied back in with it, and delivered the chloroform in time to save him.


3. Jim Bridger


James Felix Bridger (March 17, 1804 – July 17, 1881) was among the foremost mountain men, trappers, scouts and guides who explored and trapped the Western United States during the decades of 1820–1850, as well as mediating between native tribes and encroaching whites.



Jim Bridger had a strong constitution that allowed him to survive the extreme conditions he encountered walking the Rocky Mountains from what would become southern Colorado to the Canadian border. He had conversational knowledge of French, Spanish and several native languages. He would come to know many of the major European American explorers of the early west, including Kit Carson and George Armstrong Custer. In fact it was Bridger who warned Custer to not wage war with the Sioux . Custer did not listen though and thus was defeated at Little Bighorn. Bridger was part of the second generation of mountain men and pathfinders who explored the American West that followed the Lewis and Clark expedition in 1804.



Three folk legends that are rarely ever mentioned in history. Yet, made history themselves. These are the people your history books rarely ever talk about. But should be told about. Their legends live on in songs and movies, but they rarely ever tell the whole truth. I hope you enjoyed this mytake on forgotten folk legends.

3 Forgotten Folk Legends of America
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