ORIGINAL WILKES COUNTY JAILHOUSE
RESTORED WILKES COUNTY JAILHOUSE
WNC’s Historic Jail Buildings
WATAUGA COUNTY JAILHOUSE
AVERY COUNTY JAILHOUSE
“In the Jailhouse Now”
I
t was said that Tom Dula was an uncommonly good fiddle player. Perhaps a visitor passing by the jail in Wilkesboro in July 1866 heard Dula playing some mournful dirge as he waited his fate. The Old Wilkes Jail was built in 1859 and survived the Civil War. It had four rooms, along with living quarters for the jailer and his family. It is where Tom Dula was taken after being captured near Trade, Tennessee. Dula was wanted for the murder of Laura Foster, a local Wilkes County girl who was missing. Ann Melton, another one of Dula’s girlfriends, was also arrested in the matter once the body was discovered. Dula’s trial was later moved to Statesville. His attorney, former governor Zebulon Baird Vance, believed Dula would get a fair trial outside the mountains. Fair or not, Dula was found guilty, twice, and was hanged in Statesville on May 1, 1868. Local legend has it that Dula rode in
a wagon to the gallows, sitting atop his coffin and playing a fiddle tune that we all recognize as “Hang Down your Head, Tom Dooley.” Most of the inmates in the Old Wilkes Jail were local bootleggers and horse thieves rather than inspirations for popular folk songs. However, there was one other person of note to pass through the cells in Wilkesboro. Otto Wood was called a “Depression-era desperado.” He was born in Wilkes County in 1894, and as a young boy, stole a bicycle. Wood was caught and locked up in the Wilkes County jail. The court found him guilty, and he was sentenced to serve on the chain gang but he was sent home because of his age. Wood lived a life of crime, and was incarcerated in jails not only in North Carolina, but in Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia as well. He is credited with breaking out of jail ten times throughout his criminal career, including four times from the
By Michael Hardy state prison. He was killed after his last jailbreak in a shootout with police in Salisbury on December 31, 1930. The old Wilkes County Jail continued to hold prisoners until 1915, when a new facility was opened. Today, the jail is considered one of the best preserved examples of nineteenth-century penal architecture in North Carolina. The restored building is now a part of the Wilkes Heritage Museum Complex. When Stoneman’s raiders came through Boone in March 1865, they went to the Watauga County Jail, sprung all of the prisoners, and set the building on fire. Another jail was built following the war, but in the 1880s, it was decided that a new facility was needed. A plan was adopted, and construction on the brick building began in July 1889. By December, the new Watauga County Jail was open. The cells were brought by wagon from Lenoir, and the furniture Continued on next page
CAROLINA MOUNTAIN LIFE Spring 2022 —
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