A Mysterious Death on Noland Creek

When I was a child living on Sherrill Gap, we were less than a mile from the Lakeshore Drive (Road to Nowhere) entrance to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. On many a hot summer day, Mom and Dad would load us kids up and take us to Noland Creek to cool off in its cold, refreshing waters. Ever since those early days, Noland Creek has held a very special place in my heart and I still routinely hike there. Finding the newspaper article that inspired this blog only added to my intrigue with the creek. 

Regrettably, there was no solution to this mystery - but I hope you'll find the story interesting nonetheless.

Noland Creek, 04 September 2020
Source: Wendy Meyers

My brothers and I, first bridge on Noland Creek downstream from the parking area (20 May 1984) (Source: Margy Trehern)

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On a late October day in 1911, Jeff Woody, a resident of Noland Creek, went traipsing through the woods near Sassafras Knob on a search for chestnuts and instead stumbled across a scene that must have haunted him for the rest of his life.

For Jeff Woody found a body.

On November 2nd, 1911, the Asheville Gazette-News reported the following:

"Information has come here from Bryson City of the finding of a decomposed body of a man at Noland creek in Swain county the first of the week, by Jeff Woody, who was hunting chestnuts. The body was behind a log and was concealed by boards. Coroner Davis (Note: this would have been Dr. Robert Lee Davis) visited the place and gave it as his opinion that the man had been dead about a year. One of the arm bones was broken in two places. The theory of death is that he must have been murdered and boards placed over the body to conceal it. The clothing is said to be of good material, corduroy cap and trousers. In the pockets were found 65 cents, a key, and a razor."

USGS Mount Guyot Quad (1912), showing the Upper Noland Creek area.
Source: usgs.gov

The next day, the Asheville Citizen-Times further reported that:

"....It is believed that he was a mineralogist and was slain by someone who hid the body in such a manner that he believed it would be concealed forever. The place in the woods was not near a public road although the woods are hunted in quite frequently......It is recalled that about eight months ago a person clothed similarly to the body which has caused so much excitement here was a guest at one of the local hotels. He stated that he was in search of mineral lands and many people here believed that he came to his death immediately after leaving here. His name cannot be recalled. 
The fact that the clothes of the person who was found dead contained several gravels (NOTE: these were later determined to be quartz) would strengthen the belief that the dead man was a miner or mineralogist. The stranger who was here several months ago is remembered to have enquired about the way to the head of Noland's Creek.
The indications are that the man was camping in the woods in which he was found and the opinion is freely expressed that he was slain by his campmate, although no idea is entertained as to who committed the murder." - Asheville Citizen-Times, 03 November 1911

Picture of men in 1910 - the clothing the deceased individual was wearing was probably similar. (Source: gentlemansgazette.com)

As no local citizens were determined to be missing, the identity of the man was a mystery. Individuals in the Buncombe County area felt that the remains might belong to a former Confederate soldier by the name of John C. Hunter, who had disappeared from his home on Avery's Creek in May 1909. Various acquaintances indicated that he'd had his arm amputated above the elbow (and the skeleton found had broken arm bones), he'd last been seen in a corduroy coat, and he'd been carrying small stones in his pocket, which he said he'd picked up in some of the "western counties" on the chance that they might hold value. However, it made little sense as to why Mr. Hunter, then about 74 years of age, would be near this remote area of Swain County, a great distance from his home....particularly in 1911. 

Investigation into the presumed murder continued, and on January 28, 1912, Henry Dailey was arrested in Cherokee County in connection with it, after officials there had received instructions a few days earlier from an officer (presumably from Swain County) to arrest him on sight. After that, the trail of this mystery goes abruptly cold..... 

Asheville Gazette-News, 30 January 1912.
Source: newspapers.com

There are no further newspaper accounts of what happened after that, and no death certificate to indicate the manner of death. Our mysterious victim's final resting place is likewise unknown, but if his body was brought to Bryson City for autopsy, he may have been buried in one of the unmarked graves in the Bryson City Cemetery. Hope remains that some data regarding this case may reside in the NC State Archives, and if I'm ever able to locate any, I will update this article. 

The next time you're up on Noland Creek hiking, horseback riding, or attending Decoration Day, consider taking a moment as you travel the road to ponder the sad fate of a nameless stranger who walked that same peaceful road in 1910, likely in search of his fortune, and instead met a violent and untimely end in the surrounding woods. It's a tragic story.

Noland Creek Road, 04 September 2020
Source: Wendy Meyers

Postscript: Interestingly, another skeleton was found in Swain County less than a year later high up on Hazel Creek. This man was not believed to have been murdered but was felt to have died of hypothermia while crossing the mountains, going from Tennessee to Proctor, likely to work for Ritter Lumber (reported by The Raleigh Times on 20 July 1912).

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Sources:

Asheville Citizen-Times, 03 November 1911
Asheville Gazette-News, 02 November 1911
Asheville Gazette-News, 30 January 1912
Margy Trehern
The Raleigh Times, 20 July 1912
www.ancestry.com
www.gentlemansgazette.com
www.newspapers.com
www.usgs.gov

 

The Killing of Willie DeLozier (13 October 1888)

William L. "Willie" DeLozier (center) with sister Lillie Ivalee (on left) and brother John Cleveland
(on right). The picture was taken circa 1885.
Source: Elise DeLozier Palmer (daughter of J.C. DeLozier)

Early on in my research, I came across this fascinating little article in a North Carolina newspaper about the shooting death of an 18 year-old young man in Swain County. 

Source: The Daily Evening Patriot (Greensboro, NC)
16 October 1888

Various iterations of this article appeared in other North Carolina newspapers. I was intrigued, as I knew that the DeLozier family had lived in the Judson area and so attempted a great deal of additional research to see what else I could find out about this young man's death - and came up empty-handed. Then a couple of years later, I picked up the book, "Ash, Ashe, Stillwell: A Genealogy", a genealogical history of some of the families who had lived in the Judson and Almond areas of Swain County.  Hidden among the book's 425 pages documenting family members and their progeny, I came across exactly what I had been looking for. As it turns out, a relative of the author, John Reid Ashe, had written to him while he was authoring the book and wanted to share an old family story with him. 

It was on the death of Willie DeLozier. I'd hit the proverbial jackpot. 

I hope you will enjoy Choice Stillwell Parker's letter (below) as much as I did. 

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"I've heard my Daddy speak of his Aunt Emmoline Delosier many, many times. Also of how her son, Willie, met his death at an early age. He told us that Willie had dated a Sandlin girl a few times, while at the same time some other boy was dating her. He said that someone gift wrapped a pocket knife and mailed it to the Sandlin girl. Now in those days this was considered an insult, so her brother Matt, carried the knife back to Willie Delosier. Willie assured Matt that he had not mailed the knife to the girl, that it was not his knife and he had never seen it before. Matt carried the knife back down to the general store and left it there. A few days later the knife was received through the mail by the Sandlin girl again, all gift wrapped as before.

On a Saturday afternoon, shortly thereafter, Matt Sandlin showed up at the general store, sat around and talked for a while, and was heard to say he was going over to spend the night with Willie and would kill him while he was there. Matt arrived at Willie's late in the afternoon and after supper they were sitting around talking and Matt asked Willie to go hunting with him the next morning. Willie agreed. Willie did not know the girl had received the knife a second time and no idea what was going on in Matt's mind.

When morning came, Willie fixed breakfast. His mother was in bed sick with mumps, I believe it was. Willie went up to see about his mother and found her with a headache. He tied a handkerchief around his mother's head and told her of his plans to go hunting with Matt. His mother didn't want him to go, she said she didn't 'feel right about it'. Willie assured her he would be alright and would be back in a little while.

Mary Rebecca Emaline (nee' Stillwell) DeLozier, 
mother of Willie DeLozier.
Source: "Ash, Ashe, Stillwell"

Matt borrowed a gun from Willie and they set out for the field below the house. They said when Aunt Emmoline heard the shotgun blast a little later she said 'Oh, Lord! He's killed my son.' In a short while Matt came back to the house and said there had been an accident. Said he accidentally shot and killed Willie.

Willie was brought to the house and friends and neighbors came in, bathed, dressed, and 'laid Willie out'. In the evening when the community gathered to visit with the Delosiers, Matt was among the crowd but for some reason he would not go in to look at Willie as other friends were doing. When someone asked him why, he said he would rather not see Willie dead. Now, some of the men and boys who suspected what had happened on that hunting trip got together and decided they would make Matt go in and look at Willie. When they forced Matt to look at Willie, blood started oozing out through Willie's white shirt at the spot where the heart is (Willie was shot through the heart). This, they said, was proof that Matt had murdered Willie.

They carried Matt to jail and had a sort of trial, but since no one saw what happened in that field, he came clear. But my Daddy always said, he and everyone else around there, knew Matt Sandlin had made his threat good and killed Willie Delosier."

                 Choice Stillwell Parker in "Ash, Ashe, Stillwell", by John Ashe

Documentation of the inquest for Willie DeLozier
Source: Swain County Herald, 14 February 1889

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In a sad twist of fate, Willie was killed exactly three years (to the day) after the death of his father, Jesse Ridings DeLozier. Willie, his parents, and many other of his family members, are buried in the Judson section of the Lauada Cemetery. 

Note: The Matt Sandlin referred to in the tale of Willie's death was almost certainly Matison W. Sandlin (alternately recorded as Madison B Sandlin) (1869 - 30 July 1894), who was related to the DeLoziers by marriage (his brother, Will, was married to Nancy Caroline DeLozier). The Sandlin girl referred to would have likely been one of Matt's sisters: Mary (born in 1873) or Rachel Annie (born in 1874). He married Mary Lawing in Cherokee County, North Carolina, in 1891. In early November 1893, Sandlin, who was then living in Clay County, engaged in a quarrel with a neighbor and drew his gun to shoot the neighbor but instead struck the neighbor's 5 year-old son, killing him. He fled and was captured in Chester County, Tennessee, in June 1894 and was brought back to Murphy. He died of typhoid fever in the Cherokee County jail on July 30, 1894, while awaiting trial for the child's death.

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Willie DeLozier Headstone, Lauada Cemetery
Source: John L Mathis for findagrave.com

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Sources:

Ancestry.com
"Ash, Ashe, Stillwell: A Genealogy" by John Reid Ashe; published 1977.
Asheville Weekly Citizen, 09 November 1893
Asheville Citizen-Times, 19 June 1894
Elise DeLozier Palmer and Amy Palmer Evans
Marion Record, 17 August 1894
Newspapers.com
Swain County Herald, 14 February 1889
The Daily Evening Patriot, 16 October 1888
Wilmington Morning Star, 07 August 1894

Christmas in Bryson City, 1888

In the past, I have published a blog piece on Christmas in 1929 in Swain County. I thought it would be fun to go back another 41 years to see how Christmas was celebrated in Bryson City's early days.  Happy holidays to you all!
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"The Union Sunday School of Charleston (the name of the town was changed to Bryson City in 1889) celebrated Christmas on Christmas evening. The services were held in the court room (see pictures below of the courthouse) which had been tastefully decorated by a committee of citizens, the chief decoration naturally being a tree, which was weighed down with gifts. In addition to those on the tree, two tables were covered and nearly an hour was occupied in the distribution of them.

Second Swain County Courthouse (destroyed by fire, January 1908)
Source: Swain County Genealogical and Historical Society

Second Swain County Courthouse, year unknown
Source: Swain County Genealogical and Historical Society

At seven o'clock  the court room was crowded, the members of the Sunday school occupying seats on the rostrum, the body of the house being filled with their friends and relatives. The services opened with an instrumental duet on the violin and organ by Mr. J.H. Everett and Miss Jennie Collins. Next came a chorus from Gospel Hymns which was received with much satisfaction. Rev. Geo. H. Church read a selection from the Scriptures and led the audience in prayer. Miss Collins and Messrs Everett and Henry McLean rendered another instrumental piece. Rev. Church gave the children a short Christmas sermon and wound up with a chicken story that was received with great hilarity. The choir then sang another selection from Gospel Hymns. H. A. Hodge made a few remarks on the origin of the name Christmas, and the custom of having Christmas trees. 

Jennie (nee' Collins) Bailey (1874 - 1965)
Source: Dawna Carlton

John Henderson Everett (1857 - 1937)
Source: Ancestry.com member dwilkins0316

After another instrumental piece, D.K. Collins, superintendent of the school, briefly but feelingly recounted the efforts to build up the Sunday school and spoke of the interest he took in such work. Then came the distribution of gifts, when many hearts were made glad and the audience dispersed in great good humour. Everything passed off quietly and orderly and the committee having the arrangements in charge, and particularly the superintendent of the school are to be congratulated on the success of the evening's entertainment.

Reverend George H. Church (1849 - 1928)
Source: Findagrave.com member John M. Campbell

David Kimsey (D.K.) and 'Mattie' (nee' Franks) Collins;
Mattie was his first wife and the mother of Jennie.
Source: Dawna Carlton

A good many humorous hits were made in the selection of gifts. The biggest laugh being raised when Miss Mary Battle opened a large box and a live rabbit popped out. 

Swain County Herald, 03 January 1889

Source: www.cleanpng.com

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Note: I have embedded active links for some of the individuals named in the article so that the reader may find out more about them. Two links to Friends of the Bryson City Cemetery articles (J.H. Everett and D.K. Collins) are particularly detailed. 

Sources:

Dawna Carlton
Swain County Genealogical and Historical Society
www.ancestry.com
www.cleanpng.com
www.findagrave.com
www.friendsofthe bccemetery.org
www.newspapers.org (Swain County Herald, 03 January 1889