Omie Wise
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| Naomi Wise | |
| Born | 1789 |
|---|---|
| Died | 1808 (1807 in other sources) |
| Cause of death | murder |
| Burial place | Providence Quaker Church Cemetery, Randolph County, North Carolina |
| Other names | Omie Wise, Nayomy Wise |
| Known for | namesake of a murder ballad |
Omie Wise or Naomi Wise (1789-1808) was an American murder victim, who is remembered by a popular murder ballad about her death.[1]
Contents |
[edit] The murder
Little is known about the real Omie Wise, but records indicate that she was an orphan girl who was taken in by William Adams and his wife Mary Adams in Randolph County, North Carolina. It was at the Adams' farmhouse that Jonathan Lewis, son of Richard Lewis, met Naomi. Naomi and Jonathan Lewis became lovers quickly, but Jonathan was advised by his mother to pursue Hettie Elliott, whose family was "in good standing" both socially and financially. Naomi found out about Jonathan's courtship to Ms. Elliott, and although jilted, did not stop their affair.
The day itself can not be determined, but it is said that in April, 1808 Naomi went missing. Mr. Adams gathered a search party and followed the horse tracks to Asheboro, North Carolina, where they found Naomi Wise's body in the river. Mrs. Ann Davis, a resident close to the water, confirmed that she had heard a woman screaming the night before. The coroner from Asheboro examined the drowned and battered body of Naomi and found her pregnant.
Jonathan Lewis was found and taken to jail, where he escaped a month later. As the notoriety of the case grew, many members of the Lewis family began to move out of North Carolina and settled in Kentucky, where Jonathan Lewis himself was said to have started a family six years after Naomi's death. Word of Lewis's whereabouts reached Randolph County; the citizens demanded he be apprehended. Jonathan Lewis was found and placed in jail once more. His trial was moved from Randolph County to Guilford County in 1815. He was found not guilty, despite witnesses and evidence, and was free to return to Kentucky. Five years later, in 1820, Jonathan Lewis was said to have died of an illness, confessing to the murder of Naomi Wise on his deathbed.[2]
[edit] The song
Omie Wise's death became the subject of a traditional American ballad. One version opens:
- Oh, listen to my story, I'll tell you no lies,
How John Lewis did murder poor little Omie Wise.
In accordance with the broadside ballad tradition, lyrics to the original version of the song were written shortly after the murder itself; a nineteenth century version of the ballad text has recently been discovered.[3] [4] The first recorded version of the song was performed by G. B. Grayson, who recorded the song in 1927 in Atlanta, Georgia.[5]
The song has been performed by Doc Watson, who learned the song from his mother. Watson relates that "Naomi Wise, a little orphan girl, was being brought up by Squire Adams, a gent who had a pretty good name in the community as a morally decent human being. Omie, however, was seeing a ne'er-do-well named John Lewis, who never meant anything about anything serious, except some of his meanness. John Lewis courted the girl, seemingly until she became pregnant, and he decided that he'd get rid of her in some secret sort of way. He persuaded her to skip off with him and get married, then pushed her into the water and drowned her. Everyone knew that he had been mean to Omie, and when the body was taken out of the water, there was evidence that she had been beaten quite a lot."[6]
Bob Dylan performed the song; a live bootleg recording exists of his performance at the Riverside Church Folk Music Hootenanny in 1961. Other performers who have recorded versions of this song include Clarence Ashley, Dock Boggs, Roscoe Holcomb, Shirley Collins, Greg Graffin, Judy Henske (Henske's version is titled "Little Romy"), The Pentangle, and Okkervil River.
The song is thematically related to other American murder ballads such as Banks of the Ohio and The Knoxville Girl. Each of these songs relates the tale of a woman murdered by her lover, who then disposed of her body in a river.
July 11th 2006 Greg Graffin released a folk album titled "Cold as Clay." "Omie Wise" is the second track on that album and tells the story in the traditional lyrics.
[edit] References
- ^ Randolph County: Naomi Wise's Grave (State of North Carolina website)
- ^ See generally, Manly Wade Wellman, Dead and Gone: Classic Crimes of North Carolina (1954; repr. Univ. of North Carolina, 1980) ISBN 0-807840-72-6
- ^ Eleanor R. Long-Wingus, Naomi Wise: Creation, Re-Creation, and Continuity in an American Ballad Tradition (Chapel Hill, 2003) ISBN 1-880849-55-0
- ^ Wikisource: A true account of Nayomy Wise
- ^ Smithsonian Folkways, Anthology of American Folk Music Volume 1: Ballads, Track 13
- ^ Doc Watson, The Songs of Doc Watson (1971; repr. Oak Publications, 1998) ISBN 0-825601-20-7
