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Omie Wise

[ Roud 447 ; Laws F4 ; Ballad Index LF04 ; OmieWise at Old Songs ; DT OMIEWISE , OMIWISE2 ; Mudcat 56551 ; trad.]

In 1808 in Randolph County, North Carolina, Jonathan Lewis murdered Naomi Wise, who he had gotten with child and promised to marry. He escaped before conviction. [Wikipedia]

G.B. Grayson sang Ommie Wise in a 1927 recording that was published in October 1928 on the Victor 10" Shellac record 21625. It was included in 1952 on Harry Smith’s essential Anthology of American Folk Music Volume One: Ballads.

Shirley Collins sang Omie Wise in 1959 on her first LP, Sweet England. The album’s notes commented tersely:

An American mountain murder ballad of the type derived from English folk song sources.

Dolly Watson sang Omie Wise in a recording made by Ralph Rinzler and Daniel Seeger in September 1964. It was released in 1977 on the Watson Family’s Rounder and Topic albums The Watson Family Tradition. A.L. Lloyd noted:

Dolly Greer also brought Omie Wise back into the Watson Family tradition. Doc had known the song (perhaps from the performance on a Victor record by the local minstrel G.B. Grayson) but he had forgotten it till Dolly sang it to him and refreshed his memory. The ballad is historical, telling of Jonathan Lewis, who seduced a poor orphan field-hand, Naomi Wise, but being too proud to marry her, he drowned her instead. He was arrested for the murder, and might have been lynched, but somehow contrived to escape. Guildford County, N.C., is said to be the scene and the year, 1808.

Pentangle sang Omie Wise in 1971 on their Transatlantic album Reflection.

George Hawkins of Bethel, Kentucky, sang Jim Luther to Mark Wilson and Gus Meade in April 1974. This recording was included in 2007 on the Musical Traditions anthology of folk songs of the Upper South, Meeting Is a Pleasure Volume 2. Mark Wilson noted:

A true instrumental virtuoso, fiddler George Hawkins represented one of our most important informants (Traditional Fiddle Music of Kentucky: Volume 1: Up the Ohio and Licking Rivers, Rounder CD 0376; we are planning to issue more in the future). Although the topic only came up at the end of our last recording session, George knew various little snatches of ballad and song from early in the twentieth century (his wife, who died very young, was reportedly a good singer). George mainly worked as a hired hand, although he ran a radio show for a brief period and developed his technical skills on the violin to a very high degree (he was briefly recorded for the Library of Congress in the late 1940’s by Artus Moser).

Brown and other sources provide good basic accounts of the 1807 murder of Naomi Wise by Jonathan Lewis in Randolph County, North Carolina. Ed Cray has an interesting perspective on the ballad in The Journal of American Folklore, 2004, and Eleanor Long-Wilgus has recently published a book length study of the subject (Naomi Wise). According to the latter, most modern versions stem from an 1874 re-composition published by Braxton Craven in the Greensboro, NC Patriot. Long-Wilgus also indicates that, having already had three children by three different fathers, the original Ms Wise was probably more studied in the ways of the world than the ballad suggests. Burt’s American Murder Ballads prints a text where the villain is ‘George Luther’; perhaps George’s version has been adapted to some intervening crime. George’s surprising conclusion appears to be an interpolation from an altogether different song: see The Horse-Thief in Randolph. This song has been recorded many times over, displaying considerable variation in the process. Versions by Grayson and Whitter, Tom Ashley, Morgan Sexton and Doc Watson come immediately to mind.

The Rufus Crisp Experience sang Omie Wise in 1997 on their Fellside album Chickens Are A-Crowing. The album’s booklet noted:

If not as generally widespread as the British-derived murder ballad Pretty Polly, the story of poor Naomi Wise, a trusting girl from Asheboro, North Carolina, who was cruelly done to death by Jonathan Lewis in 1808, sufficiently captured the popular imagination for Frank C. Brown to say: “Judged by the breadth of its diffusion, Poor Naomi (Omie Wise) is North Carolina’s principle single contribution to American folksong.” Naomi’s grave can still be seen at Providence Church, North Carolina, and near Asheboro are some rapids known as the Naomi Falls over which on moonlit nights, so it is said, the ghost of Naomi may be seen floating. Incidentally, Jonathan Lewis escaped from custody and was not finally brought to trial until 1815 when he was acquitted for insubstantial evidence. Legend has it that on his deathbed he confessed to the murder. Omie Wisewas a favourite song of William Riley Shelton, one of Cecil Sharp’s informants and considered by many mountain people at the time to be the best ballad singer around. A fine contemporary example of the old mountain ballad singing style is Doug Wallin’s Omie Wise recorded for Smithsonian Folkways on Doug and Jack Wallin, Family Songs From the North Carolina Mountains (SF CD 40013).

Kate & Anna McGarrigle with Elvis Costello sang Ommie Wise Part 1 & 2 (What Lewis Did Last…) at UCLA’s Royce Hall, Los Angeles, in April 2001. This recording was included in 2006 on The Harry Smith Project: Anthology of American Folk Music Revisited.

Snake Farm sang Omie Wise (You Forget to Answer) in 2011 on their Fledg’ling CD My Halo at Half-Light.

Hasee Ciaccio with Kalia Yeagle sang Omie Wise on the 2017 Appalachian ballad tradition anthology Big Bend Killing. Ted Olsen noted:

One of the older “native American ballads” (ballads that emerged entirely in the New World), Omie Wise chronicles the tragic death of Naomi Wise (her dates were possibly 1789-1808), who lived in Randolph County, North Carolina. According to oral tradition, Naomi was a teenaged orphan who lived in the household of an upstanding couple named William and Mary Adams; eventually Omie (as she was called) fell in love with a local ne’er-do-well, Jonathan Lewis (1783-1817). Omie apparently got pregnant by John (as he was called), and in April 1808 John lured her to a desolate place under the pretext of their getting married. Instead, he beat her and threw her into a river near Randleman, North Carolina. This was essentially the account of events presented in Braxton Craven’s 1851 publication Naomi Wise: The Wrongs of a Beautiful Girl.

A recently discovered manuscript titled “A true account of Nayomy Wise” [sic] (from a commonplace notebook once owned by Mary Woody, who was born in 1801) suggests that Omie was not a teenager at the time of her death but in fact was older than John Lewis; this document even asserts that Omie had had two children out of wedlock. In a 2003 scholarly study, Eleanor R. Long-Wilgus speculated that the Woody manuscript explains why in the ballad John Lewis was going to give Omie Wise money “or other fine things”—in that era, unwed mothers might agree during courtroom proceedings to name another man responsible for her children (other than the actual biological father) if a financial arrangement was made. Perhaps Omie believed that, by meeting John surreptitiously, he would make such an arrangement to find a home for a child the two might have conceived together. But, “deluded by John Lewis’ lies”, Omie was murdered and later was buried in Randolph County’s Providence Quaker Church Cemetery.

After being caught and imprisoned, John did indeed break jail, though he likely did not join the army as stated in the version of the ballad heard here, which was based on a G.B. Grayson and Henry Whitter 78 RPM recording from 1927. Other masters of Appalachian music have recorded Omie Wise, including Clarence ‘Tom’ Ashley, Dock Boggs, Roscoe Holcomb, and Doc Watson. The singer of the version heard on this album, South Carolinian Hasee Ciaccio, studied old-time music in East Tennessee State University’s Bluegrass, Old-Time, and Country Music Studies Program, as did fiddler Kalia Yeagle, a native of Alaska.

Lyrics

Shirley Collins sings Omie Wise

I’ll tell you all a story about little Omie Wise,
How she was deluded by John Lewis’s lies.
He promised to marry her at Adams’s springs;
Said he’d bring her some jewels and many other fine things.

So Omie she met him down at Adams’s springs;
And get up behind me Omie, to Squires we’ll go.
She’s got up behind him, so carefree we’ll go,
They rode till they come where the river did flow.

“John Lewis, John Lewis, come tell me your mind,
Now do you mean to marry me or leave me behind?”
“Little Omie, poor Omie, I’ll tell you my mind,
I minded here to drown you and leave you behind.”

He stabbed her till heart, her heart’s blood did flow
Down into the river her body he threw.
Two little boys were fishing just at the break of dawn,
They spied poor little Omie come a-floating along.

They arrested John Lewis, they arrested him today,
They buried little Omie down in the cold clay.
“My name it is John Lewis, my name I’ll never deny,
I murdered little Omie, I’ll never reach the sky.”

“Go hang me, go kill me, for I am that man,
I drownded my true love down by the old mill dam.”
John Lewis was took a prisoner some six months or more,
And then he broke jail into the army he did go.

George Hawkins sings Jim Luther

Jim Luther he goes a-courting, he dresses so well
It’s many a fine story they say he can tell.
He promised to meet ’Oma at Adam’s Spring
He promised her money, lots of other fine things.

“Come and get on behind me; it’ll be no disgrace
We’ll go and get married some other fine place.”
She got on behind him and away they did ride
He took her to Elk River where dark waters flow.

“Leoma, Leoma, I’ll tell you my mind
It’s made up to drown you so I’ll leave you behind.”
“Have pity, oh, have mercy,” that poor girl she mourned,
“If you won’t go and get married let me go back home.”

He beat her, he shook her, and he knocked her all around
He threw her in the river just below the mill dam
He got on his horse and he rode out of sight
O the screams from Leoma heard forty miles that night.

Next morning the people were looking all around
Leoma was missing but could not be found.
Up steps her old mother, has a few words to say,
“Jim Luther’s killed Leoma and now has run away.”

They’ve got him in prison for killing a man
They’ve got him hanging for killing ’Oma
He stole from the rich man, he give to the poor
Jim Luther’ll be a good boy, he’ll do so no more.

Snake Farm sing Omie Wise (You Forget to Answer)

I’ll tell you a story about Omie Wise
How she was deluded by John Lewis’ lies
He promised to meet her by Adams’ spring
Said he’d bring her money and other fine things

O come with me Omie and away we will go
Off to get married and no one will know
She climbed up behind him and away they did ride
’Till they reached the banks of that black waterside

John Lewis, John Lewis, will you tell me your mind
Do you intend to marry me or leave me behind
O Omie, my Omie, I’ll tell you this now
My mind is made up I’m gonna leave you here to drown

“If I remember what to say
If I remember what to say
You will know me again
And you forget to answer”

Have mercy on the baby and spare me my life
I’ll go home a beggar and I’ll never be your wife
He hugged her and he kissed her and he turned her around
And pushed her in deep water where he knew she would drown

Floating away…

Was on a Thursday morning and the rain came pouring down
They all searched for Omie but she could not be found
Two boys went out fishing later that day
Saw poor Omie’s body go floating away,
floating away

Floating away…

Hasee Ciaccio sings Omie Wise

I tell you all a story about Omie Wise
How she was deluded by John Lewis’ lies.

He told her to meet him at Adams’s Springs;
He’d bring her some money and some other fine things.

He brung her no money nor no other fine things,
But, “Get up behind me, Omie, to Squire Elletts we’ll go.”

She got up behind him, “So careful we’ll go”;
They rode ’til they came where deep waters did flow.

John Lewis, he concluded to tell her his mind;
John Lewis, he concluded to leave her behind.

She threw her arms around him, “John, spare me my life,
And I’ll go distracted and never be your wife.”

He threw her arms from ’round him, and into the water she plunged.
John Lewis, he turned round and rode back to Adams’s Hall.

He went, enquired for Omie, but “Omie, she is note here,
She’s gone to some neighbour’s house and won’t be very log.”

John Lewis was took a prisoner and locked up in jail,
Was locked up in the jail and was there to remain awhile.

John Lewis, he stayed there for six months or maybe more
Until he broke jail, into the army he did go.