Naomi was born in 1789 and was orphaned. When she was a child she was taken in by the family of William Adams. She had to earn her stay by working in the home for the family. Regardless the family treated her great and as if she was a part of the family.
She had grown up to become a dark-haired beauty. Soon enough a young man became infatuated with 18/19-year-old Naomi. His name was Johnathan Lewis and he was seemingly a nice man from a prominent family in the area.
It was believed that the two soon fell in love, but there were some complications.
Because he was from a prominent family his family was against the two being in a relationship. His mother wanted him to marry a girl from another prominent family in the area. The one she had in mind was young Hettie Elliot.
It was believed that Johnathan didn't love Hettie like he did Naomi. He seemed to have more love for that Hettie's money, status, and family connections. Not for who she was. He wanted to appease his parents and planned to marry Hettie.
Naomi believed that he was being forced to marry another. That he didn't want it as much as she did. This may have been true, but it was a more appealing lifestyle than to be with Naomi.
In 1808 Johnathan promised Naomi that they would instead run away with each other. Naomi may have been pregnant at the time and believed that they were going to raise a family together. He told her that he was going to defy his family's wishes and instead be happy with her.
Which was far from the truth.
The night they planned to run away Naomi felt uneasy after she arrived. She thought it was strange they were going to get married at night. They were supposed to go to Asheboro to get married, but instead, he leads her to the river.
Naomi afraid told him they were going the wrong way. He admitted to her his plans. He knew he couldn't bear to not have Naomi as a wife and it would be painful seeing her. He didn't want anything to ruin the intended marriage with Hettie.
Naomi begged him not to kill her. He struggled as he held her down in the river. He eventually pulled her dress over her head and drowned her.
A local woman had heard Naomi's screams and had her boys go and check it out. Johnathan was gone by the time they got to the river, and the boys didn't see Naomi in the water. The next day a search party was conducted. She was found in the water with bruises on her neck.
Johnathan was arrested for the crime, but not prosecuted. There wasn't enough evidence to definitively say it was him who killed her. He didn't marry Hettie and was free for many years. He ended up getting really ill and returned to his father's home to die.
It's said he made a deathbed confession to his father that he did, in fact, kill her. It's the only assumption that Johnathan Lewis killed Naomi. Most of what had happened that night had been theorized.
Naomi's tragic death will always be remembered through the song.
SOURCES:
https://archive.org/stream/storyofnaomiwise00rota/storyofnaomiwise00rota_djvu.txt
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/15846775/naomi-wise
https://web.archive.org/web/20051027223818/http://www.itpi.dpi.state.nc.us/counties/Randol/Randlph/nwise.html
http://www.murderbygaslight.com/2009/09/naomi-wise_05.html
I presume that Jonathan killed Naomi because he didn't want the embarassment of being the father of an illegitimate child.
ReplyDelete