The Dream That
Hanged a Man
289 South French Broad Avenue,
Asheville, N. C.
Dear Mr. Goerch: I am sending you an article which I believe will
be of interest to your readers.
I knew the Dr. Butt who is mentioned in the article. He married
my mother’s first cousin. I have heard Dr. Butt tell of his experience
in this case many years ago. He lived in Bakersville. county seat of
Mitchell County, for a long time.
Another little item of interest is that the Hon. W. W. Neal’s father,
known as Sheriff Joe Neal, was, I have been told, sheriff at the time
of the hanging. It took place at the edge of Marion in an open field
belonging to Sheriff Neal. Many years later, after the town grew and
spread out in that direction, this field was laid off in lots, and I bought
one of them.
Another fact of interest to me: old man Job Baker and his grandson,
the son of Steve Baker, were familiar figures to me in my childhood
days. It is said that the Bakers were part Indian, and I remember see¬
ing the old man and his grandson walking along the road in Indian
fashion — the younger man about two steps behind the other.
Julia Chase Hastings.
( Editor's note: In order not to embarrass any possible descendants
of the principals involved in this case, we wish to state that the name
of "Baker" is fictitious. All of the other names in Mrs. Hastings’ article
arc real. )
THE Steve Baker case and the
events connected with it make
one of the strangest stories in
the annals of the courts of western
North Carolina and was enacted
about seventy years ago. The story
is also noteworthy because Baker
was the last man to be hanged
in McDowell County. He was
executed for a deed that almost
became the perfect crime: the
deliberate killing of his young
wife. Baker’s guilt was revealed
through the baffling dream of a
man who was only slightly ac¬
quainted with him.
The story, as I have heard it
told by the old-time lawyers, court
attendants and mountain people,
is substantially as follows:
Steve Baker, with his young
wife and infant son, lived in a re¬
mote section of McDowell County,
near Buck Creek Gap in the Blue
Ridge Mountains. Late one night
Baker returned to his cabin and
picked a fuss with his wife. A
violent quarrel followed, and in
an insane rage Baker seized the
long, heavy braids of his wife’s
hair and wrapped them tightly
about her neck and strangled her
to death. In order to conceal his
crime, he placed her bodv in bed
beside their sleeping infant and
went to the home of neighbors,
some distance away. Pretending
6
great concern, he told this family
that his wife had been taken with
a sudden seizure of strange and
violent pains in her head. He said
he had done what he could for
her, and implored their help. These
kind people hastened to tell other
nearby neighbors and they, with
Baker, hurried to his cabin, where
they found the young wife already
dead. Her body was still warm.
Baker wept uncontrollably. The
neighbors thinking the wife had
died of natural causes, were sym¬
pathetic and never suspected that
Baker had caused his wife’s death.
Arrangements for Funeral
A carpenter of the neighborhood
made a coffin and the body of the
dead woman was placed in it.
( Afterwards it was remembered
that it was Baker himself who
helped place his wife’s body in
the coffin, and that he also assisted
the neighborhood women in pre¬
paring the body for burial. )
Word of the sudden death was
sent throughout the community
and to the home of the dead girl,
ten mountain miles away, so that
her grave might be prepared and
arrangements made for the funeral
to be held at the home of her par¬
ents the next day.
The sorrowing husband, accom¬
panied by sympathetic friends and
neighbors who had gathered at the
Baker cabin, formed a funeral pro¬
cession and set out with the body
of the young wife on her last jour¬
ney. The murdered woman would
have been buried as planned and
her murderer would have gone
unsuspected and unpunished, but
for the unfathomable dream of one
man. That man was Joshua Young,
known to be a mountain man of
integrity and good reputation. He
was also a man of authority, being
a justice of the peace at the time.
The Young farm was in Yancey
County, some distance from the
McDowell County line near Buck
Creek Gap. On the night of the
crime Josh Young dreamed that
a beautiful young woman, whom
he did not know, came running to
him and showed him livid bruises
on her neck, and begged him to
save her from some fearful danger.
Young was so impressed with the
girl’s appeal that, when he sud¬
denly awoke, he felt that his
dream, in some strange way. was
real. An hour or so later, after
disturbing thoughts, Young fell
asleep and again the same dream,
identical in every detail, returned
to him. The strange girl appeared
the second time in great fright
and begged him to save her.
As Josh Young worked on his
farm that morning his mind dwelt
on the details of his strange dream.
The face of the stranger haunted
him, as he kept thinking about it.
Still troubled, that afternoon he
went to the home of a neighbor and
told him of the dream. He had
scarcely finished his story when
the two men saw a funeral pro¬
cession slowly approaching. They
had not heard of a death in the
community, so they walked down
to the road as the procession came
up to them. It was Steve Baker,
with his neighbors, taking the body
of his wife to the home of her par¬
ents, still some miles away. The
procession halted and Baker be¬
gan to tell the two men, whom he
knew only slightly, about his wife’s
sudden illness and death, hardly
restraining his grief as he spoke
of his trouble. As the men stood
talking a neighbor woman lifted
the cloth from the face of the corpse
and began to bathe it with cam¬
phor, to preserve the life-like ap¬
pearance of the skin — an old rural
custom. Young glanced at the face
of the dead woman and started as
he did so. for he instantly recog¬
nized it as that of the young wom¬
an who had come to him in his
dream. This was the explanation
of his dream, and he suddenly saw
THE STATE. June 4. 1949
