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The deputy sheriff undertook to arrest Columbus Triplett after he had killed his brother but he resisted. The officer succeeded in making the arrest after beating Triplett dreadfully. He was lodged in jail here today about 10 o’clock.

(Lexington Dispatch, Jan. 5, 1910)

“Here” is Boone, location of the Watauga jail. Lum’s apprehension by his nephew, Granville Triplett, is the most contested portion of the tale. Note that in this account the familial relationship is unmentioned, possibly unknown, and Lum didn’t go peacefully. “Tragedy” says otherwise:

Then Lum went off to go away
And met Gran Triplett on his way
At Leroy Triplett’s this was said
Lum said to Gran, “Your father’s dead”

Lum said to Gran, “I’ll let you know
I’ve killed your father at his home
I’ll now surrender up to thee
You treat me kindly if you please”

Postcard view of Boone, North Carolina (c. 1900) (Ashe County website)

Here, the deputy-sheriff is unaware that his father is dead until told by Lum at the home of a relative. The wording is vague (“Lum went off to go away”) and time truncated (“And met Gran Triplett on his way”) – presumably for dramatic effect and narrative concision. The arrest in fact occurred 11 days after the killing, but here everything happens in swift succession, seemingly within 24 hours. Lum meets Granville by chance, confesses his crime, and offers no resistance. (A Jan. 13 article in the Democrat agrees that Lum “surrendered” to his nephew.) Regardless, Granville would not be appeased:

Gran said to Lum, “One thing I’ll do
If you killed father I’ll kill you”
He then beat Lum at a dreadful rate
And made bad bruises on his face

“He was so badly beaten up that he had to be helped to his cell,” wrote the Dispatch, noting this was Lum’s second violent melee in less than two weeks. But it was a kick to the torso administered by his nephew that proved his undoing, causing “intense suffering” (the Democrat) and leaving him “in a dangerous condition” (the Almanace Gleaner, Jan. 20).

Gran then took Lum to Wautauga jail
He went behind the bars to stay
Those beats and bruises they inflamed
Which brought Columbus to his grave

Lum died nine days later, on Jan. 14. A postmortem implicated Granville: his kick had triggered a slow death from internal injuries, and a warrant was issued for his arrest. Lum’s demise mirrored his brother’s, only in reverse: weakened by fighting, both were ultimately slain by single blows, Marshall in a painful instant, Lum over agonizing days.

Watauga County Jail – empty and in disrepair (1960s) (Watauga Public Library).

Press accounts are uniformly sympathetic to Lum’s fate, despite the homicidal transgression that set it in motion:

Columbus Triplett died here behind prison bars on the evening of the 14th inst., after days of indescribable anguish. This was the last scene in the fearful tragedy begun by the two Triplett brothers on Christmas day …

The kind family who keeps the jail, Mr. and Mrs. Robbins, together with the county physician did all they could for his comfort much to their credit. A fellow prisoner also stood by him night and day until the end came.

(North Wilkesboro Hustler, Jan. 28, 1910)

Battista Franco: “The Penitent Thief on the Cross” (drawing, c.1525) (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Marshall and his family are barely mentioned. Perhaps he was less liked in the community, or Granville’s cruelty tarnished the family in the public eye. Lum’s prolonged misery clearly aroused compassion. But it also must have triggered powerful Christian archetypes among the predominantly Baptist citizenry – of the crucified Christ, awaiting delivery from the prison-like tomb, of the repentant sinner, the “wretch like me” saved by “amazing grace,” suffering now but bound for glory. The anecdote about the fellow prisoner is redolent of both the penitent thief (“Remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom”) and the centurion at Calvary (“Truly this man was the Son of God”) – a comforting New Testament end to an Old Testament tale of brother killing brother.

Those brothers sleep in the same graveyard
Their wives and children’s troubled hard
Their resting place there sure must be
Till they shall rise at Judgement Day

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