A recent Facebook post by Wilson’s new Minor League baseball team, the Warbirds, reminded me of the city’s deep black baseball roots. Check out the links below.
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Lane Street Project has enriched my life in many ways, among them introduction to wonderful people I would not otherwise have gotten to know. Portia Newman is one. Though we are both graduates of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and, it turns out, both among the unnumbered thousands of Adam T. Artis‘ descendants, more than two decades separate our paths through Wilson. Nonetheless, we share an unshakeable sense of family and place and a deep commitment to paying forward our gratitude for both. I was not surprised, then, to see this morning that Portia was giving us gifts on her birthday.
Here, in four parts and a dope video, are Portia Newman’s reflections on the importance of documenting family history and her plan for doing so. All of us can be, must be, preservationists. Save your stories.
And, here, listen to Portia’s grandfather, Donald Lee Woodard Sr. talk about his life in the Red Hill area near Stantonsburg. “You just got to live your life. By being 98*, I have seen a lot and been through a lot.” (Be sure to watch to the very end!)
Happy birthday, Portia!
Many thanks to Vicki Cowan for sharing this delightful snapshot of her aunt Elba Vick Valle and grandmother Annie M. Washington Vick, circa 1940s.
The 1840 census of Black Creek district, Wayne County (which largely became Black Creek district, Wilson County, in 1855) includes a type of household that may surprise some — white women with mixed race children. Though rare in antebellum Wilson County, such households were not uncommon in neighboring counties like Wayne and Nash.
Teresa Parker was the head of a household that consisted of one white male aged 10-14, one white female aged 30-39, one white female aged 70-79, and 1 free colored male under age 10. Teresa was likely the woman in her 30s. The elder woman was probably her mother or grandmother. The younger boy was Teresa’s son Tarrel W. Parker. The elder boy probably was, too.
Teresa Parker apparently died between 1840 and 1850. Tarrel Parker is not found in 1850, but appears in the 1860 census in Black Creek township as a 23 year-old farm laborer in the household of white farmer Elias Farrell. (The other boy has not been further identified.) Tarrel Parker named his first child, Trecy, born about 1874, after his mother.
This audacious try happened two years ago, but the clip is making the rounds again this Black History Month. Abe Jones, who represents part of Wake County in the North Carolina General Assembly, is a Harvard University and Harvard Law School graduate, and I wanted to know a little more about him. Imagine my surprise to find that Jones was born in Wilson!
A quick bit of research informed me that Jones was born to Frissell W. Jones and Pauline Gallop Jones during the brief period that Frissell Jones taught diversified occupations, math, and English at Darden High School. Jones left Wilson to teach at Saint Augustine’s College, and Abraham Penn Jones was born soon after.
Dr. Frissell W. Jones modeled excellence for his son, and we celebrate both!
Greensboro News and Record, 18 January 2006.
Though a Wayne County native (and descendant of Celia Artis), Edgar H. Diggs spent most of his adult life in Wilson. He was well-known barber for decades at Walter Hines Barbershop and lived at 205 North Vick Street.
Diggs’ granddaughter Sheila Diggs has graciously shared photos of three generations of her family.
Sula Diggs Artis (ca. 1866-1919), probably taken in a Goldsboro, N.C., studio.
Sula Diggs Artis’ daughter Lizzie Olivia Diggs (1894-1988), circa mid-1910s. Edgar H. Diggs (1890-1970) was her brother. This photo was taken in the studio of Wilson’s Picture-Taking George W. Barnes. That’s his signature one-armed chair, and we’ve seen the window prop before, too.
Olivia Diggs Artis a few years later, with a bob and tiered, drop-waist day dress characteristic of the early 1920s.
Edgar H. Diggs and youngest son Preston Diggs at their Vick Street home, circa late 1940s. The camera is a twin-lens reflex camera, perhaps a Rolleiflex.
Walter Preston Diggs (1928-2024).
Oazie Jones Mitchell was among the two dozen or so seniors I interviewed last year about their memories of Wilson County’s Rosenwald schools. Her precise recollections of Williamson Graded and High Schools, the rigors of tenant farming, Mary Grove Missionary Baptist church, her father’s involvement with the NAACP, home remedies, and other aspects of her childhood helped me better understand the community in the part of Wilson County with which I’m least personally familiar.
I learned just today that Mrs. Mitchell passed away on the closing day of last year. My sincere condolences to her family, especially daughter Tondra Mitchell-Talley and sister Edith Jones Garnett. I will not forget Mrs. Mitchell’s warmth and generosity, and I wish you comfort in memories of happy times with her.
I’m in awe of Monica T. Davis‘ work in East Wilson and am so glad that national lights are shining on her.
Read the full madamearchitect.com interview here, and marinate on this:
When Sarah Jernigan drafted her will on 20 July 1849, she lived in Edgecombe County, North Carolina, but her estate entered probate in Wilson County. (I have not found the estate file.)
To daughter Penelope Anderson, she bequeathed enslaved people Olive, Larrow, Rose, Ellen, Evaline, Rody, Lucy the child of Olive, Jack, Ben, Judy, and Anaky.
To friend [actually son-in-law and Methodist circuit rider] Nathan Anderson, in trust for Jernigan’s daughter Elizabeth Whitley (so as to keep the property free from control of her husband Edwin G. Whitley), she bequeathed Dinah, Mason, Dick, Jane, Caroline, Handy, Grace, Pearce, Beck, Peg, Delpha, Turner, Lucy, Ginny, and Hester.
Nathan Anderson is listed in the 1850 slave schedule of Edgecombe County with 14 enslaved people. He died in 1859, leaving widow Penelope and four young children. His estate mentions the hiring out of enslaved people — which brought in hundreds of dollars in income per year — but does not name them.
Penelope Anderson is listed in the 1860 slave schedule of Saratoga district, Wilson County, with only four enslaved people. Her near neighbor Edwin Barnes, who was administrator of Nathan Anderson’s estate, is listed as holding 15 enslaved people as the trustee for four minors (the Anderson children).
Few African-American Andersons and no Jernigans appear in post-emancipation Wilson County records. If the people Sarah Jernigan enslaved remained in the area, they largely adopted other surnames.
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In 1866, Olive Anderson and Leavie Barnes registered their 24-year cohabitation with a Wilson county justice of the peace.
In the 1870 census of Stantonsburg township, Wilson County: farm laborer Levi Barnes, 45; wife Olive, 50; children Samuel, 19, Charles, 10, Rachel, 18, and Celia, 15; Adeline Whitley, 23; Dinah Whitley, 70; and Dewey, 12, and Richard Whitley, 42.
In 1869, Rhody Anderson, daughter of Lee Anderson and Olif Anderson, married Stephen Moore, son of Stephen Moore and Jinsey Moore, in Wilson County.
In the 1870 census of Stantonsburg township, Wilson County: Stephen Moore, 23, farm laborer; wife Rodah, 23; and son Lazarus, 8 months.
In the 1880 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: Rhoda Moore, 30, works on farm, and children Lazarus, 10, Peter, 8, and Nelly, 4.
Ida Jenkins died 29 December 1921 in Helena, Phillips County, Arkansas. Per her death certificate, she was 36 years old; was born in North Carolina to Stephen Moore and Rhoda [no maiden name] and was married. Frank Jenkins was informant.
Perhaps, in the 1870 census of Stantonsburg township, Wilson County: farm laborer Benjamin Anderson, 39; wife Catharine, 38; and children Robert, 13, Joseph, 10, Dink, 8, Dinah, 4, and Lucy, 1.
In the 1870 census of Black Creek township, Wilson County: Anaka Anderson, 35, and children Fanny, 15, Seth, 7, Benjamin, 4, and Bettie, 2.
Probably: in the 1870 census of Stantonsburg township, Wilson County: farm laborer Levi Barnes, 45; wife Olive, 50; children Samuel, 19, Charles, 10, Rachel, 18, and Celia, 15; Adeline Whitley, 23; Dinah Whitley, 70; and Dewey, 12, and Richard Whitley, 42.
Possibly: in 1866, Mason Whitley and Marendy Bryan registered their 17-year cohabitation.
Probably: in the 1870 census of Stantonsburg township, Wilson County: farm laborer Levi Barnes, 45; wife Olive, 50; children Samuel, 19, Charles, 10, Rachel, 18, and Celia, 15; Adeline Whitley, 23; Dinah Whitley, 70; and Dewey, 12, and Richard Whitley, 42.
In the 1880 census of Stantonsburg township, Wilson County: farm laborer Richard Whitley, 54, and wife Becky, 41.
North Carolina Wills and Probate Records, 1665-1998, http://www.ancestry.com.
Wilson’s Art Deco bus station stood from 1938 to the mid-1990s.
In 1943, a dozen years before Claudette Colvin and Rosa Parks’ celebrated acts of resistance, at least four young African-American men and women refused to move to the back of Wilson buses. Read again of their direct challenges to Jim Crow and discrimination and lift up their memory.