Cemeteries, no. 38: the Joshua Barnes’ tenant cemetery.

I first mused about the cemetery on the old Joshua Barnes plantation here. As shown in this detail from the plat, the burial ground was in Lot 11 of the farm’s subdivision, a triangle of land between what are now London Church Road and Corbett Avenue. Was this where black tenants and laborers on Barnes’ farm buried, well into the 20th century? Did it start as a cemetery for the many dozens of people Barnes enslaved?

Last week, I stumbled upon a 1964 plat map of the former Lot 11, then named Raeford Rountree farm, which outlines the cemetery in greater detail and records its size as .73 acres.

This deed description comes from a 1983 quitclaim deed from Landmark Development Company of Wilson to a trustee for Living Faith Ministries, Inc. It makes clear that this cemetery was recognized for what it was.

Here’s a current aerial view of the property from Wilson County’s GIS website. I’ve encircled the rough location of the cemetery, which lies a short distance south of Impact Church.

There’s no sign of the cemetery now. (At least not from the road.)

Photograph by Lisa Y. Henderson, February 2026.

Lane Street Project: at long last, a meeting … and cautious optimism.

Castonoble Hooks and I met today with Mayor Carlton Stevens, City Manager Rodger Lentz, Assistant City Managers Albert Alston and Bill Bass, Councilmember Susan Kellum, Sarah Lowry of New South Associates, and Melissa Timo of the North Carolina Office of State Archaeology to talk about Vick Cemetery. This was a conversation more than five years in the making, and I deeply appreciate this shift in the City’s response to our concerns about Vick. 

We heard Lowry’s report on New South’s assessment of the markers unearthed in December and her and Timo’s recommendations on further action at Vick. We asked questions of them and each other and talked frankly for more than an hour and a half. It’s premature to share much of the discussion here, but I do want to say this:

The stones that a contractor unearthed in the ditch bank at Vick Cemetery were pieces of a marble box, a sort of proto-vault, that once held an ancestor. The broken marble slabs are all, beyond chemical changes in the soil, that are left of the burial. The top slab, which likely would have been engraved with the name of the deceased, was not found, and we do not know whether this was the grave of a woman, man, or child.

The accident that dislodged this box was awful, but has been transmuted for good. I am grateful to the ancestor who, by losing his or her repose, opened a path for us to move forward in our fight for respect and due care for Vick Cemetery. May we continue to walk in our purpose and always remember and honor our dead. 

Lane Street Project: the sunny side.

Gravedigging news aside, today was lovely. 

The daffodils at Rountree never disappoint.

I sacrificed blood and boot trying get through the briers and wisteria to reach the base of the pole in Rountree Cemetery. I failed, but that’s okay.

I made a detour to Elm City Colored/Heritage Cemetery just to snap a photo of this marvel. Clarence B. Best at his best. I’m not sure why “avenging angel of death” was the motif the family settled on, but it makes for a compelling visual.

And then I pulled up to the house, and my sister’s car was in the driveway. All the way from New Jersey.

This evening I spoke at the library. I always relish these opportunities to share my research with folks who recognize and cherish the names and places I talk about. My family, two of my father’s classmates, my Wilson County Genealogical Society folks, the Lane Street Project Senior Force, Black Wide-Awake readers and followers, library staff, and so many others filled the room. Thank you.

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another. 1 Peter 4:10.

Lane Street Project: I didn’t think I was shockable anymore, but here we are.

Driving into Wilson with a grin on my face, and POW! — “A Wilson man has been charged after admitting to digging up a grave at Vick Cemetery….”

You can read the sorry details here.

I immediately called Castonoble Hooks and diverted to the cemetery. The alleged perpetrator unearthed a corner of a burial vault in a grave at the edge of the ditch, but it has been recovered, and the earth tamped back down. While we were there, Public Works pulled up to shovel dirt over the remnants of the marble markers dislodged back in December. I was too shaken to even question why, but will find out.

Saint John burns its mortgage.

Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 24 February 1945.

Another account of the burning of Saint John A.M.E. Zion‘s mortgage, this one revealing a number of notable facts, such as Orren R. Best, Charles H. Darden, Daniel Vick, Washington Suggs, and Lawrence Moore as charter members of the church. (One note, however: Saint John was not the oldest Black church in Wilson, though it was the “mother” of all the county’s A.M.E. Zion churches.)

Congratulations and gratitude, Castonoble Hooks!

Lane Street Project’s Castonoble Hooks is getting his flowers this month, and we are here for it! This past Sunday he received Mount Moriah Community Church’s Community Impact Award, one of three such honors bestowed upon him by area churches this month. We add our thanks to Cass Hooks for his dedication to the preservation and uplift of our history.

Photo courtesy of Jocelyn Drawhorn.

W.C.G.S.’ 2026 Black History Month program.

Tuesday evening, my father’s classmate L. Paul Sherrod Jr. will present and discuss family papers passed down from his great-grandparents Jack Sherrod (who served in the United States Colored Troops) and Cassie Exum Sherrod at a program sponsored by Wilson County Genealogical Society. I’ve had a sneak peek at some of the documents and am amazed by the family’s legacy!