I’m not still not clear about the first owner of the lot at 600 [originally 601] East Green Street. However, the house mouldering there now is not the original.
Here is that house:
In the 1908 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory shows:
So we know the Reids owned and built on the lot prior to 1908. The 1913 Sanborn fire insurance map shows this two-story house at 601 East Green:
But here is the house in the 1922 Sanborn fire insurance map. It has two stories, but does not resemble the one above. (However, it does match the house now onsite.)
Yeah. That’s exactly what you think it is. A car … all the way at the back fence of Vick Cemetery. This kind of trespass — and disrespect — continues to happen, though every vehicle that enters has to pass at least one granite pillar emblazoned with the cemetery’s name and climb a curb out of the paved parking lot.
Vick Cemetery is a sacred space. Lane Street Project — and now the City’s Vick Cemetery Advisory Committee — are working hard to restore dignity to this place and raise awareness of its significance and history. We need the community’s help.
Abstracts of deeds recording the purchase of real property by African-Americans during the first fifty years of freedom (or earlier):
On 8 April 1857, Noah Lynch gave a mortgage deed to Oswald Lipscomb and Edward A. Sherman, acting as the firm Lipscomb and Sherman, on a one-quarter-acre lot in the Town of Wilson at the corner of Spring and Green Streets. Lynch had purchased the lot from B.H. Bardin and J. Sauls on credit, and Lipscomb and Sherman had agreed to take over payments. If Lynch failed to repay Lipscomb and Sherman, the mortgage deed was cancelled. Deed book 1, page 268.
On 17 November 1866, for $101.50, W.T. Brewer sold Elijah Cox a 50-acre tract on the west side of Cabin Branch adjoining Zillah Lucas, Thomas Woodard, and others. The tract had been drawn by Obedience Tomlinson in the division of the land of Thomas Tomlinson Sr. Deed book 3, page 457.
On 15 May 1869, for $400, E.G. and Martha Clark sold Hardy Farmer and Wiley Short a lot on the east side of the Wilmington & Weldon Railroad adjoining Redmond Batts, Bailey Batts, and Guilford Horne and containing about 120 acres. Deed book 3, page 557.
On 12 November 1869, for $1275, R.J. Taylor and wife sold brothers Hilliard Ellis and Warren Rountree 245 acres on Little Swamp adjacent to Stephen Lipscomb and others. Deed book 3, page 467.
On 2 January 1870, Joshua and Matilda Barnes sold Hardy Farmer and Wiley Short an eight-acre lot on the east side of the Wilmington & Weldon Railroad adjoining Jordan Winstead and others. Deed book 5, page 479.
On 23 December 1870, for $150, John Williamson sold Alfred Jackson a six-acre tract on the east side of the Wilmington & Weldon Railroad adjoining Zilpha Privett, Washington Dew, and others. Deed book 5, page 293.
In the 1930 census of Black Creek township, Wilson County: farmer Amos Batts, 29; wife Elizabeth, 29; and children Arlettie, 10, James, 8, Roosevelt, 7, and Amos Lee, 5.
In the 1940 census of Black Creek township, Wilson County: widow Elizabeth Batts, 42, farmer, and sons James H., 19, Rosevelt, 16, and Leander, 12. [Amos Leander Batts died while in service.]
Roosevelt Batts registered for the draft in 1940.
In the 1950 census of New York, New York County, New York: Roosevelt Batts, 25, and wife Hattie Margaret, 25, secretary, roomers in 331 Quincy Street.
Roosevelt Batts died 17 September 1986 and was buried in Calverton National Cemetery, Calverton, New York.
Hardy Barnes owed the general merchandise firm of Ward and Moye $5.50 due 6 August 1877. To secure the debt, he pledged a set of carpenter’s tools consisting of a fore plane, two jack planes, a smoothing plane, a hand saw, a framing square, a try square, a hand square file, chisels of several sizes, several augers, a drawing knife, a hatchet, an oilstone, a pair of compasses, and two mallets. If Barnes failed to pay the money, the firm could sell off his tools to cover the debt.
Deed book 13, page 363, Wilson County Register of Deeds Office, Wilson.
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Probably, in the 1870 census of Saratoga township, Wilson County: Watson Stanton, 65, farm laborer, born in Virginia; wife Rosa, 53; and children Richard, 15, Adeline, 13, Feribee, 8, and Louisa, 21; Cherry Rogers, 80, midwife; and Hardy Barnes, 20, carpenter’s apprentice.
The back of the photo is stamped GGG Photo Studio, 272 Lenox Avenue, New York. (Gasp!) That was James Van Der Zee‘s studio!
Van Der Zee’s photograph of his studio in the 1940s, around the time Annie Bell Gay sat for her portrait.
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In the 1900 census of Dudley, Brogden township, Wayne County: farmer Jessey Jacobs, 42; wife Sarah D., 28; and children Aner S., 17, Redis J., 15, Carie, 13, Docter, 8, Hatie, 6, and Anie B., 3. [Sarah D. Henderson Jacobs was Jesse Jacobs’ second wife and stepmother to his children James Daniel, Anna, Reddick, Carrie, Doctor, and Annie Bell. Their mother, Sallie Bridges Jacobs died shortly after Annie Bell was born. Hattie was Sarah’s child by a previous relationship.]
In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: Jesse Jacob, 53, deliveryman for stable; wife Sarah, 35; daughter Annie Belle, 15; and boarders Jesse Henderson, 17, Herbert Jones, 23, both stable laborers, and Nina Fasin, 32, a housemaid.
On 20 February 1913, Albert S. Gay, 23, of Wilson, son of Samuel and Alice Gay, married Annie B. Jacobs, 18, of Wilson, daughter of Jesse and Sarah Jacobs, in Pasquotank County, North Carolina. Rev. N.D. King performed the ceremony at his residence at 38 Bunnell Avenue, Elizabeth City. Witnesses included Albert’s sister, Mrs. Mamie R. King.
In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: widow Alice Gay, 45; daughter Beatrice, 26; grandson Jerome Wood, 11; granddaughter Gereddine, 10; son Albert, 30; daughter-in-law Anabell, 24; grandsons Albert Jr., 4, and Jesse, 2; son-in-law Fredrick Bolling, 35; daughter Lillie, 23; and grandchildren Delma, 4, and Fredrick, 2.
Wilson N.C., city directory, 1928.
In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 623 Green, Annie B. Gay, 30, a laundress; husband Albert, 40, a bellboy; mother-in-law Alic, 73; and children Albert Jr., 14, Jessie, 11, Hal, 8, Samual, 6, Mirrian, 4, and Ralph, 2. The house was valued at $8000.
Albert Gay Sr. died 4 October 1932 at Moore-Herring Hospital, Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was born 29 August 1889 in Wilson to Samuel Gay and Louisa Bryant; was married to Annie Bell Gay; worked for 25 years as a hotel bellman at Cherry Hotel; and was buried in Wilson [probably, Vick Cemetery.] Beatrice Holden was informant.
In 1940, Albert Sylvester Gay registered for the World War II draft in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born 5 December 1915 in Wilson; lived at 623 East Green; his contact was Annie Bell Gay, same address; and he worked for J.W. Thomas, Thomas-Yelverton.
In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: Texas-born laborer John Sanchas, 49, wife Mary, 39, and children Hattie, 21, Willie, 19, Timothy, 17, Herbert, 14, and John Jr., 11; all described as black. [Hattie, Willie, Timothy, and Herbert were Hattie’s children and carried the surname Bowden.]
On 26 March 1925, Timothy Bowden, 22, of Wilson, married Annie May Pitt, 19, of Wilson. Sam Allen, “minister of A.M.E. Zion connection,” performed the ceremony at his home on Robeson Street in the presence of Georgia Ward, Fannie Allen, and Cardain Allen.
In the 1928 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Bowden Timothy (c; Annie M) hlpr h 305 Finch
In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 307 Finch Street, Timothy Battle [Bowden], 27, chauffeur; wife Annie, 24; children William, 7, Timothy Jr., 5, Mary E., 4, Hurbert, 3, and Charlie, 1; mother-in-law Sallie White, 38, widow.
In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 528 East Nash, Grover Black, 50, dairy bottle washer; wife Lucinda, 36, laundress; children Harry, 19, grocery delivery boy Grover Jr., 11, and Pearline, 5; Oscar Dixon, 37, house cleaner, and wife Turthina, 35; Timothy Bowden, 37, servant; Jack Best, 32, servant; and John Roberson, 32, street department laborer.
Timothy Bowden registered for the World War II draft in Wilson County in 1942. Per his registration card, he was born 14 June 1902 in Wilson; lived at 539 East Nash Street; his contact was Willie Rufus Bowden of the same address; and he worked for W.W. Harrell, 202 West Nash.
Timothy Bowden died 18 March 1945 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was born 14 June 1902 to Mary Ellen Adams of Wilson County; was married to Annie Mae Bowden; lived at 413 East Green; and worked as a chauffeur.
Photo courtesy of Ancestry.com user Mildred Lawton Bowden.
For at least a decade, this headstone has lain between the sidewalk and a wall of Jackson Chapel First Baptist Church on the Pender Street side. There’s no grave here. In fact, Esther Vivian Griffin Baldwin, who was black, is buried under an identical headstone in Durham’s Beechwood Cemetery. Baldwin spent most of her life in Durham and has no obvious links to Jackson Chapel or Wilson.
Georgia Crockett Aikendied 17 August 1939 in Wilson. The following spring, Sarah A. Coward provided an affidavit attesting that Aiken’s sole heir was her niece Rachel Crockett Williams. Williams lived in New York City at the time of Aiken’s death, but by 1941 was living in the house she inherited at 120 North Pender Street.
Deed book 277, page 247, Wilson County Register of Deeds Office, Wilson.
