Lane Street Project: Rev. Bill Allison Memorial Cemetery, South Fulton, Georgia.

Though I will always be of Wilson, I have lived in Atlanta nearly all of my adult life. It is very much “home” for me, too, and is a bottomless well of African-American culture and history that often informs the way I process research and work related to Black Wide-Awake and Lane Street Project.

I’ve begun visiting metro Atlanta’s historic African-American burial grounds. How have they weathered exploding population growth, shifting demographics, outmigration, land loss, and other pressures? The tenth in a series — Rev. Bill Allison Memorial Cemetery in South Fulton, Georgia.

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Named for the Fulton County chaplain who performed most of the burials here, this cemetery was founded as a potter’s field for black indigent county residents. The Paupers Graveyard was established at the former Negro Industrial Farm on what is now Fulton Industrial Boulevard and operated from 1934 to 1969.

The cemetery sits between the entrances to two industrial properties and is completely surrounded by them and fenced in. I didn’t try to get in. I’m not above a bit of trespass, but the cost-benefit analysis here stopped me from hopping over in broad daylight on a weekday.

The graves lie in long rows marked with small cement crosses.

Photos by Lisa Y. Henderson, October 2026.

The last will and testament of Sidney Earp (1910).

Sidney Earp dictated his last will and testament on March 1910. The will entered probate 24 July 1914.

After providing for payment of his funeral expenses and debts, Earp directed:

  • to his wife Nancy, the 170-acre tract on which he resided for her lifetime or widowhood, and then a life interest in that property to daughter Mercilla
  • to son Joe and his heirs, a 60-acre tract on Turkey Creek
  • to son Johnnie, the balance of his land
  • also to Johnnie, his personal property after his and wife’s deaths, except Mercilla was to receive a “good bed and necessary cover”
  • in so many words, Joe and Johnnie to act as co-executors

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On 25 August 1866, Sidney Earp and Nancy Richardson registered their cohabitation with a Nash County justice of the peace, legalizing a marriage made during the period of slavery.

In the 1870 census of Oldfields township, Wilson County: farmer Sidney Earp, 30; wife Nancy, 24; children Mercilla, 4, Loverton, 8, and Chestina, 2; and Edmond White, 60.

In the 1880 census of Oldfields township, Wilson County: farmer Sidney Earp, 39; wife Nancy, 35; and children Marzilla, 14, Chistiny, 11, Cissy, 7, Tysaney N., 6, Octavia, 4, and Joe Sidney, 2.

On 16 December 1891, William R. Robinson, 20, of Old Fields, son of Katie Freeman, married Sallie W. Earp, 19, of Old Fields, daughter of Sidney and Nancy Earp at Sidney Earp’s residence.

On 1 January 1894, Josiah Wilder, 27, son of Ishmael and Sarah Wilder, married Chestina M. Earp, 25, daughter of Sidney and Nancy Earp, at Sidney Earp’s residence in Oldfields, Wilson County.

On 8 October 1899, Joe Briant Holder, 25, of Johnston County, N.C., married Octavia Earp, 23, at Sidney Earp’s residence in Oldfields, Wilson County.

In the 1900 census of Oldfields township, Wilson County: farmer Sidney Earp, 60; wife Nancy, 57; children Siller, 34, Joseph S., 22, Aldora, 18, John, 17, and Tisana, 26; and grandchildren Omus, 5, Jasper, 2, and Ida, 1.

In the 1910 census of Oldfields township, Wilson County: farmer Sidney Earp, 70; wife Nancy, 68; and Mersilla, 44.

Octavia Holder died 2 May 1915 in Oneal township, Johnston County. Per her death certificate, she was about 35 years old; was born in Wilson County to Sid Earp; and was married.

Nancy Earp died 30 December 1929 in Oldfields township, Wilson County. Per her death certificate, she was born in 1858 in Wilson County to Ben Williams and Diana Pridgeon; was the widow of Sidney Earp; and was buried in the family cemetery.

Sissie Robinson died 26 October 1941 near Bailey, Nash County, N.C. Per her death certificate, she was 69 years old; was born in Wilson County to Sidney Earpe and Mary Nancy [no maiden name]; was the widow of William Robinson; worked as a farmer; and was buried in New Vester Cemetery. Mary Nancy Reid was informant.

Mercilla Earp died 6 May 1953 in Oldfields township, Wilson County. Per her death certificate, she was born 8 October 1864 in Wilson County to Sidney Earp and Nancy Richardson; was single; and worked in farming. Joseph Sidney Earp was informant.

Eldora Barnes died 30 April 1957 in Rocky Mount, Nash County, N.C. Per her death certificate, she was born 17 September 1881 to Sidney Earp and Nancy Todd and was married to James Henry Barnes.

Joe Sidney Earp died 6 May 1959 in Oldfields township, Wilson County. Per his death certificate, he was born 28 January 1892 [actually, more like 1878] in Wilson County to Sidney Earp and Nancy Richardson; was married to Lucy Earp; was a farmer; and was buried in the family cemetery.

John Earp died 28 July 1962 in Durham, N.C. Per his death certificate, he was born 24 December 1882 in Wilson to Sidney and Nancy Earp; was a widower; and was married to Mamie Earp.

 

The Hargrove heirs settle an inheritance.

Deed book 290, page 587, Wilson County Register of Deeds office.

We first met Duncan J. Hargrove here, going down slow after believing himself to be hoodooed. The deed above reveals a different source of stress in Hargrove’s latter years, financial foes that led to the loss of much of his real estate.

About 1913, Hargrove bought a lot on Carolina Street from Wilson Insurance & Realty Company. Sometime later, on a basis unstated here, a man named Hugh Sheppard won a substantial judgment against Hargrove and his wife Viney Hargrove. A thirty-foot-wide strip of the lot was set off for the Hargroves as homestead property, and the rest of the lot — a twenty-foot strip — was sold at public auction to R.E. Townsend, a white real estate manager with a fat East Wilson portfolio.

Duncan Hargrove died 27 May 1935, leaving his wife and four sons, Willie, Ben, Jacob, and John Hargrove. Viney Hargrove died 9 April 1943.

Via the deed above, Willie Hargrove and wife Mary Lou Hargrove of Wilson, Ben Hargrove and wife Alice of Washington, D.C., and Jacob Hargrove and wife Curtis Hargrove of Washington, D.C., sold their interest in the Carolina Street lot to John Hargrove of Wilson.

Freeman Blunt, Co. D., 37th United States Colored Infantry.

Freeman Blount, born in what is now Wilson County about 1830, enlisted in the Union Army on 31 January 1864 in Washington, North Carolina. He mustered in not quite three weeks later in Norfolk, Virginia.

Blunt mustered out of Company D, 37th United States Colored Infantry, in Raleigh, N.C., on 11 February 1867.

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Probably, in the 1870 census of Federal Point, New Hanover County, N.C.: farm laborer Freeman Blount, 50; wife Maggie, 31; and children John, 15, and Charles, 13.

And in the 1880 census of Wilmington, New Hanover County: laborer Freeman Blunt, 55; wife Maggie, 36; and Henry Mumford, 35, butcher.

Freeman Blount has not been found in further North Carolina, and the 1890 veterans’ schedule for New Hanover County lists “Maggie J. Blount, widow of Freeman Blount.”

However:

Per this Civil War pension index file, Freeman Blunt applied for an invalid’s pension on 6 April 1895, four and a half years after Maggie applied for a widow’s pension. Blunt applied from Florida. Florida marriage records list the marriage of Freeman Blunt and Susan Howard on 23 December 1882 in Duval County, Florida.

Had Freeman Blunt disappeared from Wilmington, leaving his wife to assume his death? Only to marry again and settle near Jacksonville, Florida?

Only the pension files can straighten this out. Stay tuned.

In memory of a beloved child, Parthenie Sanders.

In memory of our beloved child Parthenie Sanders daughter of Branch and Pollie Sanders Born Nov. 2, 1890 Died Aug. 19, 1892. We mourn your loss.

We protect cemeteries not only because they hold the remains of our loved ones, but because they document the lives of people whose existence is otherwise unrecorded.

Parthenie Sanders was born in 1890 and died not quite two years later in 1892. North Carolina required neither birth nor death certificates during her lifetime. She was born too late to have been counted in the 1890 census, which, in any case, was destroyed by fire for Wilson and nearly other county in the United States. She never attended school. If her birth or death were noted in church records, they have not survived. Her immediate family is long gone.

But in the old Elm City Colored Cemetery, now known as Heritage Cemetery, we find her parents’ memorial to their baby girl, and thus we remember Parthenie on the 132nd anniversary of her birth.

Seaman First Class James Goodman, sent to the South Pacific.

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James Goodman was born 11 July 1919 in Harmony township, Clarendon County, South Carolina, to Ed Goodman and Annie Blanding of Alcolu, S.C.

In the 1920 census of Plowden Mills, Clarendon County, South Carolina: farmer Edd Goodman, 26; wife Annie, 19; and James, 8 months.

In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: laborer Ed Goodman, 29; wife Annie, 26; and children James, 10, Authur, 9, Remel, 6, Louise, 3, Annie M., 2, and Gladys, 1.

In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: Ed Goodman, 45, public service laborer; wife Annie, 36; and children James, 20, clothing store attendant, Arthur, 19, candy company deliveryman, Helen, 14, Annie Mae, 12, Gladys, 11, Isiah, 7, Dorthy, 6, and Eddie Jr., 4.

In 1940, James Goodman registered for the World War II draft in Wilson. Per his registration card, he was born 11 July 1919 in Manning, S.C.; lived at 214 South Reid Street, Wilson; his contact was mother Annie Goodman; and he worked for Moss & Co., Wilson. Goodman was described as six foot six inches, 170 pounds.

In the 1950 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 813 Viola, Pheny Williams, 78; son  James Goodman, 32; wife Lena, 28; and children Evon, 7, James Jr., 6, and Tyron, 3.

James Goodman died 15 May 1963 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was born 11 July 1919 in Manning, S.C., to Edward Goodman and Annie Blanding; was married to Lena Cherry Goodman; lived at 813 Viola Street, Wilson; and was a World War II veteran.

Lane Street Project: a headstone workshop.

I first visited College View Cemetery in July 2025. Though the edge closest to a neighboring church was kept mowed, the cemetery was in rough shape. Collapsed vaults, broken headstones, exploding kudzu. Back in February, though, One Square Mile Project Inc. began to tackle College View’s disrepair. Their progress in just eight months is astounding and worthy of loud praise. 

This morning I went back out to College View for a hands-on workshop on documenting, restoring, resetting, and cleaning headstones. 

A new marker reveals that College View was founded about 1896 and is roughly the size of Wilson’s Vick Cemetery.

One Square Mile Project is a community-driven initiative in College Park focused on restoring College View Cemetery and honoring the history of the surrounding African-American community. 

I was excited to see that the workshop was led by Ashley Shares of Oakland Cemetery and Level Spirit Preservation and Kellea Roberson, a recent Georgia State University Master of Heritage Preservation graduate.

Now on my to-do list: create a form like this for a survey of Odd Fellows.

College View is full of Eldren Bailey markers.

Cox Brothers Funeral Home offered Cadillac goods and services, like the fancy metal plate on this headstone.

Repairing an Eldren Bailey headstone.

Resetting a row of headstones. 

Many thanks to One Square Mile for their preservation efforts at College Park and for the wonderful opportunity to learn best practices.