In memoriam: Oazie Jones Mitchell (1942-2025).

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.

 

The last will and testament of Sarah Jernigan (1849).

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.

——

  • Olive

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.

  • Larrow
  • Rose
  • Ellen
  • Evaline
  • Rody

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.

  • Lucy, daughter of Olive
  • Jack
  • Ben

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.

  • Judy
  • Anaky

In the 1870 census of Black Creek township, Wilson County: Anaka Anderson, 35, and children Fanny, 15, Seth, 7, Benjamin, 4, and Bettie, 2.

  • Dinah

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.

  • Mason

Possibly: in 1866, Mason Whitley and Marendy Bryan registered their 17-year cohabitation.

  • Dick

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.

  • Jane
  • Caroline
  • Handy
  • Grace
  • Pearce
  • Beck
  • Peg
  • Delpha
  • Turner
  • Lucy
  • Ginny
  • Hester

North Carolina Wills and Probate Records, 1665-1998, http://www.ancestry.com.

Black History Month Throwback: honoring acts of resistance, no. 1.

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.

The obituary of Elder Cordie Lucas.

Wilson Daily Times, 30 November 1972.

——

In the 1900 census of Oldfields township, Wilson County: Ruffin Woodard, 20, and Corda P. Lucas, 17, servants and farm laborers in the household of Bennett Bullock, 37, farmer.

In the 1910 census of Oldfields township, Wilson County: Esic C. Watson, 34; wife Mary, 32; children Pienetta, 14, Eureka, 12, Ila, 10, Ola, 8, and Edgar, 6; and hired man/farm laborer Cordie Lucas, 26.

On 19 March 1913, Cordie Locus, 29, of Nash County, son of John P. Locus and Millie Locus, married Jane Ellen Darden, 20, of Oldfields township, daughter of Peter Darden and Lucy Darden, in Oldfields township. Original Free Will Baptist minister B.H. Boykin performed the ceremony.

In 1918, Cordie Peter Lucas registered for the World War I draft in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born 15 December 1883; lived at R.F.D. #1, Sims; worked as a tenant farmer for Wiley Farmer; and his nearest relative was Janie Lucas.

In the 1920 census of Oldfields township, Wilson County: farmer Cordie P. Locus, 36; wife Janie E., 25; and children Millie J., 5, Willie C., 4, Walter J., 2, and Mary L., 3 months.

In the 1930 census of Oldfields township, Wilson County: farmer Cordy P. Locus, 46; wife Jane E., 35; and children Millie, 15, Willie C., 14, Walter J., 12, Mary L., 10, John R., 9, David, 7, Benjamin, 5, Ruth, 4, and Ruby L., 1.

In the 1940 census of Beulah township, Johnston County NC: farmer Cordie P. Lucas, 56, widower, and children Mary L., 20, John R., 18, David, 17, Benjamin, 15, Ruth, 13, Ruby L., 11, Beulah M. and Eula P., 8, Janie, 5, and Nannie, 4.

In the 1950 census of Beulah township, Johnston County NC: farmer Cordie P. Lucas, 65,; [children] Ruth, 23, Beulah M. and Eula P., 18, Jannie, 15, Nanny R., 14, Willie C., 34, Hazel, 23; and [grandchildren] Barbara A., 4, and Linda Locus, 1, and James L. Simms, 5.

Cordie P. Lucas died 26 November 1972 in New Jersey.

Drs. Barnes and Yancy lead battle for equal education.

Pittsburgh Courier, 4 February 1950.

The suit Dr. Boisey O. Barnes and Dr. Darcey C. Yancey filed eventually led to the construction of a new elementary school in East Wilson. Barnes died in 1956, and the school was named in his honor.

Swift bound to a labor agreement.

According to the 1880 census of Bull Doze township, Greene County, Dennis Swift was born in Maryland. He did not remain in Wilson County long, as he appears in no other county records. Swift married in Greene County in 1877 and gave his age as 24, which would have made him about 14 when he entered into this labor agreement with John H. Winstead of Joyners township, Wilson County.

Lane Street Project: cars dash through the snow at Vick.

There was a time when spinning doughnuts over the graves in Vick Cemetery was commonplace. As the message spread that this is sacred space, and as the Cemetery Commission’s crews began to care for the grounds, this kind of desecration had become rare.

Unfortunately, someone has again disrespected our cemetery by driving vehicles wildly through the snow that fell over the weekend. I deeply grateful to Heather Goff and her crew, who discovered the tire marks. Concerned about damage, they plan to set up cones to block access to the cemetery’s surface until the snow melts.

“Dying Is But Going Home”: Wilson County’s African-American Cemeteries, February 25.

Each year, I cross my fingers that Wilson County Public Library will extend another invitation to me to speak during Black History Month. Over the past decade, I’ve talked about Dr. Joseph H. Ward, Wilson County’s enslaved people and free people of color, the Lane Street cemeteries, Rosenwald schools, African-American churches, Samuel H. Vick, Mary C. Euell and the Colored School boycott, the 500 block of East Nash Street, and researching African-American genealogy.

The call came again this year, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to share my research with the people for whom it most resonates. This February, I’ll be talking about historic black cemeteries throughout Wilson County. I surely hope you’ll join me.