Charles Gay Jr. returns from overseas duty.

Wilson Daily Times, 14 July 1944.

——

In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: Charlie Gay, 28, wife Ella, 28, and Charlie, 18 months.

In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: Charley Gay, 39, ice house laborer; wife Ella, 30; and sons Charlie Jr., 11, and Edgar, 7.

In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: Chas. B. Gay, 52, hotel janitor, wife Ella J., 48, laundress, and children Chas. Jr., 21, bellboy, and Ednor R., 17.

In 1940, Charles Benjamin Gay Jr. registered for the World War II draft in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born 9 June 1908 in Wilson; lived at 623 East Green Street; his contact was Charles Benjamin Gay Sr., 807 East Viola Street; and he worked for W.T. Clark Tobacco Company.

In the 1950 census of Wilson, Wilson County: widow Lucy Sherood, 58, hotel maid; lodger Charlie Gay, 78; and lodger’s son Charlie Gay Jr., 42, hotel hall boy.

Charles Benjamin Gay Jr. died 29 December 1974 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was born 9 June 1908 to Charles B. Gay Jr. and Ella Tate; lived at 623 East Green Street; was a widower; and worked as a bellhop at Cherry Hotel.

623 East Green Street, revisited.

On 26 March 1898, for $100, Samuel and Annie Vick sold Samuel Gay a lot on Green Street adjoining the lands of Fred M. Davis and Samuel Vick. The deed was registered 11 August 1898 in Deed Book 50, page 73. This is the lot at what is now 623 East Green Street. Samuel Gay built a one-story house here that his son Albert Gay Sr. expanded to two stories. Another son, Charles Gay, built a house next door at 625 East Green.

When photographed for the East Wilson Historic District application, 623 East Green Street was still occupied by descendants of the Gay family, and its exterior appeared to be in fine condition.

Forty years later, the house is still in good condition and retains most of its most charming decorative features, such as the double porch pillars and curved brackets under the deep second-floor eaves. The sidelights framing the front door have been painted over and, unfortunately, the decorative ridge cresting disappeared when the shingle roof was replaced with a standing-seam metal roof. The portico has also been removed.

Albert Gay House, 623 East Green Street, East Wilson Historic District, Wilson, Wilson County, Survey and National Register Branch, State Historic Preservation Office; bottom photo by Lisa Y. Henderson, July 2026.

Private Tom Barnes, Company B, 14th Heavy Artillery.

Within weeks of the Confederate surrender, Tom Barnes voluntarily enlisted in United States Army in New Bern, North Carolina. 

Barnes joined Company B of the 14th Heavy Artillery, United States Colored Troops. The company descriptive book described him as 18 years old; five feet four inches tall; with black complexion, eyes, and hair. He was born in Wilson County and worked as a farmer. 

It’s not clear if Barnes freed himself prior to the end of the war or took off immediately after Emancipation. The muster contains a curious remark: “Enlisted previous to G.O. No. 38 C.S. Dept. of N.C. stopping recruiting & has never been mustered in until the present time.”

In May 1865, the Civil War was over, but the Union Army still needed men to secure the South, guard strategic coastal forts, and maintain order. However, because the war was winding down, the federal War Department ordered local departments to strictly regulate and taper off recruitment. Under Major General John Schofield’s Union Department of North Carolina, General Orders No. 38 (Current Series, 1865) authorized recruitment and enlistment protocols during this transitional post-surrender period.
 
G.O. Number 38 granted mustering officers in New Bern the explicit authority to accept Tom Barnes and other newly freed men into federal service in an army of occupation, even as other parts of the Union Army were preparing to demobilize. Stationed at defense sites like Fort Macon (near Beaufort, North Carolina) and the fortifications around New Bern, Company B was tasked with rebuilding and guarding North Carolina’s coast. The unit spent the rest of 1865 and early 1866 dismantling Confederate defenses, guarding government property, and protecting newly freed communities during the earliest days of Reconstruction. The 14th U.S.C.T. was formally mustered out of military service in December 1865.
 
I have not found trace of Tom Barnes after his military service.

The Frogs host a hop.

In 1931, the Frog Social Club sponsored its second annual holiday party — the Frog Hop. Held in Samuel H. Vick‘s “casino” in the Odd Fellows building, the soiree promised a good time to the select with an “admit card.”

The Frog Club drew its members from the rarefied heights of Wilson’s African-American social circles.

The Journal and Guide‘s 10 January 1933 issue described the Frog’s first New Year’s party.

Founded by black movers and shakers, Frogs social clubs sprang up throughout the country in the decades prior to World War II. The legendary precursor to all of them was formed in Harlem in 1908 by legendary theatrical pioneers Bert Williams, George Walker, and Sam Corker. Named after Aristophanes’ play, The Frogs, the Harlem club’s peak years were the 1910s and 1920s, but its renown inspired the formation and tone of the clubs like the one in Wilson.

Thank you, Vicki Cowan, for sharing!

The estate of Polly Barnes (1855).

In the mid-1850s, Mary “Polly” Barnes finally got around to probating her estate, triggering a family dispute. Polly was the daughter of Reddick and Martha Barnes and had died many years earlier possessed of more than 500 acres she had inherited from her father. She was unmarried and childless, and her heirs at law were her brothers James Barnes and Willie Barnes. Willie Barnes died sometime in the 1840s. His heirs were his daughters Pennina Barnes Dixon and her husband William Dixon, Elizabeth Barnes Dixon and her husband Jesse Dixon, and Polly Barnes. William Dixon got himself named administrator of the elder Polly Barnes’ estate and sued his wife’s uncle James Barnes to force a division of property, which included both land and enslaved people. James Barnes claimed that his brother Willie Barnes had given him his share of their sister Polly’s estate before he died, and thus his nieces and their husbands had no claim.

On 4 April 1857, the Wilson County clerk of court issued a warrant for “James Barnes (Miller)” commanding him to “render unto [Dixon] eight slaves (Clara & her children) of the value of Eight Thousand ($8000) Dollars, which [Barnes] unjustly detains ….”

The children were not named, but on 3 November 1857 William Dixon filed an inventory of Barnes’ property that listed 289 acres on Poplar Branch and eight enslaved people — Clary, Sam, Peter, Mary, Miry, Thomas, Drew, and Becca.

Oddly, the day before, Polly Barnes’ heirs, including William Dixon on behalf of his wife Pennina Barnes Dixon, sold their interest in the eight people to James Barnes for $1250.66. The deed was not registered until November 1858.

Know all men by these presents that we Obedience Barnes William Dixon in right of his wife Pennina Jesse Dixon in right of his wife Elizabeth & Polly Barnes of the County of Wilson for & in consideration of the sun of twelve hundred & fifty Dollars & sixty six cents Dollars to be paid by James Barnes has bargained & sold & conveyed & released to the said James Barnes all our said title & interest in eight negroes viz Clara, Sam, Peter, Mary, Mima Tom Drew & Bella in his possession as next of kin & distributor of Polly Barnes & Willie Barnes in witness whereof we have hereunto set our hands & seals this 2nd day of Nov. 1857  /s/Obedience Barnes, William Dixon, Jesse Dixon, Polly Barnes

The estate file is not clear, but it appears that Willie Barnes’ heirs were awarded his share of his sister’s land.

I have not found reference to an enslaved nuclear family larger than Clara and her seven children. Presumably, given the way they are described, all seven were young — likely less than ten or so years old. I’ve searched Wilson and Edgecombe County records, but have not identified the family post-Emancipation.

Probate Estate Case Files 1854-1959, Wilson County, North Carolina, Records, http://www.familysearch.org; Deed Book 1, page xxx, Wilson County Register of Deeds Office.

Maggie Foster Barnes, as imagined.

I am ambivalent about using artificial intelligence to restore photographs. Or, more specifically, I’m concerned about manipulated photographs supplanting original images and further blurring the line between reality and misinformation. However, the allure of AI-enhanced images is strong, as I often contend with blurry, poorly lit photographs in unnatural sepia or black-and-white tones. Photographs whose condition sometimes exacerbates the distance between us and our ancestors.

I have been experimenting with ChatGPT lately, feeding it queries and images to be restored and colorized. The results are somewhat haphazard, with many images weird and off-putting. Other times, the images are breathtakingly sharp and … alive. Black Wide-Awake exists to resurrect forgotten lives, and I believe these images are valuable to help us connect with the men and women we read about in these posts. From time to time, I’ll share the better ones here, clearly marked as AI-generated.

——

Maggie Foster Barnes.

Happy birthday, Aunt Margaret!

Hattie H. Ellis, age about 6, on Queen Street.

So smart that she skipped a grade at Vick Elementary, Hattie Margaret Henderson Ellis graduated from C.H. Darden High School in 1953 and Hampton Institute in 1957 (where she pledged Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. and established a family legacy). She received a graduate degree from Boston University and spent decades as a guidance counselor in Wilson County high schools.

Aunt Margaret is the youngest and the last surviving of my grandmother’s children, and we wish her a happy and love-filled 90th birthday!

Doctors vs. professors — a baseball game!

Savannah Tribune, 19 August 1893.

Wilson-born Daniel C. Suggs was captain and catcher for the Georgia State Industrial Institute’s professors’ baseball team in this exhibition game played at Savannah’s Bolton Street Park. Located between Bolton Street and Park Avenue east of the railroad tracks running parallel to East Broad Street, this ballpark was home to Savannah’s professional baseball clubs between 1885 and 1909.

Indoor circuses and other social events.

Baltimore Afro-American, 12 May 1928.

  • M. Lenard
  • Mrs. J.D. Reid — Eleanor P. Reid.
  • Mrs. Aline Darden
  • Mrs. Sarah Wilson — probably, in the 1930 Wilson, N.C., city directory: Wilson Sarah L (c) tchr Stantonsburg St Graded Sch r 209 N Reid
  • Mrs. M.S. Gilliam — Annie L. Gilliam.
  • Mrs. C.L. Darden — Norma D. Darden.
  • Artelia Barnes — Leo Artelia Barnes.
  • Inez White
  • Elroy Barnes
  • M. Fisher — probably, Milton Fisher.
  • William McCullers — in the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 1008 Washington Street, Clarence McCullers, 42, hardware store laborer; wife Rosa E., 37, who did washing; and son William E., 17.
  • Fletcher Pearce
  • Jesse Bullock — in the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: farmer Joshuy Bulluck, 47; wife [illegible], 43; children Kattie, 23, Ruel, 21, Jessie, 20, Percy, 18, Maggie, 17, Joshuy, 16, Lonnie, 13, Mark, 12, James A., 10, Hermon, 9, Zeb, 5, Annie L., 8, and Wytelluse, 4.
  • Ruel Bullock 
  • Esmond Langley
  • Ameta Ellis — Ometa Ellis died 3 May 1928 in Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was married to Morriss Ellis; resided at 702 Nash Street; was 42 years old; and had been born in Wilmington, North Carolina, to Weldon Perrington of Wilmington and Louisa Scarborough of Wilson. Louisa Parrington was informant.
  • Sarah Williams
  • James H. Clarke — John H. Clark?
  • Thelma Barnes
  • Scott Hines — Elizabeth Scott Hines.
  • Rosa Lee Kittrell
  • Gerald Barnes — probably, Jerrell Randolph Barnes, who died 14 December 1929 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was born 7 May 1909; was single; worked as a common laborer; and was born to Ned Barnes and Louisa Gay. Informant was Alice Bryant, Wilson.
  • John E. Farmer — perhaps, in the 1940 csus of Wilson, Wilson County: widow Eula Farmer, 51, household servant; son John E., 30, laborer; and daughter Clifton, 24, movie theatre cashier.
  • Rufus Speights — Rufus Speight. in the 1928 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Speight Rufus (c) porter Wm Hines h 624 Viola. In 1940, Rufus Edward Speight registered for the World War II draft. Per his registration card, he lived at 624 East Viola; was born 4 October 1907 in Whitaker, North Carolina; his contact was brother Theodore Speight; and he worked for Bill Hines at 130 South Goldsboro Street.
  • Klondike Club
  • Herbert Mitchner — Hubert Mitchner.
  • Andrew Tate — in the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 307 North Pender, seamstress Hattie Tate, 44, widow, and children Hellen, 23, insurance agent, and Andrew, 21, hotel bellboy, as well as lodger Lucy Davis, a public school teacher.
  • Douglass Ellis — in the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 411 Pine, Windsor Ellis, 42, greenhouse gardener; wife Rachel, 34; children Douglas, 20, John H., 10, and Elaine, 5; and lodger Fred Moye, 26, cafe cook.
  • Charlie Thomas