Pink Reid borrows from F.S.A.

Pink Reid borrowed $585 from the Farm Security Administration on 10 January 1942. To guarantee his loan, he pledged two mules, a Poland China brood sow, and a milch cow, as well as  his farm equipment.

Deed Book 275, page 303, Wilson County Register of Deeds, Wilson.

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In the 1940 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: farmer Pink Reid, 58; wife Matilda, 57; and son Allen T., 20. All were living in Wayne County five years earlier. 

In the 1950 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 1003 Stantonsburg Street, Pinkey Reid, 68, yard cleaner; son Horace Reid, 32, butler; nephew Randolph Braswell, 26, bricklayer, and his wife Sarah, 25; and wife Matilda Reid, 67, nurse maid.

Pinkney Reid died 30 November 1961 at his residence at 504 North Vick Street, Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was born 25 July 1881 in Wayne County to William Reid and Bettie Wilson; was married to Matilda Reid; was a farmer; and was buried at Turner Swamp cemetery, Wayne County.

Cemeteries, no. 39: the William and Nannie Shaw Kirby cemetery.

The Kirby family’s cemetery is off Revell Road a mile or so north of Kenly. It stands on land that remains within the family.

In the 1900 census of Springhill township, Wilson County: farmer Isaac S. Kirby, 58; wife Mary, 54; and sons Leroy A., 21, William, 14, and Isaac R., 13.

In the 1900 census of Springhill township, Wilson County: farmer David H. Shaw, 37; wife Roxey A., 34; and children Herbert, 16, Nettie, 15, Willie F., 14, Nannie F., 10, Hattie C., 8, Estella, 5, Lemon L., 4, John C., 4, Henry S., 3, Joseph L., 1, and Luthor, 1 month.

On 17 January 1909, William Kirby, 24, of Springhill township, son of Isaac and Mary Kirby, married Nannie Shaw, 19, of Springhill township, daughter of David and Roxie Shaw. Missionary Baptist minister W.H. Mitchiner performed the ceremony at the bride’s father’s house.

In the 1910 census of Springhill township, Wilson County: farmer William Kirby, 23; wife Nannie, 20; daughter Fredie M., 5 months; mother Mary, 66, widow; boarder Leroy, 32; and brother Ransom, 23.

In 1918, William Kirby registered for the World War I draft in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born 24 July 1884; lived at Route 3, Kenly; was a self-employed farmer; and his nearest relative was Nannie Kirby.

In the 1920 census of Springhill township, Wilson County: “near section of the Kenly and Wilson Road,” farmer William Kirby, 35; wife Nannie, 30; children Frader, 9, James, 8, Elizabeth, 6, Sarah, 4, John Q., 2, and John D., 3 months; nephew Jessie, 6; nieces Fannie and Annie, 4; and mother Mary, 60, widow.

In the 1930 census of Springhill township, Wilson County: on property owned and valued at $6000, farmer William Kirby, 45; wife Nannie, 41; and children James D., 19, Freeda M., 20, Elizabeth, 18, Sarah, 15, Roxana E., 13, William H., 11, Queene E., 9, Hobby L., 8, Isaac H., 5, Nettie, 2, and Willie K., 2 month.

James Kirby died 1 October 1934 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was 23 years old; was born in Wilson County to William Kirby and Nannie Shaw; was married to Mary Kirby; and worked as a barber.

The double headstone of William H. and Nannie S. Kirby.

In the 1940 census of Springhill township, Wilson County: farmer William Kirby, 55; wife Nannie, 52; children Hobby Lee, 17, Havey Isa, 15, Nettie, 13, Willie K., 13, and Roxia A., 22; niece Lucille Shaw, 18; and lodger Jr. Barnes, 4.

In 1943, Harvey Isaac Kirby registered for the World War II draft in Wilson County. Perhis registration card, he was born 1 March 1925 in Wilson County; lived at Route 3, Kenly, Wilson County; his contact was Nannie Kirby; and he worked on his father William Kirby’s farm.

William Kirby died 5 June 1943 in Springhill township, Wilson County. Per his death certificate, he was 58 years old; was born in Wilson County to Isaac Kirby and Mary Barnes; was married to Nannie Kirby; and was buried in the family cemetery by C.E. Artis. William Henry Kirby was informant.

On 20 May 1950, James Richardson, 65, of Wilson, son of Dick and Topsie Richardson, married Nannie Kirby, 62, daughter of Dave and Roxie Shaw, in Wilson. Missionary Baptist minister F.F. Battle performed the ceremony.

These vernacular concrete headstones mark the graves of two children of William and Nannie Kirby who died as young adults. Their father’s original headstone, of a similar concrete make, now leans against the chainlink fence.

Photos by Lisa Y. Henderson, February 2026.

Dupree mortgages a quarter-acre.

Deed Book 66, page 489. Wilson County Register of Deeds, Wilson.

In December 1903, Henry Dupree borrowed $100 from his neighbor Calvin Blount. He secured the loan with a mortgage on the quarter acre piece of land he owned “east of and off of the road leading from the town of Wilson, to William Bynum’s in the southeast suburbs of the town of Wilson … south of a path or lane leading to the colored cemetery from said road ….”

The “colored cemetery,” of course, was Oakdale.

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  • Henry Dupree

In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on Stantonsburg Road, farm laborer Henry Dupree, 34, and wife Ellar, 38.

Wilson, N.C., city directory (1912).

Henry Dupree registered for the World War I draft in 1918 in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born 3 December 1873; lived in Bynum Lane, Wilson; farmed “for self” “with D.C. Sugg“; and his nearest relative was wife Ella Dupree.

In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on Railroad Street, Henry Dupree, 44; wife Ella, 47; granddaughter Ella Faison, 13; and nephew Issac Thigpen, 22.

In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: widower Henry Dupree, 68, farm laborer, and lodgers David Brewington, 80, Issac Thigpen, 40, and David Faison, 19, public service laborer.

In 1942, Davis Faison registered for the World War II draft in Wilson County. Per his death certificate, he was born 24 November 1921 in Wilson; lived at 606 South Blount Street; his contact was Henry Dupree, 606 South Blount Street; and he worked for L. Arner Junk Shop, Jones and Railroad Streets, Wilson.

Henry Dupree died 18 April 1956 in Mercy Hospital, Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was born 2 December 1881 in North Carolina to Celie Dupree; lived at 610 Blount Street; was separated from wife Bessie Dupree; and worked as a farmer. Dave Faison was informant. 

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.