The talented and enterprising Calvin S. Edwards.

Per his 1918 World War I draft registration card, Calvin S. Edwards worked as a plumber for J.E. Alphin, a commercial heating and plumbing systems contractor doing business across eastern North Carolina. Around 1921, Edwards branched out on his own, working from a shop at 529 East Nash Street.

Wilson, N.C., city directory (1922).

The 1925 Wilson, N.C., city directory reveals the many pots in which Calvin S. Edwards had a finger, listing him four times:

  • Edward Calvin S (c) plumber 549 E Nash h Carolina nr Reed
  • Edwards Calvin (c) (Carnation Hotel) h 1109 Carolina
  • Carnation Hotel (c; Henry Lassiter, Calvin Edwards) 518 E Nash
  • PLUMBERS-GAS AND STEAM FITTERS Edwards Calvin S (c) 549 E Nash

He had moved his plumbing shop up the block to a storefront in the Odd Fellows Lodge Hall and, with Henry Lassiter, opened the short-lived Carnation Hotel in the building we know better as the Orange Hotel.

The two-story Carnation Hotel was at 518 East Nash in the early 1920s. Detail, 1922 Sanborn fire insurance map.

By 1930, as seen in this Sanborn map,

Throughout the 1930s and early 1940s, Edwards remained engaged in plumbing work, but invested in real estate in east Wilson, including the corner grocery at 1114 Carolina Street.

Wilson Daily Times, 19 February 1945.

Remembering Tarheel Slim.

We were talking about Wilson County surnames that you don’t really find among black people. One said, “Lamm.” Then, “Fulghum.” I said, “Bunn,” but Grover Jones Jr. said, “Tarheel Slim! His real name was Allen Bunn,” and that sent me down a rabbit hole.

It turns out Tarheel Slim was born in Nash County, but he had Wilson County roots, and he and his family frequently moved back and forth across the Wilson-Nash line. That’s plenty reason to call his name this Black Music Month.

Alden Bunn was a guitarist, singer, and songwriter whose work spanned gospel, blues, doo-wop, R&B, pop, and rockabilly. He was born in 1924 near Bailey in Nash County (or maybe near Lucama in Wilson County) to a sharecropping family. In the early 1940s, he sang with local gospel groups  the Gospel Four and the Selah Jubilee Singers, but eventually moved into secular music. He married Carrie Ella Dingle, whose family had migrated to Wilson County from South Carolina. Bunn joined Wilson native David McNeil as a member of The Larks before migrating to New York City around 1950. He achieved his greatest acclaim recording with his second wife Anna Lee “Little Ann” Sandford circa 1960, then enjoyed a new album and a revival on college campuses and in hipster circles in the early 1970s.

Tarheel Slim’s “Number 9 Train,” Fury Records, 1958.

Bridgeport (Conn.) Telegram, 19 March 1960.

Washington (D.C.) Daily News, 23 January 1961.

Alden “Tarheel Slim” Bunn died in August 1977.

New York Times, 26 August 1977.

A few years after his death: “Charly, the independent blues and R ‘n B label, has delved back into the 50s and 60s for an enterprising reissue series of 25 three-track singles.” One of the records showcased Tarheel Slim.

Manchester (England) Evening News, 26 September 1980.

In the early 1990s, the era of feverish CD reissues of whole catalogs of nearly forgotten labels, Tarheel Slim and Little Ann appeared on a two-disc compilation of songs recorded by the Harlem-based Fire and Fury labels.

Hartford (Conn.) Courant, 18 April 1993.

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In 1918, Henry Ramphson Bunn registered for the World War I draft in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born 4 July 1899; lived in Lucama, Wilson County; and worked for Jim Bunn.

On 26 January 1919, Henry Bunn, 19, of Cross Roads township, son of Jim and Millie Bunn, married Leona Owens, 20, of Cross Roads, in Lucama, Wilson County. Missionary Baptist minister R. Crockett performed the ceremony at the Baptist church in Lucama in the presence of Rev. C.D. Dew, Rev. Emson Hooks, and J.H. Battle.

In the 1920 census of Cross Roads township, Wilson County: laborer Henry Bunn, 23; wife Leonia A., 24; and son Valise, 3 months.

Nash County, North Carolina, birth records indexes show Allen Rathel Bunn born 24 September 1923 in Bailey, Nash County, to Henry R. Bunn and Leona Owens.

On 23 July 1927, Israel Thomas, 38, married Leona Bunn, 23, in Wilson. Church of God minister Hattie L. Daniels performed the ceremony at her church at 207 East Reid Street in the presence of Andrew Williams, Bettie Cooper, and T.W. Owens.

In the 1930 census of Taylor township, Wilson County: Isrel Thomas, 46; wife Leonia, 34; and [her] sons Valee, 11, and Alten B., 7.

In the 1940 census of Mannings township, Nash County: Isarel Thomas, 57; wife Leona Thomas, 43; and stepsons Vailience, 20, and Alden Bunn, 16, all day laborers. Israel Thomas reported that the family was living in Wilson County in 1935.

In 1942, Alden Rathell Bunn registered for the World War II draft in Nash County. Per his registration card, he was born 24 September 1924 in Nash County; lived at R.F.D. #2, Middlesex, Nash County; his contact was Leonia Thomas; and he worked for Rufus Fulghum. He was described as 6’3″ and 172 lbs.

Leonia Thomas died 5 November 1947 in Lucama, Springhill township, Wilson County. Per her death certificate, she was born 3 July 1897 in South Carolina to Mack Owens and Mary Gardner; was married to Issrael Thomas; and was buried in Rest Haven Cemetery, Wilson. Allen Bunn, Route 1, Lucama, was informant.

The obituary of Alexander Allen.

Wilson Daily Times, 2 June 1948.

Alexander Allen registered for the World War II draft in Bailey, Nash County, North Carolina, in 1940. Per his registration card, he was born 14 June 1905 in Clarendon, South Carolina; his contact was his wife; and he worked for J.B. Manning, Bailey.

It is likely that Allen was a tenant farmer or sharecropper and had not lived in the Black Creek area long when he died. (Where were Victory Church and its cemetery??)

Happy Father’s Day 2026!

Some popular media would have you believe that good black fathers are like Carolina cougars — rarely sighted, semi-mythical. But I grew up in a community in which they were thick on the ground, and today I honor my own father, Rederick C. Henderson, and all the fathers (and father figures) of my childhood “village.”

In Bel Air Forest, across East Wilson, and beyond, the protectors and providers I’m shouting out include, but aren’t limited to, Harvey Reid Jr., Thomas O. Lofton Sr., Avant P. Coleman, Bennie J. Woodard, Crawford E. Lane, David J. Speight, Herbert Woodard, Nathaniel Roberson, T. Roosevelt Ellis Jr., Howard C. Jones, LeRoy Barnes, William E. Myers, George K. Butterfield Jr., J. Douglas Hagans, Louis Hall Sr., Charles E. Branford, S.P. Artis, Willis Peppers, James E. Farmer Jr., Elmer J. Cummings Sr., Benjamin A. Harris Jr., Julian B. Rosemond Jr., Clarence Hoskins, Daniel McKeithan, Kenneth Speight, Booker T. Edwards, Franklin D. Jones, James T. Forbes, Chester Ward, Harold Bullock, Charles C. Allen, John C. Allen III, Hayden B. Renwick, Fred L. Valentine, Lucian J. Henderson Sr., and Jesse A. Henderson.

Only a handful of these men remain with us, but their legacies live on.

Corporal James Walter Ellis, stationed at Fort Huachuca, Arizona.

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In the 1930 census of Stantonsburg, Wilson County: Oscar Ellis, 39; wife Mamie, 39; and children Oscar Jr., 16, William, 14, Estelle, 12, Ejay, 11, Colen, 10, James, 9, Bessie M., 8, Hubert L., 6, Leroy, 2, and Dorothy, 1 month.

In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 1113 [East Nash], Oscar Ellis, 50, W.P.A. project laborer; wife Mamie, 49; children Henry, 23, public service laborer, Estell, 22, private housekeeper, A.J.A., 21, cafe waiter, Charles, 20, Moore’s Drug deliveryman, James, 18, Bessie, 17, Hubert, 15, Leroy, 13, Fred, 8, Mamie, 10, and Clarence, 5; and adopted children Annie, 15, and Rosco Jones, 13.

In the 1950 census of Washington, D.C.: James W. Ellis, 28, federal government messenger, and wife Vera L., 23.

Image courtesy of Veterans of World War II Wilson County, spiral-bound volume, Wilson County Public Library.