Month: November 2015

No. 7170. Peter Rountree Sr.

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Peter Rountree‘s residency in New Bern, North Carolina, where he opened this Freedmen’s Savings Bank account, was apparently temporary. He, Lucinda and their children appear in the 1870 census of Wilson, Wilson County, in which Peter is described as a shoemaker. In 1880, they are again in Wilson, on Nash Street, Peter this time describing himself as a merchant. In 1900, Peter and Lucinda head a household comprised of two generations of offspring, and Peter is still working as a shoemaker.

Freedman’s Bank Records, 1865-1871 [database on-line], http://www.ancestry.com.

He intends to leave this state with a free negro.

$20 REWARD. – RAN AWAY from the subscriber on the 6th instant, a negro man by the name of CAGE. Said negro is about twenty-seven years old, about five feet ten inches high, quick spoken and rather black – weighs some hundred and seventy pounds. It is my opinion that he intends to leave this State, with a free negro by the name of Nicholas Williams. The above reward will be given to any person, who will confine said negro in any jail or deliver him to me at my house about three miles above Toisnot Depot, Edgecombe County, N.C. – Josiah Jordan.

Tarboro Press, 13 March 1847.

The colored people prefer him.

“Names of prominent men residing in the several Election Districts of Wilson County NC with explanatory remarks”

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5. Israel Barden (col’d). Election district: Wilson. Age: 29. Occupation: Laborer. Where born: North Carolina. Resided in the County: Several months. Ever in U.S. Army or Navy: Never. Remarks: Is quite intelligent. Can read and write a little. Appears to be the most respected col’d man in that section. The colored people prefer him to anyone of their number.

6. Harry Jones (col’d). Election district: Wilson. Age: 52. Occupation: Shoemaker. Where born: Orange Co., N.C. Resided in the County: 2 yrs., 5 mos. Ever in U.S. Army or Navy: Never. Remarks: Cannot read or write. Quite intelligent but colored people seem to lack confidence in him.

7. John Darden (col’d). Election district: Wilson. Age: 35. Occupation: Laborer. Where born: Green Co, N.C. Resided in the County: 5 months. Ever in U.S. Army or Navy: 2 Yrs. in U.S.A. Remarks: Cannot read or write. Not very bright naturally. Won’t do.

North Carolina Freedmen’s Bureau Assistant Commissioner Records 1862-1870, http://www.familysearch.org.

Dr. William Henry Bryant.

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A.B. Caldwell, ed., History of the American Negro and His Institutions, North Carolina Edition (1921).

Here’s William Henry Bryant‘s family early in freedom: paternal grandmother Mary Bryant, father Fisher Bryant, mother Martha Ruffin Bryant, aunts Eliza and Caroline Bryant, and older siblings Lilly and General Bryant. [Small world: Martha’s father David Ruffin was the man shot by Zeno Green here.]

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1870 census, Wilson township, Wilson County, North Carolina.

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1930 census, Goldsboro, Wayne County, North Carolina.

Here’s the entry for Dr. Bryant in Geraldine Rhoades Beckford’s Biographical Dictionary of American Physicians of African Ancestry 1800-1920:

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No. 1481.

From the records of the Freedmen’s Savings Bank, New Bern branch:

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Daniel Shellington, born about 1841, reported that he was born in Wilson County and was brought up “there & on Pungo river 32 mi. from Washington.”

Here is his mother Amelia “Milly” Cherry’s bank registration card. She named a two husbands, the second of which had died in Columbia, South Carolina. She had not seen her parents since she was a child:

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And Daniel, wife Maria and children Cora and Isabela in New Bern, Craven County, as reported in the 1870 census. Daniel reported that he worked in a grist mill.

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Freedmen’s Bank Records, 1865-1871 [database on-line], http://www.ancestry.com.

Bethana Jones’ property.

Acount of the Sale of the Property of Bethana Jones Dest. Sold the 28 of December 1852 on a Credit of Six months the Percher to Give Note With Two Approved Surities before the Rite is Changed Sold by Benjamin Simpson a Special Admin.

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Bethana Jones was a prosperous farmer, matriarch of a sprawling family that knit all of southern Nash and western Wilson Counties’ major free families of color, including Joneses, Blackwells, Powells, Evanses, and Locuses.  Kinsmen purchasing goods from her estate included Willis Jones, Jacob Jones, William Jones, Asberry Blackwell, Dempsey Powell, Shadrach Jones and Joseph Jones. She was a head of household as early as 1830, when the census of Eatmons district, Nash County, shows her leading a household of nine.

Estate Records, Records of Wilson County, North Carolina State Archives.