Raleigh News & Observer, 5 April 1895.

In the 1880 census of Spring Hill, Wilson County: farmer Polly Proctor, 43, and her sons John W., 20, and Charly T., 12.

On 19 September 1894, John Proctor, 34, son of John and Polly Proctor, married Hattie Ayers, 20, daughter of Jesse and Elizabeth Ayers, in Wilson. Husband and wife were described as white.

However, in the 1880 census of Cross Roads township, Wilson County: 28 year-old farmer Jesse Ayers; Elizabeth, 28; Ida, 8; Harriet, 6; Howard, 5; and Hubbard, 2; all described as mulatto.

In the 1900 census, the family (with younger children Loutory, Addie, Alvester, and Betsey A. Ayers) is black, and Jesse Ayers and Elizabeth Taylor’s marriage license is recorded in the colored register. When their son Howard Ayers married Elizabeth Taylor, daughter of Patrick and Polly Taylor, on 19 September 1894, and their marriage license describes them as “mixed.” However, the marriage licenses of Jesse and Elizabeth’s children Herbert, Loutoria, Alvester and Addie describe them as white.

Elizabeth Ayers’ 4 April 1929 Wilson County death certificate describes her as white, as does Herbert Ayers’ 22 February 1957 Nash County certificate. Jesse and Elizabeth’s daughters Della Ayers Batts and Addie Ayers Collier also died as white women.

I have found no further record of  John and Harriet Ayers Proctor.