Ninety-eight years ago today, George A. Barfoot & Co. offered “colored tenant homes” in Wilson for $500 and up, and “nice homes for white people” for $2000 and up.
Wilson Daily Times, 5 November 1918.
Month: November 2016
The negro girl-preacher.
Wilson Times, 30 July 1897.
Cleveland Gazette, 20 March 1897.
Wootten & Stevens, pt. 8.
In 1977, the late Hugh B. Johnston abstracted a newly discovered volume of the records of Wootten and Stevens, the earliest undertaking firm in Wilson County. The result, Funeral Register of Wootten and Stevens, Undertakers of Wilson, North Carolina, November 18, 1896-June 27, 1899 is an unpublished manuscript held at Wilson County Public Library. This post is the eighth in a series abstracting the abstract for entries naming African-Americans.
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- Sanders, ____. Wilson. Colored. Died 12 July 1898, aged 1 year 4 months. Length 2’6″. Cost $1.50. (Page 287)
- Sanders, Mourning. Wilson. Colored. Died 19 November 1897, aged 9 years, of scrofula. Length 4’6″. Death certified by Salt Lake Harris. (Page 169)
- Sharp, _____. Rocky Mount. Colored. Died 14 January 1899. Daughter of Sampson Sharp. “Died at Rocky Mt. & was brought to Wilson for interment.” Burial in Oakdale cemetery. Cost $5. (Page 407)
- Sharp, Nellie. Wilson township. Colored. Died 20 December 1897, aged 58 years. Length 5’8″. Buried in Oak Dale cemetery. Billed to Wilson Sharp. (Page 189)
- Simms, _____. Wilson. Colored. Died 9 May 1898, of pneumonia. Attended to by Dr. Williams. “Simms was a young man who had the misfortune to get both feet cut off by a R.R. train.” Length 5′. Cost $10. Buried in Oak Dale Cemetery. Billed to Lee Moore. (Page 245)
- Simms, Amos. Wilson. Colored. Died 27 November 1898. Length 6’1″. Cost $10. Buried at Old Simms place. (Page 384)
- Stallings, Mary. Wilson. Colored. Died 15 June 1898, deranged, aged 20 years, 19 days. Attended to by Dr. T.B. Person. Cost $15. Funeral at home. Buried in “old section” of Oakdale cemetery. Billed to Gilbert Stallings. (Page 275)
- Strickland, _____. Wilson. Colored. Died 8 June 1899. Wife of Marcellus Strickland. Length 5’6″. Cost $15. Buried in colored cemetery. (Page 483)
- Strickland, Dave. Taylor’s township. Colored. Died 11 December 1897, of “hemordge of lungs,” aged 70. Attended to by Dr. B.T. Person. Length 6′. Buried in Batt Thompson cemetery. (Page 179)
- Sugg, _____. Wilson. Colored. Died 4 April 1898, age 22, of fever. Length 5’6″. Cost $4.75. Billed to Haywood Best. Buried in Oakdale cemetery. (Page 227)
- Sutton, William R. Wilson. Colored. Died 4 August 1897, aged 6 months. Length 2’6″. Child of Aider Sutton. Attended to by Dr. T.B Person. Funeral at church. Burial in old cemetery. Cost $4. (Page 114)
- Swinson, Sarah. Greene County. Colored. Died 11 October 1898, aged 4o years, of Bright’s disease. Attended to by Dr. S.H. Crocker. Length 6″. Funeral at house. Billed to H. Edmundson. (Page 356)
Deposits.
The Crisis: A Record of the Darker Races, volume 22, number 4 (August 1921).
For more re the Commercial Bank, see here.
Hoodoo’d.
Wilson Daily Times, 25 August 1911.
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In the 1900 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: Dolison Powell, 58; wife Sallie, 50; and children Dorsey, 15, Wiley, 13, and Howard, 12.
In the 1910 census of Wilson township, Wilson County, on Saratoga Road, Dolison Powell, 68, wife Sallie, 62, and son Wiley, 24.
Bottles and jugs.
Wilson Daily Times, 6 June 1911.
Spearman, again:
Wilson Daily Times, 3 October 1911.
And (with Tobe Barnes) again:
Wilson Daily Times, 24 October 1911.
A blind tiger is a place in which liquor is sold illegally. “Retailing,” specifically, was selling liquor illegally.
Sis Spearman does not appear in Wilson city directories or census records.
The old reliable barber.
Wilson Blade, 20 November 1897.
Only one issue of the Wilson Blade, a short-lived African-American newspaper, is known to exist.
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In the 1900 census of the Town of Wilson, Wilson County: day laborer James Farmer, 22, and his siblings Rosa, 17, Freeda, 10, Robert, 7, Richard, 5, Mark, 2, and Erickers, 7 months, plus boarder Tobias Farmer, 47, a barber.
In the 1908 city directory, Tobias Farmer is listed as a barber living at 203 Manchester Street.
In the 1912 city directory, Tobias Farmer is listed as a barber working for Austin Neal and residing at 121 Ashe Street.
Tobias Farmer died in Wilson on 17 May 1914. Per his death certificate, he was born 5 January 1854 in North Carolina to Elija Farmer and Rosa Barnes; was a widower; and worked as a barber. Rosa Crank was informant.
Establishing a graded school.
From “The Graded School Bill: An Act to Establish a Graded School in Wilson township, Wilson County,” as published in the Wilson Advance. The North Carolina legislature ratified the bill on 27 February 1883.
Wilson Advance, 23 March 1883.
- E.C. Simms. Edward Cicero Simms was a teacher. In the 1880 census of Wilson, Wilson County: school teacher Edward C. Simms, 23, wife Nicy, 26, and son Edward, 7 months. By 1891, the Simms family had moved to Norfolk, Virginia, where Edward is listed in the city directory. By 1897, Edward was an ordained A.M.E. Zion minister, as shown in this 9 May 1897 edition of the Norfolk Virginian:
- G.A. Farmer. Probably, Gray Farmer, a carpenter and constable.
- Peter Rountree was a shoemaker.
- Charles Battle was a blacksmith.
- Jerry Washington. Jeremiah Washington was a blacksmith. His daughter Annie Maria married Samuel H. Vick.
- C.M. Jones
- Daniel Vick, carpenter, farmer and politician, was the father of Samuel H. Vick.
- Samuel Williams was a baker, then grocer. In the 1870 census of Wilson, Wilson County: baker Samuel Williams, 30, with carpenter Daniel Vick, 25, wife Fanny, 24, and children Samuel, 8, Earnest, 3, Netta M., 5, and Violet Drake, 52. On 24 September 1870, Samuel Williams, parents unknown, married Ann Scarbro, daughter of Jack and Zaly Adams, in Wilson. In the 1880 census of Wilson, Wilson County: Samuel Williams, 38, wife Ann, 47, and daughter Anna, 9. In the 1900 census, grocer Samuel Williams, 58, with lodgers William Jackson, 36, and William Allen, 25, both tobacco graders.
- C.H. Darden. Charles H. Darden was a blacksmith and, later, undertaker. In 1938, Wilson’s high school for African-American children would be named for Darden.
Osborne and Mariah Dunston.
The headstones of Ausborn Dunstan and wife, Maria Dunstan, are found in Row E of Rest Haven Cemetery. Mariah Munday Dunstan died in 1896, and Osborne Dunstan in 1905. Their graves were almost certainly removed and reinterred from Oakdale cemetery.
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In the 1850 census of North Side of the Neuse district, Wayne County: Moriah Munda, 9, listed as farmhand in the household of white farmer John G. Barnes, 33. Maria Mundy and her brother Stephen was first apprenticed to Barnes in 1848, under a law designed to attach the labor of orphaned or “illegitimate” free children of color to a (usually white) neighbor. Apprentice records filed in Wayne County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions name their mother as Elizabeth Mundy, a white woman. For reasons not clear, the children were rebound to Barnes in 1852.
In the 1850 census of Louisburg, Franklin County, Lemuel Dunn, 60, blacksmith; Milly Dunn, 60; Jane Fog, 19; Osborn Dunstan, 14; and John Fog, 8. The household is listed among a cluster of Dunstan households, including: Osborn Dunstan, 57, sawyer, Barbary, 50, and Sarah Dunston, 18, and Osborn May, 6. (Also, in Timberlakes township, Franklin County: Osborn Dunston, 52, and Sally Dunstan, 16.) Osborne’s parentage and his relationship to the other Osborne Dunstans in Franklin County is not clear.
In the 1860 census of the Town of Wilson, Wilson County: Asburn Dunstan, 23, laborer, in the household of H.L. Winton, boarding house operator.
Though both were free-born, and accordingly not subject to legislation creating a path to legitimation of slave marriages, Orsborn Dunson and Mariah Monday registered their five-year marriage on 24 August 1866 in Wilson County.
In the 1870 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: farm laborer Osborn Dunstan, 37, wife Mariah, 45, and children Dora, 4, Cora, 2, Sarah, 2 months, John, 12, and Fanny, 6. [It appears that the latter two children were Mariah’s prior to her marriage to Osborne.]
In the 1880 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: farm worker Osbourn Dunston, 44, wife Mariah, 40, and children Dorah, 12, Corah, 11, Sarah, 9, Frances, 7, Hubbard, 5, Mary, 4, and Harriet, 3. Next door, in the household of farmer Henry Miller, was John Dunston, 20.
On 4 May 1882, John Simpson, 22, son of Dick Simpson and Mariah Dunston, married Tilder Rountree, 19, daughter of Dave and Nancy Rountree. P.E. Hines performed the ceremony at Disciples Church in the presence of Daniel Bess, Robert Rountree and Tilly Rountree.
On 3 March 1890, Cora Dunston, 19, daughter of Osborn and Moriah Dunston of Wilson township, married Haywood Becton [Beckwith], son of Pheraby Becton of Wilson. Freewill Baptist minister Solomon Arrington performed the service in the presence of Mariah Dunston, Crocket Best, and Mark Barnes.
On 17 January 1897, Dora Duntson, 25, married Joe Battle, 24, in Wilson County. Rev. Fred M. Davis performed the ceremony at the bride’s home in the presence of J.R. Bullock, L.D. Johnson and Fanny Rountree.
On 22 May 1897, Mary Dunstan, 21, married Walter Thorn, 27, in Wilson County. Missionary Baptist minister M. Strickland performed the ceremony.
In the 1900 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: teamster Haywood Beckwith, 40, wife Cora, 31, and daughter Delzel, 14, plus father [in-law] Osborn Dunson, 67, who still worked as a farm laborer. Also, wagon driver Joseph Battle, 28, and wife Dora, 22.
On 11 September 1901, Sarah Dunston, 23, of Wilson, North Carolina, daughter of Osborne and Mariah Dunston, married Marshall Bells in Norfolk, Virginia.
In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on Lodge Street, Rebecca Beckwith, 47, a widowed laundress, and daughter Dezell, 20, a teacher. On Spring Street, ice factory laborer Joe Battle, 28, and wife Dora, 32, a cook.
On 24 December 1913, Walter Whitted, 24, of Durham, married Helen Beckwith, 22, of Wilson. Rev. M.A. Talley performed the ceremony, and A.J. Townsend and Robert Haskins were witnesses. [“Helen” was Delzelle Beckwith’s first name.]
On 5 June 1917, Walter Whitted of 516 South Lodge Street, Wilson, registered with the Wilson County draft board. He reported that he was born in Durham, North Carolina, on 3 October 1889; that he was a self-employed tailor in Wilson; and that he had a wife and two children to support. He was described as medium height and weight with dark brown eyes and black hair.
In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 708 Spring Street, tobacco company laborer Joe Battle, 58, wife Dora, 52, and daughter Esther, 19, a private servant.
On 14 August 1920, Cora Beckwith, 45, married William G. Reeves, 37, in Wilson. Rev. Charles T. Jones performed the ceremony at J.E. Artis‘ house in the presence of Artis, Alfred Robinson and Levi H. Jones.
Cora Beckwith died 29 October 1928 in Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was born in May 1876 in Wilson County to Osborne Duston of Louisburg, North Carolina, and Maria Moudin of Virginia, and was married to Haywood Beckwith. Dazelle Whitthead was informant.
In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on South Lodge Street, house carpenter Walter Whitted, 38, wife Delzle H., 35, a public school teacher, and children Walter H., 14, and Cora J. Whitted, 13.
Sarah Bell died 29 December 1930 in Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was 54 years old, born in Wilson County to Osbourne Dunston and Mariah Monday. She was married to William Marshall Bell and resided at 710 East Vance. The informant was Hattie [Dunston] Wilkerson, 712 Blount Street, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.
Dora Battle died 8 January 1943 at Mercy Hospital in Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was born about 1871 in Wilson County to Arsborn Dunston of Lewisburg, North Carolina, and Mary Mandin of Richmond, Virginia. Informant was Dezelle Whitted; Dora was buried at Rountree cemetery.
Helen Delzelle Beckwith Whitted died 15 February 1976 in Wilson.
Beaten and robbed of $27,000.
This account of the 1944 robbery of Asa Locus is found in the Civil Rights Congress’ We Charge Genocide: The Historic Petition to the United Nations for Relief From a Crime of The United States Government Against the Negro People (1951).