Pittsburgh Courier, 25 March 1944.
Chester B. Beamon was an A.M.E. Zion minister, presumably at Trinity, rather than Saint John. Newspaper articles show that he pastored a church in Missouri in 1926 and later lead churches in Tennessee, Kentucky and Nebraska.
New York Age, 21 March 1959.
In late March 1959, the seven children of Wesley and Martha Taylor Jones — Mildred Jones Crittenden, Lucille Jones Peterson, Vernon Jones, Willia Jones Turner, John Wesley Jones, James Jones and Elroy Jones — threw a party in East Elmhurst, Queens, New York, to celebrate their parents’ 50th anniversary.
Marriage license of Wesley Jones and Martha Taylor, who were married 26 March 1910 in Taylor township, Wilson County.
Martha and Wesley Jones with six of their children, circa late 1950s.
Photo courtesy of Shaunna M. Stevens.
Annie Barnes, 24, daughter of Charles and Rebecca Barnes, married Moses Gunn, 31, son of Joe and Amanda Gunn, on 22 December 1900 in Wilson. (Annie Barnes Gunn was a sister of John M. Barnes and B. Frank Barnes.)
Artelia Marian Darden, daughter of Charles and Diana Scarborough Darden, married John Jesse Tennessee in Wilson on 14 November 1914.
The fourteenth in a series of posts highlighting buildings in East Wilson Historic District, a national historic district located in Wilson, North Carolina. As originally approved, the district encompasses 858 contributing buildings and two contributing structures in a historically African-American section of Wilson. (A significant number have since been lost.) The district was developed between about 1890 to 1940 and includes notable examples of Queen Anne, Bungalow/American Craftsman, and Shotgun-style architecture. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.
As described in the nomination form for the East Wilson Historic District: “ca. 1930; 1 1/2 stories; Darcey Yancey House; bungalow with engaged porch; Yancey was a druggist.”
In the 1908 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory, Dr. Darcey C. Yancy, proprietor of Ideal Pharmacy, was listed as a boarder at Union Hotel.
Darcey C. Yancey, 28, of Danville, Virginia, son of W.A. and F.S. Yancey, married Lelia Beatrice Ireland, 25, of Guilford County, North Carolina, on 14 September 1910 in Sedalia, North Carolina. One of the witnesses to the ceremony was Charlotte E. Hawkins, later Charlotte Hawkins Brown, who founded what would become Palmer Memorial Institute in Sedalia in 1902. Lelia Ireland, a graduate of Scotia Seminary, was the first teacher Hawkins Brown hired.
Wilson Times, 24 August 1917.
Darcy Cecil Yancey registered for the World War I draft in Wilson on 12 September 1918. Per his registration card, he was born 10 February 1883; resided at 547 East Nash Street; worked for himself as a druggist at 546 East Nash; and his nearest relative was Lelia B. Yancey.
In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: residing at 547 Nash Street, Darcy C. Yancey, 37, manager at drug store, and wife Lelia B., 32.
In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 538 East Nash Street, druggist Darcy C. Yancey, 46, wife Lelia B., 40, and daughter Maude, 9.
Also in 1930 census of Wilson, the enumerator found four young single women at 913 East Green Street: Minnesota-born Ruth A. Brown, 23, North Carolina-born Annie Wilson, 25, and Lucile Wynn, 22, and Washington, D.C.-born Bessie Davis, 28, all teachers, paying a total of $25/month in rent. The house, in effect, was a teacherage for Wilson Colored High School, which sat right across Carroll Street.
Intersection of Green and Carroll, Sanborn insurance map, 1930.
At some point in the 1930s, the Yanceys purchased 913 East Green and left their rented digs on Nash Street across from the pharmacy. The 1941 Hill’s city directory lists Darcey C. and Lelia B. Yancey’s residence as 913 East Green, and Yancey’s Drug Store at 563 East Nash.
D’arcey Yancey died 12 April 1957 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was born 14 February 18983 in Danville, Virginia, to William Alexander Yancey and Florence E. Stewart; resided at 913 East Green Street; and worked as a druggist. Wife Lelia B. Yancey was informant.
Lelia Beatrice Yancey died 4 June 1983 in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Per her death certificate, she was born 14 May 1889 to unknown parents; was the widow of D’arsey C. Yancey; and was a retired superintendent of elementary schools. She was buried with her husband at Rest Haven cemetery in Wilson.
Photograph taken by Lisa Y. Henderson, February 2017.
Evansville (Ind.) Argus, 12 November 1938.
Inez Powell Battle Dade Leaves a Legacy of Love
Long-time member of the Annapolis First Baptist Church Inez Powell Battle Dade passed away in March at 103 years old. Dade was a resident of Annapolis and Washington, D.C., and attended services at the Annapolis church for 49 years. Shortly after she joined First Baptist, she became a volunteer and worked in many of its ministries.
Dade was the matriarch of a large family that includes four daughters, 12 grandchildren, 25 great-grandchildren and seven great, great-grandchildren. One sister, Vanilla Beane, a resident of Washington, D.C., who is 96 years old, survives her.
One of Dade’s daughters, Peggy Holly, resident of D.C. said, “My mother would always say, ‘Have faith in the Lord; stay active and help others.'”
First Baptist Rev. Louis Boston said she would do anything to help others.
“She was compassionate and gave her best because of her love for the Lord,” Boston said. “She loved her church.”
Dade was born in [Wilson,] North Carolina and moved to D.C. when she married John Battle. She later married James Dade. She worked as an elevator operator until she got a job with the Federal government.
After retiring from the government job, Dade opened a daycare center called Tiny Tots Preschool and Nursery in the Petworth neighborhood of D.C. in 1972. She ran the center until taking her leave at the age of 99.
“I vividly remember that Mrs. Dade was someone who did a lot with a little,” said Boston. “She loved the Lord.”
From http://www.capitalgazette.com, 30 March 2016.
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Inez Powell was born in 1913 in Wilson County to James and Martha Hagans Powell. Her father, born about 1876, was the son of Ichabod and Mary Ann Lassiter Powell. (Mary Ann’s parents were Silas and Orpha Simpson Lassiter.) Her mother Martha was the daughter of Charles and Charity Thomas Hagans.
New York Age, 15 March 1930.
Robert Nathaniel Perry II was born in 1911, in Wilson, North Carolina. He graduated from J.C. Smith College in Charlotte in 1929. Robert Perry served as principal of Boggs Academy in Keyville, Georgia, as an administrator in the public schools of Thibodaux, Louisiana, followed by seventeen years as principal of Walter L. Cohen Senior High School in the New Orleans Public School system. His civic and cultural endeavors included serving as a District Director of the Boy Scouts of America and active memberships in the New Orleans Chapter of Friends of Amistad, the B-Sharp Music Club, Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Women and Men Who Care, Inc., the Bunch Club, and the Board of Directors of Dryades Street YMCA. He also served as editor for the Journal of Louisiana Education Association from 1963 to 1964 and was inducted into Phi Delta Kappa Fraternity, the Honor Society of Educators. At Central Congregational UCC, Robert served as the Superintendent of Sunday School, was a Lay Minister, a member of the Deaconate, and acted as photographer, capturing the activities of the church and its families.
Robert Nathaniel Perry II and his wife, Lillian Dunn Perry, worked to enhance the quality of life for African Americans living in the racially and economically segregated Louisiana of the 1930’s to 1960’s, acting as educators, musicians, Christian leaders, journalists, and civil rights activists. They dedicated their work to preparing children and youth intellectually, culturally, and spiritually, to facilitate their lives as responsible citizens.
The parents of both Robert and Lillian played major roles in their local and wider churches. Their fathers were educated ministers, while their mothers worked to educate within the Christian community. Lillian Dunn Perry’s mother also served for years as the minister of music at Central Congregational United Church of Christ in New Orleans.
From website of Amistad Research Center, Tulane University.
Wilson Times, 24 March 1911.
Though best-known for their funeral business, Charles H. Darden and his sons also sold and serviced an array of bicycles.
Wilson Daily Times, 18 March 1924.
In 1917, Baptist minister Alfred L.E. Weeks and his wife Annie Weeks sold a tract of land to George W. Evans subject to mortgage. Evans defaulted in 1924, and the property was exposed to sale on the courthouse steps.