Month: November 2017

Elisha Bass farm.

Per Kate Ohno, Wilson County’s Architectural Heritage (1981):

“According to local tradition this house was built for Elisha Bass, Jr., on land deeded to Edward Bass in 1745. The Elisha Bass house is set in a grove of trees and is oriented away from the road. It now forms the rear section of a turn-of-the-century farmhouse built circa 1890 by Shelby Bass. The oldest section probably dates between 1830 and 1940. The three-bay gable-roof house has exterior end chimneys with tumbled weatherings. The kitchen, which was originally part of the early section of the house, still stands on the property.”

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In the 1850 census of the North Side of the Neuse River, Wayne County, North Carolina [in an area which became part of Black Creek township, Wilson County, in 1855]: farmer Elisha Bass, 35; wife Sarah, 30; and son Hardy, 1. Per the 1850 slave schedule of the same district, Elisha Bass enslaved a 40 and a 16 year-old man.

In the 1860 census of Black Creek township, Wilson County: farmer Elisha Bass, 47; son Nathan, 9; and farm laborer Redmon Lodge, 17. Bass listed $3500 in real property and $4317 in personal property. His personal property, per the 1860 slave schedule of Wilson County, included a 20 year-old woman, a three year-old girl, and four boys and men, aged three months to 30 years.

Elisha Bass was just one of several white Basses who enslaved people in Wilson County. The 1870 census of Black Creek township lists 134 African-Americans with the surname Bass living in households across eastern Wilson County in Black Creek, Stantonsburg, Gardners, Wilson, Joyners and Cross Roads townships.

On this Veteran’s Day…

Family lore has it that Lucian Jacob Henderson attempted to join the Army at 15 or 16 as World War II was in full rage.  He was finally able to enlist on 28 October 1944, his 18th birthday. Though his home address was 1109 Queen Street, Wilson, he was working as a deckhand for the Norfolk & Washington Steamboat Company at the time and signed up at a draft office in Washington, D.C.

The following year, Henderson qualified as an infantry rifleman after spending four months in basic and advanced training at the Infantry Replacement Training Center in Fort McClellan, Alabama.

Lucian J. Henderson, probably 1945-46. His shoulder patch bears the insignia of the Sixth United States Army, with whom he served occupation duty in Japan at the end of 1945.

Lucian J. Henderson, at left.

U.S. WWII Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947, [database on-line], http://www.ancestry.com; photographs from the collection of Hattie Henderson Ricks.

He abandoned and left his wife.

On 5 August 1893, Charity Jones swore that her husband Jesse H. Jones had abandoned her and left her without support. Her father Noel Jones testified on her behalf, and Martha Williamson on Jesse Jones’.  A justice of the peace sustained the charge, ordering Jones’ arrest. He was picked up a week later.

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In the 1870 census of Old Fields township, Wilson County: Noel Jones, 26; wife Sarah, 23; and children Josiah, 3, Charity, 1, and Edith, 4 months.

Also in the 1870 census of Old Fields township: Jno. A. Jones, 22; wife Susan, 19; sons Thomas, 2, and Jesse B., 7 months; and Rosett Boykin, 70. [Jesse Jones’ middle initial is given as B., rather than H., in records other than that shown above.]

In the 1880 census of Old Fields township, Wilson County: Noel Jones, 34; wife Sarah, 32; and children Josiah, 13, Charity, 12, Edieth J., 10, Noel J., 6, and Asberry, 6.

Also: Demsy Powell, 57; wife Sallie, 46; and daughter Susan A., 27; [Susan Powell Jones’ husband] John A. Jones, 34; and their children Thomas A., 12, Jessie B., 11, James A., 7, Celia C., 5, Sallie C., 4, and John A., 1; and W.D. Lucus, 21.

On 9 November 1890, Jesse Jones, 21, son of John and Susan Jones, married Charity Jones, 23, daughter of Noah and Sarah Jones, in Wilson County. Josiah Jones applied for the license.

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

They unlawfully hired their time of their master.

An enslaver could, and often did, rent the services of an enslaved person to others for specific tasks or under long-term leases. Under North Carolina law, however, enslavers were prohibited from allowing their slaves to rent their own time. That is, to come to their own terms and arrangements for working for others for wages that they either kept for themselves or split with their masters. Slaves who hired their own time created their own wealth, a dangerous circumstance. There was a wide gulf between law and reality, however.

Dennis, a man over whom white Wilson County carpenter John Farmer claimed ownership, was indicted on misdemeanor charges of hiring his time at July term, 1859, of the Wilson County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions.  Five years later, at July 1864, jurors indicted Farmer himself for allowing the entrepreneurial activities of enslaved women named Mary, Lucy and Silvia.

The jurors for the State on their oath present, that Dennis, a Slave the property of John Farmer (Carpt) at and in the County of Wilson on the first day of January 1859 and on divers other days and times as well before as afterwards up to the taking of this inquisition by the permission of the said John Farmer his master, unlawfully did go at large, the said Salve having then and there unlawfully hired his own time of his said master, contrary to the form of the Stature in such case made and provided, and against the peace and dignity of the State.

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John Farmer may have been the John W. Farmer of Wilson township, Wilson County, who is listed in the 1860 slave schedule as the owner of ten enslaved men and women.

Court Cases Involving Slaves, Slave Records, Wilson County Records, North Carolina State Archives.

720 East Green Street.

The forty-third 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 East Wilson Historic District: “ca. 1940; 1 story; double-pile house with bungalow type detail.”

In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 720 East Green Street, clothes washer Bell Ross, 64, and her daughters Thelma Hill[illegible], 29, and Dorothy Watson, 24.

In the 1941 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Ross Belle (c) h 720 E Green.

Photograph by Lisa Y. Henderson, September 2017.

 

Arthur Bass house.

Per Kate Ohno, Wilson County’s Architectural Heritage (1981):

“This house is said to have been the property of Arthur Bass. According to the Wayne County census of 1850 Arthur Bass was born in 1816. Little is known of Bass’ life. … The Bass House appears to date from the 1830s and it consists of a two-story dwelling with an attached shed porch and three-bay façade. Under the porch the façade is sheathed in flush boards instead of the unusual weatherboards, the main house is linked with the kitchen by an open breezeway on the eastern elevation and this breezeway shelters an unusual enclosed exterior stair. On the first floor of the main house there are two main rooms, while the second floor appears to have been one large room.”

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In the 1850 census of the North Side of the Neuse River, Wayne County, North Carolina [in an area which became part of Black Creek township, Wilson County, in 1855]: farmer Arthur Bass, 34; wife Martha, 19; and daughter Zilla, 8 months. Per the 1850 slave schedule of the same district, Arthur Bass enslaved a 25 year-old woman, a three year-old boy and a two year-old girl.

In the 1860 census of Black Creek township, Wilson County: farmer Arthur Bass, 46; wife Pattie, 28; and children Zillah, 11, Louisa, 8, Perry, 6, and William, 2 months. He listed $4000 in real property and $7000 in personal property. His personal property, per the 1860 slave schedule of Wilson County, included five enslaved girls and women ranging from 8 months to 32 years old and two enslaved boys. aged 12 and five.

Arthur Bass was just one of several white Basses who enslaved people in Wilson County. The 1870 census of Wilson County lists 134 African-Americans with the surname Bass living in households across eastern Wilson County in Black Creek, Stantonsburg, Gardners, Wilson, Joyners and Cross Roads townships.

Mortality schedule, no. 2: Spring Hill township, 1870.

Each of the United States federal censuses from 1850 to 1880 included a mortality schedule enumerating  individuals who had died in the previous year previous. Each entry noted family number in the population schedule, name, age, sex, color, marital status, place of birth, month of death, occupation, and cause of death.

Here is the 1870 mortality schedule for Spring Hill township, Wilson County:

NCM1805_3-0941

  • Creech, Infant. Age 1 week, died in March, unknown causes.
  • Creech, Infant. Age 3 weeks, died in March, dropsy.

In the 1870 census of Spring Hill township, Wilson County: farm laborer George Creech, 40; wife Margaret, 35; and children Lucy, 7, John, 5, and Sarah, 1. Dropsy is an archaic term for a condition characterized by an accumulation of watery fluid in the tissues or in a body cavity, as from heart failure. Dropsy was not a disease in itself. Remarks: “Infants Creech and Barnes cause unknown. It is very difficult to determine the true cause of death of a great many colord infants seldom having a physician. Sometimes it is from want of attention or hereditary disease.”

  • Deens, Simon. Age 19, farm laborer, died in February, consumption.

In the 1870 census of Spring Hill township, Wilson County: farmer Albert Adams, 50; wife Spicy, 37; and children Arch, 14, Arnold, 13, Frank, 7, Caroline, 5, and James, 2. Consumption is an archaic term for pulmonary tuberculosis.

The unmistakable way to conviction.

In November 1888, Charles Bynum was tried and convicted of manslaughter in the shooting death of Henry Privett, his girlfriend’s brother.

 

 

Wilson Mirror, 7 November 1888.

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  • Charles Bynum, accused — possibly, the Charles Bynum, 15, listed with his parents Mack, 39, and Mary Bynum, 30, in the 1880 census of Wilson township, Wilson County.
  • Henry Privette, victim; Bettie Privette, his sister, allegedly Bynum’s lover; Alice Privette, his wife; Sallie Privette, his sister; Mahala Privette, his mother — In the 1870 census of Old Fields township, Wilson County: farm laborer Joseph Privett, 30; wife Mahala, 27; and children Lucretia, 9, Mary, 4, Henry, 2, and Bettie J., 2 weeks; plus Penninah Locust, 2. In the 1880 census of Old Fields township, Wilson County: Joe Privett, about 44; wife Mahalah, about 35; and children Polly Ann, 16, Henry, 14, Bettie, 11, Hattie, 7, and Sallie, 3; plus Penninah Jones, 14. Henry Privett, 18, son of Joe and Mahalia Privett, married Alice Howell, 20, daughter of Ransom and Burbary Howell, on 8 February 1887 at the courthouse in Wilson.
  • James Bynum, juror.
  • Henry Birney, juror.
  • Celia Cotton, witness.

Where did they go?: Pennsylvania death certificates, no. 7.

The seventh in a series — Pennsylvania death certificates for Wilson County natives:

  • Minnie McCowan Brown

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In the 1870 census of Wilson, Wilson County: widow Anna McGown, 35, washerwoman; and children William, 16, Emma, 15, Bettie, 13, Margaret, 8, Charles, 6, and Samuel, 2.

  • Matilda Roberts Battle

42410_2421406271_1020-03013

In the 1910 census of Suffolk, Virginia: furniture salesman W.M. Roberts, 37; wife Sally, 32; and children Leroy, 12, Matilda, 7, Sally A., 4, and Bessie May, 2, all born in North Carolina.

  • Emma Ellis Bunn

42342_622204_0703-03337

In the 1870 census of Taylor township, Wilson County: Hilliard Ellis, 43, farmer; wife Feribee, 40; and children Caroline, 16, William, 14, George, 11, Emily, 9, Hilliard, 6, Mary A., 4, and Warren, 8 months.

  • Benjamin Edward Earle

  • Harvey Chesterfield Dasher

Per an index of delayed birth certificates, Harvey Chesterfield Dasher was born in 1902 in Wilson County to Charles Dasher and Carrie Pitts.

In the 1920 census of Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio: at 2403 East 39th Street, pullman porter Harvey C. Dasher, 36, born in New York; wife Carrie, 34, born in North Carolina; son Harvey Jr., 17, department store elevator operator, born in North Carolina; and lodger Hattie Johnson, 42, born in North Carolina.

In the 1930 census of Manhattan, New York County, New York: dining car waiter Harry Newsome, 39; wife Carrie, 43; and son Harvey Dasher, 25, barber; all born in Virginia.

In the 1940 census of Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts: in the state prison, Harvey Dasher, 38, born in North Carolina.

 

Charm and talent at Hampton Institute.

Pittsburgh Courier, 7 November 1942.

Hampton Institute’s 1942 freshman class included Parthenia Robinson of Wilson, right, a member of the Kampus Kamera Klub.

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In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 202 Vick Street, barber Golden Robinson, 30; wife Bertie, 23; and children Parthenia, 5, Gold M., 3, and Glean, 1.

On 7 June 1951 in Nottoway County, Virginia, Anne Parthenia Robinson, 25, daughter of Goldwyn Robinson and Bertie Parks, born in Wilson, resident of Washington, D.C., married Berkeley Graham Burrell, 31, son of Hayward G. Burrell and Fannie Mae Miles, born in Washington, D.C., and a soldier at Camp Pickett, Virginia.