Month: March 2018

Contributions to Mercy, part 2.

On 30 January 1947, the Wilson Daily Times published a lengthy list of contributors to the fundraising drive of the Mercy Hospital Women’s Auxiliary. The list, reproduced here in five parts, included many of black Wilson’s leading individuals, businesses and institutions.

Wilson Daily Times, 30 January 1947.

All annotations, some edited for clarity, are entries in Hill’s Wilson City Directory 1947-48.

Hamilton, for colored.

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These ads appeared in the 1947-48 edition of Hill’s Wilson City Directory. Based 25 miles away in Goldsboro, North Carolina, Hamilton Funeral Home was a late arrival to the somewhat crowded black undertaker scene in Wilson, jostling stalwarts Darden Memorial  and C.E. Artis.

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On 13 August 1935, Talmon Hunter, of Wilson County, son of Will and Callie Hunter of Wilson County, married Naomi Swinney, 22, of Wilson County, daughter of Samuel and Georgia Swinney of Wilson County, in Nashville, Nash County.

In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 530 East Nash Street, Salmon Hunter, 29, born in Georgia, funeral director for a burial concern.

Talmon Hunter died 5 May 1986 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was born 23 November 1913 in Dodge County, Georgia, to Will Hunter and Callie Wilcher; resided at 707 East Nash; worked as a funeral director; and was married to Naomi Swinney Hunter.

Naomi S. Hunter died seven months later, on 31 December 1986. Per her death certificate, she was born 12 November 1913 in Roberson County, North Carolina, to Samuel Swinney and Georgia Rickett; was a widow; and resided at 707 East Nash. Informant was son Joseph S. Hunter, Greensboro, North Carolina.

 

Contributions to Mercy, part 1.

On 30 January 1947, the Wilson Daily Times published a lengthy list of contributors to the fundraising drive of the Mercy Hospital Women’s Auxiliary. The list, reproduced here in five parts, included many of black Wilson’s leading individuals, businesses and institutions.

Wilson Daily Times, 30 January 1947.

  • Dr. Badie T. Clark — Clark Badie T (Margt S) phys Carolina General Hosp home 607 Raleigh Rd
  • B.O. Barnes — Barnes Boisey O (c; Flossie H) physician 525 1/2 E Nash h 613 E Green
  • Doris Parks — Parks Doris L (c) case war County Bd of Charities & Public Welfare h 604 Green
  • William Hines — Hines Wm M (c; Ethel L) barber h 615 E Green
  • Anna J. Johnson — Johnson Robt Rev (c; Anna) pastor St Marks Episcopal Church h 1111 Washington
  • Norma Darden — Norma Duncan Darden. Darden Norma E Mrs (c) v-pres Darden Mutual Burial Assn h 108 Pender
  • Ethel L. Hines — Ethel L. Cornwell Hines.

All annotations, some edited for clarity, are entries in Hill’s Wilson City Directory 1947-48.

Saint Rose honors its elders.

Wilson Daily Times, 16 August 1980.

  • Ida Barnes Ross

On 7 October 1914, Will Ross, 33, of Norfolk, Virginia, married Ida Barnes, 26, at Silas Barnes’ house in Wilson County in the presence of Silas Barnes, Sam Sharp and Jim Rountree.

In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 806 Robeson Street, widow Ida Ross, 53, tobacco factory laborer, and son Silas Ross, 9.

Ida Barnes Ross died 4 July 1985 in Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was born 21 February 1897 [actually, about 1886] in Wilson County to Silas Barnes and Mary Athy; was a widow; and resided at 1318 Atlantic Street. Silas Ross of Jersey City, New Jersey, was informant.

  • Narcissus Battle Moses

In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 603 Warren Street, Elsie Battle, 49, widowed laundress; daughter Narcissus Moses, 30, laundress; and roomer Lewis Carter, 23.

In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 913 1/2 Mercer Street; Narcissus Moses, 35, servant, divorced; mother Elsie B., 70, widow; and Darthy Curry, 26, cook.

In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 917 South Mercer, Narcissus Moses, 51; cousin Effie Read, 38; and adopted child Jerome Wallace Lassiter, 9.

Narcissus Moses died 1 August 1983 in Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was born 4 March 1882 in Nash County to Elsie Battle; resided at 705 Suggs Street; was a widow; had worked as a laborer; and was buried at Williams Chapel cemetery. Effie Battle, niece, of 705 Suggs was informant.

A marriage in Boston.

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On 10 February 1892 in Boston, Massachusetts, Abbie G. Holloway, 21, of New York City, born in Wilson, North Carolina, to John and Amanda Holloway, married John A. McLeod, 24, waiter, of Boston, born in Fayetteville, North Carolina, to John and Ruth McLeod. The ceremony was performed by Rev. John A. Hughes at People’s Temple Methodist Episcopal Church in Boston’s South End.

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In the 1880 census of Wilson, Wilson County: farm laborer Edward Holloway, 39; wife Harriet, 44; and children Lewis, 20, Abigail, 11, James S., 6, and Milly, 3. [Is this Abbie G. Holloway? The family was in Rocky Mount, Edgecombe County, in the 1870 census.]

In the 1900 census of Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts: on Village Street, John McLeod, 33, porter, and wife Abbie, 28, headed a household of thirteen African-American men and women lodgers working primarily as waiters and porters.

The McLeods appear in more than a dozen Boston city directories between 1904 and 1925. By 1904, they were living at 10 Clarendon Street, apparently over the laundry in which they worked. By 1911, they were living at 19 Newborn in Roxbury, while still working at 10 Clarendon as laundress and laundryman. In 1914, Mrs. Abbie McLeod was listed with two workplaces, People’s Hand Laundry at 10 Clarendon and Edison Hand Laundry at 24 Yarmouth. By 1920, the McLeods were working at Edison only. [24 Yarmouth Street, by the way, is four-story brownstone now divided into five condominiums valued at $750.000 and up.]

Per a Massachusetts Death Index digitized at http://www.ancestry.com, Abigail Halloway McLeod died in 1925.

Massachusetts Vital Records, 1840–1911, New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston; United Methodist Church Records, 1787–1922, Baptism, Marriage, and Death Registers, New England Methodist Church Commission on Archives and History, Boston School of Theology Library; both digitized at http://www.ancestry.com.

705 East Green Street.

The sixty-second 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. 1913; 2 stories; Hardy Johnson house; Queen Anne house composed of hip-roofed central block and projecting cutaway bay; porch has been modified and original gazebo removed; porch has been modified and original gazebo removed; Johnson was a fireman for the railroad.”

Robert C. Bainbridge and Kate Ohno’s Wilson, North Carolina: Historic Buildings Survey, originally published by the City of Wilson in 1980 and updated and republished in 2010 under the auspices of the Wilson County Genealogical Society, provides additional details about this house, including the photo above. “Built c. 1901 for Hardy Johnson, a fireman, this house is a good example of the type of large house built in Wilson at the turn of the century. Asymmetrically massed with a prominent cross gable wing to one side with a two story faceted bay, the house is transitional in style resembling a Queen Anne house in its massing, but possessing some Colonial Revival details. The generous and well preserved porch has a handsome faceted corner pavilion and a pedimented projecting entry.”

The photo, probably taken about 1979, appears to show a notice of the kind often posted to communicate rooming house rules. By the 1940s, many of the largest homes on East Green had been converted to multi-family dwellings. The house has been demolished.

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Hardy Johnson, 26, of Wilson township, married Martha Woodard, 25, of Wilson township, daughter of Martha Woodard, on 25 November 1892 at the Amerson place, Wilson. John Ellis and Martha Woodard were witnesses.

In the 1900 census of Wilson, Wilson County: day laborer Hardy Johnson, 33; wife Martha, 31; and children Jessee B., 10, Pauline, 7, Saniga, 5, Roscoe, 3, Herbert, 2, and Johnny G., 5 months.

In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: railroad laborer Hardy Johnson, 48; wife Martha, 40; and children Pauline, 17, market laborer, Thomas, 15, Rosco, 13, Hermon, 11, Jonnie, 10, Alford, 8, Joseph, 6, Annie L., 4, Hardy, 2, and Maggie L., 5 months.

In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 634 Green, Hardy Johnson, 50, foreman at electric light house; wife Martha, 48; and children Sidney, 20, laborer for barber; Roscoe, 23, John, 18, barber, Alfred, 18, Josey, 15, Annie Lee, 13, Hardey, 11, Russell, 8, and Martha, 4; plus lodger James Small, 22, barber.

In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: Hardy Johnson, 61, flagman for A.C.L. Railroad; wife Martha, 60; children Allie L., 19, Martha, 13, and Russell, 17; sister-in-law Maggie Gaston, 50, divorced; granddaughter Mary Johnson, 6; and roomer Duffy Smith, 24, fruit store merchant.

Hardy Johnson died 25 December 1932 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was born 10 October 1871 in Edgecombe County to Jacob and Clara Johnson; married to Martha Johnson; worked as a day laborer; and resided at 705 East Green.

Martha Johnson died 18 December 1934 in Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was born about 1870 in Wilson County to Martha Woodard; the widow of Hardy Johnson; and resided at 705 East Green. Informant was Martha Gray Johnson, 705 East Green.

In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County, several families are listed at 705 East Green, which was by then a rooming house: paying $8/month, tobacco factory stemmer Thomas Rodgers, 37, wife Minorh, 33, housemaid, and children Ruth, 15, Joseph, 14, Otis G., 12, and Walter, 8; paying $6, servant Mary Anderson, 27; paying $6, garage mechanic James Ellis, 33, wife Minnie, 33, tobacco factory hanger, and children James Jr., 10, and Minnie, 8; paying $6, tobacco factory stemmer Sylvia Diggs, 51, daughter Edwina, 17, servant, and grandson James Jr., 1; paying $6, servant Lena Williams, 43; and paying $6, servant Dora Ellis, 33.

A feud of long standing.

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Wilson Advance, 4 March 1881.

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Turner Eatman, 22, married Cherry Woodard, 18, on 9 April 1873 in Wilson, Wilson County.

In the 1880 census of Wilson township (south of Nash Road), Wilson County: farmer Turner Eatmond, 30; wife Cherry, 23; and brother David, 15.

No Calvin Barnes is found in the neighborhood of John W. Farmer or Turner Eatmon in the1880 census.

An important move; or what to do about shiftless negroes.

Wilson Daily Times, 21 March 1919.

A gathering of men at the Colored Odd Fellows Hall. The topic at hand? How to “make the negro more efficient and helpful, more energetic, more responsible and in any every way a better citizen.” The means? A temporary organization headed by Camillus L. Darden and Dr. William H. Phillips. R. McCants Andrews, Howard ’15, newly graduated from Harvard Law School and soon to be counsel for North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company, was the principal speaker, holding the audience spellbound as he “discussed the shiftless ones, those who desire to get off on Saturday it matters not how badly he is needed, or how it will break up the oorganization, he talked about those who roam around with no settled abiding place, and of the crap shooter and general loafer and vagrant.” The Negro is a great imitator, he intimated, and “if the white man could get him to imitate work he would go to that and stick to it.” And the South was the place for him to do it.

The white businessmen in the audience chimed in. F.M. Miller, superintendent of Farmer’s Cotton Oil Company. There were “great possibilities in the development of the Negro,” he opined, “if they were handled in the right way an taught to understand the responsibilities of life.” He then supplied “some personal reminiscences to prove this.” Publisher John D. Gold answered the call for a remark. He confessed that he had long wondered if there a way “to make the shiftless colored man who shot craps and loafed ” much of the week “a better man and citizen.” The organization, he thought, would be useful in reaching these unreliable folk when they were young. After all, “he believed in his colored folks.”

“Dr. Sam Vick” stepped forward. If he was struggling to contain a reaction to the guests’ words, his own comments offer no hint. Instead — according to the Times reporter, at least — he echoed the general sentiments. “The colored man should be taught the value of a dollar, how it came and what it would bring” and should be “systematically trained” to eliminate his troubles. Episcopal priest Rev. Robert Perry, Dr. Frank S. Hargrave, Dr. William Mitchner and others offered their own hear-hears.

Studio shots, no. 70: Sgt. Benjamin A. Harris Sr.

Sgt. Benjamin A. Harris, World War I.

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In the 1900 census of Fremont township, Wayne County: day laborer Ed Harries, 27; wife Bettie, 25; and children Benjamin A., 5, Roday, 4, and John H., 5 months.

In the 1910 census of Nahunta township, Wayne County: farmer Ed Harriss, 37; wife Bettie, 34; and children Benjamin, 15, Rhoda, 14, Johney, 10, Nannie, 9, Nicie and Vicie, 7, Edgar, 4, and Oscar and Roscar, 1.

Benjamin Amos Harris registered for the World War I draft in Eureka precinct, Wayne County, in 1917.

In the 1920 census of Nahunta township, Wayne County: on Stantonsburg Road, farmer Benjamin Harris, 25, and siblings Rhodie, 22, John, 20, Nanie, 18, Vicie and Nicie, 16, Edgar, 14, Oscar and Rosca, 11, Leland, 9, and Hamilton B., 7.

On 14 March 1922, Benjaman A. Harris, 25, of Nahunta, son of Ed and Bettie Harris, married Pauline Artis, 20, of Nahunta, daughter of Wash [sic; Noah] and Patience Artis, in Eureka, Nahunta township, Wayne County.

In the mid-1920s, Benjamin and Pauline Artis Harris moved ten miles north to Wilson.

In the 1925 Wilson city directory: Harris Benj bricklyr h 407 Viola.

Harris, in partnership with George Best, opened a grocery store near the city limits on East Nash Street. In the 1928 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Harris Benj A (c; Pauline) (Harris & Best) r Finch; Harris & Best (c) (B A Harris and Geo Best) gros 1316 E Nash

In the 1930 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Harris Benj (c; Pauline) brklyr h 312 Finch

The family was missed in the 1930 and 1940 censuses of Wilson, Wilson County.

In 1940, when Harry Bryant Harris registered for the World War II draft in Wilson, he listed his eldest brother Ben Amos Harris as his contact and employer.

Benjamin Amos Harris died 15 May 1955 at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Durham, North Carolina. Per his death certificate, he was born 16 October 1894 to Edward Harris and Betty Daniel; lived at 312 Finch Street, Wilson; worked as a bricklayer; and was a World War I veteran. Six days later, his widow applied for a military grave marker:

Photo of Benjamin A. Harris Sr. courtesy of Adventures in Faith: The Church at Prayer, Study and Service, a booklet commemorating the 100th anniversary of Calvary Presbyterian Church, Wilson; image of draft card at U.S. WWII Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947, [database on-line], http://www.ancestry.com.