On 1 February 1898, Leavy J. Melton purchased $39.13 of paint and other materials on credit for improvement of a house at the corner of Pender and Green Streets. Melton bought the paint from George D. Green and in exchange gave him a lien on the house, which he had purchased from Green in 1893.
Deed book 46, page, Register of Deeds Office, Wilson.
Wilson Advance, 7 May 1891.
In 1891, the Advance and the Tarboro Southerner ran a contest for longest name. In this round, the Advance proffered that of an eight year-old girl living on James Woodard’s large farm — Nina Ann Elizabeth Sarah Eliza Jane Monora Carrie Mabel Virginia Bethella Woodard.
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Perhaps: on 3 June 1917, Nina Woodard, 30, of Saratoga, daughter of Louis Brooks and Sue Woodard, married Adam Carter, 21, of Saratoga, son of Stephen and Hattie Carter. H.H. Sanders, Missionary Baptist minister performed the ceremony at “the church in Saratoga” in the presence of Ernest May and Jessie Darden of Saratoga and William Pierce of Wilson.
In 1909, Daniel C. Suggs gave attorney Sidney A. Woodard a $3600 purchase option on nine-acre lot just outside town limits adjacent to the Wilmington & Weldon and Norfolk & Southern railroads. The option included the grant of a right of way for construction of a railroad siding “beginning at the second or third telegraph pole from Floyd Bynum’s house” to run through the property.
The description suggests that the nine acres was located in the vicinity of Contentnea Guano Company, as shown in this detail from the 1913 Sanborn fire insurance map of Wilson. The company was founded in 1907, and we know from accounts of a terrible accident that construction work was underway on a guano factory facility in 1909.
Here is the area today, per Google Maps:
On 2 February 1907, A.P. Branch agreed to advance John Artis, colored, forty to fifty dollars in supplies “to enable me to make a crop” on the land on which he lived in Black Creek township rented from and owned by Nathan Bass. Artis agreed to raise twelve acres in cotton, nine acre in corn and four acres in tobacco and gave Branch a lien on his crop as well as a seven year-old black mare mule named Rody, a buggy and harness, an iron axle cart, and all his farming implements.
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In the 1910 census of Black Creek township, Wilson County: farmer John Artis; wife Lucy, 40; children Nora, 10, John E., 15, Eliza, 13, Katie, 11, and Robert, 7; and nephew Luther, 23.
Deed book 72, page 191, Register of Deeds Office, Wilson.
Littleton Ellis‘ land was surveyed, divided and platted in the spring of 1942, several decades after his death between 1900 and 1910. The road slicing across the middle of the plat map appears to be today’s Forest Hills Road, with directions east “To U.S. Hwy. No. 301” and west “To Road Leading to Wilson Via of Winstead Sch.”
Plat book 2, page 175, Register of Deeds Office, Wilson.
This photo, titled “An Early Picture of the Men’s Civic Club,” is in the collection of Wilson’s Freeman Round House Museum. The Civic Club was founded in 1939 to address “the problems and needs (civic, educational and recreational) of the Negroes of greater Wilson — city and county.” The photo probably dates from around 1950. I can only partially name the men depicted. Standing are an unidentified man; Episcopalian priest Rev. Robert J. Johnson; Baptist minister Rev. Fred M. Davis; and an unidentified man. Seated are Camillus L. Darden; an unidentified man; Presbyterian minister Rev. Obra J. Hawkins; and Charles Darden James.
If you can help identify any of these men, please contact me. Thank you.
The sixty-sixth 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; 1 story; Graham [sic] Reid house; Queen Anne cottage with intact wraparound porch and classical columns; fine local example of the type.”
The 1922 Sanborn fire insurance map shows that the porch did not originally wrap around the east side of the house:
In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 1013 East Nash Street, owned and valued at $3000, taxi chauffeur Jake Barnes, 563; wife Effie, 32; and children Douglass, 20, shoeshop cobbler, Waylone, 19, taxi chauffeur, Eva, 16, Mattie, 13, and Nellie, 10.
In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 1013 East Nash Street, Willie Reid, 36, and wife Ada, 31. Willie reported that he had been living in Fremont [Wayne County] in 1935 and owned a barber shop. Ada was a teacher at “Farmer’s School.”
Willie Gorham Reid registered for the World War II draft in Wilson County in 1942. Per his registration card, he resided at 1013 East Nash Street; was born 12 August 1903 in Wayne County; his contact person was Mary Artist, 1013 East Nash; and he was a self-employed barber working on Main Street, Black Creek.
Willie Ghorum Reid died 28 February 1963 at Mercy Hospital in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was born 12 August 1902 in Wayne County to William Reid and Bettie Wilson; was married to Ada Reid; resided at 1013 East Nash; and was a barber at William Hines Barber Shop.
Photograph by Lisa Y. Henderson, April 2017.
In 1883, Congressman James E. O’Hara of North Carolina’s Second District nominated Daniel Cato Sugg of Wilson to enter the United States Military Academy at West Point in June 1884. However, Suggs, a student at Lincoln University, failed the entrance examinations in arithmetic, geography and history. In fact, the only African-American to gain entry to West Point that year was Charles Young.
U.S. Military and Naval Academies, Cadet Records and Applications, 1800-1908 [database on-line], http://www.ancestry.com; Brian Shellum, Black Cadet in a White Bastion: Charles Young at West Point (2006), page 36.
In March 1906, Noah J. Tate, Walter S. Hines and Joshua L. Tabron executed a lease-purchase agreement with Richard Renfrow for the entire contents of a barber shop, including four “hydrantic” chairs, four mirrored cabinets, a barber pole and eight water bottles. These items were “packed in R.E. Hagan’s Shop on Barnes Street,” which Tate, Hines and Tabron had purchased. Renfrow agreed to pay three dollars a week, plus insurance and taxes on the property. After 132 payments, Renfrow would own the barber shop. He paid at an accelerated rate, and the debt was cancelled before the end of the year.
In late September 1934, a surveyor walked the land of Mary Eliza Farmer and prepared a plat dividing it into five equal sections. Mary Eliza had inherited a life estate in the property from her husband Valentine Farmer, and upon her death or remarriage it was to pass to her children and step-children. The double line at the left edge of the plat denotes a road and fronting it, a pack house and dwelling are marked in the fourth strip of land.
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On 5 February 1882, Vaul Farmer, 52, married Mary E. Ruffin, 43, in Wilson County.
In the 1900 census of Toisnot township, Wilson County: farmer Valintine Farmer, 70, wife Mary, 58, children Mattie, 30, Elizabeth, 26, Mary J., 24, and Elizar, 22, son-in-law Charly Freeman and daughter Carolina. All did farm work except Elizabeth, who was a cook, and Elizar, who was a schoolteacher.
In the 1910 census of Toisnot township, Wilson County: widowed farmer Mary L. Farmer, 64; daughter Mattie, 48; and granddaughter Mary Batts, 28.
In the 1920 census of Toisnot township, Wilson County: on Winstead Road, widowed farmer Mary Farmer, 75, and daughter Mattie, 40.
Mary Eliza Farmer died 31 October 1928. Per her death certificate, she was born 15 February 1836 in Wilson County to Bob Shelley and Minerva Barnes; was the widow of Vol Farmer; and her informant was Mattie Stallings.
Plat book 2, page 101, Register of Deeds Office, Wilson.