City directories offer fine-grained looks at a city’s residents at short intervals. The 1922 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., directory reveals the types of work available to African-Americans during the booming tobacco era. This post is the first in an alphabetical series listing all “colored” directory entries for whom an occupation was listed. The address is the resident’s home, unless a business address is noted.

• Adams, Bessie, domestic, 107 South Carroll
• Adams, Ella, cook – Wilson Sanatorium, 410 South Goldsboro
• Adams, Gertrude, proprietor – Lynnhaven Hotel, 537 East Nash
• Adams, James, laborer, 105 West Walnut
• Adams, Jesse, laborer, 1114 East Nash
• Adams, Millie A., nurse – Wilson County Home
• Adams, Ned, laborer, 704 Walnut
• Adams, Roy, tobacco worker, 604 South Daniel
• Aiken, Georgie, domestic, 120 Pender
• Alexander, England, laborer, 511 Warren
• Alexander, Lillie, domestic, 511 Warren
• Allen, Henry, laborer, 523 South Lodge
• Allen, Jesse, laborer, 527 South Lodge
• Allen, Mary, laundress, 609 South Spring
• Alston, Lucy, dressmaker, 417 Walnut
• Alston, Robert T., jeweler, 552 East Nash
• Alston, William, farmer, Mercer near Five Points
• Anderson, Ed, porter, 213 Manchester
• Anderson, Mabel E., dressmaker, 202 South Vick
• Anderson, Mary, domestic, 608 Stantonsburg Road
• Anthony, James, dressing, 113 Pender
• Armstrong, Alice, tobacco worker, 521 South Lodge
• Armstrong, Bessie, tobacco worker, 645 Wiggins
• Armstrong, Ernest, barber, 510 Railroad
• Armstrong, James, laundress, 523 Stemmery
• Arrington, Allie, shoe polisher, 213 East Spruce
• Arrington, Ernest, ice cutter, 705 South Lodge
• Arrington, Levi V., carpenter, 206 North Reid
• Arrington, Mary, laundress, 404 South Goldsboro
• Arrington, Roxie, cook, 711 Robinson [Roberson]
• Arrington, William, laborer, 711 Robinson
• Artis, Columbus E., proprietor – The Delicatessen, 308 Pender
• Artis, Emma, laundress, 310 East Walnut
• Artis, Ezekial, drayman, 407 Bank
• Artis, James, bellboy, 518 East Nash
• Artis, Pauline, tobacco worker, 514 Smith
• Artis, Peter, confectioner, 502 East Nash
• Artis, Plummer, eating house, 901 East Nash
• Artis, Sumner, cement worker, 1108 East Nash
• Atkinson, James, tobacco worker, 307 Stantonsburg Road
• Austin, Alice, tobacco worker, 208 East Jones
• Austin, James, laborer, 507 East Green
• Austin, Samuel, tobacco Worker, 208 East Jones
• Aycock, Pat, tobacco worker, 414 South Lodge

Notes:

• “Domestic” likely encompassed domestic work done both within one’s home (i.e. the work of a “housewife”) and for an outside employer.
• The Wilson Sanatorium, founded in 1896, was Wilson’s first hospital. It was located on East Nash Street next to what is now Imagination Station.
• The 1922 Sanborn map reveals that the Lynnhaven Hotel was a boarding house occupying the second and third floors of a four-front commercial building at 535-541 East Nash.

• The Wilson County Home was likely the “poor house” located beyond southern city limits on Goldsboro Street.
• A “dresser,” perhaps, was a valet.
• Wilson Ice & Fuel Company was located on South Lodge at the Norfolk & Southern Railroad.