Month: March 2020

A Service of Memory for Mrs. Edith Winstead Ward.

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Joe Ward, 23, of Stantonsburg, son of P.W. and Cherry Ward, married Edith B. Winstead, 18, of Stantonsburg, daughter of William Heath and Amanda W. Williams, on 13 May 1924 at Edith B. Winstead’s house in Stantonsburg. Witnesses were Willie F, W.H. Jones and Lavenia Jones, all of Stantonsburg.

James Herman Ward died 25 August 1928 in Stantonsburg township, Wilson County. Per his death certificate, he was born 15 June 1927 in Wilson County to Joe Ward of Greene County and Edith Winstead or Wilson County. he was buried in Bethel graveyard.

In the 1930 census of Stantonsburg township, Wilson County: Joe Ward, 30, lumber company planer; wife Edith B., 22; and children Marie, 4, and Mildred, 2 months.

In the 1940 census of Stantonsburg township, Wilson County: Amanda Williams, 63, widow, domestic, and grandchildren William, 15, and Edward Jones, 11, and Marie, 14, Mildred, 10, Braxton, 9, and Preston Ward, 6.

Amanda Williams died 24 December 1955 in Stantonsburg township, Wilson County. Per her death certificate, she was born 3 May 1883 in Pitt County to Isaac Winstead and Jane Winstead and was a widow. Informant was Edith Ward, Stantonsburg.

Joseph Ward died 19 September 1971 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was born 5 May 1896 to Perry Ward and Cherry Speight; was married to Edith Ward; lived at 919 Poplar Street, Wilson; and his informant was Mildred Kirby, 125 Powell Street, Wilson.

Funeral program courtesy of Lisa R.W. Sloan. 

Larceny by negresses?

As usual, the 15 January 1924 Wilson Times mined the police blotter to publish titillating filler stories of alleged criminal activity by African-Americans. Here, two black women were arrested and charged with robbing “a Greek” of seventeen dollars. The women had proclaimed innocence, but a search netted $4.30 “concealed in the hair of Naoma.”

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Just below this clip, in the same column, another article — whose title and subtitle consumed as many column inches as the body of the piece — detailed the heavy penalty Mayor Silas R. Lucas imposed upon Norman Roberson for nearly running over a police officer and then cursing the officer out. And then, bizarrely, a paragraph setting out the follow-up to the charge above: “Mamie Roberson and Naomi Bryant, two negro women, charged with robbing Mike Greek were found not guilty and dismissed.”

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Wilson Times, 15 January 1924.

  • Mamie Roberson — in the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 506 Smith Street, widow Grace Roberson, 32; her cousin Mamie Roberson, 16; and roomer Annie M. Barnes, 16, tobacco factory laborer; all born in South Carolina.
  • Naomi Bryant
  • Norman Roberson — possibly the Norman Robertson, 24, son of Edward and Cherry Robertson of Suffolk, Virginia, who married Dora Hines, 20, daughter of James and Mary Hines, on 10 August 1914. Free Will Baptist minister Robert Dickins performed the ceremony at a Green Street location in the presence of Dock Barnes, Martin Cofield, and John Williams.

Cemetery records request update, no. 6: the removal of graves from Oakdale cemetery.

Here’s my most recent request for public records, made 25 February 2020 to the Wilson Cemetery Commission:

Under the North Carolina Public Records Law, G.S. §132-1, I am requesting an opportunity to inspect or obtain copies of the following public records related to the Old Negro Cemetery (also known as the colored cemetery, Oakdale or Oaklawn Cemetery) and Rest Haven Cemetery:

  • Any and all documents showing the identity of persons buried in the Old Negro Cemetery during the period of its active existence
  • Any and all documents related to the Old Negro Cemetery
  • Any and documents showing the identity of persons whose graves were moved from the Old Negro Cemetery to Rest Haven Cemetery in or before 1941
  • Any and all documents, including but not limited to maps, plats, surveys and photographs, showing the location of graves and grave markers in the Old Negro Cemetery at the time the City of Wilson or the Cemetery Commission moved graves from the Old Negro Cemetery to Rest Haven Cemetery in 1941
  • Any and all documents, including but not limited to maps, plats, surveys and photographs, showing the relocation of graves and grave markers to Rest Haven Cemetery from the Old Negro Cemetery in 1941

Oakdale was the cemetery located near present-day Cemetery Street. The request was spurred by this article.

The reply? The Cemetery Commission has no documents responsive to this request.

Mortality schedule, no. 5: Taylors 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 the decedent’s 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 a detail from the 1870 mortality schedule for Taylor township, Wilson County:

  • Taylor, Milbry. Age 29, farm laborer, died in November, [illegible] fever.

In the 1870 census of Spring Hill township, Wilson County: farm laborer James Taylor, 56; wife Charity, 61; and Delphia Taylor, 21; Jeremiah, 9, and Cornelious Person, 5; and Wesley, 4, and Henry Taylor, 4 months.

Church 1/2 acre excepted.

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In 1917, Atlantic Coast Realty prepared a plat map subdividing the James W. Hayes Farm near Elm City into ten parcels. The farm’s location is readily identifiable as the tip of the triangle formed by present-day East Langley and Haynes Roads. At the tip of the tip, this notation: “Church 1/2 A, Excepted.”

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The original Little Union Primitive Baptist Church!

Plat book 1, page 40, Register of Deeds Office, Wilson; aerial view courtesy of Google Maps.

The Latham-Farmer marriage.

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Wilson Daily Times, 8 March 1948.

The Daily Times‘ 8 March 1948 edition announced the marriage of Nelson T. Farmer and Almeter L. Latham. Their marriage license gives a few more details (and the correct spellings of attendees’ names.)

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  • Mr. and Mrs. James Lathan — James H. Latham, 21, son of Moses Latham and Fannie [maiden name unknown], married Marzella Jones, 19, daughter of Daniel H. and Lillie J. Jones, at the bride’s home in Wilson on 5 October 1924. Free Will Baptist minister E.W. Hagans performed the ceremony in the presence of Peller Chambers, William Uzzell, and James Brady. In the 1930 census of Williamston, Martin County: on State Highway No. 90, farmer James Latham, 24; wife Marzella, 24; daughter Almeta, 5; and sister Carrie, 15.
  • Almeter La Verne Lathan
  • Nelson Thomas Farmer — Nelson Thomas Farmer registered for the World War II draft in 1942. Per his registration card, he was born 10 November 1925 in Wilson County; his contact was father John Robert Farmer, Elm City; and he worked for S.S. Daniel, Elm City.
  • Mr. and Mrs. John Farmer — in the 1940 census of Taylors township, Wilson County: farmer Jhon R. Farmer, 53; wife Clee, 46; and children Robert, 22, Ruth, 19, Willie, 16, Nelton, 14, Marshall, 12, and Mary Ann, 10.
  • Rev. P.J. McIntyre
  • Jennette Cooper — Jeanette Cooper.
  • Dan H. Jones — in the 1920 census of Rocky Point township, Pender County, North Carolina: widowed farmer Daniel H. Jones, 40, and children Ellis, 17, Lottie, 14, Marsella, 13, Daniel H. Jr., 11, Minnie, 9, Alexandra, 7, and Pembrook, 6. In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 700 East Suggs Street, tobacco factory laborer Daniel H. Jones, 49; wife Lou H., 48; children Lottie, 23, Daniel Jr., 21, Alexand, 16, and Pembroke, 15; roomers Alexander, 23, and Minnie Yarborough, 20; grandchildren Hattie L., 16, David, 13, Marian, 24, and Etta Lewis, 21, James Maloyed, 6, and Mattie L. Lewis, 3; and roomer Willie Windley, 30.
  • Alice Jones
  • Rhody Jurify — Rhoda Jones Purefoy died 12 September 1969 in Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was born 11 November 1895 in Virginia to Dennis Jones and Sarah Eliza Miller; was a widow; and lived at 104 South Vick Street. Informant was Thaddeus Purefoy of the home.
  • Bert Farmer
  • Morris Farmer — in 1945, James Morris Farmer registered for the World War II draft. Per his registration card, he was born 4 June 1927 in Wilson County; his contact was John R. Farmer; and he worked “farming with father.”

The mayor explains.

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Wilson Daily Times, 19 February 1924.

Well into the 20th century, mayors presided over cases involving low-level crimes, much as a magistrate does today. In early 1924, Mayor Silas R. Lucas wrote a letter to the Times protesting its criticism of a $150 fine he levied upon an African-American woman accused of selling two Coca-Cola bottles filled with whiskey.

The facts, more or less per Lucas: the previous summer, a married white man and a (presumably unmarried) black woman were caught in a car at 11:30 P.M. Though the evidence (including a photograph of the man in the trunk of the woman’s car) established that the two were in a long-term relationship, both plead guilty to prostitution violations. Lucas sentenced each to 90 days in county jail. A week later, he saw the woman on the street, well-dressed, and learned that she was working at the county home (a “poorhouse”) by day and consorting with “her white lover” at night. As a result, Lucas now levied stiff fines on any woman who could pay them rather than sentence them to the leniency of a jail stint.

I have not been able to identify the woman who sold whiskey or the couple.

Negro cabins.

In 1914, Atlantic Coast Realty prepared a plat map showing the subdivision of Martin Applewhite’s Toisnot township farm into five parcels. The map shows the buildings on the property, in a “large house,” barns, and various dwellings, including two “Negro cabins.”

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Plat book 1, page 18, Register of Deeds Office, Wilson. (Sidenote: some of these hand-drawn plat maps really are things of beauty.)

The Joshua Barnes graveyard.

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In 1918, Annie H. Branch, widow of Alpheus P. Branch Jr., sold the farm that had been owned by her husband’s grandfather, General Joshua Barnes. The ubiquitous Virginia-based Atlantic Coast Realty prepared a plat map of the property, dividing it into fifteen parcels. A road, split into a Y at its top end on the map (which is oriented south to north) was the spine of the Barnes/Branch property. The family’s house is shown just below the joinder of the Y’s arms. Within them, a saw mill and graveyard.

Was this the Joshua Barnes graveyard in which undertakers Wootten & Stevens buried several African-Americans, including Susan Parker and Thomas Hardy in 1897?

A modern aerial of the area readily reveals the Barnes house, the roads (London Church Road and Corbett Avenue), and the canal boundary, but no evidence of a cemetery (or a sawmill). Was it moved? Plowed under? What happened to it and when?

Plat book 1, page 65, Register of Deeds Office, Wilson; aerial map courtesy of Google Maps.

Studio shots, no. 142: Minnie Locus Winstead.

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Minnie Locus Winstead (1895-1985).

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In the 1900 census of Toisnot township, Wilson County: tenant farmer Henry Locus, 36; wife Ida, 30; and children Minnie, 13, Joseph, 11, Lou, 9, Davis, 7, and Willie, 5.

Clarence Winstead, 20, of Nash County, son of Will and Mattie Winstead, married Minnie Locus, 18, daughter of Henry and Ida Locus, on 3 December 1914 in Taylors township. Baptist minister William Rodgers performed the ceremony in the presence of J.T. White, Eddie Farmer and Rosa B. White.

In the 1920 census of Toisnot township, Wilson County: Clance Winstead, 22; wife Minnie, 23; and children William, 4, and Madie, 1.

In the 1930 census of Taylors township, Wilson County: farm laborer Clarence Winstead, 35; wife Minnie, 38; and children William, 15, and Madie, 11.

In the 1940 census of Taylors township, Wilson County: farmer Clarence Winstead, 42; wife Minnie, 44; and adopted son Robert Featherson, 14.

Photo courtesy of Ancestry user cclemmiles.