Month: April 2020

What happened to Wiggins Street?

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Wilson Daily Times, 19 September 1968.

Several posts have referenced the disappearance of Wiggins Street, which once ran from the Atlantic Coast Line railroad to Stantonsburg (now Pender) Street, broke for a block, then resumed at Manchester to merge with Wainwright Avenue at Reid Street.

Wiggins Street per the 1922 Sanborn fire insurance map of Wilson, N.C.

The planned route shown in the Daily Times in September 1968 was approved, and Wiggins disappeared under an extension of Hines Street from South Lodge through what was then Factory Street, over the railroad, and on to a merger with East Nash Street.

The Clarks and Taylors: reconnecting an enslaved family.

While researching for the Henry Flowers estate piece, I noticed that John H. Clark was informant on the death certificates of Isabel Taylor and Alex Taylor, children of Annis Taylor and Henry (last name uncertain). What was Clark’s connection to this family?

Detail from death certificate of Isabel Taylor, who died 26 October 1929 in Wilson. 

The crucial clue: Katherine Elks mentioned that Henry Flowers’ youngest daughters married brothers John P. Clark and Sidney P. Clark. Their father, Pomeroy Phineas Clark, had brought his family from Connecticut to Nash County to set up a sawmill that supplied lumber for the construction of the Plank Road from Raleigh to Greenville. In 1851, he set up wagon and buggy factory in Wilson. (His employee Willis N. Hackney went on to found the carriage-making shop that became Hackney Brothers Body Company.)

John P. Clark is listed in the 1860 slave schedule of Wilson County as the owner of five enslaved people. One was a 19 year-old male, the correct age and sex to have been Harry Clark, John H. Clark’s father. John P. Clark was a 21 year-old newlywed at the time of the census. Where he had obtained five slaves? Had his wife Nancy Flowers brought them into the marriage?

Detail from the 1860 slave schedule of Wilson district, Wilson County.

Recall the distribution of Henry Flowers’ enslaved property. In 1850, the group was divided into three lots. Lot number 3 included a boy named Harry. Though existing estate records do not specify, it’s reasonable to assume that Lot 3 went to Nancy Flowers when she achieved majority some years later. When Nancy married John P. Clark, he assumed legal control over her property, which included Harry. (The 25 year-old woman was likely Peggy, who was also in Lot 3, and the children were probably hers. They were born after the 1850 division of Henry’s property and thus were not named.)

Harry was one of the children of Annis, as were Isabel and Alex. Harry adopted the surname Clark after Emancipation, while his siblings adopted Taylor, the surname of their last owners, William and Charity Flowers Taylor. So, what was John H. Clark’s connection to Isabel and Alex Taylor? He was their nephew.

Many thanks to Katherine Elks.

The obituary of Eleanor F. Hooker.

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Wilson Daily Times, 18 October 1944.

The first line of defense is on the home front.

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Wilson Daily Times, 27 December 1941.

Negro Home Agent Jane Amos Boyd highlighted the efforts of homemaker Henrietta Ruffin to insure an ample food supply for her family and community. Ruffin canned 674 quarts of fruits, vegetables, and meats; bought 460 baby chicks; and sold more than eighty dollars worth of surplus eggs and chickens at a curb market.

Though Ruffin had a Pitt County address, she lived between Saratoga and the Wilson-Pitt County line and was a member of the Yelverton Home Demonstration Club.

——

In the 1910 census of Saratoga township, Wilson County: on Howards Path, farmer Jesse Ward, 26; wife Arey, 32; and children William, 14, Walton, 10, Henrietta, 10, Susan, 6, Kizie, 5, and Juanita, 1 month.

Charlie Ruffin, 21, of Saratoga, son of Ida Ruffin, married Henretta Moore, 18, of Saratoga, daughter of Ara Moore, on 25 January 1920 in Saratoga township. Washington Littles, a Disciples minister, performed the ceremony in the presence of William Dupree, Henry Stewart, and Arluster McNair, all of Saratoga.

In the 1920 census of Saratoga township, Wilson County: on Fountain Road, farmer Charles Ruffin, 19; wife Henrietta, 19; mother Ida, 50, widow; sister Daisy, 13; and niece Mary, 12.

In the 1930 census of Saratoga township, Wilson County: farm laborer Charles Ruffin, 30; wife Henritta, 28; and children Bertha, 9, Charles Jr., 8, James R., 6, Juntia, 2, and Gladis L., 10 months.

In the 1940 census of Saratoga township, Wilson County: farmer Charles Ruffin, 39; wife Henretta, 38; and children Bertha, 19, Charles, 17, James R., 16, Juanita, 12, Gladys Lee, 10, Christine, 8, Bruce, 7, Bertie Mae, 4, and Curtis, 10 months.

Henrietta Moore Ruffin died 29 November 2004.

The first entry.

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“Kept By the Register of Deeds: The Life History Could Be Your Own,” David Witherspoon, Wilson Daily Times, 24 August 1963.

This paragraph from an article about Wilson County’s Record of Deeds Office asserts that the first entry in county death records was for a three month-old African-American girl.

The town of Wilson began recording sporadically in 1909, and the county followed in 1913. However, as digitized in Ancestry.com’s database of North Carolina death certificates, Wilson County’s first death of 1913, recorded January 1 of that year, was for two day-old A.L. Darden Jr., a white child. In fact, the death certificate this article describes is nowhere to be found in the digital database in the month of January.

Found in Contentnea Creek.

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Wilson Daily Times, 27 April 1938.

In the 1900 census of Wilson, Wilson County: John Ellis, 48, day laborer; wife Marry, 50, washing; and children Antney, 21, and Alex, 18, draymen, James, 16, Marry, 14, and Delphia, 8.

James Ellis, 45, daughter of John and Mary Ellis, married Viola Keath, 35, daughter of James and Edmonia Perrington, on 6 January 1934 in Wilson.

James Ellis died 16 April 1938. Per his death certificate, he was born 22 March 1884 in Wilson to John Ellis and Mary Daniel; lived at 621 Suggs; was married to Viola Ellis; and worked as a laborer. His cause of death: “suicide by drowning in creek/body found 4-26-38.”

The estate of John Flowers.

We examined documents related to the people enslaved by Henry Flowers here. A look at the estate records of his father John Flowers, who died in 1806, reveals that several men and women had been held by the family for almost half-a-century.

Dr. John Vick and William Moore were administrators for John Flowers’ estate. As was common, they hired out four men (and rented out two plantations) for the years 1806 and 1807.

On 5 December 1807, a committee prepared a valuation of the twelve African-Americans comprising Flowers’ human chattel. They were Primus ($250), Peter ($450), Abram ($400), Frank ($425), Toney ($300), Jacob ($150), Will ($125), Annis ($5), Nell ($300), Dorcas ($300), Mourning ($200), and Joan ($175).

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The same day, the committee divided the enslaved into four lots, and Flowers’ heirs drew for them. The first lot — Primus, Nell, Annis and Will — went to Flowers’ widow, Judith, who had remarried to Edward York. The second lot — Peter and Dorcas — went to Claiborne Mann for his wife Nancy, Flowers’ daughter. The third lot — Abram, Mourning, and Jacob — went to son Edward Flowers. The last — Frank, Toney, and Joan — went to son Henry Flowers.

Nell, Annis, Peter, Abram, Toney, and Frank, and Jacob share names with enslaved people listed in Henry Flowers’ estate. In 1807, Nell was a woman in her prime. She is likely the Nelly who died forty years later during the probate of Henry Flowers’ estate. However, Annis, whose valuation in John’s estate likely indicates old age, appears to be a namesake for the other Annis listed with her children in Henry Flowers’ estate records. Census records indicate that the latter Annis was born between 1810 and 1818. Similarly, Henry Flowers’ Peter was born well after John Flowers’ Peter. There is insufficient evidence about Abram, Toney, and Frank.

John Flowers Estate File (1806), Nash County, North Carolina Wills and Probate Records, 1665-1998 [database on-line], http://www.ancestry.com.

Thanks again to Katherine Elks for alerting me to this rich trove of documents.

Poll tax list, Taylors township, 1902.

Of the 130 men who paid poll taxes in Taylors township, Wilson County, in 1902, I can identify forty-four as African-American. North Carolina’s 1900 constitutional amendment added literacy requirements to paying poll taxes as prerequisites to voter eligibility. Thus, despite having paid their taxes, most of the men here — except those descended from free men who had voted prior to 1867 — had been recently disenfranchised.

Page one of the 1902 poll tax list for Taylors township.

Poll Tax Lists (1902), Tax Records, Wilson County Records, North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh.

Snaps, no. 67: Happy Easter!

Easter in East Wilson, 1967.

My mother and I on Easter Sunday, just before my sister was born. Henderson Cooke owned the house we rented at 1401 Carolina Street. The trees in the near background were in an empty lot with a garden owned by Jesse T. McPhail, who lived at 1316 Carolina. The endway house visible over my shoulder is 1326 Carolina Street, built about 1917.