Wilson County native Haywood Armstrong, son of Abraham and Cherry Armstrong, lead his family to Lonoke County, Arkansas, in the 1890s. Armstrong and his wife, Agnes Bullock Armstrong, reared 14 children and are buried in Hickory Grove cemetery near Scott, Arkansas. In the fall of 2020, their descendants came together for a cemetery clean-up. Lydia Bledsoe Hunter shared these images of the family’s work, as well as a commemorative family calendar developed to raise funds for ongoing upkeep.
The one hundred twenty-eighth 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.
908, 906 and 904 Wainwright St.
As described in the nomination form for the East Wilson Historic District, this house is: “ca. 1930; 2 stories; Miracle Tabernacle Church; traditional gable-end form and pointed-arch vent in gables rare example in district that retains weatherboarded facade.” [The building since has been clad in vinyl siding. It does not appear to be in current use.]
In the 1928 and 1930 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory, at 904 Wainwright: The Church of God (c).
Detail from the 1930 Sanborn fire insurance map of Wilson, N.C.
Wilson Daily Times, 29 November 1941.
As described in the nomination form for the East Wilson Historic District, this house is: “ca. 1930; Hattie Daniels rental house: shotgun with engaged porch and late turned porch posts; built for tenants by Daniels family, who lived at #908.”
No house is found at this address in the 1930 or 1940 censuses or in the city directories issued in the 1940s.
As described in the nomination form for the East Wilson Historic District, this house is: “ca. 1930; 1 story; Hattie Daniels house; bungalow with three-pile plan and gable-end form with hip-roofed porch; asphalt veneer; Daniels preached at the Miracle Tabernacle Church and began a day-care center behind her home in 1949; husband, Cleveland, was a [railroad] fireman.”
In the 1928 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Hardy Cornelius (c; Carrie) hlpr h 908 Wainwright Av.
In the 1930 city directory: Hardy Cornelious (c; Carrie) mill hd h 908 Wainwright Av
Wilson Daily Times, 12 January 1931.
In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 908 Wainwright, owned and valued at $1500, Cleveland Daniel, 40, fireman at city plant; wife Hattie, 38, saleswoman; and father-in-law Mack Owens, 60, farm laborer. All were born in Georgia.
In 1942, Cleveland Daniels registered for the World War II draft in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born 15 April 1897 in Warrengton, Georgia; lived at 908 Wainwright Avenue, Wilson; his contact was Mrs. Dora Godwin, 910 Wainwright; and he worked for the City Light Plant.
George Cleveland Daniels died at his home at 908 Wainwright on 19 August 1949. Per his death certificate, he was born 15 April 1897 in Warren County, Georgia, to Peter and Jane Daniels; was a fireman; was married to Hattie Daniels; was a veteran of World War I; and was buried in Rountree Cemetery.
Hattie Owens Daniels died 25 April 1979 in Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was born 4 July 1900 in Chester, Georgia, to Mack Owens and Mary Gardner; was a widow; resided at 908 Wainwright Avenue, Wilson; and was a minister and kindergarten teacher. Daughter Deborah Daniels was informant.
Katherine Elks shared several incredible photographs from an old family album. They depict Isabel Taylor, born about 1847 in what was then Nash County. She, her mother Annis, and siblings were the property of Henry Flowers. After Henry’s death, Isabel, her mother, and her brother Alexander “Elick” passed to his daughter Charity Flowers Taylor. Isabel Taylor died in 1929, and this and the other snapshots must have been taken within a few years of her death.
Many thanks to Katherine Elks and family.
The chapter concerning Nash County in the 1890 edition of Branson’s North Carolina Business Directory lists several “colored” teachers living in Wilson County:
Nunnie Barnes’ headstone.
Nunnie Barnes‘ headstone is one of the largest standing in the cleared section of Odd Fellows’ cemetery. She died on 26 August 1921 in Wilson. Barnes was unmarried and had no children, but left a sizable estate. W.M. Farmer and R.G. Briggs filed for letters of administration of estate, naming her siblings Sarah Joyner, Annie Alexander, and Sam Barnes as heirs and estimating her estate as a one-quarter interest in a house and lot at 604 Viola Street (worth about $500) and other property totaling about $2400.
Nunnie Barnes’ name is elusive in the record, but we can find glimpses of her family. (Her sister, Sarah Barnes Joyner, was featured in the post about her home at 609 Viola Street.)
In the 1870 census of Wilson, Wilson County: Ellis [Ellic] Barnes, 27, teamster; wife Frances, 25; and children Minnie [possibly Nunnie], 2, Mary, 1, and infant, 1 month.
In the 1880 census of Wilson, Wilson County: Alexander Barnes, 35, farmer; wife Francis, 33; Mannie [possibly Nunnie], 13, Stanley, 10, Louizah, 7, Sarah, 5, and Roscoe, 1. All were reported as born in Virginia, though Frances’ parents were described as North Carolina-born.
I have not found Barnes in the 1900 and 1910 censuses, but she appears in the 1912 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory as Nannie Barnes, a domestic living at 615 [now 609] Viola. Per her death certificate, she died 26 August 1921; was born 8 June 1885 in Wilson to Alexander Barnes and Frances Stevens; lived at 604 Viola; and worked for Roscoe G. Briggs, the bank and cotton mill president who helped settle her affairs. [Sidenote: Ned Barnes was Briggs’ coachman and lived on premises in 1900, per the census. Ned was the son of Willis and Cherry Battle Barnes, but there is no known relationship to Nunnie Barnes.]
604 Viola Street (formerly numbered 615 and 612) in the 1922 Sanborn fire insurance maps of Wilson, N.C. Now demolished, the house is described in the 1988 National Historic Register nomination form as “ca. 1908; 1 story; extensively modified triple-A cottage; Masonite-veneered.”
Nunnie Barnes’ foot marker.
Indiana was an early destination for African-Americans leaving North Carolina for perceived greener pastures. Several hundred free people of color migrated to Indiana in the 1830s and 1840s, but only two families have been definitively linked to the area that is now Wilson County. Another large migration circa 1880 was the subject of a Congressional inquiry. During the Great Migration, Indianapolis was a popular focus of migration.
We examined the connection between John H. Clark‘s father Harry Clark and Isabel Taylor here. Harry and Isabel were children of Annis Taylor, and all had been enslaved by Henry Flowers.
The will of Henry Flowers’ maternal grandfather, Edward Moore, who died in 1783 in Nash County, reveals interesting bequests, including “… to my loving Daughter Judah Flowers one Negro girl Named Nell …” and “… to my loving Daughter Elizabeth Moore one Negro [Wench?] Named Annis ….” Both Nell and Annis were already in possession of Moore’s daughters.
Judith Moore Flowers’ husband John Flowers legally owned Nell. John Flowers died intestate in early 1806, and his widow Judith quickly remarried Edward York. When the enslaved people belonging to Flowers’ estate were distributed in December 1807, York took possession of Primus, Nell, Annis and Will on Judith’s behalf. (Others distributed were Peter, Dorcas, Abram, Mourning, Jacob, Frank, Toney, and Joan.)
It appears that Nell passed from Edward and Judith Moore Flowers York to Judith’s son Henry Flowers and is likely the “old Negro woman Nelly” who died in 1845, per Henry Flowers’ estate records.
And what about Annis?
Recall that Edward Moore bequeathed an Annis to his daughter Elizabeth Moore. Was she the same Annis who, 24 years later, was part of John Flowers’ estate? And was this Annis connected to Annis Taylor, who was part of Henry Flowers’ estate in 1845? These and other shared names among the enslaved people belonging to the Moore-Flowers deserve a closer look.
For example, here is the bequest of Henry Flower’s grandfather, also named Henry Flowers, to John Flowers in his 1788 will:
Henry “Senior” directed that John receive a man named Primus (after the death of Henry’s wife Nanny) and three boys named Peter, Abraham, and Frank. Primus is surely the man Edward and Judith York took in 1807. It is possible that this is same Frank who is described as “old” in the lot drawn by John’s granddaughter Charity Flowers Taylor and her husband William in the 1849 distribution of the estate Henry “Junior.” And Peter is probably the Peter named in the lot drawn by Nancy Flowers Mann and her husband Claiborne in the 1807 distribution of John Flowers estate. The Manns moved to Mississippi some time after 1820, and may have taken Peter with them. There is also a Peter in the estate of Henry Flowers Jr. Was he perhaps a son, grandson or nephew of the first Peter?
Henry Flowers Will (1788), John Flowers Estate Record (1806), North Carolina Wills and Estates, 1665-1998 [database on-line], http://www.ancestry.com. Many thanks to Katherine Elks for bringing my attention to these possible connections, which I began to explore here. Stay tuned.
It first started to come together Christmas Eve a year ago when I fought my way into the thicket of Odd Fellows cemetery. At the time, I didn’t even know its proper name. Shaken by what I found, I posted a quasi-manifesto that included this passage:
I confirm that I’m feeling pretty reactive right now, but here are my initial thoughts on next steps for the reclamation of this important African-American burial ground, reaffirmation of respect for our dead, and restoration of common decency:
And then the pandemic.
Ten days ago, though, the Lane Street Project regained its legs and is putting into place a 2021 action plan. As we begin, what’s the status of last year’s “next steps”? In bullet-point order:
Vintage Santa, customized by my Mama circa 1972. Black Wide-Awake started at home.
Dr. Judy Wellington Rashid shares this excerpt, adapted for Black Wide-Awake, from her My Neighborhood Legacy Series: A Salute to the Educational Leadership of Rev. Hattie Louvenia Owens Daniels, Founder and Director of the Golden Rule Kindergarten 1944-1972 Wilson, NC.” Though it recalls a period after BWA’s focus, it offers a close look at the warm, rich experience that would have been familiar to children who attended Golden Rule earlier.
Dr. Rashid’s parents, Levi and Cora Greene Wellington, lived on Manchester Street from 1946 to 1978. Between 1957 and 1966, she and two of her siblings attended Rev. Hattie Daniels‘ Golden Rule Kindergarten at 908 Wainwright Street, just a block from their home.
Each morning, a family member dropped the children off at the front door of the house. As they entered the living room, Rev. Daniels and her daughter Deborah Ruth Daniels, greeted each child by name with a warm and welcoming “Good morning!” Once all the children had arrived, they stood together and responded in song — “Good morning to you!, Good morning to you!, We’re all in our places, with bright shiny faces, and how do you do? How do you do?” The Danielses asked each child how they were doing and if they had eaten breakfast. If they had not eaten at home, they were fed at no charge. The children then lined up as a group and marched out the back door to the school, a long building located to the left rear of the backyard. The remaining yard was the playground. Everything they learned was recited in song and rhyme — the alphabet, numbers, sight words, etc. Rev. Daniels rang a big hand bell to begin their daily recitations of the lessons they learned, to get their attention, or to signal a change in activity.
Throughout the school day, children formed a neat line for everything, including forays into the public. They marched everywhere, always staying in a neat line and looking straight ahead. Golden Rule’s children took field trips to sing on a local radio program, to the county fair, and the Wilson Christmas parade. Each year, they walked from the school to downtown Wilson to sing Christmas carols on the county courthouse steps. Rev. Daniels led the line of students while her daughter walked behind. Rev. Daniels’ students were known to have manners.
Judy Wellington Rashid graduated from Wilson’s R.L. Fike High School in 1970, completed college, and became a teacher. During her first few years teaching, she began to reflect on the invaluable academic lessons, respect for education, and order and discipline she received at the Golden Rule kindergarten. Shortly becoming a principal in 1977, she visited Rev. Daniels in her home. The old school building was still standing but not usable. Dr. Rashid went to thank Rev. Daniels for the great foundation that she had provided her in kindergarten. She also wanted to know if Rev. Daniels still had a book that she had used to teach her students, and indeed she did.
Rev. Hattie Daniels with a copy of Lillian Moore’s A Child’s First Picture Dictionary, first published in 1948.
On a 2004 visit to Wilson, Dr. Rashid noticed Deborah Daniels and another woman sitting on the porch of 908 Wainwright. Daniels recognized her, and they shared laughter over seeing each other again after so many years. Lillian Francis Lucas introduced herself and said she moved from Wiggins Street to the house next door to 908 Wainwright “when the highway came through.” She said she had come over to clean house and “wait on” Rev. Daniels. She remembered that “there were 60 students at the school at one time or the other,” aged three to five years. She also remembered that the school day would start around 5 or 6 A.M. and last until 5 or 6 P.M.
Rev. Daniels’ Wainwright Street home at left, a rental property she owned at middle, and the church she pastored at right.
Deborah Daniels’ chimed in: “my mother housed, clothed, fed, and took care of me from Elvie School, Catholic School, Sallie Barbour School, to Darden High School”. Dr. Rashid closes: “May God forever bless the educational legacy of Rev. Hattie Daniels and her daughter Deborah Ruth Daniels.”
Golden Rule kindergarten in 1964. The Wilson Daily Times printed the photo, submitted by James Boyette, in its 9 July 2002 edition.
Photos courtesy of Judy Wellington Rashid.