Month: April 2021

Darden High School class of 1949’s 30th reunion.

Wilson Daily Times, 7 June 1979.

Darden High School’s Class of 1949 celebrated its thirtieth class reunion in 1979 at American Legion Post 17’s hall in East Wilson. Twenty-seven out of about 63 class members attended.

The Class of ’49 was Darden’s second to produce a yearbook, and here are the senior pages:

Henry Arrington Jr., Daisy Lee Artis, George Thomas Barnes, Mary Bernice Barnes, Katie Chestnut Barnes, Ruby Mae Blue, Samuel Wesley Bowens, George Thomas Brodie, Henry Tabron Brodie.

Jacobia Lorenzo Bulluck, Elnora Blanche Cooper, William H. Darden, Lorena Davis, William Lima Dew, Minnie Doris Ellis, Marie Everette, Levolyre C. Farmer, Mae Lillie Ford.

Charles Ervin Howell, Fredrick D. Jenkins, Robert Allen Jenkins, Elroy Jones, Joseph Jones Jr., Phoebe Arletha Jones, Flora Narcissus Little, Georgia Moore, Sarah Ruth Moore.

Daniel Edward Freeman, Joseph Thomas Freeman, Annie Mae Goodman, Gladys Lyvonne Goodman, Lucille Gorham, Helen Delzel Green, Agnes Angeline Harris, Joseph Holiday, Jasper Hoskins.

Addie Lucille Murphy, Louise Parker, Rosa Lee Payne, Eula Mae Reid, Margaret Reid, Bernice Roberson, Daisy Mae Robinson, Charlie Allen Roberts, Ivory Robinson.

Marjorie A. Robinson, Rosa Mae Roundtree, Fannie D. Rountree, Josh B. Rountree, Moses Rountree Jr., Christine Ruffin, William B. Short, James Arthur Simms, Mildred Simms.

Vera Elizabeth Smith, Rosa B. Sutton, Amos Tabron, Helen Robinson, Doris D. Williams, Robert Earl Williams, Annie Ruth Woodard, Fred Augustus Woods Jr., Earl Leonard Zachary.

At least two ’49 classmates — Agnes Harris Locus and Levolyre Farmer Pitt — will soon celebrate their 72nd class anniversary. Do you know of others?

[Update, 4/11/2021: John Stembridge reports that Mildred Simms, too, is looking forward to the 72nd anniversary of her graduation from Darden High School!]

Lane Street Project: Aaron Washington?

This broken concrete headstone is lying atop the square marble base of a grave marker that has gone completely missing. The legible part of the broken stone reads: DIED APR 2 192 and MAY THE RESURRECTION FIND THEE ON THE BOSOM OF THY GOD.

A search of Wilson County death certificates filed in the 1920s reveals this possible identification of the deceased. Aaron Washington died 2 April 1923 in Wilson. (The bottom curve of the last digit in the year, above, is consistent with a 3.) Per his death certificate, he was born 21 February 1866 in Freemont [Fremont, Wayne County], N.C., to Gray Washington and Julie Sharp; was married to Stella Washington; worked as a drayman; and lived on Waynewright [Wainwright] Street.

Aaron Washington’s mother Julia Sharpe Washington and son Alexander Washington died in 1913 and 1918, respectively. If the marker above is in fact Aaron’s, it is likely that his family members were buried near him.

——

On 10 August 1889, Aaron Washington, 21, married Stella Simms, 18, in Wilson.

In the 1900 census of Wilson, Wilson County: drayman Aaron Washington, 30; wife Stella, 25; and children Samuel, 12, Clera, 9, Ora, 3, and Aaron, 1.

In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on Spruce Street, Aaron Washington, 46, drayman; wife Stella, 36, laundress; and children Clee, 17, cook, Ora, 12, cook, Grey A., 10, Hattie, 8, Alex, 6, Beatrice, 5, Lillie R., 2, and James W., 1.

In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on Wainwright Street, Aaron Washington, 55; wife Stella, 40; and children Ava, 20, Hattie, 14, Beatrice and Lila, 12, James, 9, Dazelle, 7, Mary, 6, and Elmon, 5.

Photo by Lisa Y. Henderson, January 2021.

The 103rd anniversary of the school boycott.

Today marks the 103rd anniversary of the resignation of 11 African-American teachers in Wilson, North Carolina, in rebuke of their “high-handed” black principal and the white school superintendent who slapped one of them. In their wake, black parents pulled their children out of the public school en masse and established a private alternative in a building owned by a prominent black businessman.  Financed with 25¢-a-week tuition payments and elaborate student musical performances, the Independent School operated for nearly ten years. The school boycott, sparked by African-American women standing at the very intersection of perceived powerless in the Jim Crow South, was an astonishing act of prolonged resistance that unified Wilson’s black toilers and strivers.

The teachers.

The school boycott is largely forgotten in Wilson, and its heroes go unsung. In their honor, today, and every April 9, I publish links to these Black Wide-Awake posts chronicling the walk-out and its aftermath. Please read and share and speak the names of Mary C. Euell and the revolutionary teachers of the Colored Graded School.

we-tender-our-resignation-and-east-wilson-followed

the-heroic-teachers-of-principal-reids-school

a-continuation-of-the-bad-feelings

what-happened-when-white-perverts-threatened-to-slap-colored-school-teachers

604-606-east-vance-street

mary-euell-and-dr-du-bois

minutes-of-the-school-board

attack-on-prof-j-d-reid

lucas-delivers-retribution

lynching-going-on-and-there-are-men-trying-to-stand-in-with-the-white-folks

photos-of-the-colored-graded-and-independent-schools

new-school-open

the-program

a-big-occasion-in-the-history-of-the-race-in-this-city

They will tell the true story when they get home.

Northern Neck (Va.) News, 20 February 1880.

Who were the anonymous informants who “would rather live one year in North Carolina than to live to be as old as giants” in Indiana?

Not Joseph Ellis, whose testimony before Congress about Black migration from North Carolina to Indiana  declared that he was “well pleased with [his] situation.” On the other hand, Green Ruffin, who testified on 16 February 1880, was adamant that he never going back to Indiana if he could get home. Peter Dew and Julia Daniels shared similar sentiments in letters to the editor of the Wilson Advance.

Black businesses, 1913, no. 6: the 200 block of South Goldsboro Street.

Cross-referencing the 1912 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory and the 1913 Sanborn fire insurance map of Wilson reveals the specific locations of Black-owned businesses just after the turn of the century. Here’s a closer look at the 200 block of South Goldsboro Street, which was dominated by wholesale groceries and small restaurants.

In 1913, before he founded a funeral home, Columbus E. Artis operated a small eatery in a narrow brick building on South Goldsboro Street. Alexander D. Dawson, having closed his fish and oyster stall in the city market, ran a rival eating house across the street. 

Lane Street Project: Bessie Yancey McGowan.

Bessie Wife of John McGowan Born 1888 Jan 7 1925 Gone But Not Forgotten

At right, the headstone of Bessie Yancey McCowan looms amid a haphazard pile of more than a dozen grave markers  in Odd Fellows Cemetery. 

——

In the 1900 census of Wilson, Wilson County: ditcher Benjamin Yancy, 50; wife Angeline, 39, washing; daughters Lizzie, 19, Bessie, 18, and Gertrude, 16, all cooking; and son Willie, 16, at school.

John McCowan, 21, of Wilson, son of Sam and Anne McCowan, married Bessie Yancey, 21, of Wilson, daughter of Ben and Angline Yancey, on 5 August 1903 at William McCowan‘s residence. Levi Jones applied for the license, and Baptist minister Fred M. Davis performed the ceremony in the presence of Alonzo Taylor, [illegible] Williams, and Fannie Jones. 

In the 1910 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: brickmason John McCowan, 27; wife Bessie, 26, laundress; daughter Annie, 5; and father Sandy, 91, widower.

In the 1920 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: on Nash Street, brickmason John McGowan, 40; wife Bessie, 35; and daughter Beatriss, 13.

Bessie McCowan died 31 December 1924 in Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was born April 1884 in Goldsboro, N.C., to Benjamin Yancey and Angaline Houston; was married to John McCowan; and lived at 1203 East Nash Street, Wilson. John McCowan was informant.

Lane Street Project: April aerial.

Odd Fellows Cemetery from above, two days ago. I can’t stop marveling.

The dotted yellow line is the approximate boundary with Rountree Cemetery (12). Vick Cemetery is (13).

The dotted white line marks the approximate edge of the woods in 2020, then a nearly impenetrable wall of vegetation. Over the last three months, dozens of Lane Street Project volunteers have worked tirelessly to open up the cemetery’s interior, exposing to sunlight patches hidden for decades. Blooming wisteria can be seen at upper left, but the front and right sides of the cemetery are clear of this scourge.

The remaining numbers mark identified family plots (and a gate):

  1. the Dawson family.
  2. the Noah Tate family.
  3. the Oates-Farrior plot.
  4. the Jackson family.
  5. the Barnes-Hines family.
  6. the Hardy Tate family.
  7. the Vick family.
  8. the Foster family.
  9. the Mincey family.
  10. the Charlie Thomas family.
  11. former gate at entrance to access road; and 14. the Best family.

Shannon McKinnon, ShanSound Entertainment, answered my call for a quick turn-around on drone images of Odd Fellows and Rountree cemeteries. His prompt, professional service warrants a recommendation. 

Lane Street Project: April clean-up schedule.

Finally — a warm community clean-up day!

Please come out to Odd Fellows Cemetery on April 10 and 24 and join your neighbors in the clean-up of three historic African-American cemeteries. All are welcome!

This month, we really need your help:

  • Pruning shrubs and limbing up hollies around the Vick Cemetery monument
  • Cutting wisteria stumps in Odd Fellows Cemetery close to the ground for later defoliation treatment
  • Clearing underbrush and removing trash
  • Recording GPS coordinates for each grave marker (email me at lanestreetproject@gmail.com if you’re interested in this task)

Please protect yourself on-site — masks required, boots and gloves strongly encouraged. 

As always, THANK YOU!