Month: May 2021

Memorial Day celebration at Rountree Cemetery.

Wilson Daily Times, 27 May 1932.

On Memorial Day 1932, Henry Ellis Post #17 of the American Legion led a group in a march from post headquarters to Rountree Cemetery [which was probably actually Odd Fellows or Vick Cemetery.] There, they held a program that “includes song services and public speaking at which special tribute will be paid to the soldiers of all wars who sleep in Roundtree’s cemetery.”

[Note: Via Lane Street Project, I had hoped to be able to arrange a ceremony with Post #17 for this Memorial Day. Perhaps in 2022.]

American Legion Post 17’s memorial services.

Wilson Daily Times, 27 May 1921.

Studio shot, no. 176: James Edward Barnes.

James Edward Barnes (1926-1955), in his World War II uniform.

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In the 1930 census of Black Creek township, Wilson County: Frank Barnes, 22, farm laborer; wife Iantha, 17; and children James E., 4, and Oza, 1.

In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 311 New Bern Street, owned and valued at $700, John Scott, 82; wife Sarah, 42, cook; son-in-law Fate Daill, 38, tobacco factory laborer; Fate’s wife Iantha, 32, tobacco factory laborer; their children Ollie, 15, and Clyde, 10; and grandchildren James, 14, Inza, 13, and Atha Barnes, 12.

James Edward Barnes registered for the World War II draft in 1944. Per his registration card, he was born 26 February 1926 in Wilson County; lived at 410 Lane Street; his mailing address was 1018 1/2 Wainwright Avenue; was unemployed; and his contact was Iantha Dale.

On 26 May 1947, James Edward Barnes, 21, of Wilson, son of Frank Barnes and Iantha Scott Barnes, married Dorothy Lee Watson, 18, daughter of John McNeal and Virginia Pendergrass, at Watson’s grandmother’s house in Toisnot township. Elder William Mercer performed the ceremony in the presence of Joseph Knight, Leland Pendergrass, and Jannie Barron.

James Edward Barnes died 5 December 1955 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was born 29 February 1926 in Wilson County to Frank Barnes and Iantha Scott; was married; was a World War II veteran; worked as a candy cook for Acme Candy Company; and lived at 307 Lane Street, Wilson. Informant was Dorothy Lee Barnes.

Dorothy Watson Barnes applied for a military headstone for James Edward Barnes on 6 December 1955 via Talmon Hunter of Hunter’s Funeral Home. The application indicated that he served in the U.S. Navy as a Steward’s Mate 2nd Class between June and November 1944

Photo courtesy of Ancestry.com user scottywms60.

The Omegas’ last chapter meeting of the year.

Though chartered in Wilson, Omega Psi Phi (not Chi) fraternity’s local graduate chapter included members from several eastern North Carolina counties. Here, a brief announcement of their chapter officers.

Wilson Daily Times, 17 May 1940.

Poppy Day.

Wilson Daily Times, 20 May 1930.

Snaps, no. 84: Rev. Hattie Daniels’ home.

Dr. Judy Wellington Rashid shared these photos she took during a visit with Rev. Hattie Daniels‘ daughter Deborah R. Daniels in 1981, two years after Rev. Daniels’ death.

This remarkable framed portrait depicts Rev. Daniels as a young preacher, circa late 1920s or early 1930s. [In my years of searching for and collecting early 20th-century African-American photographic portraits, I have never seen one like this. I fervently hope that this one is safe somewhere with the Daniels family.]

Below, Rev. Daniels’ house at 908 Wainwright Avenue. Just visible behind it, at left, is the building that housed her Golden Rule kindergarten. It has been demolished. Rev. Daniels’ house is now empty and boarded up, and the boxwood hedge, ornamental tree, and small front garden have been ripped out.

The view from Rev. Daniels’ porch toward a line of endways (“shotgun”) houses on the south end of Vick Street. The houses were originally on South East Street. In the early 1970s, when Wiggins Street was eliminated for the extension of Hines Street across newly built Renfro Bridge, East was cut off from Hines by a barricade, and the continuation of Vick across Hines was slightly rerouted. Only three of the endways remain — on the Hines end of the block. All have been renovated within the last twenty or so years.

Many thanks to Dr. Judy W. Rashid.

County schools, no. 19: Stantonsburg School.

The nineteenth in a series of posts highlighting the schools that educated African-American children outside the town of Wilson in the first half of the twentieth century. The posts will be updated; additional information, including photographs, is welcome.

Stantonsburg School

Stantonsburg School is listed in “Survey File Materials Received from Volunteer Surveyors of Rosenwald Schools Since September 2002.” 

In 1926, state assistant agent for Negro schools William F. Credle prepared a report on Wilson County’s Rosenwald schools. It included this notation: “Stantonsburg: This is a three-teacher building building similar to the Saratoga [school] building. However, the building and grounds were in better condition. As in the other schools the chimneys should be provided with terra cotta thimbles and the equipment should be reconditioned and more seats should be provided. This building is provided with a stage which should be removed as it takes up a large part of classroom space in one of the classrooms and its location makes it necessary for the seats to face in the wrong direction. If a stage is permitted in any small building, it should be a removable affair to be used only for public exercises and at commencement time. The sanitary privies at this school were provided with pits and were in very good condition. There is evidence that the teachers at this school took a pride in their work and in the buildings.”

Location:  A 1936 state road map of Wilson County shows Stantonsburg School on present-day N.C. Highway 58, just northeast of Stantonsburg. It appears that it is placed outside its actual location because the map is rather cluttered in the town proper. Stantonsburg Colored School stood on North Whitley Street, on the far east side of Stantonsburg.

The former site of Stantonsburg School in the block bounded by North Whitley Street and West Macon Avenue, Stantonsburg.

Per sale advertised for several weeks in the Wilson Daily Times in the fall of 1951: “STANTONSBURG COLORED SCHOOL in Stantonsburg Township, containing 2 acres more or less, and more particularly described as follows: BEGINNING on Whitley Street at a stake, thence South 62 [degrees] West 280 feet to a stake, thence North 28 [degrees] West 295 feet to a ditch, thence with the center of the ditch North 55 [degrees] 29′ East 281.7 feet to a stake, thence South 28 [degrees] East 327 feet to the beginning. Being the identical land described in a judgment recorded in Book 146, at page 343, in the office of the Register of Deeds of Wilson County.”

Known faculty: principal Arnold G. Walker.

Stantonsburg School as seen in a 1940 aerial photograph.

Photo by Lisa Y. Henderson, September 2020.

One of the most attractive schools.

Richmond Planet, 8 May 1920.

Wilson is not “a town about twelve miles from” Raleigh (it’s 46 miles), and there were two schools for African-American children in Wilson County called Barnes. One, Rosenwald-built, was on today’s Airport Road. The other was apparently adjacent to Barnes Church, just north of Stantonsburg on modern Old Stantonsburg Road. Both have been demolished. This post almost certainly refers to the Airport Road school.

The park should be named in his honor.

In 1980, the Mary McLeod Bethune Women’s Civic Club petitioned Wilson Parks and Recreation Director Burt Gillette to name a new city park for Oliver Nestus Freeman. Their letter contains interesting details of Freeman’s life, including more about his amusement park and the focus of his real estate development.

The petition was successful.