Month: February 2022

Coley v. Artis, pt. 4: I stated the fact.

The fourth in a series excerpting testimony from the transcript of the trial in J.F. Coley v. Tom Artis, Wayne County Superior Court, November 1908. The dispute centered on 30 acres of land. Thomas “Tom Pig” Artis began renting the property in 1881 from William J. Exum, a wealthy white farmer. In 1892, Exum’s widow Mary sold the land to Napoleon Hagans. Hagans died in 1896, and the land passed to his sons Henry and William S. Hagans. In 1899, Henry sold his interest to his brother William, who sold the 30 acres in 1908 to J. Frank Coley, a young white farmer. Tom Artis laid claim to the property, arguing that Napoleon Hagans had sold it to him. Coley filed suit and, after hearing the testimony of more than a dozen witnesses, the court decided in his favor. (Paragraph breaks and some punctuation have been inserted for better readability.)

Plaintiff introduces John Rountree who being duly sworn, testifies as follows:

I know Tom Artis. I heard him say that the cotton was for rents. I heard that for the last 14 years. I collected the rent for W.S. Hagans for several years. I heard Tom allude to it as rents. I heard last September after the land was sold, that it was interest. I never heard anything but rents to that time. I had a conversation with Tom, and carried a message to Hagans for Tom. This last Fall Tom came over to the gin house where I was ginning, and said to me that he understood that Hagans was going to sell the 30 acres piece of land, and said to me to tell Hagans if he pleased not to sell till he gave him notice, because he wanted to buy it. I delivered that message to Hagans. Hagans said alright he would sell it to him as soon as anybody, but he didn’t want to sell one piece at the time. We didn’t talk about the sale to Coley.

CROSS EXAMINED.

I have lived at W.S. Hagans’ for about 18 years. I farm at Hagans’. I rent land. I pay him 1/3. I collected Tom’s rent along in the Fall. Hagans has asked me to go to Tom and ask him to send his rents. Uncle Tom sometime would bring the rent and Hagans wasn’t there, and he would give it to me to keep for Hagans. Tom called it rent when Pole Hagans was living. (Plaintiff objects.) I wasn’t there when he sent it to W.J. Exum. While Mr. Exum was living, I didn’t see Tom taking his cotton there. I didn’t tell Hagans that I would swear the old man always called it rent. I had no right to, I didn’t tell the lawyers I would swear to that. I stated the fact that he always called it rent. I told Tom that Hagans had sent me for the rent two or three times. I knew it was rent. I told Hagans that I had his rent from Tom. I told Coley that the old man called it rent last summer. They had me subpoenad before then. I told him Tom always called it rent. I told Mr. Coley’s lawyers that last summer. I never told Hagans, he knew it.

This would have been a wearyingly familiar vista to John Rountree, Tom Artis, William Hagans, and the other farmers involved in this litigation.

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John Rountree, born about 1859, was the son of Fannie Rountree and lived in Nahunta township, Wayne County, all his life. However, by 1880 his widowed sister Rhoda Daniel Harris and her sons Benjamin, Edwin [Edward], and Carroll Harris had moved ten miles or so into Wilson, where she found employment as a cook for the family of Willie [Wiley] and Eliza Rountree Daniel. Eliza Daniel was a daughter of Lewis and Elizabeth Daniel Rountree, and John Rountree and Rhoda Daniel Harris may have been linked to her family during slavery. John Rountree’s great-nephew, brickmason Benjamin A. Harris, son of Edward Harris, is featured here and here and here.

Near murder.

Wilson Daily Times, 15 February 1917.

  • Clarence Carter — possibly, but not likely, Clarence L. Carter.
  • George Shaw — George Shaw registered for the World War I draft in 1917 in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born 22 June 1889 in Johnston County, N.C.; lived on Viola Street, Wilson; had a wife and child; and his occupation was “loafering & sick.” He had “1 bad eye — blind in it.”
  • Dr. Gilliam — Matthew S. Gilliam.

Clipping courtesy of J. Robert Boykin III.

The death of Mildred Lassiter Sherrod.

Mildred Sherrod and son Earnest, circa 1942.

Wilson Daily Times, 5 February 1943.

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Mildred Sherrod was only 20 years old at her death. She was buried in Rountree Cemetery.

[Note: her surname was spelled two different ways in this death notice — Sherard and Shearard — and the family now uses the spelling “Sherrod.”]

Photo courtesy of Angelia M. Sherrod.

 

If you are out of work.

Wilson Daily Times, 15 February 1932.

As the Great Depression deepened, Henry Ellis Post No. 17, American Legion, collected names of unemployed workers and sought employers willing to hire.

  • Thomas Cook — Per his World War I service card, Thomas Cook, 619 Stantonsburg Street, Wilson, was born 18 May 1894 in Wilson and inducted into military service on 19 July 1918. He served in Companies A and B of the 147th Labor Battalion and was discharged on 31 May 1919.
  • Nathan Haskins
  • J.W. Pitt — John W. Pitt (or Pitts) registered for the World War I draft in 1917 in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born 4 August 1891 in Newberry, South Carolina; lived on Vance Street, Wilson; and worked as a carpenter in Wilson for “Mr. Lassiter of Rocky Mount.”
  • Dr. G.S. Butterfield — Dr. George K. Butterfield.
  • H.M. Fitts — Howard M. Fitts.
  • A.N. Darden — Arthur N. Darden.
  • Henry Ellis Post No. 17

North Carolina World War I Service Cards, 1917-1919, http://www.ancestry.com

Coley v. Artis, pt. 3: I never heard anything but “rent.”

The third in a series excerpting testimony from the transcript of the trial in J.F. Coley v. Tom Artis, Wayne County Superior Court, November 1908. The dispute centered on 30 acres of land. Thomas “Tom Pig” Artis began renting the property in 1881 from William J. Exum, a wealthy white farmer. In 1892, Exum’s widow Mary sold the land to Napoleon Hagans. Hagans died in 1896, and the land passed to his sons Henry and William S. Hagans. In 1899, Henry sold his interest to his brother William, who sold the 30 acres in 1908 to J. Frank Coley, a young white farmer. Tom Artis laid claim to the property, arguing that Napoleon Hagans had sold it to him. Coley filed suit and, after hearing the testimony of more than a dozen witnesses, the court decided in his favor. (Paragraph breaks and some punctuation have been inserted for better readability.)

Plaintiff introduces Jonah Reid who being duly sworn, testifies as follows:

I have heard Tom Artis say that he was going soon to pay his rent with cotton to [William S.] Hagans. I don’t know how often I have heard him speak of that, I have heard him say something about it several times when rent was due. I didn’t hear him say what lands. Some times he was cultivating the three pieces, sometimes the 30 acre piece. I am his son-in-law. I never lived with him. Live back of his house. Never heard him call it anything but rent cotton, not interest cotton. (Defendant objects.)

CROSS EXAMINED.

I told Hagans that I heard the old man say he was going to pay his rent, that was along in September, I think this past September. The only reason I told him was he asked me. He came by where I was working on the road. He asked me how long I had been in the family. I told him 16 years. He asked if I had ever heard anything but rent. I told him no. That’s why I told him. That’s all he asked me. Tom worked the three pieces, then afterwards the 30 acre piece. That’s all I remember Hagans said. I didn’t know there had been a suit about the land. Hadn’t had the suit yet. I said I didn’t like to say anything about my father-in-law. Hagans didn’t tell me that he Artis was claiming that he was paying interest. I just answered what he asked me. I told him I had never heard any thing but “Rents.”

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Lane Street Project: save the dates.

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“If you want to do something beautiful, do this. If you want to do something healing, do this. If you want to learn about Black History in Wilson, go here. I participated in this project last year, and those were my takeaways.”  — Mahalia Witter-Merithew

“Working with the Lane Street Project has added to my understanding of the past, love of the present, and hope for our future.”  — Castonoble Hooks

PLEASE JOIN US!

513 East Green Street.

The one hundred-fifty-second 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.

Perhaps the oldest commercial structure in the District, the facade of the grocery’s parapet is spitting bricks out onto the sidewalk.

As described in the nomination form for the East Wilson Historic District, this building is: “ca. 1908; 1 story; Mercer’s Grocery; brick, parapet-front grocery; one of the major groceries in the district.”

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513 East Green Street was originally numbered 518. Like all of the large grocery stores in East Wilson, none of its owners were African-American. 

Jesse J. Amerson is the first known owner, commuting from his home on West Green  Street nine blocks to the store.

Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory (1908).

Four years later, the city directory showed Samuel D. Moody as the owner. Moody lived at 301 Pender, just beyond the Vance Street boundary between Black and white sections of Pender. 

Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory (1912).

Moody sold wood from a lot on the Green Street side of the grocery. Detail from Sanborn fire insurance map of Wilson, N.C., 1913. 

Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory (1916).

Circa 1921, Larry Giles Boyette and Bernon S. Holdford took over the grocery and operated it together for most of the decade.

Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory (1922).

Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory (1925).

Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory (1928).

The 1930 city directory shows that Boyette operated the store solo and had renamed it with his middle name, Giles. 

 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory (1930).

However, this 1932 ad reverts to Boyette & Holford. [What curious exhortations — “Stop Hoarding!” “Put Your Slacker Dollars to Work.”]

Wilson Daily Times, 21 March 1932.

In the summer of 1940, Giles advertised Onslow County pork products. (I have not been able to determine if there was something special about ham and bacon from the Jacksonville area.) As we’ll see below, this iteration of Giles likely had a different owner than the earlier. 

Wilson Daily Times, 20 August 1940.

In 1947, W.R. Lang and A.R. Lafferty filed a notice of dissolution of their partnership, which had operated Giles Grocery at 513 East Green.

Wilson Daily Times, 16 August 1947.

Per the 1950 city directory, the store continued to operate under the name Giles Grocery. In the 1957 directory, it was named Jim Mercer’s Grocery and remained known as Mercer’s for the next three decades.

In the mid-1980s, Harrell’s Grocery added 513 East Green to its small stable of corner groceries.

Wilson Daily Times, 21 January 1986.

However, the store was once again known as Mercer’s in the late 1980s and remained so until at least 2001.

Photo by Lisa Y. Henderson, December 2022.