Month: September 2022

Calvin Blount’s first land purchase.

In his 1909 will, Calvin Blount left to his “sons Wright Blount and Tillman Blount, whom I have not heard from in many years” a one-acre lot “on the edge of the Town of Wilson, State and County aforesaid, adjoining the lands of G.W. Sugg, Cater Sugg, and the Colored Cemetery….”

Blount had purchased that small lot in January 1867, less than a year after he was emancipated. He paid Richard Hines Blount, who was likely his former owner and a blood relative, $50 for the parcel, which was located just south and west of present-day Hines and Pender Streets.

Deed book 2, page 182, Wilson County Register of Deeds Office. 

 

Registered voters’ party affiliation challenged.

Tonight at Wilson County Public Library, Meredith College professor David McClennan and I spoke about voting rights and voter suppression, past and present. I focused on the campaigns of Dr. G.K. Butterfield Sr. for a seat on Wilson’s Board of Aldermen on the 1950s, but in my outline of the struggle leading up to his election I made reference to this sorry moment in Wilson’s voting rights history.

Wilson Daily Times, 10 June 1930.

In 1930, Democrats challenged the registrations of 39 African-American voters prior to a Democratic primary. Twenty-three of those challenged showed up at a hearing in which they were forced to answer questions about their political leanings and candidate choices. 

A committee of two Democrats and a Republican, all white, reclassified these voters as Independent, disqualifying them from the primary: 

These two were determined to have Republican sympathies, and therefore more properly registered as such:

  • Robert Haskins, an insurance agent who was lead plaintiff more than 40 years later in a lawsuit to abolish at-large voting for seats on the Wilson County Commission.
  • Ada Artis, nurse.

These 19 were allowed to keep their party affiliation: 

  • S.S. Boatright — Sidney S. Boatwright, barber.
  • John A. Barnes — in the 1930 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Barnes John A (c; Sarah) lab h 739 Lipscomb rd
  • Edgar Diggs, barber.
  • Woody Farmer, barber.
  • J.E. Kennedy — Rev. John E. Kennedy, A.M.E. Zion minister.
  • W.A. Mitchner — William A. Mitchner, physician.
  • L.A. Moore — Lee A. Moore, insurance agent.
  • J.W. Peacock — Junius W. Peacock, barber. 
  • Roscoe Williams — in the 1930 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Williams Roscoe (c; Mary) barber Oscar Williams h 1009 Queen
  • Nolly Zachary– Joe Knolly Zachary, barber.
  • Roderick Taylor, barber.
  • Boston Wellington — in the 1930 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Wellington Boston (c; Victoria) barber Chas S Thomas h 111 S Carroll
  • Sophie Artis
  • Mabel Ellis, nurse.
  • Mamie Ford, teacher.
  • Martha Haskins — probably, in the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 702 East Green, Addie Haskins, 50, cook and widow, and children Martha, 20, teacher, Addie D., 19, Gladis, 19, and Nathan, 32, tobacco factory cooper. 
  • Annie Leonard — perhaps: Annie Leonard died 13 September 1943 at Mercy Hospital in Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was 57 years old; was born in Macon, Georgia; worked as a nurse and midwife; lived at 512 Church Street; and was buried in Rountree cemetery. 
  • Mildred Taylor
  • Ethel Hines (by proxy, her husband Bill Hines)

African lecturer speaks to two audiences in Wilson.

Wilson Daily Times, 5 September 1916.

Accolades notwithstanding, I have not been able to find anything else about Dr. C.E. Chechzzli or determine more precisely where he was from. After the Scramble for Africa, five European colonizers — Britain, Italy, France, Belgium, and Germany — controlled parts of eastern Africa now comprising Somalia, Djibouti, Eritrea, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Malawi, Rwanda, and Burundi.  However, “East Africa,” in English-speaking countries, traditionally has been understood as the territory now comprising Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania.

Clipping courtesy of J. Robert Boykin III.

The death of Solomon Clark.

On early Wilson County death certificates, causes of death were very often less medical than philosophical. Solomon Clark was blind and suffering from debilitating maladies. When all was considered, Dr. William S. Anderson concluded Clark “was just worn out.”

“He had been blind and in feeble health for several years and he was just worn out.”

——

On 7 April 1887, Solomon Clark, 26, of Wilson County, married Dellar Braswell, 24, of Wilson County, at Dellar Braswell’s house in Wilson township. Free Will Baptist minister Solomon Arrington presided, and Frank Lipscomb, Mary Lipscomb, and Pattie Lancaster were witnesses.

I have found no other record of Solomon Clark.

Snaps, no. 99: Flora Thomas Knight.

Flora Thomas Knight (1892-1943).

——

In the 1900 census of Gardners township, Wilson County: farmer Alford Thomas, 36; wife Lou, 18; and children Sallie, 12, Florra, 9, and Mary T., 6 months; and servant Cora White, 17.

On 26 January 1908, Colonel Knight, 22, of Wayne County, son of George and Louisa Knight, married Flora Thomas, 18, of Wayne County, daughter of Alfred and Nelie Thomas, in Goldsboro, Wayne County.

In the 1910 census of Gardners township, Wilson County: farmer Colonel Knight, 24; wife Flora, 20; and son Willie, 1.

In the 1920 census of Gardners township, Wilson County: farmer Colonel Knight, 34; wife Flora, 28; and children Willie, 11, Nelia, 8, George, 7, Colonel, 4, and Percy, 2.

In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 717 Vance Street, Cullon Knight, 44; wife Flora, 37; and children Willie, 21, odd jobs laborer; George, 18, baker; Cullon Jr., 16, bakery delivery boy; Percy, 13; and Gladys, 9.

In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: Connel Knight, 55, tobacco factory laborer; wife Flora, 48; and children Percy, 23, chauffeur; Neal, 29, tobacco factory laborer; and Gladys, 19, tobacco factory laborer; grandsons Rudolph Ward, 13, and Ben Sellers, 3; and lodger Sylvester Woodard, 33, meat market delivery man.

Flora Knight died 15 December 1943 in Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was born 15 January 1892 in Wilson County to Alfred Thomas and Nealie Hagans; was married to Colonel Knight; lived at 706 Stantonsburg Street; and was buried in Rountree Cemetery. Gladis Hines was informant.

Photo courtesy of Ancestry.com user ______.

State vs. William Horn.

To stave off responsibility for caring for poor women and their children, unwed mothers were regularly brought before justices of the peace to answer sharp questions about their circumstances.

On 17 September 1866, William Horn, Eliza Horn, Ben Horn, and Lewis Barnes posted a bond for William Horn’s appearance in court to answer a charge that he had fathered Elizabeth Morris‘ child.

Probably, in the 1860 census of Black Creek township, Wilson County: Martha Morris, 60; Elizabeth Morris, 25; and Martha Morris, 2, with Zillah Morris, 11, next door in the household of John Saunders. In the 1870 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: domestic servant Elizabeth Morris, 33, and her children Zilla A., 17, Martha, 13, Henry, 7, and Elizabeth, 1.

I have not identified William Horn or his supporters with certainty.

Bastardy Bonds, 1866, Miscellaneous Records, Wilson County Records, North Carolina State Archives.

State vs. Albert Freeman.

To stave off responsibility for caring for poor women and their children, unwed mothers were regularly brought before justices of the peace to answer sharp questions about their circumstances.

On 1 October 1866, Martha Cooper admitted to Wilson County justice of the peace William G. Jordan that she had fourteen month-old and two month-old children whose father was Albert Freeman. Jordan ordered that Freeman be arrested and taken to a justice to answer Cooper’s charge.

I have not been able to identify either Cooper or Freeman.

Bastardy Bonds, 1866, Miscellaneous Records, Wilson County Records, North Carolina State Archives.

A survey of Negro laboring classes.

In 1931, Darden High School staff and students conducted a survey of 608 African-American families in Wilson to yield “a cross section of laboring conditions and opportunities offered negroes to make a living.”

The Daily Times took comfort in the lack of transience of the population, proclaiming cheerfully that this indicated a “very decided degree of contentment due to the opportunities offered in Wilson for making a living.” I reach a different takeaway.

Wilson Daily Times, 6 May 1931.