Month: October 2022

Pierce asks, “Will you do your part?”

Though I have not been able to find Fletcher F. Pierce‘s letter to the editor concerning the state teachers association, I did find these letters, published in sequence in the 26 September 1933 edition of the Wilson Daily Times.

Pierce was about 21 years old at the time and clearly had a voice that he was willing to use. In these letters, he first called on the Times to act on its commitment to justice for the laboring class by sharing information about the New Deal’s impact on low area wages.

Next, he called the employers of domestic servants to task for the abysmally low wages paid to these men and women (who were overwhelmingly African-American.) “Now how in the name of sound economics can these low salaries raise the standard of living in this town?,” Pierce asked.

Wilson Daily Times, 26 September 1933.

Reunions.

A quick chart I drew up.

Among the most rewarding aspects of researching for Black Wide-Awake are discovering, uncovering, and recovering lost family connections, both my own and others’. I was particularly excited to piece together the Taylor family puzzle, which linked three of my childhood friends. Wilson County is small enough that it’s not surprising that many of us share distant common ancestry, but just who those long-lost cousins are can be surprising indeed.

G.W. Joyner tells what he saw.

Wilson Daily Times, 17 October 1911.

That was on page 2. On page 8 of the same edition:

Wilson Daily Times, 17 October 1911.

George Washington Joyner came forward with eyewitness testimony that a white boy, rather than a Black man, had thrown a bottle that injured another white boy at a carnival.

Clipping courtesy of J. Robert Boykin III.

Susie J. Wilson, Jeanes instructor.

Page 32, Directory of the School Officials of North Carolina, October 1921.

The Jeanes Foundation funded educational and vocational training in rural African-American communities, primarily via teacher placement. Wilson native Susie J. Harris Wilson was a Jeanes Industrial Supervising Teacher in Anson County, North Carolina.

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In the 1880 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on Spring Street, house carpenter James Harriss, 35; wife Nannie, 35; children Susie, 13, Nannie, 11, Willie, 10, Mattie, 4, Jimmie, 2, and an unnamed infant girl, 2 months; and sister Susan Lawrence, 19, cook.

Susie J. Harriss, 23, of Wilson, daughter of James and Nancy Harriss, married James J. Wilson, 23, of Dalton, Georgia, on 5 January 1893 in Wilson. L.J. Melton, Presbyterian minister, performed the ceremony at the Baptist church in the presence of M.H. Cotton, S.H. Vick, and Edmund Pool. B.R. Winstead applied for the license.

In the 1910 census of Wadesboro, Anson County: clergyman James J. Wilson, 43; wife Susie, 43, a schoolteacher; and children Mattie M., 13, Frank T., 11, Nannie R., 8, Charles E., 6, and Ophelia, 4.

Frank Theodore Wilson registered for the World War I draft in Essex County, New Jersey. Per his registration card, he was born 1 January 1900; lived at 86 Oakwood Place, Orange, Essex County, N.J.; worked as a butler for George H. Hartford, 63 Ridge Street, Orange; and his nearest relative was mother Sudie Wilson, Wadesboro, N.C.

In the 1920 census of Wadesboro, Anson County: Presbyterian minister James J. Wilson, 52; wife Susie J., 52; and children Frank T., 20, Nannie R., 18, a teacher, Charles E., 16, Ophelia A., 13, and Lena, 8.

Susie J. Wilson died 13 October 1925 in Wadesboro, Anson County. Per her death certificate: she was 57 years old; was born in Wilson to Jas. Harris and Nancy Hill; was married to Rev. J.J. Wilson; and worked as county superintendent for the North Carolina Board of Education. Informant was F.T. Wilson, 213 Oakwood Drive, Orange, New Jersey.

13 year-old charged with manslaughter, sentenced to six months.

A sharp-eyed reader found more about Etta Parker‘s tragic death.

Greensboro Daily News, 24 December 1917.

Three weeks after Parker died, a grand jury charged Warren Barefoot, 13, with her murder. The state prosecutor agreed with “private prosecution” (what was that?) that manslaughter, rather than first-degree murder, was the appropriate charge and requested a bench decision. Judge Frank A. Daniels (brother of Josephus Daniels), taking into account Barefoot’s age and lack of intent, further reduced the charge to assault with a deadly weapon and sentenced the boy to six months in county jail. Daniels further recommended that Barefoot be hired out to his former employer during the term of his sentence. This, no doubt, was intended to keep the child out of confinement with grown men, but effectively meant that he was to be held in peonage.

Greensboro Daily News, 17 January 1918.

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In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 637 Broad Street, cook Julia Barefoot, 25, and children Ernest, 8, farm laborer, Warren, 7, Lizzie, 2, and Jessie, 6 months.

Many thanks to Sara Baker Partridge.

Mule races at the fair.

Wilson Daily Times, 30 October 1922.

If I understand this brief piece correctly, African-American horse owners sponsored two races for fair attendees riding mules. Who were the “colored horse owners”? Were Black owners or jockeys common in Wilson County in the 1920s? Who were the mule race winners? 

Clipping courtesy of J. Robert Boykin III.

“Tag days” to raise relief funds.

Wilson Daily Times, 17 October 1930.

On Saturday paydays in October 1930, representatives of the Colored Bureau of the Wilson Relief Association collected donations from tobacco factory workers to be used for upcoming winter aid.

Clipping courtesy of J. Robert Boykin III.

Who was Carey C. Hill?

As is often the case for African-Americans who lived and died prior to the early 20th century, there’s relatively little information readily available about Carey C. Hill.

The Tarborough Southerner, 20 October 1881.

I have not found him in the 1870 census, but on 4 April 1874, Cary Hill, 24, married Anna Pascal, 20, in Edgecombe County, North Carolina.

In the 1880 census of Tarboro, Edgecombe County: Cary Hill, 32, laborer, and wife Anna, 28.

The following year, Carey C. Hill was murdered.

On 28 November 1881, James H. Harris of Wilson applied in Edgecombe County for letters of administration for Hill’s estate. (Though he worked in Wilson and was well-known and well-respected there, Hill’s permanent residence apparently was in Tarboro.) Hill’s small estate was estimated at $100. Harris listed Hill’s heirs as wife Anna Hill and, curiously, Nannie Harris, Sarah Clark, Lucy Jones, Mary Lawrence, Susan Lawrence, James H. Lawrence, and Isaac Lawrence. (Nannie Harris was James Harris’ wife, and the Lawrences were children of Haywood and Eveline Lawrence of Caledonia township, Halifax County, North Carolina. Who were they to Hill and why were they — neither his spouse, nor children, nor parents — his heirs?)

Wilson residents G. Washington Suggs and Ned Barnes served as Harris’ sureties. (Or maybe William J. Harriss, as that’s whose signature appears on the bond below.)

A week earlier Murray & Woodard, a Wilson law firm, had written to W.A. Duggan, Clerk of Edgecombe County Superior Court, to vouch for James Harris, “quite a respectable colored man” who was “nearly related” to Anna Hill. Anna Hill was described as “mentally incapable of acting as administratrix,” but whether from grief or cognitive challenge we cannot say. The firm mentioned that Harris’ sureties were “not willing to trouble themselves to go to Edgecombe” with him, but vouched for their ability to give bond. Murray & Woodard acknowledged that Hill’s estate was small, but noted “there is talk of bringing suit against the parties who killed Carey,” but Ben May and John Gardner were out of state and not likely to return, and such talk was premature. In a short note pencilled in at the end of the letter, the firm added: “We will be responsible for the costs attending taking out administration. Give Harris the bill to hand to us.”

I have found nothing further about Carey Hill or his estate or the fate of his murderers.

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  • James H. Harris — in the 1880 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on Spring Street, house carpenter James Harriss, 35; wife Nannie, 35; children Susie, 13, Nannie, 11, Willie, 10, Mattie, 4, Jimmie, 2, and an unnamed infant girl, 2 months; and sister Susan Lawrence, 19, cook. (Was Susan James Harriss’ sister, or Nannie Harris’?)
  • G. Washington Suggs
  • Ned Barnes

Cary Hill Estate Records, North Carolina Wills and Estates, 1665-1998 [database on-line], http://www.ancestry.com.