Month: December 2022

The apprenticeship of Amos Exum (1869).

On 2 October 1869, a Wilson County Probate Court judge ordered 21 month-old Amos Exum bound as an apprentice to Walter Lane until he reached 21 years of age.

I found neither Amos Exum nor Walter Lane in other Wilson County records.

United States Indenture and Manumission Records, 1780-1939, database at https://familysearch.org.

The estates of Jesse and Patience Aycock.

Revolutionary War veteran Jesse Aycock (1743-1823) lived in the Nahunta area of Wayne County, N.C., but owned property in what would become Black Creek township, Wilson County. This property included the land upon which Lower Black Creek Primitive Baptist church stood; he bequeathed the parcel to the church in his 1822 will.

The Aycocks attended Lower Black Creek P.B., as did their slaves. Church records mention a woman Hannah owned by Jesse Aycock, and Briton(?) and Peter, owned by Aycock’s second wife, Patience Aycock.

Jesse Aycock drafted his will on 7 November 1822. To his wife Patience, he left a lifetime interest in “four negroes by names Jacob Peter and two by name of Haner.” (In other words, the four were Jacob, Peter, Hannah, and Hannah.)

Aycock owned additional slaves, as evidenced by a subsequent provision: “I leave all my Negroes that I have not lent to my wife to be sold with Balance of my Estate.” The proceeds were to be used to pay off his debts, and any remainder was to be distributed among his children and grandchildren.

Further, after Patience Aycock’s death, Jesse Aycock’s enslaved people were to be sold, with “Peter and Haner to be sold together.” (Presumably, they were a married couple and perhaps were elderly.)

Jesse Aycock died in 1823, leaving many dozens of heirs by his first wife and an estate whose settlement dragged on for decades.

Patience Aycock drafted her will on 4 June 1824. Though she had life estates in her husband’s slaves, she could not devise them to anyone, and her will only mentions a woman named Rose, who was to go to her son Joel Newsom.

The inventory of Patience Aycock’s estate, made in November 1827, confirmed that she owned only one enslaved person outright:

“An Inventory of the Property of Patience Acock Deecast Late of Wayne County Taken the 3rd of November 1827 by Hardy Williamson”

Will of Jesse Aycock (1822), Wayne County, North Carolina, U.S. Wills and Probate Records 1665-1998, http://www.ancestry.com; Estate of Patience Aycock (1827), Wayne County, North Carolina, U.S. Wills and Probate Records 1665-1998, http://www.ancestry.com.

African-Americans dismissed or excommunicated from Lower Black Creek P.B. church, part 6.

Lower Black Creek Primitive Baptist Church, founded in 1783, was the second church organized in what is now Wilson County. (It closed its doors in 2010.) The church’s nineteenth and early twentieth-century records includes names of enslaved and freed African-American members, who worshipped with the congregation as second-class Christians even after Emancipation.

This page continues with names of members “dismissed by letter,” i.e. voluntarily, to join another church, as well as members excommunicated for serious infractions. The page includes references to 14 enslaved African-Americans, including one man cast out for disobeying his mistress. (Bless his heart.) As Primitive Baptists did not practice infant baptism, the 14 were, if not adults, then nearly so, and thus were all born in the 1700s or early 1800s. Some may have lived to see Emancipation, but even if they remained in Wilson County, I have no way to identify them further.

Dismissals by letter:

  • Haywood, a servant of John Sherrod
  • Hanah, a servant of James Aycock sen’r
  • Hannah, a servant of James Aycock sen’r
  • Hannah, a servant of Godfrey Stancil 
  • Rose, a servant of W. Fort

Excommunications:

  • Harry, a servant
  • Kedar, a servant
  • Moses, a servant
  • Samuel, a servant
  • Harry, a servant
  • Peter, a servant of Patience Aycock charged with Disobedience to his Mistress
  • Ann, a servant restored to fellowship
  • Kedar, a servant
  • Harry, a servant

Copy of documents courtesy of J. Robert Boykin III. Originals now housed at North Carolina State Archives. 

The last will and testament of Zealous Howard Sr.

We have read here, here, and here of Zealous “Deal” Howard Sr., who was born a free person of color in what was then Nash County, N.C., and developed relative wealth as a farmer and landowner in Taylor township, Wilson County. Howard died in 1911, leaving a detailed last will and testament executed in 1905. Some of the land he owned still remains in the hands of his descendants.

After directing payment of his debts and funeral expenses, Howard bequeathed:

  • to son Ira Howard, five dollars, noting that Ira had already received 37 acres of land;
  • to son Dock Howard, five dollars and nothing more (though he noted that Dock had previously received “advances”);
  • to daughter Anner Blackwell, a lifetime interest in a 4 1/4 acre tract of land, with the remainder to Anna’s daughter Lydia Blackwell and any other children;

  • to son Zelius Howard, a lifetime interest in a 38 3/4-acre parcel of land on Cabin Branch, with the remainder to his children;
  • to son Kenyon Howard, his “home tract” containing 50 7/8 acres on Cabin Branch, with the remainder to his children if he had any, and if not, to be divided equally among Anner Blackwell, Zelius Howard, Jesse Howard, and Mary Taylor (or their children, if they are deceased);

  • to son Jesse Howard, a lifetime interest in a 42 1/2-acre tract, with the remainder to his children;
  • to son Allison Howard, a lifetime interest in a 42 1/2-acre tract, with the remainder to his children if he had any, but if not to daughter Mary Taylor (or her children if she were dead);

  • to son James Gilbert Howard, a lifetime interest in the rest of his property, consisting of the 27 1/2-acre “Nelson Eatmon tract” on Big Branch and the 25 1/2-acre “Wood Eatmon land,” with the remainder to his children;
  • all his personal property to daughter Mary Taylor or her children.

Lastly, Zealous Howard appointed Devit Moore executor of his will.

About five weeks after executing this will, Howard executed a codicil that added a provision for his son George Howard, leaving him one dollar in addition to property he had already given him.

The will was not well-received. Kenyon Howard, Anna Howard Blackwell, and Allison Howard filed a caveat in order to challenge the validity of the document.

Receipt filed for publication of notice re estate action.The caveat filed to contest Zealous Howard’s will.

A jury heard In re Will of Zelius Howard during Wilson County Superior Court’s February Term, 1915, and Judge George W. Connor issued a judgment finding the will valid.

Will Book 4, page 406, Office of Clerk of Superior Court, Wilson County Courthouse, Wilson; Estate of Zelius Howard (1911), Wilson County, North Carolina Estate Files, http://www.familysearch.org.

Soldier convicted for diverting American supplies to French black market.

Wilson Daily Times, 26 December 1944.

A Turner Harris registered for the World War II draft in Union County, Pennsylvania, in May 1945, and his registration card was sent to a local draft board in Washington, D.C. Harris was born 8 September 1923 in Rocky Mountain [sic; Mount], North Carolina; lived at 67 N Street N.W., Washington; and his contact was mother Maggie Whitehead. However, if this is the man the Times speculated about when “it was learned later,” the paper seems to have placed blame on the wrong Turner Harris. The Turner Harris whose family moved to Washington, D.C., did not register for the draft until five months after Harris the black marketeer was convicted and sentenced to 30 years.

However, records of United States Army Enlistments, found online at Ancestry.com, show that a Turner Harris, born in 1922, resident of Wilson, N.C., enlisted at Fort Bragg, N.C., on 3 June 1941. I have found no other details of his service.

206 South Powell Street.

This house lies a block beyond the border of the East Wilson Historic District on a lot carved from land once owned by Oliver and Willie Mae Hendley Freeman.

The legal description of this lot is: “Beginning at a stake at Daniels corner running along Daniels line 140 feet to a stake westerly; cornering, thence southerly 50 feet to a stake; cornering, thence easterly 140 feet along Freeman line to a stake on Powell Street; cornering, northerly on Powell Street to the beginning 50 feet. It being the identical property conveyed to Preston Ward and wife, Edna Ward by deed of O.N. Freeman and wife, Willie Mae Freeman dated November 22, 1924 and recorded in Book 153, Page 470, Wilson County Registry.”

——

In the 1925 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Ward Preston (c) plstr Powell nr Finch

In the 1928 and 1930 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Ward Preston (c; Edna) plstr h206 Powell

In the 1930 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: on Powell Street, owned and valued at $1200, Preston Ward, 27, public building plasterer; wife Edna, 26; and children Preston, 10, Elonzy, 8, Johnie, 6, Janie, 5, Virginia, 3, and Sylvester, 8 months.

Edna Ward died 2 January 1939 in Wilson township, Wilson County. Per her death certificate, she was 35 years old; was born in Wilson County to Jesse Taylor and Martha Ellis; and lived on Powell Street, Wilson.

In the 1940 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: on Powell Street, widower Preston Ward, 38, building plasterer; sister Annie, 26; and children James P., 20, building plasterer, Alonza, 18, Johnny Lee, 17, Rosa, 14, Virginia, 12, Sylvester, 10, Ruby, 8, Doris, 6, and Golden, 2.

In the 1940s, the address of this house seems to have vacillated between 206 and 224 Powell.

In the 1941 and 1947 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Ward J Preston (c; Pauline) plstr h206 Powell; Ward J Preston jr plstr h206 Powell

In 1941, James Preston Ward Jr. registered for the World War II draft in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born 1 January 1920 in Wilson County; lived at 305(?) Powell Street, Wilson; his contact was James P. Ward Sr., 305 Powell Street; and he worked for Jones Bros. & Co., Wilson.

In 1942, James Preston Ward registered for the World War II draft in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born 15 August 1903 in Wilson County; lived at Route 4, Box 24, Wilson; his contact was C.L. Darden, 108 Pender Street; and he self-employed as a plasterer.

In 1942, Alonzo Ward registered for the World War II draft in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born 20 August 1921 in Wilson County; lived at 224 Powell Street, Wilson; his contact was Preston Ward, 224 Power Street; and he worked for Preston Ward [sic], Marine Corps Air Station, Cherry Point, N.C. The card is marked “deceased.”

In 1942, Johnnie Lee Ward registered for the World War II draft in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born 15 April 1923 in Wilson County; lived at 224 Power Street, Wilson; his contact was Preston Ward, 224 Power Street; and he worked for T.A. Loving & Co., Marine Corps Air Station, Cherry Point, N.C.

Alonzo Ward died 21 July 1944 at N.C. Sanatorium, Quewhiffle, Hoe County, N.C. Per his death certificate, he was born 23 August 1921 in Wilson to Preston Ward and Edna Taylor; was single; was a student; and lived at 224 Powell Street, Wilson.

On 10 September 1965, the Daily Times reported that James P. Ward had been granted a license for an addition to his house:

Photo by Lisa Y. Henderson, September 2022.