Month: September 2023

Lane Street Project: response to the 23 July 2023 records request, part 1.

Yesterday, I received 961 pages in response to my 23 July 2023 public records request. Some of documents duplicate information already in my possession, such the final GPR report. Other pages duplicate one another, as various email threads are forwarded or responded to by multiple City employees and elected officials. In a series of posts, I’ll share the documents I consider most informative, both substantively and in terms of what they reveal about the City of Wilson’s collective approach to dealing with Vick Cemetery (and me).

First, the request itself. With (1), I sought documents that would explain New South Associates’ specific reasons for returning in June to mark the edges of Vick. With (2), the scope of the survey work Bartlett was contracted to perform. With (3), in the absence of any communication from the City, I sought documents revealing any plans for work at Vick. With (4), again in the vacuum created by the City’s lack of responsiveness, I sought documents that would show whether they were speaking with subject matter experts about Vick. With (5), I sought to ascertain whether the City was communicating with anyone in the descendant community.

Let me cue up the first exhibit. After the May 11 Vick Cemetery open forum, Councilmember Gillettia Morgan and Mayor Carlton Stevens asked me to send them some quick-hit items they could take to council quickly. I sent this email on May 24. (The highlights were later added by someone to whom the email was forwarded.)

On June 16, after learning the City had not and would not obtain a survey map be provided for the survey I’d requested, I sent Morgan and Stevens this email (highlights added by someone else):

Neither Morgan nor Stevens responded to me. Rather, one of them forwarded the email to City Manager Grant Goings. Goings forwarded both my emails to the mayor and council with this message:

Let’s break this down:

  • “Several have complained ‘goalposts being constantly moved’ on Vick Cemetery and some have concluded that true resolution is not goal of all parties.” 

Goings wrote this email on June 16, less than two months after the City turned over the Vick Cemetery GPR report it had been sitting on for more than six months. It’s not clear who “several” are. Councilmembers? City officials? More critically, how could the goalposts be moved when we have no idea where they should be set? We learned only in April of the approximate number of graves in Vick. Only two of seven council members came to the open forum convened for discussion of the report. City officials do not respond to emails about Vick. They do not ask questions. They don’t share information. The City has yet to propose any kind of “resolution,” much less a true one, for Vick’s future. Instead, city representatives talk behind their hands and accuse Vick descendants of acting in bad faith.

  • “Please read the two emails below. The first email request [sic] that the 4 corners of the cemetery be surveyed. The second email blasts the City and claims we are doing things ‘on the cheap’ and ‘behind closed doors’, for doing exactly what was requested in the first email. Intentionally moving goalposts to continue conflict is not anything new. It is a tactic used frequently in politics by all kinds of groups. However, it is rare to actually catch proof in writing like we have below.”

First, on 30 December 2019, in my first letter to mayor and council, among other things I stated: “For clarification of the boundaries of Vick cemetery and the Rountree and Odd Fellows cemeteries adjacent to it, I request a plat map of the property.” So, actually, I’ve been quite consistent on this point. However, Goings is correct that my May 24 email was inartfully worded. In my experience, getting a survey to determine the boundaries of a parcel of land results in a survey map that shows rights-of-way, property lines, surface features, etc. It never occurred to me that the City would ask the surveyor to do no more than place stakes. Hence my June 16 email to Morgan and Stevens asking for clarity — an email that Goings and the anonymous “several” see as a smoking gun of bad intent.

Since 2019, when I began asking questions about Vick, the City’s posture has been defensive, rather than engaging. My persistent attempts to get to the truth about Vick have required that I grope about in the dark because the City will shine no light on the subject without compulsion. I’m puzzled that Grant characterizes my requests for information and action as “political.” I’m not a representative or agent of the political body that pulled headstones out of the ground, lost or destroyed them, and ran power poles through two cemeteries. I have no motive to “continue conflict,” but I know who might.

  • “I’m not sure where ‘once again the City is trying to deal with Vick on the cheap’ comes from. My recollection is that Council spent over triple what was originally requested for the radar scan. You also have instructed us to find attractive, and more expensive, fencing options, etc.”

Goings isn’t sure because he hasn’t asked. Let me refresh his recollection re the GPR scan. When the mayor first raised this issue to council, a Cemetery Commission employee hazarded a guess about the cost. When the City actually got a quote from industry leader New South Associates, the cost was much higher. After some grumbling among council members, they agreed to pay it. As for the attractive, expensive fencing options, Goings is once again missing the point. Maybe the fence is workable option. Maybe it’s not. But before we talk about pretty fences, we need to talk about these power poles. And the unscanned graves in the public right-of-way. And other matters that more likely than not will cost money. (Money that doesn’t have to come from local taxpayers, by the way. Other cities and organizations are getting tens of thousands of dollars in grants or other funding for historic African-American cemeteries. You know why? Because they’re actively seeking it.)

  • “Considering the numerous false allegations to date, the evidence below, and the fact that Ms. Henderson has publicly and in writing falsely accused your Communications Director, Assistant City Manager, City Engineer, and City Manager of being untruthful and/or unethical, I think it would be wise for the City to establish alternative communication relationships to represent Vick’s best interests. In no means do I wish to diminish the valuable research Ms. Henderson has contributed or the volunteer efforts she leads to clean up the private cemeteries. I do not know her nor intend to judge or defame her as she has done to staff. However, the City relying on her as the ‘voice’ of the public on this issue is appearing to be, at best, a questionable practice…”

The first part apparently is reference to my comments here. While strongly critical of certain actions taken by public officials, my remarks are in no way defamatory. I suggest Goings brush up on the First Amendment. This paragraph does get at the heart of things though. Goings (and perhaps the “several”) don’t like my style. They apparently don’t like my refusal to shut up or back down. I get it. No one wants to dwell on destroyed headstones and power poles in cemeteries, and I’m sure it would be easier to deal with someone compliant and undemanding. But Grant Goings doesn’t get to decide who represents “Vick’s best interests” or who acts as the “voice of the public” concerning this sacred space. (Thanks for the compliment though.)

Four days later, Councilman Michael Bell responded to Goings:

Bell repeats the moving goalposts charge and makes a startling suggestion. “… [W]e need to establish if the additional graves are within or out of the surveyed boundary. If the additional graves are within the surveyed boundary then if would be our responsibility.” Does Bell not understand that the surveyed boundary marks modern boundaries, not the boundaries of the cemetery when it was in use? The deed for Vick notes it covers 7.84 acres. The present-day estimate is 7.75 acres. That .09 acres is likely the strip of land now included in the public right-of-way. We know there are graves in that strip of land. Is Bell actually suggesting that the City bears no responsibility for what happens to these dead?

“As I said, we need to be careful,” Bell continues. “Let’s hope the fencing will resolved [sic] this situation. Moving the goalposts will not help the effort. If we allow the area of the cemetery to be expanded then the next discovery might be 50 feet to the north or south. Then we find ourselves in a delicate situation.” Wow. If nothing else, I guess, I appreciate Bell’s candor.

As for the fable of the man, the boy, and their donkey, the moral of the story is that everyone has their own opinion, and there is no way one can satisfy all. I’m struggling to apply this lesson to the situation at hand, but Gillettia Morgan apparently is not, for she responded to Bell, “Very well said.”

Lane Street Project: response to the 18 August 2023 request re power poles.

Yesterday, I received responses to my July 23 and August 18 requests to the City of Wilson for public records concerning Vick Cemetery. Below is the response to the August 18 request, which concerned the power poles we recently deduced were placed in Vick Cemetery after the site had been cleared of headstones, graded, and adorned with a single monument.

As set forth in the letter below beginning at the third paragraph, the City has not located any documents related to the planning and installation of power poles in Vick and Rountree Cemeteries. Its sole responsive documents are references to data and maps found in the GPR report or at the City of Wilson’s GIS website. It provided screenshots of those images, which I have excerpted below. Bottom line: the poles were manufactured in 1997, which confirms they were installed no earlier than that year.

 

The red lines present power lines. The power poles are represented by blue dots. Date was provided for four steel poles, which are marked with blue rectangles. I have been way off with my estimates of their height. The first (closest to the substation) is 95 feet in height. The rest are 90 feet. If 90 to 95 feet is the height above ground (and not the length of the pole), the section of pole below ground is roughly 11 to 11.5 feet. In the middle of graves.

The poles were last inspected eight years ago and were found to be in good condition. What happens when they need to be replaced?

Plantation House Series: Callie S. Braswell house, known as Hawthorne.

Hawthorne was one of four antebellum plantation houses included in the Upper Town Creek Rural Historic District. Forty years after nomination, none are standing.

Hawthorne in 1980.

Per the National Register of Historic Places Inventory — Nomination Form for Upper Town Creek Rural Historic District, prepared by Kate Ohno in 1982, the family of Callie (or Cally) S. Braswell (1828-1893) were long prominent in this area of the county. Braswell began acquiring land in the 1840s, and bought his home site around 1853. He married Martha Ann Trevathan in 1855, and the couple probably built Hawthorne shortly after.

At the November 1847 term of Superior Court, heirs of Benjamin Braswell, which included Callie S. Braswell, filed a petition for the division of the elder Braswell’s slaves. The petition names Lewis, Zilly, Amy, Warren, Amos, Lettice, Albert, Boston, Esther, Arden, Prissy, Charlotte, Eliza, Drew, Hilliard, John, Elisha, and Lina as the group to be divided. The court appointed W.D. Petway and David Williams, among others, to set values and apportion them, but no report identifying each heirs’ allotment can be found in Braswell’s estate file.

In the 1850 slave schedule of Edgecombe County, Cally S. Braswell is listed with ten enslaved people — women and girls aged 80, 30, 20, 6, and 1, and men and boys aged 18, 13, 10, 8, and 5.

In 1860, the slave schedule recorded twelve enslaved people occupying three houses for Calla S. Braswell: women and girls aged 42, 26, 13, 11, 11, 6, 4,  and 2, and men and boys aged 26, 15, 9, and 9. [The inconsistency in ages suggests considerable turnover during that decade.]

In 1866, Hilliard Braswell and Annis Batts registered their 6-year cohabitation with an Edgecombe County justice of the peace. In the 1870 census of Gardners township, Wilson County: Hilliard Braswell, 29, farm laborer; wife Anniss, 41; and son Gray, 4; with Austin, 16, and Frank Batts, 13. Next door: Boston Braswell, 29, farm laborer; wife Eliza, 38; son Henry, 10; and Georgeana Jenkins, 15. In 1866, Boston Braswell and Eliza Williams had registered their 5-year cohabitation with an Edgecombe County justice of the peace.

In 1866, Amos Braswell and Lettis Braswell registered their 12-year cohabitation with a Wilson County justice of the peace. In the 1870 census of Upper Town Creek township, Edgecombe County: Amos Braswell, 44, farm laborer; wife Lettace, 36; and children Sophy A., 16, William Ann, 15, Amanda, 13, Burtin, 7, Willis, 5, Jordan, 3, and Arden, 2.

In 1866, Pricilla Braswell and James Armstrong registered their two-year cohabitation with a Wilson County justice of the peace. In the 1870 census of Gardners township, Wilson County: Augustus Armstrong, 30, wife Pricilla, 22, and children Sallie, 4, Stella, 2, and William, 4 months. [Is James Armstrong the same person as Augustus Armstrong? Augustus was the son of Quinnie Braswell, who registered his 33-year marriage to Venus Braswell in 1866.]

Former site of Hawthorne, off East Langley Road near the Edgecombe County line.

Lane Street Project: Councilwoman Morgan makes her pitch.

Over the past several weeks, the Wilson Times has been highlighting candidates for council and mayor. Gillettia Morgan got her turn in the September 17, 2023. She’s running for re-election for the District 1 council seat. [“… In the community, some people say, ‘Gillettia doesn’t talk. Gillettia isn’t being seen.’ …,” Morgan said. But I digress.]

Kudos to the Times for asking for Morgan’s stance on Vick Cemetery, which is not only in her district, but she can practically see it out her front door. Here’s that part of the article, with my annotations.

Morgan went on to say:

Vick Cemetery must be a big, rather than a little fire, because this is not my experience with Councilmember Morgan. Despite my outreach to her since 2019, we had our first and only substantive conversation about Vick Cemetery after the May 11 open forum about the discovery of 4,224 graves. At that time, she and Mayor Carlton Stevens promised transparency and accountability. However, she has not responded to my emails since June 1. Here’s the last one, which I sent to her and the other three council members that attended the Vick Cemetery Reconsecration. (To be fair, NONE of them responded.)

More important than responding to me, Councilmember Morgan has taken none of these actions. When New South Associates presented the GPR report at the August 17 council meeting, she asked no questions and made no remarks. She is hung-ho for a fence around Vick, but didn’t inquire how one could safely be erected, given New South’s caution against disturbing graves.

“Mov[ing] behind the scenes” does not engender transparency and accountability. “Behind the scenes” got us gravestones tossed into a landfill (or wherever they are.) As I remarked via email to Councilmember Michael Bell two weeks ago, this is not an issue that can be remedied via behind-scenes deals between city officials. Councilmember Morgan is not solely responsible for Vick Cemetery’s fate, but she is especially responsible because it’s her district. She needs to talk. She needs to be seen. She needs to lead the fight to right wrongs done to Vick Cemetery in the City’s name. And justice for Vick does not mean “the best way the council sees fit.”

Lane Street Project: the City’s mystery cemetery project.

The Wilson Times‘ on-line edition reported today on the 611-page draft of the North Carolina state budget, which earmarks $66.3 million for Wilson County. Among the education, infrastructure, and recreation projects, there was this curious item:

What is this?

First, what is “Herring-Ellis cemetery”?

Here’s how I described it in a 11 September 2017 blogpost: “This small family cemetery is completely hidden in a copse of trees just outside the gates of Wiggins Mill Water Treatment Plant on Forest Hills Road in Wilson. Until relatively recently, this area — nearly four miles south of downtown — was outside city limits. Few gravestones are visible in the tangle of catbrier, pines and oak saplings, but several oblong indentations — some feet deep — mark burial sites just as clearly. This cemetery holds the remains of several generations of the family of Littleton and Judy Barnes Ellis, a couple born in slavery. The couple and at least four of their children — Bryant, Lucy, Maggie, Lizzie Sarah — are buried here on land that once belonged to Littleton Ellis.”

In November 2018, the Times reported about a group of Gentlemen’s Agreement students who spent time clearing Ellis cemetery in a service project with Wilson County Genealogical Society. North Carolina Representative Ken Fontenot, who was the students’ program mentor at the time, said they hoped “to find out more about those who are laid to rest in the area and the history behind them.” (When I read that, I reached out to reporter Olivia Neeley to let her know that information about the family buried in this cemetery was readily available at Black Wide-Awake. Since then, I’ve also posted information about Littleton Ellis’ enslavement.)

Where is the cemetery?

The cemetery lies inside a stand of trees just west of the intersection of Forest Hills Road and Forest Hills Loop, just before the driveway into the Wiggins Mills Water Treatment facility. It measures only .28 acres — 100 feet by 130 feet by 101 feet by 89 feet, or roughly two basketball courts.

Aerial view of cemetery site courtesy of Wilson County NC GIS Website.

“$50,000 in capital improvements or equipment”?

A capital improvement is a permanent structural alteration or repair to a property that improves it substantially, increasing its overall value. What kind of improvements would cost $50,000 on a piece of land a quarter of an acre in size? What equipment?

And what in the world does the City of Wilson have to do with this?

This is most perplexing of all.

The City of Wilson does not own this cemetery. Tax records for the parcel list no owner. It is described simply as “Cemetery Forest Hills Rd.”

Why is the City willing to accept $50,000 from the State of North Carolina for capital improvements and equipment for land it does not own? What is the public interest in increasing the value of a private cemetery? (For obvious reasons, I’m especially interested in the City’s answer to this question.) The City has made clear that it is not in the business of maintaining private cemeteries, having turned a deaf ear to pleas for assistance with Odd Fellows Cemetery. (In fact, the summer after Lane Street Project began clean-ups at Odd Fellows, a contractor paid by the City for 25+ years discontinued mowing the front section of that cemetery. The City calls it a coincidence.) A year ago, the City deeded over Vick Cemetery to Wilson Cemetery Commission in an attempt to wash its hands of direct responsibility for that publicly owned site. (See Rodger Lentz’ email — and Grant Goings’ reply — here.)

Under what authority would the City make these improvements? Under what authority could they enter private property to do so? Who would administer the funds? And why do they need to buy equipment? If the plan is to clear Ellis of overgrowth, don’t the Cemetery Commission or Public Works Department already own sufficient equipment to handle this small job? If not, wouldn’t they contract out the work? (Begging the question, again, of why the City would reverse its position on its role in the restoration of private cemeteries and do anything at all at Ellis.)

Whose idea was this? The City of Wilson is hemming and hawing and poor-mouthing about restoration of a cemetery holding 4200+ graves, that it has owned for 110 years and has neglected and abused — but is lobbying for $50,000 to fix up a private cemetery with perhaps a dozen graves? And, apropos of poor-mouthing, why isn’t the City instead lobbying for state funds to do right by Vick Cemetery? And, if the City didn’t ask for this gift, why did whoever sponsored this bit of pork barrel choose to bestow his largesse on a quarter-acre private cemetery versus an eight-acre public cemetery?

Finally, in this year of 2023, is the City of Wilson getting ready to mess around in somebody else’s family’s graves? Have no lessons been learned about making decisions and taking actions in African-American cemeteries without permission and in contravention of state law???

Please make this make sense.

[By the way — Vick Cemetery is not on the published agenda for the September 21 council meeting, folks. Nonetheless, keep your foot on the City’s neck.]

Darden grid stars!

Wilson Daily Times, 20 September 1950.

  • William White — in the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 614 Green Street, George C. White, 41, hotel cook; wife Jane, 38, hotel laundress; and children Hampton, 3, William, 6, Margurite, 14, and Lucile, 4. In the 1950 census of Wilson, Wilson County: William H. White, 15, and brother Hampton, 13.

The Trojan (1952), yearbook of C.H. Darden High School.

  • Cornelius Moye — in the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: Anderson McCall, 30, mortar mixer; wife Annie L., 26, cook; and sons Feral McCall, 6; Fred Moye, 8, Cornelius Moye, 7, and William A. Moye, 5.
  • Eddie Best — in the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 406 Walnut, rented for $12/month, Aaron Best, 39; wife Estelle, 39; and children Rudolph, 14, Royce, 10, Harper and Gerald, 8, Eddie, 7, and Nannie Jean, 5.
  • Albert Cannady — in the 1940 census of Sand Hill township, Moore County, North Carolina: public laborer Albert Cannady, 35; wife Sylvan, 30; and children Lunia, 12, Harold, 9, Albert Jr., Graddick, 4, and Betty Jean, 3 months. In the 1950 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: on Lipscomb Road, Albert M. Cannady, 45, chief cook at state hospital; wife Sylvan, 43; children Albert M., Jr., 16, grocery delivery boy, Graddick, 14, and Betty J., 10; and granddaughter Amanda Farmer, 3.

The Trojan (1952), yearbook of C.H. Darden High School.

Lane Street Project: Greenfield students learn about volunteer opportunities.

Two weeks ago, Lane Street Project participated for the first time in Greenfield School‘s Community Service Fair. Castonoble Hooks and Briggs Sherwood, core members of our beloved Senior Force, spoke to students about the history of Vick and Odd Fellows Cemeteries and about the work we do at Odd Fellows during our clean-up seasons. We hope we inspired students to join us this winter!

Castonoble Hooks regales Greenfield students as Briggs Sherwood looks on.

Thanks to Greenfield librarian Jennifer Johnson for the invitation and to the school’s communications coordinator for the photo!

Lane Street Project: in memory of Herman Applewhite (1919-1946).

I’ve spoken of the database I am developing of likely burials in Vick, Odd Fellows, and Rountree Cemeteries. My spreadsheet draws upon death certificates, obituaries, and other sources — most distressingly imprecise. The term “Rountree Cemetery” on these documents may refer to Vick, Odd Fellows, or Rountree. Some documents broadly refer only to burial in Wilson. However, in the absence of official burial records for any of the cemeteries, we make do.

This series honors the men, women, and children who never had grave markers, or whose stones have been lost or stolen or destroyed. Graves believed to be in Vick Cemetery, which the City of Wilson stripped of remaining markers in 1996, will be identified with a Vick Cemetery logo.

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In the 1920 census of Cross Roads township, Wilson County: Paul Applewhite, 43; wife Mary, 28; and children Sarah, 10, John, 9, May, 7, Walter, 5, Pauline, 4, and Herman, 2.

In the 1930 census of Black Creek township, Wilson County: farmer Paul Applewhite, 56; wife Mary L., 42; and children Sarah, 2, John, 20, Mabel, 18, Walter, 16, Pauline, 15, and Herman, 10.

In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 306 Walnut Street, Paul Applewhite, 66; wife Mary Eliza, 48, cook; children Sarah, 31, laundress; Mary Belle, 27, farm laborer; Walter, 25, gasoline filling station attendant; Pauline, 24, cook and nurse; and Herman, 20, gas station attendant; and grandson William, 8.

In 1941, Herman Applewhite registered for the World War II draft in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born 25 November 1919 in Wilson County; lived at 306 East Walnut; was unemployed; and his contact was Z.V. Morgan, Wilson.

Herman Applewhite.

Herman Applewhite died 3 February 1946 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was born 19 November 1919 in Wilson County to Paul Applewhite and Mary Thompson; was married to Delories Applewhite; worked as a laborer; lived at 306 East Walnut; and was buried in Rountree Cemetery [most likely, Vick Cemetery.]

Photo courtesy of Ancestry.com user sheppard4.