Month: December 2023

2023: year-end gratitude.

In a year of extraordinary — and intertwined — highs and lows, I am thankful for so many and so much, including:

The Senior Force, led by Castonoble Hooks and R. Briggs Sherwood, and each and every person who volunteered in any capacity during Lane Street Project cleanup work days, including those who could not be present to labor, but who prayed for the success and safety of those who could. Special thanks to organizations and corporations like Preservation of Wilson, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, and AgBiome, who saw our work days as a way to build community and engage in public service.

All who have donated money, time, or talent to Lane Street Project outside the cleanups. Donations have paid for materials, supplies, equipment, and headstone repair and resetting.

All who have worked, whether openly or behind the scenes, to demand dialogue and change from the City of Wilson’s leaders and a place at the decision-making table for Vick’s descendant community.

Rev. H. Maurice Barnes, Rev. Carlton Barnes, and all the faith leaders who blessed Vick Cemetery during its Reconsecration, as well as those who worked to make the day successful and safe and those who came to lift voices and bear witness. A special thanks to Bishop Ernestine McGee and Mayor Carlton Stevens and City of Wilson police and departments for set-up and logistical support.

Cameron Homes of Homes Landscaping Inc. of Wilson, who offered professional guidance for removing wisteria, privet, and briars and who donated his services for defoliation of invasive plants.

Billy and Christina Foster of Foster’s Stone and Cemetery Care for their expert care in cleaning, repairing, and resetting grave markers at Odd Fellows Cemetery.

Brother David Speight and historic Mount Hebron Lodge #42, P.H.A., for inviting Lane Street Project to participate in this year’s Juneteenth festival.

Jen Kehrer and Scarborough House Resort for extra care of Odd Fellows Cemetery, including honoring veterans at Memorial Day, co-sponsoring a Juneteenth clean-up, creating handouts for our Juneteenth booth, and mowing before Reconsecration so that the cemetery was at its best.

John Kirk Barnes of The Kirk’s Flowers for engaging Wright Brothers Landscaping to clear the interior of Odd Fellows Cemetery in January 2024.

Thomas Ramirez, Regional Training Coordinator at Bojangles’ Restaurants, for donating biscuits and other filling fare for our Season 4 cleanup kickoff in December.

The benefactor, who wishes to remain anonymous, who cleaned and repainted the fire hydrant that marks Chief Ben Mincey‘s grave.

Mrs. Henrietta Hines McIntosh for sharing both the beauty and the sadness of her family’s Vick Cemetery experience.

Members of historic Calvary Presbyterian Church, who signed letters in support of justice for Vick Cemetery. Samuel H. Vick was the driving force behind Calvary’s founding in 1889.

The Wilson Times for persistent, in-depth coverage of Vick Cemetery issues, and WRAL and WNCT9 for timely features on the ongoing tragedy involving Vick’s headstones.

Heather Goff and staff for transforming the landscape of Vick Cemetery by cutting back overgrowth and mulching the monument area, addressing drainage issues, and regular maintenance.

Dr. Lydia Walker and Barton College for the honor of delivering the 2024 Fall Heritage Lecture, and the Barton College students who volunteered at Odd Fellows during the college’s Day of Service.

Jennifer Johnson and Greenfield School for inviting Lane Street Project to the school’s Community Service Fair to speak with students about the significance of our cemeteries and volunteer opportunities with us.

Wilson County Public Library for its steadfast inclusion of African-American history in its programming.

J. Robert Boykin III for clipping and donating to BWA hundreds of articles and photos related to Wilson’s African-American history and families from thousands of disintegrating early 20th-century newspapers.

North Carolina Public Records Law, G.S. Section 132.1.

The science of ground-penetrating radar.

The readers of Black Wide-Awake, for your unstinting support, likes, comments, questions, suggestions, corrections, and shares of photographs and other documents.

And strength for the fight.

Lane Street Project: Mariah Powell?

Died Nov. 3, 1921. Age 51 Yrs. Gone to a brighter home, where grief cannot come.

Is this broken headstone in Odd Fellows Cemetery that of Mariah Powell?

Per her death certificate, Mariah Powell of Wilson died 3 November 1921 at the age of 53. (This is a little off the age on the marker, but reasonably close.) She was born in Tarboro, Edgecombe County. Informant Luciar Stamper did not know Powell’s parents, and her marital status is ambiguously conveyed. Powell was buried by undertakers Batts Bros. & Artis in Wilson County, which possibly was a generic designation for Vick Cemetery.

Unfortunately, I can find little about Mariah Powell before her death. She may have been the Maria Powell listed in the 1916 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory as a laundress living at 411 East Green, as was laundress Lucille Powell.

Perhaps the new season of Lane Street Project cleanups with uncover the rest of her marker.

Photo by Lisa Y. Henderson, December 2023.

Lane Street Project: the other power pole.

Back to the power poles.

We know four — three steel, one wooden — were punched into Vick Cemetery in 1997. Other than to respond to public records requests to say there are no records of the installation of these poles, the City has made no comment on this sacrilege. 

The desecration is not contained to Vick. From a pole at the edge of Vick’s parking lot, electrical lines swoop along the edge of Odd Fellows to a pole planted at the high point of Rountree Cemetery, a private, church-owned burial ground. 

We know that the City cleared Vick completely and placed a monument at its center the year before the power poles went in. We don’t know what condition Rountree was in in 1997, but it had been inactive for forty years or more and was likely seriously overgrown. Consider the photo below though. The City’s power pole is visible just left of top center. Twenty feet away, shown at the bottom of this image, is a cluster of concrete headstones. Most are broken — concrete was especially vulnerable to weather and the fire that was often used to clean graveyards — but ten year-old Buster Ellis‘ stands intact. The marker for his grandmother, Clarkie Atkinson Ellis, born enslaved, lies nearby. We have not identified the others. 

It is difficult to believe that this area was not cleared in preparation for the installation of the power pole and that this heap of markers — or Daniel and Lottie Marlow‘s standing tall just beyond them — was not visible. 

We demand an investigation into the circumstances that allowed the City of Wilson and/or Wilson Energy to install  power poles in African-American cemeteries.

The pole as seen from the eastern edge of Odd Fellows Cemetery. Its base is wrapped in wisteria vines.

The estate of John Howard (1863).

John Howard‘s slender estate file contains this list of enslaved people.

  • Julia, 37 yrs, very infirm
  • Martha, 13 yrs
  • Daniel, 17 yrs
  • Isabel, 19 yrs
  • Edward, born Jany 31 1863
  • Ann, 38 yrs
  • Emma, 6 yrs
  • Bill, 4 yrs
  • Hester, 12 yrs
  • Jane, 27 yrs
  • Emily, 3 yrs
  • Mary, 7 yrs
  • Willie, 19 yrs

The list may be arranged in family groups, i.e. Julia and her children Martha and Daniel; Isabel and her son Edward; Ann and her children Emma, Bill, and Hester; Jane and her children Emily and Mary; and Willie. Surprisingly, there were no adult men in the group.

John Howard may have been Confederate Major John Howard, who died in October 1862 of wounds inflicted at Sharpsburg, Maryland, during the Battle of Antietam. Though the people he had enslaved were freed just two years after this inventory was made, I have not been able to trace forward anyone in this list.

John Howard Estate File, Wilson County; North Carolina Wills and Probate Records, 1665-1998, http://www.ancestry.com.

Historic Black Business Series, no. 2: Annie V.C. Hunt’s grocery.

The 500 block of East Nash Street is justly remembered as the 20th century epicenter of Wilson’s African-American-owned businesses. However, in the late 1800s and early 1900s, Black entrepreneurs and tradespeople also operated across the tracks. As Wilson’s downtown experiences a resurgence, let’s rediscover and celebrate these pioneering men and women.

Check in each Sunday for the latest in the Historic Black Business Series.

Annie V. Collins Hunt was one of the earliest documented Black businesswomen in Wilson. By 1897 she had opened a grocery store on Goldsboro Street, most likely in the 100 block south of Nash Street.

The Gazette (Raleigh, N.C.), 19 June 1897.

Hunt did not stint in outfitting her shop. In August 1897, she placed an order with an Ohio company for a sixty-dollar safe with her name painted on its side.

This detail from the 1897 Sanborn fire insurance map of Wilson shows two groceries in the block of South Goldsboro just below Nash Street. Either might have been A.V.C. Hunt’s business.

The following spring, Hunt placed an ad in The Great Sunny South, a newspaper published in neighboring Greene County. “Go to Mrs. A.V.C. Hunt WILSON, N.C.,” it exhorted. “The first colored merchant to open a cheap grocery store uptown. She will sell you a pound box of baking powder, worth 10c, for 5 cents. Tobacco at 25 cents per pound. Soap at 3 1/2 cents per cake, ginger snaps at 5 cents per pound, coffee from 10 cts to 20 cts per pound, sugar from 4 1/2 to 5 1/2 cts per pound and many other things too numerous to mention. All good as cheap as can be bought. Call and examine her goods before buying elsewhere. All goods delivered in the city. Be convinced by calling to see Mrs. A.V.C. HUNT. Dealer in a first-class and reliable line of heavy and fancy groceries, Wilson, N.C., on Goldsboro street, next door to A. Katz’ market.”

The Great Sunny South (Snow Hill, N.C.), 29 April 1898.

Unfortunately, Annie Hunt’s mercantile success uptown was brief. Tragedy struck in 1899. First, her grocery was destroyed by fire — a crime her husband James Hunt was accused, and acquitted, of committing. Then, James Hunt was murdered, shot down in the street by the man who owned the grocery store building. Annie V.C. Hunt never recovered and died impoverished in 1903.

Photo by Lisa Y. Henderson, December 2023.

Newspaper editor visits Vick School.

Wilson Daily Times, 22 December 1938.

Kudos to principal M.D. Williams, the teachers, and students of Vick Elementary!

  • M.D. Williams — Malcolm D. Williams.
  • E.E. Brodie — Elizabeth E. Brodie. In the 1930 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Brodie Eliz E (c) tchr Stantonsburg St Graded Sch h 903 E Green
  • Julia Harrell
  • H.M. Fitts — Howard M. Fitts.
  • E.J. Coley — Eva Jane Speight Coley.
  • J.E. Hunter
  • Cecelia Norwood — Cecilia Hill Norwood.
  • A.D. Butterfield — Addie Davis Butterfield.
  • S.J. Satchwell — Spencer J. Satchell.
  • Doris Walker — Doris Vick Walker.
  • W.A. Gilmore — in the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 808 East Vance, W. Arthur Gilmore, 30, native of Washington, D.C., public school teacher.
  • F.J. Walston
  • H.D. Whitfield — Helen D. Whitted.
  • Annie Frances Parker — in the 1940 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: on Tilghman Road, farmer Ashley Simms, 41; wife Annie M., 35; children Augustus, 14, James, 12, Mildred, 19, Leslie, 8, Trumiller, 6, and Louis, 4; and nieces Annie F., 14, and Beatrice Parker, 12.
  • Reuben Lee Jones
  • Enza Williams
  • Van Jewel Thomas — in the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 715 East Green, owned and valued at $1800, Louis Thomas, 43; wife Lillie, 33; and children Louis Jr., 16, Charlie H., 14, and Van Jewel, 12.
  • Irene Farmer — in the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 812 East Green, Jeff Farmer, 48; wife Rena, 36; and children Irene, 13, and Marvin, 15.
  • Katie Johnson — in the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 503 Viola, carpenter James H. Johnson, 50; wife Carrie, 45; children Mamie, 25, household servant, Roxanna, 22, household servant, Victoria, 18, household servant, James, 16, Lanesy, 13, Katie, 12, Clyde, 9, Herman, 7, and Stella M., 5; and foster son Thurman Land, 14. 
  • Annie Marion Gray — Annie Marian Gay.
  • Walter Sanders — — in the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 534 East Nash, owned and valued at $2500, cook Mary Bynum Reed, 27; husband Jesse, 33, hospital orderly; nephew Walter Sanders, 13; cousins Mattie, 65, George, 29, Beatrice, 32, and Norward Bynum, 16, private servant; lodger Aldene Taylor, 26, private servant; lodgers Elmer, 25, hospital dietician helper, Hattie, 21, private servant, and Vernita McKeithan, 10 months; and lodgers Henry Benton, 21, servant in cafe, Rosa Lee Davis, 20, private servant, and Ella, 39, washerwoman, and Wilbur Smith, 19.
  • Thomas Stokes
  • Lotis Reid — Leotis Reid.
  • Herman Hines
  • George Hines
  • Harry John Farmer

Studio shots, no. 234: A. John Locus.

Asa John Locus (1895-1974), son of Asa and Annie Eatmon Locus.

——

In the 1900 census of Taylors township, Wilson County: farmer Asa Locus, 27, wife Anna, 22, and children Larry, 5, Johney, 4, and Kniver, 1.

In the 1910 census of Taylors township, Wilson County: on Nash Road, farmer Acy Locust, 40, wife Annie, 33, and children Larry, 15, John, 13, Eva, 11, James, 8, Ada, 6, and Paul, 3, and mother-in-law Wilmur Eatman, 68.

On 1 September 1917, John Lucas, 21, of Nash County, son of Asa and Annie Lucas of Taylors township, married Susie Stamper, 18, of Oldfields township, daughter of John and Ella Stamper, at the courthouse in Wilson. Gray Ellis applied for the license.

In the 1920 census of Griffins township, Nash County: farmer John Lucas, 24; wife Suddie, 20; and children Paul, 2, and Queenaster, 10 months.

In the 1950 census of Jackson township, Nash County: farmer John Lucas, 57; wife Sudie, 50; hired hand James Morgan, 44, farmhand; and mother Annie Lucas, 74.

John Lucas died 21 December 1974 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was born 15 March 1899 to Ace Lucas and Annie Eatmon; was married to Suddie Stample; lived at 401 East Banks; and was engaged in farming.

Photo courtesy of Europe A. Farmer, Free in a Slave Society: The Lucas/Locus Family of Virginia and North Carolina (2006).

The sale of Dover, Dinah, Bynum and Frances.

Deed book 22, page 209, Edgecombe County Register of Deeds Office, Tarboro, N.C.

State of North Carolina, Edgecomb County}  Know all men by these presents that I Amos J. Battle for and in consideration of the sum of Twelve hundred and fifty Dollars to me in hand paid by Weeks Parker have bargained and sold and by these presents do bargain and sell unto the said Weeks Parker and his assigns forever Four negro slaves named Dover, Dinah, Bynum and Frances aged about fifteen, thirteen, eleven and nine years the right and title to which said Slaves I will forever warrant and defend. Witness my hand and seal This the first day of January 1835  Amos J. Battle {seal}  Witness Simmons B. Parker

Edgecombe County February Court 1835  The foregoing Bill of Sale was exhibited in open Court and proved by the oath of Simmons B. Parker the subscribing witness thereto — ordered to be recorded.   Test. Mich’l Hearn Clk.

——

We have met Amos J. Battle and his father-in-law Weeks Parker before. In an earlier post, I examined the slaveholdings of the Battle family of Walnut Hill plantation. Amos J. and Margaret Parker Battle’s youngest son, Jesse Mercer Battle, published a memoir in 1911 that includes this passage: “Negroes were my companions. I played with them, and spent my time with them all day, till I was about seven years old, when I was started to school. I knew my alphabet and how to read a little. This start on my way to an education was given to me by a good old colored woman I called Mammy. (Her name was Dinah.) … This good woman remained with our family till 1865, when the Civil War ended, when she left us and moved down to Greenville, N.C., where her husband, whose name was ‘Shade,’ lived. After the emancipation of the slaves she said that she could never enjoy her ‘freedom’ as long as she lived with her master and mistress.” Jesse elsewhere mentioned that Dinah had lived with the family at a farm called Walnut Hill, “about three miles from Wilson N.C., on the railroad toward Rocky Mount.”

Was this Dinah the same Dinah that Amos Battle bought from Weeks Parker?

112 North East Street.

The one hundred eighty-ninth 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.

As described in the nomination form for the East Wilson Historic District: “ca. 1930; 1 story; saddlebag house with rear shed extension and hip-roofed porch; late example of the type.” The house was recently renovated.

In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 112 East, rented at $12/month, widow Addie Ward, 37, and children Alfonso, 22, Edgear, 17, Otheara, 16, Jasper, 14, and Thelma, 10.

In the 1930 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Ward Addie (c) h 112 N East; also, Ward Alfonso (c) hlpr 112 N East

In the 1941 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Dunn Annie (c) cook h 112 N East

Lillie B. Dunn died 10 April 1941 at Mercy Hospital, Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was 36 years old; was born in Kinston, N.C., to Richard Dunn of Snow Hill, N.C., and Annie Gardner of Kinston, N.C.; lived on Spruce Street; was the widow of Raymond Ried; and was buried in Rountree Cemetery [probably Vick]. Annie Dunn, 112 East Street, was informant.

In the 1947 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Dunn Annie (c) h 112 N East

Annie Dunn died 27 May 1948 at her home at 112 North East Street, Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was born 25 June 1884 in Lenoir County, N.C., to Quincey Gardner and Mariah Bryant; was the widow of Richard Dunn; and was buried in Rest Haven Cemetery. Quincey Gardner, 708 Suggs Street, was informant.

Photo by Lisa Y. Henderson, December 2023.

Armincie Moore buys two lots in Rest Haven.

Deed book 283, page 109, Wilson County Register of Deeds Office, Wilson.

Armincie Cone Moore bought lots on Rows E and F in August 1942 and January 1943. She filed the deeds on 1 June 1943. (Most people did not.)

Notably, I have not found similar deeds for plots in Vick Cemetery.