City directories offer endless possibilities. Who were these intriguing folk?

1916

Allen C. Wooten sold (made?) patent medicines.

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What kinds of baskets did Samuel W. White make?

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We’ve met Hood Vick before. I assume he played baseball professionally, but for whom?

1920

Toilet preparations? What exactly was Oscar C. Gordon cooking up on East Nash Street?

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The Eat More? How charming! But where was Preston McCadden‘s business? Two of the four corners at this intersection were houses, the third was Calvary Presbyterian. The fourth was the site of a white-owned grocery store for nearly all of the 20th century. (Sidenote: McCadden also worked as a chauffeur and lived at 201 West Nash.) [Update: a quick look at the 1922 Sanborn map informed me. The northwest corner contained not the house facing Green with which I am familiar, but a small grocery facing Pender. This was likely McCadden’s Eat More. My grandmother was 12 years old and lived a block away and surely was a patron!]

1922

What did W. Clyde Crawford‘s Wilson Building & Construction Company build? Who transacted with its loan division? The company’s offices were at 563 East Nash,

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Evander Eddy was a confectioner. What kind of candy did he make?

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I thought at first John Robertson and John W. Best were bottlers of soft drinks, but now believe they operated soft drink shops. What, exactly, did they sell? Who were their customers?

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But here is a bottler. Did Edward Hunter work for the local Coca-Cola bottler? Or did he have his own business?

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What did William H. Brown print?

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William Picot was both a cabinet maker and repairer of furniture. Was the studio on East Vance a house or commercial business? The 1922 Sanborn shows a small wooden building at the location.

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For which dairy did Luther Hall work?

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Though she lived over in Elm City, Sarah Lucas was Amos Batts‘ private secretary. There were several Amos Battses, but this was likely the undertaker.

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Beyond her interesting first name, Sister McMillan is one of very few, and the only woman, mill worker, I’ve spotted. What kind of mill did she work in?

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Lena Woody lived at the rear of 301 East Nash? A commercial building?

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Ice puller?

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George Martin is the earliest African-American electrician I’ve found in Wilson.