Month: August 2024

The obituaries of brothers James and Charlie Bynum of North Little Rock, Arkansas.

James C. and Charles A. Bynum were born in Wilson County, but migrated to Lonoke County, Arkansas, as children with their parents Lawrence and Edna Bynum Bynum.

Arkansas Gazette, 18 March 1960.

Arkansas Gazette, 3 July 1979.

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In the 1880 census of Saratoga township, Wilson County: laborer Larence Bynum, 24; wife Edney, 19; children James, 1, and Mary J., 1 month; mother-in-law Liddie, 55; brother Isac, 22, and sister-in-law Anna, 17.

In the 1900 census of Brodie township, Pulaski County, Arkansas: James Bynum, 21, farm laborer, is listed in the household of Lester Lemons.

On 20 January 1901, Jas. Bynum, 22, of Cobbs, Lonoke County, married Florence Hynes, 21, of Scott, Lonoke County, in Lonoke County, Arkansas.

In the 1910 census of Augusta, Hill township, Pulaski County, Arkansas: James C. Bynum, 21, boilermaker helper; wife Florence, 30; and newborn son Freddie J., at 305 Hazel.

In the 1920 census of Walls township, Lonoke County: James Binum, 41, farmer; wife Florence, 40; daughter Odessa, 1; mother Edna, 57, widow; and brother Willie, 17.

In the 1930 census of Walls township, Lonoke County: J.C. Bynum, 50, farmer; wife Florence, 50; daughter Odessa, 12; and adopted son Columbus Webb, 5.

In the 1940 census of Lafayette township, Lonoke County: on Old Key Rock Road, James Bynum, 61, farm laborer; wife Florence, 60; and Columbus Webb, 40 [sic].

James Columbus Bynum registered for the World War I draft in Lonoke County. Per his registration card, he was born 13 November 1878 in Wilson, N.C.; lived in “Keo (Redwine),” Lonoke County; his contact was Florence Bynum; and he was a self-employed farmer.

In the 1950 census of Walls township, Lonoke County: J.C. Bynum, 71, farmer, and wife Florence, 70.

James C. Bynum died 13 March 1960 in North Little Rock, Arkansas. Per his death certificate, he was born 13 November 1884 in North Carolina to Lawrence Bynum and Edna Hopper; was married; lived at 816 Cedar Street, North Little Rock; and was buried in Hickory Grove Cemetery, Keo, Arkansas. Florence Bynum was informant.

 

“Passing the legacy” — the Coleman-Barnes Family Reunion.

In 1942, when the descendants of Spicey Barnes Barnes and Hannah Barnes Coleman gathered for a birthday dinner to honor both sisters, they began a tradition that has lasted more than eight decades!

If Coleman-Barnes Reunion isn’t the longest-running African-American family gathering in Wilson County, I want to know what is!

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  • Spicey Barnes Barnes

In the 1880 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: George Barnes, 55; wife Gracy, 45; and daughters Spicey, 7, and Hannah, 5.

On 5 January 1899, Joe Barnes, 35, of Wilson County, son of Richard Barnes and Amanda Toodle, married Spicy Barnes, 23, of Wilson County, daughter of George Barnes and Grace Strickland. Nestus Bagley applied for the license, and Free Will Baptist minister Daniel Blount performed the ceremony.

In the 1900 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: Jospeh Barnes, 26; wife Spicy, 25; and children Daisy A., 9, Wiley, 8, Naster, 7, Gray, 6, and Earnest, 1 month.

In the 1910 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: Joseph Barnes, 52; wife Spicy, 39; children Earnest, 10, George E., 8, Annie, 4, and Turner, 3; step-daughter Gracie Moore, 21; and children Daisy, 21, Leslie, 15, and Wily, 18.

In the 1920 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: Joe Barnes, 52; wife Spicy, 42; and children Ernest, 19, Geo., 16, Annie, 14, and Turner, 11.

On 23 December 1929, Ernest Barnes, 29, of Wilson, son of Joe and Spicy Barnes, married Lillie Ellis, 29, of Wilson, daughter of Jack and Mintree Yancey, in Wilson. Disciple minister W.W. Webb performed the ceremony in the presence of Calvin Baker, Ella Adams, and Martha Ellis.

In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: Ernest Barnes, 40, widower; sister Annie, 38; and mother Spicey, 60, widow.

In 1942, Ernest Barnes registered for the World War II in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born 12 May 1900 in Wilson; lived in Wilson County; his contact was mother Spicey Barnes; and he worked for Zell Winstead, Tarboro Street Extension.

In the 1950 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 313 Finch, Ernest Barnes, 49, widower, cement mixer at concrete pipe company; mother Spicey, 78, widow; sister Annie, 44, tobacco factory picker; and cousin Stephen Coleman, 43, barber.

Spicey Barnes died 9 August 1963 in Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was born 1 June 1868 in Wilson County to George Barnes and Grace Barnes; lived at 414 Lane Street; and was a widow. Annie B. Barnes was informant.

  • Hannah Barnes Coleman

On 30 March 1894, Robert Coleman, 23, of Oldfields township, son of Jack and Nancy Coleman, married Hannah Barnes, 18, of Oldfields township, in Oldfields township, Wilson County.

In the 1900 census of Taylors township, Wilson County: farmer Robert Coleman, 39; wife Hannah, 25; and children Mary, 9, James, 7, and Clary, 4.

In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on Finch Mill Road, farmer Robert Coleman, 46; wife Hannah, 39; and children James, 16, Clara, 14, Martha, 8, Thomas, 6, Stephen, 4, and Katrina, 3 months.

In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on Finch Mill Road, farmer Robert Coleman, 52; wife Annie, 45; and children Martha, 18, Tom, 16, Stephen, 12, and Katie, 9.

In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: widow Hannah Coleman, 57, and children James, 38, William G., 26, both farm laborers, and Stephen, 23, barber.

Martha Holley died 19 July 1934 in Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was 33 years old; was born in Wilson County to Robert Coleman and Hannah Barnes; was married to Will Holley; lived in New Grabneck; worked on a farm; and was buried in Wilson [likely, Vick Cemetery.]

In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: widow Hannah Coleman, 68; son Thomas, 36; and grandsons Robert Holiday Holly, 14, William Holly, 13, and Cal Waddell Holly, 8.

William Thomas Coleman died 11 April 1973 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was born 18 February 1904 to Robert Coleman and Hannah Barnes; was a widower; lived on Black Creek Road; and had worked as a laborer. Darnell Coleman was informant.

Image of reunion program courtesy of Tijuana Locus. Thank you!

The last will and testament of John R. Taylor.

On 2 November 1917, John Richard Taylor scrawled an X on a will he dictated in the presence of F.D. Swindell and David Dupree. Taylor’s bequests included:

  • to his mother, Mary Taylor, all the cash not needed to pay his debts;
  • to his sister, Missouri Moore, a portion of a lot at the corner of East and Atlantic Streets containing his dwelling house;
  • to wife Bettie Taylor, “in lieu of her dower,” all the balance of his real estate;
  • also to wife Bettie, three bed quilts, a dining room table, three stool chairs, one rocking chair, and one small single bedstead, with the remainder of his personal property to sister Missouri Moore;
  • Redmond White was to be executor.

Taylor died days later, and his estate entered probate on 12 November 1917. The following day, Bettie Taylor filed her dissent to the terms of Taylor’s will.

Oddly, nine months later, Camillus L. Darden successfully filed an application for letters of administration for John Richard Taylor, who Darden asserted died without a will. Charles H. Darden posted bond with his son. C.L. Darden estimated the value of Taylor’s estate at $2501 in real estate (“no personalty” worth valuing), and named Taylor’s heirs as Herbert Taylor, Jessie Taylor, Eddie Taylor, Missouri Moore, and “Brantley, a baby.” Neither Taylor’s wife nor mother are listed, but these are clearly his siblings — and a mystery child.

I have found nothing further about John R. Taylor’s estate.

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In the 1900 census of Taylors township, Wilson County: farmer John Taylor, 50; wife Mary, 45; and children Jessie, 19, Hubard, 14, John R., 13, Eddie, 10, and Addie, 6.

In the 1910 census of Taylors township, Wilson County: farmer Mary Taylor, 55, widow; children George, 31, Jesse, 29, John R., 23, Eddie, 20, and Addie, 17; and brother Allison Howard, 34.

John Richard Taylor died 7 November 1917 in Wilson township, Wilson County. Per his death certificate, he was born 2 March 1884 in Wilson County to John Taylor and Mary Howard; was married; and was buried in Wilson County. Eddie Taylor was informant.

Where we worked: other hotels.

News and Observer (Raleigh, N.C.), 8 April 1902.

The Briggs was not the only downtown hotel. Many of us remember the Cherry, but the Seabrook, Astor, Carolina, and Imperial Hotels also sheltered white guests. East of the tracks, hotels were more akin to boarding houses, but the Orange, Whitley, Union, and Lynnhaven operated at various times in the mid-500 block of East Nash Street.

  • Diviaticus Arnold, cook, Cherry Hotel, 1928
  • Beatrice Barnes, maid, Cherry Hotel, 1928
  • Sarah Barnes, cook, Carolina Hotel, 1922
  • Mary Barnes, maid, Cherry Hotel, 1928
  • Walter Barnes, fireman, Cherry Hotel, 1928
  • Ezabell Battle, hotel servant, 1910
  • Lila Battle, maid, Astor Hotel, 1928
  • Dan Black, hotel waiter, Imperial Hotel, 1917
  • Joseph Blue, bellman, Cherry Hotel, 1928
  • Sidney Boatwright, hotel porter, 1917
  • Seth Brooks, barber, Cherry Hotel, 1928
  • Marcellus Bryant, hotel servant, 1910
  • William Bryant, clerk, Whitley Hotel
  • Ernest Bullock, valet, Cherry Hotel, 1928
  • Eliza Caldwell, maid, Cherry Hotel, 1928
  • Fannie Campbell, cook, Imperial Hotel, 1920
  • Henry N. Cherry, bellhop, Cherry Hotel, 1928
  • Helen Church, maid, Cherry Hotel, 1928
  • Clementine Cook, cook, Cherry Hotel, 1928
  • James Daniels, porter, Cherry Hotel, 1928
  • Daniel W. Darring, dishwasher, Astor Hotel, 1928
  • Paul Farmer, hotel servant, 1910
  • Alfred Gay, bellboy, 1920
  • Thomas Haywood, waiter, Imperial Hotel,
  • Nora Hines, maid, Imperial Hotel, 1912
  • Peter Johnson, hotel waiter, 1910
  • William Pitt, waiter, Seabrook Hotel, 1918

  • James Ware, porter, Imperial Hotel, 1912
  • Willie Whitehead, hotel waiter, 1910
  • Bud Wiley, bootblack, Taylor’s Hotel, 1912
  • Henry Wilson, cook, Imperial Hotel, 1912
  • Charles Woodard, proprietor, Hotel Union, 1920

Attention Arkansas families with Wilson County roots.

I’ve been surprised by the number of African-American Wilson County families that migrated to Arkansas as Exodusters in the 1880s and 1890s. These families tended to travel together and settle in close proximity, especially in Lonoke County. Descendants of several have made contact here at Black Wide-Awake, and it’s time for a Facebook to try to connect with more. If these are your people, join us there!

A legacy repurposed.

Restoration of the platform canopy of Wilson’s historic railway station began in May of this year. The ornamental ridge cap and copper gutters will be faithfully restored, as will the slate roof. These lustrous, deep gray shingles might look familiar to the keenly observant eye — they were sourced from the recently replaced roof of the Samuel H. Vick house!

Photos by Lisa Y. Henderson, August 2024.

Family ties, no. 12: great big old black ones.

Wilson’s emergence as a leading tobacco market town drew hundreds of African-American migrants in the decades after the 1890s. Many left family behind in their home counties, perhaps never to be seen again. Others maintained ties the best way they could.

Sarah Henderson Jacobs Silver and her husband Jesse A. Jacobs Jr. left Dudley, in southern Wayne County, North Carolina, around 1905. They came to Wilson presumably for better opportunities off the farm. Each remained firmly linked, however, to parents and children and siblings back in Wayne County as well as those who had joined the Great Migration north. This post is the eleventh in a series of excerpts and adaptations of interviews with my grandmother Hattie Henderson Ricks (1910-2001), Jesse and Sarah’s adopted daughter (and Sarah’s great-niece), revealing the ways her Wilson family stayed connected to their far-flung kin. (Or didn’t.)

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It’s muscadine season. In my grandmother’s day, and even well into mine, bronze muscadines — scuppernongs — were called scuffalongs, and, as I gorge like a squirrel approaching winter, I am always reminded of one of my grandmother’s favorite stories. Her great-uncle, James Lucian Henderson, who lived near Dudley in southern Wayne County, grew grapes for his church’s Communion wine — and they were off-limits:

“Great big old black ones. Lord, he might as well have told me to go out there and eat all I wanted. I eat all the way down the corn row down to that lady’s house, Mary Budd, and come up through the corn field and come back to the road and went over there stood up there and eat all I want and throwed the hulls over in the pasture. The hog pasture, or whatever that thing was out there where pigs was. They thought I was gon give ‘em something to eat, I reckon. And I throwed the things over there, and I reckon that’s where Uncle Lucian discovered that we was eating ‘em. And he said, “Y’all stay away from out there! Somebody’s been out there —!”  “Wont me!” [She laughs.]  Them things seem like was the best things I ever had. And the arbor there on the yard where was all up in the trees, it’d be grapes. And I’d go there and eat them, but they was little. It was what they call scuffalongs. White grapes. And I’d eat them, too, but I wanted some of them old big ones. Them old big black ones.”

Georgia muscadines, which are not quite as delectable as North Carolina’s, but will absolutely make do.

Interview of Hattie H. Ricks by Lisa Y. Henderson; all rights reserved. Photo by Lisa Y. Henderson, August 2024.

Crazy?

What’s crazy is that the sheriff and a medical professional would consign a man to a notorious mental institution because of his religious fervor.

Wilson News, 24 August 1899.

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  • Philip Falkner — Philip Falkland.

In the 1870 census of Joyners township, Wilson County: David, 17, and Phil Falkland, 15.

On 25 March 1880, Phil Falkland, 21, married Jane Farmer, 20, at Jane Farmer’s in Wilson County.

In the 1880 census of Toisnot township, Wilson County: Philip Falkland, 25, and wife Jane, 19.

On 27 December 1888, Phil Falkner, 32, of Toisnot township, married Rachel Woodard, 23, of Toisnot township, in Toisnot township.

On 13 April 1940, Willie Faulkland, 56, widower, born in Wilson County, N.C., to Phil Faulkland and Jane Farmer, married Ella Pender, 58, widow, born in Wilson County to William Hinnant and Lou Hinnant, in Emporia, Greensville County, Virginia.

Willie Faulkland died 1 November 1955 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was born 16 November 1883 in Wilson County to Phillip Faulkland and Jannie Farmer; lived at 718 Viola Street; was married; and worked as laborer. Ella Faulkland was informant.

Samuel J. Faulkland died 27 January 1975 in Richmond, Virginia. Per his death certificate, he was born 21 July 1886 in North Carolina to Fields Faulkland and Jane Farmerand worked as a clerk.

  • Peter Cherry

Perhaps, Peter Cherry, born about 1879, who appears in Edgecombe County, N.C., records.