Month: November 2024

The Black Second today.

I recommended here Eric Anderson’s Race and Politics in North Carolina 1872-1901, a monograph focusing on North Carolina’s so-called “Black Second” Congressional district — one of the most concentrated centers of Black political influence in post-Reconstruction, late nineteenth-century America. Black Second voters elected four African-American men to Congress in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, including the indomitable George H. White.

The book contains this graphic depicting the Black Second’s slightly shifting boundaries in 1872, 1883, and 1891. Remind you of anything?

Here is a graphic showing results by North Carolina county in the recent presidential election. Look at the cluster of blue counties in the northeast part of the state. The Black Second lives.

Hamilton threw his gun up and fired.

Wilson Daily Times, 27 November 1923.

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  • Charlie Jefferson

Perhaps, in the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: widow Hattie Chapman, 38, tobacco factory worker; daughter Dezell, 16; and roomers, Charlie Jefferson, 36, construction company laborer; wife Maude Jefferson, 24; and Harvey Monroe, 35, lumber company laborer.

In the 1922 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Jefferson Charles (c) tobwkr h 213 Stantonsburg rd

  • Charlie Hamilton
  • Press Smith — Preston Smith, proprietor of No. 1 Pressing Club, 515 East Nash Street.

Studio shots, no. 248: Alonza G. Creech.

Alonza G. Creech (1924-2020).

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In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: farmer Alonza Creech, 57; wife Callie, 37; and children Alonza Jr., 15, Roger, 14, Odessa, 12, Roland, 9, and Doris, 8.

In 1942, Alonza G. Creech Jr. registered for the World War II draft in Wilson. Per his registration card, he was born 16 September 1924 in Johnston County, N.C.,; lived at 1100 East Nash Street, Wilson; his contact was Callie Horton Creech; and he worked for Glide Base, Edenton, N.C.

On 26 June 1947, Alonzo Creech, 21, of Wilson, son of Alonzo L. and Callie Horton Creech, married Geraldine Gaylord, 16, of Wilson, daughter of Jerry and Elizabeth Williams Gaylord, at the Gaylords’ home at 806 East Green Street. Missionary Baptist minister Fred M. Davis performed the ceremony.

Photo courtesy of Rodger Creech Jr.

Rev. Woodward meets success at revival.

Raleigh Gazette, 17 April 1897.

Rev. W.T.H. Woodward’s surname often appears as “Woodard,” which suggests roots in what is now Wilson County. However, he is apparently absent from Wilson County census records and appears only sparingly elsewhere, such as the listed officiant on marriage licenses between 1892 and 1898. (See, for example, Alex Warren and Ida Davis in 1896 and Jordan Taylor and Eliza Taylor in 1897.) When he, as a 31 year-old, married Martha S. Paschall in Warren County, N.C., in 1881, he listed his residence as Greensboro, N.C. In 1898, when he married Mollie J. Paschall in Vance County, he listed Halifax County as his home. The family is found in Littleton, Halifax County, in the 1910 census, and I have not found Woodward after.

Peg-Leg Williams and the Exodusters.

Goldsboro Headlight, 6 November 1889.

This brief, disparaging piece appeared in the Goldsboro Headlight in 1889, but very well could have described attitudes in Wilson County. Silas Herring was an African-American Wayne County native, but Alabama-born, former Confederate Robert A. “Peg-Leg” Williams criss-crossed the Upper South as a labor agent, partnering with local Black men to entice African-Americans to migrate to the Deep South.

On 27 November 1889, the Wilson Mirror reprinted a Goldsboro Argus piece that described Williams and Herring as “railroad hirelings and speculators.” “However much the desire should be divided among our people — and by this we mean the white people — for the negro to exodus this country or remain, the solid, stubborn truth shall not be kept from the poor, deluded, half-informed negro, that this is his home, the climate of his nature; that our people are the most tolerant and generous in the world; and his best friends, and that, therefore, he should stay right here where his associations date back through the centuries; where his faults, and there are many (but who of us is without faults?) are borne with from custom; where his privileges as a free citizen are unquestioned and untrammeled, and where his destinies are linked by law with the whites, who, under a Democratic administration, have for twenty years paid 90 per cent. of his government and education, while he has furnished 90 per cent. of the crime and ignorance of the State.” Best friends, indeed.

The 20 December 1889 issue of the Wilmington Messenger chimed in with mockery, noting that “Peg leg Williams and Silas Herring have not dissolved copartnership. Peg leg is now in [Goldsboro], and he and Silas are as active as bees in inducing the ‘coons’ of this section to leave their homes of peace and plenty here, to go the far off miasmatic lands of the West, there to die like cattle with the black tongue.”

“Peg-Leg” Williams is memorialized in 100 Americans Making Constitutional History: A Biographical History, edited by Melvin I. Urofsky. Described as the most famous and successful of Southern “emigrant agents, Mississippi-born Williams, a Civil War veteran, assisted 16,000 African-Americans in leaving North Carolina in the wake of discriminatory labor laws passed in 1889.”

Working as an agent for plantation owners and railroad companies from the lower Mississippi Valley states and Texas, Williams recruited laborers to work their immense cotton plantations or, in the case of the railroads, buy up their vast acreages of former federal land. Williams generally paid transportation costs for migrating families, who would have been required to enter into onerous agreements to repay the money the planters had fronted to Williams.

Daily Journal (New Bern, N.C.), 28 May 1890.

Mecklenburg Times (Charlotte, N.C.), 25 December 1891.

After two years of perceived depredations, in 1891 the North Carolina legislature joined other states in enacting a law aimed directly at men like Williams, imposing one thousand dollar fees on labor recruiters, who overwhelmingly targeted African-Americans. The law stayed on the books for seven years.

The Wilmington Messenger, 5 November 1901.

By 1913, Peg-Leg Williams was the stuff of nostalgia….

The News-Herald (Morganton, N.C.), 3 July 1913.

… and as late as 1947, his name and work could still inspire journalists. If you skim the condescension off the top, this lengthy piece is noteworthy for details about Exoduster life provided by men and women who made the journey (or knew someone who had.)

News and Record (Greensboro, N.C.), 26 October 1947.

Studio shots, no. 247: Winnie Coley Newsome.

Winnie Coley Newsome (1872-1936).

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In the 1880 census of Nahunta township, Wayne County: farmer Peter Coley, 39; wife Rachel, 33; and children Zola, 13, James, 12, Frany, 10, Willie, 8, Pennelopode, 6, Thomas, 5, John, 4, and Rachel, 1 month.

On 14 March 1892, Stephen Newsom, 20, married Winnie Coley, 20, at Peter Coley‘s in Wayne County.

In the 1900 census of Black Creek township, Wilson County: farmer Steven Newsome, 27; wife Winnie, 27; and children Nina, 7, Sarah, 5, Rachel, 3, Willie, 1, and Etta, 3 months.

In the 1910 census of Black Creek township, Wilson County: farmer Stephen Newsome, 40; wife Winnie, 39; and children Nina, 17, Sarah, 15, Rachael, 13, William, 11, Etta, 9, Edwin and Fred, 8, Gertrude, 7, Peter, 4, and Martha, 2.

In the 1920 census of Black Creek township, Wilson County: farmer Stephen Newsome, 48; wife Winnie, 48; and children Ed and Fred, 18, Gertrude, 16, Martha, Pete, 14, Lou, 17, James, 10, and John, 8.

Sarah Exum died 9 December 1921 in Nahunta township, Wayne County. Per her death certificate, she was born 25 February 1895 in Wayne County to Stephen Newsome and Willie Newsome; was married to William Exum; and was buried on the Jones Place, Wayne County.

Nina Ward died 14 March 1927 in Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was 35 years old; was born in Wayne County to Stephen Newsome and Winnie Coley; was married to James E. Ward; lived at “rear of Nash”; and was buried in Jones Cemetery, Wayne County.

In the 1930 census of Black Creek township, Wilson County: farmer Stephen Newsome, 58; wife Winnie, 57;  children Tom, 20, James, 18, Johnie, 15; and grandchildren Lalah, 14, Chess, 6, and E[illegible] L. Ward, 3.

Winnie Newsome died 4 August 1936 in Black Creek township, Wilson County. Per her death certificate, she was 63 years old; was born in Wayne County, N.C., to Peter Coley and Rachel Exum; was married to Stephen Newsome; and was buried in Wayne County.

Etta Grice died 19 May 1952 in Stantonsburg, Nahunta township, Wayne County. Per her death certificate, she was born 2 October 1899 in Wilson County to Stephen Newsome and Winnie Coley and was a widow. William Davis was information.

Detail of photo courtesy of Ancestry.com user Jonathan Artis.

There will not be another damned card played.

On 24 April 1903, the Wilson County coroner held an inquest over the body of John Gay, concluding that he had been shot by Morris Tucker.

Lillie Tucker testified that she was lying on the bed when Morris Tucker “picked up the lamp put it on the mantel piece and commenced shooting” after asking Gay if he did not believe he would shoot him. After being hit twice, Gay tried to throw a brick at Tucker, but he was too weak.

Banks Blow testified that John Gay, Louis Stratton, and Turner Thorne were “turning skin,” or gambling at Nellie’s when he arrived. John White, Morris Tucker, and Lillie Tucker were also present. Morris interrupted the game by taking the cards, and Gay protested. Dennis Brooks entered as Blow began to leave. Morris picked up the lamp, pulled out a gun, and threatened to kill Gay. Banks went out into the bar room to tend to the pool table. Ten minutes later, he heard a gunshot. Morris came into the barroom with a gun, which James Branch took from him. Morris said he had shot Gay, who had been bothering him for six months. He then left.

Nellie Lee testified that the incident happened at her house. She entered at the back door and witnessed Morris shoot at Gay six times. Everyone ran out of the room. “Sunday before last,” Lee and Lillie Tucker had seen Morris Tucker and John Gay gambling in the woods and heard Morris threaten, “I’m going to kill you if you don’t stop snatching my money.”

Lillie Tucker further testified that she had warned Nellie Lee not to allow the “boys” to gamble. After Morris won a hand, John Gay picked up the cards and said “This deck was stripped.” Morris replied that if they did not use that deck, “there would not be another damned card played that night.”

James Branch testified that he saw Morris Tucker at Dennis Brooks’ barroom about an hour and a half before the shooting and then immediately after. He had taken the gun from from Tucker, who picked up some pool balls and left, crossing the railroad. Louis Stratton later came in to retrieve the gun.

Dennis Brooks testified that Paul Dixon tried to pawn Morris Tucker’s watch. Brooks went to Nellie Lee’s house to find out if Tucker had sent him the watch. He found Tucker and Gay in a bedroom arguing over cards. Brooks told them to stop the foolishness.

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  • John Gay — in the 1900 census of Wilson, Wilson County: plumber James Curly, 24, and John Gay, 20, servant.
  • Morris Tucker — in the 1900 census of Wilson, Wilson County: Morris Tucker, 20,  “tobacco transfers,” and wife Maggie, 21, tobacco stemmer. Morris Tucker died 22 August 1914 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was born 8 June 1876 to Jacob Tucker and Jane Townsend; was single; and was buried in Wilson [probably Vick Cemetery.]
  • Lillie Tucker — in the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on Spring Street, Randall Irvin, 36, lumber mill laborer; wife Victoria, 38, laundress; and children Minnie, 16, Charles, 10, Beatrice, 8, Sylvester, 7, Eva, 4, and Beulah, 1; and mother-in-law Lillie Tucker, 65, widow.
  • Banks Blow
  • Nellie Lee — curiously, I have found no trace of Nellie Lee in Wilson.
  • Louis Stratton — on 22 June 1904, Louis Stratton, 24, of Wilson, married Vina Mercer, 18, of Wilson, daughter of Adline Mercer, in Wilson. Free Will Baptist minister W.H. Neal performed the ceremony in the presence of C.M. Brooks, Lenah Wooten, and Addie Mercer.
  • Turner Thorne
  • John White — in the 1900 census of Wilson, Wilson County: teamster John White, 26, and wife Jane, 20.
  • Dennis Brooks — in the 1900 census of Wilson, Wilson County: 35 year-old Georgia-born merchant Dennis Brooks, wife Mary, 27, and daughter Aleo[illegible], 8, shared a household with Jordan Taylor, 50, and wife Matilda, 40. [Brooks testified in a number of inquests, including James Hunt‘s and George Williford‘s.]
  • James Branch — in the 1900 census of Wilson, Wilson County: tobacco packer James Branch, 28; wife Jane C., 31, cook; and stepsons Casso C., 12, house servant, and Caborn Tyson, 8.
  • Paul Dixon — in the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on Spring Street, Luceil Howard, 20, and lodgers Lue Rountree, 35, and Paul Dixon, 27, all tobacco factory laborers.

Coroner’s Records, Miscellaneous Records, Wilson County Records, North Carolina State Archives.

The sale of Dinah.

Know all men by these presents that I Redmon Curl of the County of Edgecombe And State of North Carolina for and in the consideration of the sum of fifty dollars to me on hand paid by Brittain Barker of the county and state a fore said have bargain sold and delivered And by these presents do Bargain sell and deliver unto the said Brittain Barker a certain Negro Woman Known by the name of Dinah to have and to hold the said Woman Dinah from me the said Redmon Curl my heirs Executors and Administrators unto him the said Brittain Barker his heirs Exers Admrs or assigns And I the said Redmon Curl doth hereby covenant promise and agree that I will Warrant and forever defend the title of the said Woman Dinah from my self my heirs Exers Admrs in witness whereof I the said Redmon Curl have hereunto Set my hand and seal this 27th day of October 1834

Signed, sealed and delivered in the presence of Robert Barnes /s/ Redmon Curl

Wilson [County, North Carolina] Enslavement Records, 1855-1864, http://www.familysearch.org.

The obituary of Rev. H.E. Edwards.

Wilson Daily Times, 22 November 1944.

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In the 19o0 census of Bull Head township, Greene County, North Carolina: farmer Henry E. Edwards, 33; wife Julia, 27; children Hattie, 2, and Henry E., Jr., 4; and nephew John, 15.

On 23 December 1900, Henry Edwards, 28, of Wilson County, married Nancy Ann Barron, 18, of Wilson County, at the bride’s home in Wilson County. Rev. C.L. Alexander, “minister of the Zion denomination,” performed the ceremony in the presence of L.A. Moore, Charlie Gay, and Albert Oats.

In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: farm laborer Henry Edwards, 44, and children Henry E., 13, Hattie, 11, Jonathan, 7, and David, 3.

Henry Evan Edwards died 21 November 1944 at Mercy Hospital, Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was born 17 March 1869 in Greene County to Lafayette Edwards; was a minister; was a widower; and lived at 620 East Nash Street. Joseph Edwards was informant.

Funeral Program Friday: Lona McNiel Jackson (1905-1992).

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In the 1910 census of Back Swamp township, Robeson County, N.C.: farmer York McNeill, 49; wife Francess, 46; and children Franklin, 16, Lillie, 14, Tonnie, 11, Walter, 8, Lulu, 6, Lonie, 4, and Dewey, 2.

In the 1920 census of Lumberton township, Robeson County: farmer John W. McNeill, 59; wife Frances, 53; and children Lillie, 24, Fonnie, 22, Walter, 19, Lula, 16, Lona, 14, and Hughie, 12.

In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: barber Macon Jackson, 38; wife Lona, 34, worked in green tobacco; and children Margaret, 14, Thurman, 13, Louise, 12, Theodore, 7, and Doris, 5.

In 1944, Thurman Willis Jackson registered for the World War II draft in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born 5 August 1926 in Saratoga, N.C.; lived at 1203 Carolina Street; his contact was mother Lona Jackson, same address; and he worked for P.B. Coley, Elks Club, Goldsboro Street, Wilson.

In the 1950 census of Wilson, Wilson County: barber Macon H. Jackson, 49; wife Lona, 44; and children Margaret, 24, housecleaner, Louise, 22, Theodore, 17, Dorthory, 15, and Levarne, 3.

Macon Henry Jackson died 1 July 1958 in Chapel Hill, Orange County, N.C. Per his death certificate, he was born 22 November 1903 in Greene County, N.C., to Macon Jackson and Frances Walton; was married to Lona McNeill; resided in Wilson; and worked as a barber.