Month: March 2025

The estate of Harriett Barnes Parks.

We read Harriett Parks‘ will here. After her death in late 1896, John A. Gaston was duly appointed executor of her estate.

From December 1896 through 25 September 1897, Gaston reported income from rent payments made by tenants Ennis Thompson and Christiana Taylor. Gaston paid out ten dollars for Parks’ coffin and forty-five cents for a ticket for Parks’ daughter Allie Kate Barnes.

In addition, Gaston paid an unnamed person one dollar for digging Parks’ grave [which was mostly likely in Oakdale Cemetery]; a dollar for use of a horse and buggy for her funeral; and $1.25 for the whitewashing of her house.

From 27 September 1897 through 22 March 1900, Gaston received rent payments from Christina (or Christiana) Taylor, Allen Morgan, and Annie Williams. He paid forty cents for a lock; $1.30 for lights; another $1.25 for whitewashing; one dollar for cleaning out a well; and a dollar for a well bucket. Gaston paid Parks’ daughter Allie Kate $5.00 and her son Harvey G. Barnes $6.25.

Wilson, N.C., Probate Estate Files 1854-1959, http://www.familysearch.org.

Lane Street Project: Odd Fellows over time.

This past January, Google Maps updated its streetview images of Bishop L.N. Forbes Street, which was called Lane Street until about five years ago.

Here is Odd Fellows Cemetery in January 2025, just before our Season 5 cleanups began. The dry weeds needed cutting, but look at that visibility all the way through to the back of the lot — and those gleaming headstones. The goal, in case you wondered, is not to restore Odd Fellows to Day One conditions, but to remove dead or dying trees and invasive vines, weeds, and shrubs; locate, clean, and reset headstones if their original location is known; remove trash and debris; document burials; and otherwise restore recognition and dignity to this sacred space.

Same view in March 2022. This was Season 2. The headstones had not yet been cleaned and reset, and there was still a fair amount of wisteria to cut down. The ground inside the tree line was clean as a whistle. This was a rookie mistake. With a canopy free of wisteria, sunlight hit the ground for the first time in decades, and the weeds and wisteria shoots ran rampant. We now keep the ground mulched with pine needles and leaf fall.

June 2012, when Odd Fellows was in full jungle mode. That solid line of brush is what I had to hack through in December 2019 when I first entered what I then thought was Rountree Cemetery. When Lane Street Project began work a year later, this is what we encountered — but with taller trees.

April 2008. But for the power lines slicing across the upper corner (attached to the poles punched into Vick and Rountree Cemeteries in 1997), this gloomy vista seems timeless. Seventeen years ago, I didn’t know Odd Fellows Cemetery existed and had only the vaguest understanding of what had happened to Vick. It’s never too late for discernment, though, and I am grateful to all who have worked to restore honor to our city’s dead.

Snaps, no. 116: Walter Craig Whitted.

Walter Craig Whitted (1890-1975).

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In the 1900 census of Durham, Durham County, North Carolina: letter carrier James A. Whitted, 38; wife Tempa, 33; children Walter, 9, Minnie, 7, Benjamin, 5, and James, 1; and brother John, 18.

In the 1910 census of Durham, Durham County, North Carolina: mail clerk J.A. Whitted, 48; wife Tempie, 43; and children Walter C., 19, Minnie, 16, Ben, 15, James, 6, Samuel, 4, and Harry, no age given.

On 24 December 1913, Walter Whitted, 24, of Durham, married Helen Beckwith, 22, of Wilson, in Wilson. Rev. M.A. Talley performed the ceremony, and A.J. Townsend and Robert Haskins were witnesses.

On 5 June 1917, Walter Whitted of 516 South Lodge Street, Wilson, registered with the Wilson County draft board. He reported that he was born in Durham, North Carolina, on 3 October 1889; that he was a self-employed tailor in Wilson; and that he had a wife and two children to support. He was described as medium height and weight with dark brown eyes and black hair.

In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: Cora Beckworth, 42; daughter Dezelle Whitick, 28; son-in-law Walter Whitick, 32; and grandchildren Cora, 3, and Walter Jr., 4.

In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on South Lodge Street, house carpenter Walter Whitted, 38, wife Delzle H., 35, a public school teacher, and children Walter H., 14, and Cora J. Whitted, 13.

In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: W.C. Whitted, 47; wife Helen Delzell, 49; son Walter H., 24; daughter-in-law Cora, 23; and daughter Louise, 13.

In the 1950 census of Wilson, Wilson County: Milton Fitch, 30, U.S. letter carrier; wife Cora, 31; children Jerome, 7, Milton, 3, Patricia, 2, Ernestine and Christine, born in December; and in-laws Walter, 58, carpenter, and Helen Whitted, 51, 6th grade teacher.

Walter Craig Whitted died 12 January 1975 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was born 3 October 1890 in Durham, N.C., to James A. Whitted and Tempie Jordan; was the widower of Helen D. Beckwith; was a retired carpenter; and lived at 516 Lodge Street.

Photo courtesy of Ancestry.com user krish_mayfield.

Foster and Williams get paid.

Wilson’s Town Clerk John R. Moore died in 1905, and the administrator of his estate was charged with paying off his debts.

Grant T. Foster, purveyor of beef, pork, mutton, sausage, and country produce at Wilson City Market submitted a bill for $3.37 for small purchases Moore made in December 1904 and January 1905.

Moore’s son submitted a brief note — “Mr. Hales: Please pay Annie Williams $10.00 for services as cook same to be charged to papa’s estate. Respt, J.H. Moore.”

Williams was paid with a check made out simply to “Cook.”

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Wilson, North Carolina, Probate Estate Files 1854-1959, http://www.familysearch.org.

The apprenticeship of Doctor Taylor.

On 20 November 1871, a Wilson County Probate Court judge ordered 13 year-old Doctor Taylor bound as an apprentice to Jolly Taylor until he reached 21 years of age.

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In the 1870 census of Joyners township, Wilson County: farm laborer Jolly Taylor, 35; wife Patsey, 48; Dock Taylor, 15; and Nellie, 12, Haywood and Richard, 12, and George Farmer, 16.

In the 1880 census of Toisnot township, Wilson County: Dock Taylor, 23 farm laborer, living alone.

On 14 March 1889, Dock Taylor, 36, married Ellen Taylor, 36, at Dock Taylor’s home in Toisnot township, Wilson County. A.M.E. Zion minister James M. Copeland performed the ceremony in the presence of William R. Taylor, Curtis Taylor, and Flonny Taylor.

[More about Jolly Taylor later.]

United States Indenture and Manumission Records, 1780-1939, database at https://familysearch.org.

What was the Independent School building before it was the Independent School?

I was asked a question that stumped me during one of my talks last week. “What was the building that housed the Independent School before it was a school?”

I recalled vaguely that Samuel H. Vick had purchased the building from famed brick maker Silas Lucas Jr., but not much more. Maybe something about the Methodist Church?

I found a deed quickly. On 24 October 1904, S.H. Vick paid Silas and Charity Lucas $1650 for a lot on Vance Street adjacent to property Vick already owned, “it being the same lot on which is situate a nineteen room house.” 

Deed book 68, page 227, Wilson County Register of Deeds Office, Wilson, N.C.

In the 1913 Sanborn fire insurance maps of Wilson, the building is labeled “Tenements”:

I can’t find the reference that I seem to recall about the building’s original use and will need to do some additional deed digging to find Lucas’ purchase. (By the way: Lucas was renowned as a brick maker. Not only are his reclaimed original bricks still sought after for renovation projects, the name “Silas Lucas” is now generically used to describe any soft, pinkish brick.)

Tribute to Dr. Frank S. Hargrave.

The New Jersey State Republican Committee commissioned E.H. McGhee of Trenton to create a hand-lettered resolution in tribute to Dr. Frank S. Hargrave upon his death on 11 March 1942. 

Below, detail of one of the illustrated letters, bright with faux gilt, that decorated each page.

Many thanks to Vicki Cowan for sharing this beautiful document.