Wilson Daily Times, 19 May 1936.
By early 1936, J.D. Reid had been out of prison a little over four years for his part in the Commercial Bank scandal, which may have fueled this hasty correction. Also, he had moved to Washington, D.C., where he found federal work as a messenger for the office of the U.S. Speaker of the House.
——
Goldsboro News-Argus, 22 March 1930.
Par for the times, the reporter moves beyond mockery of the “miracle rice pan” to belittle the religious expression of African-American worshippers.
——
I returned to Save Your Spaces with that steadier voice I spoke of in 2023. This year I led a workshop on documenting local history. If you’re called to this work, you don’t need to be a professional historian or archaeologist or anthropologist or librarian or anything. Curiosity, open-mindedness, creativity, and discipline are more important than formal training. I spoke of the general “why” such documentation is important, the “why” for me, and, finally, using Black Wide-Awake as an example, the “how” of choosing a subject, picking a platform on which to share, establishing a format for your posts or episodes, and basic research.
I met some dope young historic preservation students and the amazing Latine and Indigenous photographers of Captura collective and learned the latest about the community collaboration space Create ATL, which hosted the event.
Founder Nedra Deadwyler describes Save Your Spaces as “a skillshare to equip, inspire, and activate the everyday person to preserve culture, history, and narratives — grounding in a place embodied experiences and practices and extending care towards our kinfolk.” I’m grateful for her vision and for the opportunity to contribute!
A big thanks to Castonoble Hooks for engaging Curtis Jackson to mow and clear clippings at Odd Fellows Cemetery. Though we don’t schedule cleanups during summer months, we strive to keep our “front yard” clean. We use this maintenance to provide opportunities for paid labor, but can do so only with donations. We are grateful to those who’ve given!
Photos courtesy of Castonoble Hooks.
On 14 April 1880, E.M. Nadal and wife Margaret Nadal, for $600, sold Washington Suggs, E.C. Simms, Haywood Freeman, Edwin Barnes, Charles Darden, Lemon Taborn, and Samuel Smith, trustees of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in America of Wilson County, a lot on Pender Street containing about 1 9/25 acre. Deed book 16, page 393.
On 28 September 1880, Francis M. Moye and wife Emily E. Moye, for $25, sold Nathan Ward, Allen Moore, and Hilliard Ruffin, trustees of the Colored Primitive Baptist Church, a small piece of land on the east side of Toisnot Swamp, on the left side of the road from Bartee Bridge to Saratoga, and a few hundred yards from said bridge, containing about one acre. A land contained a “portion of an old field” adjoining Dr. J.B. Stallings. Deed book 17, page 242.
Bartee Bridge crossed Goss Swamp near the Greene County line on what is now Bartee Bridge Road. The road from Bartee Bridge to Saratoga is now Tyson Farm Road. I have not identified this church further.
On 30 April 1886, A.G. Brooks and Hardy Hinnant of Wilson County, for $1, sold Aaron Barnes, Lawrence Moore, and Lee Moore, trustees of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in America of Wilson County, a lot adjoining Rachel Barden, Jesse Whitley, and Hardy Hinnant in the Town of Black Creek located where Avenue Street intersected Avenue Road(?). Deed book 30, page 231.
I have not identified this church or its location. There is not currently an A.M.E. Zion church in Black Creek.
On 1 March 1891, Charles and Sallie Barbour, for $125, conveyed to C.H. Darden, Lemon Taborn, Washington Sugg, Haywood Freeman, Noah Best, H.T. Ransom, and S.A. Smith, trustees of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in America of Wilson County, a lot adjoining J.W. Hood, Mrs. Campbell, Charles Battle, and the property of the A.M.E. Zion Church, on Pender Street, containing about 1/4 acre. The Barbours were in debt to the church for $125 and, if they failed to repay by 1 January 1893, the church could sell the property at auction. However, if the Barbours timely repaid the debt, the transfer was void. Deed book 30, page 246.
Rev. James W. Hood was a Pennsylvania-born A.M.E. Zion bishop active in North Carolina from 1872 till his death in 1916. By 1887, he had founded more than 600 churches in Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, and in 1895 published One Hundred Years of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church; or, The Centennial of African Methodism, which featured several ministers active in Wilson. Though named in this deed as a property owner, I have found no record that Hood actually lived in Wilson.
Wilson Daily Times, 2 May 1939.
——
In the 1900 census of Wilson, Wilson County: drayman Jefferson Farmer, 40; wife Blanch, 28; and children May, 12, Turner, 11, Jesse, 8, Charley, 4, and Gola, 2.
In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 615 Hines Street, Jeff Farmer, 50; wife Blanch, 37; and children Turner, 20, Jessie, 16, Charlie, 13, Goler, 10, Jeff Jr., 7, Henry, 3, Allice, 2, and Gola, 1.
In 1917, Turner Farmer registered for the World War I draft in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born 23 November 1891 in Wilson; lived on West Nash Street; was married; and worked as a butler for S.H. Anderson.
On 6 April 1929, Turner Gray Farmer, 38, of Wilson, son of Jeff and Blanche Farmer, married Emma Simms, 27, of Wilson, daughter of Will and Mary Simms, at the courthouse in Wilson.
In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 901 East Nash, in the household of warehouse proprietor Selba H. Anderson, servants Carrie Melton, 48, cook, Turner Farmer, 38, chauffeur, and his wife Emma, 36, maid.
Turner Gray Farmer died 2 May 1939 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was 50 years old; was born in Wilson, N.C., to Jeff Farmer and Blanch Gay; lived at 901 West Nash Street; was married to Emma Farmer; worked as a chauffeur; and was buried in Wilson [probably, Vick Cemetery.]
Application for military headstone for Turner Farmer.
In 1917, Samuel and Annie Vick sold a lot on Cemetery Street to Crescent Hosiery Company of Scotland Neck, North Carolina. Crescent paid $500 for the land, which adjoined property of Smith Mercer, Columbus Goffney, and Henry Forbes.
Deed book 94, page 9, Wilson County Register of Deeds Office, Wilson.
It does not appear that Crescent ever operated a factory on the site, or even built upon it, unless this unoccupied brick building depicted in the 1922 Sanborn map of the street was theirs. (Cemetery Street’s name was briefly changed to Contentnea Street.) By 1930, per the Sanborn map, the building was being used for cotton storage by an unnamed proprietor.
1922 Sanborn fire insurance map of Scotland Neck, North Carolina.
Infamously, Lewis Hine photographed children working in Crescent Hosiery Company for his expose of child labor conditions in Southern textile mills.
Nannie Coleson, age 11, working as a looper at Crescent Hosiery in 1914.
1908 Sanborn fire insurance map of Scotland Neck, North Carolina.
Photo courtesy of National Child Labor Committee Collection, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print.
New South Associates (the same company that did Vick Cemetery’s ground-penetrating radar) announces:
“NSA is pleased to be working on an oral history project in partnership with the Town of Waxhaw in North Carolina. We’re hosting an in-person information session to share more about the project and the oral history process.
“The Town of Waxhaw has been awarded a 2024 federal Historic Preservation Fund grant for Certified Local Governments from the National Park Service, administered through the State Historic Preservation Office (HPO) of the North Carolina Office of Archives and History. Funds will be used to document historic resources based on oral history and community guidance and to produce a history of Waxhaw that incorporates African American perspectives.”
Look at what’s possible, City of Wilson!
Once you see them, you can’t not see them. A burial alters soil density and, especially in the era of wooden caskets, chemistry. More than six decades after the last burials at Vick Cemetery, and despite the complete resculpting of the ground’s surface when the cemetery was cleared and graded in the 1990s, hundreds of graves still reveal themselves as rectangular areas of grass growing thicker and greener than the surrounding groundcover.
Photos by Lisa Y. Henderson, May 2025.