Month: July 2025

Theirrell Hagans celebrates her third birthday.

Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 6 April 1940.

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  • Theirrell Theresa Hagans

In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 1002 Mercer Street, drugstore delivery boy Charles Hagans, 21; wife Cleora, 19; and daughters Therrol, 3, and Lula Mae, 7 months.

In the 1950 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 206 North East Street, Charlie Kendall, 63, widower; Cleora Hagans, 27, cook, lodger, and her daughters Therrell, 13, and Lula M., 10.

  • Marjorie R. Bynum

In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 1000 Mercer Street, gardener Herbert Bynum, 55; wife Ella, 48; daughter Mabel, 21; and granddaughter Marjorie, 2.

  • James Patrick

In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 919 Mercer Street, James A. Patrick, 29, “professional minister”; wife Josephine, 29, day work at redrying plant; and children Emily Dorothea, 10, Joyce Gloria, 5, and James Alexander, 3.

  • Jean Watson

In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 919[?] Mercer Street, James Watson, 29; wife Golden, 30; and daughters Earnestine, 11, Bessie Jean, 4, and Lucy Gray, 1.

  • J.D. Wooten

 

Artis Funeral Parlor succeeds!

Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 27 May 1933.

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Though he is little-remembered now, for several decades in the early-to-mid 1900s, Columbus E. Artis was the premier black undertaker in Wilson. Here’s what Samuel C. Lathan recently told me about him:

SCL: … One time, I remember C.E. Artis — I think it was a ‘48 hearse. They went to Detroit and bought that thing. And it had a record player in it. And then it had a hydraulic cable in it where, when you open up the side, that hydraulic would raise up and come out, and the casket would come out by itself.

LYH: Wow.

SCL: And the pallbearers would stand right there and take it right out. Oh, man, it was all kind of – them people would wear hickory-stripe pants, black wool and silk jacket with the vest. Aw, man …. Wont no patent leather. Everybody’s shoes was just shined.

…

LYH: And it’s funny because you talk about things that people don’t talk about. When I, you know, when I tell people that at one time C.E. Artis and Darden were rivals.

SCL: That’s right.

LYH: I mean, C.E. Artis was just as big as Darden was.

SCL: Yeah. Yeah.

…

SCL: And then Darden didn’t have the business that C.E. had.

LYH: Mm-hmm.

SCL: Darden was the old-fashioned thing. Even … I remember one time I was talking to Charles [Darden James], … [and] Charles was saying, “Well, you know, we’re the old standby.” I never will forget that, you know? But C.E. – see, until Hamilton came to Wilson, C.E. was the sporting one. C.E. was the town. C.E. was the thing, man. C.E. was the thing. Yessir buddy. Yeah.

The Artis-Bunch family reunion.

You know I love a good family reunion — and especially one to which I have ties. I’ve blogged about the descendants of Adam Toussaint Artis, a free man of color whose large farm lay just a few miles outside Stantonsburg toward Eureka. Though these Artises are technically a Wayne County family, their multiple Wilson County links more than qualify them for a spotlight here.

This past weekend, the Artis-Bunch family reunion gathered on ancestral land — still in the family — to celebrate each other. This set of Adam Artis’ descendants spring from his son Henry J.B. Artis, to whom I am related via both Artis and Aldridge ancestors. The Bunches have close ties to the Black Creek area of Wilson County, as we’ve seen here and here.

Many thanks to cousin Melissa Walker-Mack for sharing these photos!

Naomi Freeman mourned.

Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 27 July 1940.

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In the 1920 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: on Saratoga Road, Oliver N. Freeman, 38; wife Willie May, 31; and children Naomi, 8, Oliver N. Jr., 7, Mary F., 5, and Connie, 4.

In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 1300 East Nash Street, valued at $6000, Oliver N. Freeman, 48, building contractor; wife Willie May, 41, born in Tennessee; and children Naomi, 18, Oliver N. Jr., 17, Mary F., 16, and Connie H., 14.

Naomi O. Freeman died 20 July 1940 in Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. Per her death certificate, she was born 3 September 1911 in Wilson to Onstus Freeman and Will May Haddie; was single; was a Sunday school missionary; and was buried in Rountree Cemetery [likely Vick Cemetery], Wilson.

Biscoe Hagans, as imagined.

I am ambivalent about using artificial intelligence to restore photographs. Or, more specifically, I’m concerned about manipulated photographs supplanting original images and further blurring the line between reality and misinformation. However, the allure of AI-enhanced images is strong, as I often contend with blurry, poorly lit photographs in unnatural sepia or black-and-white tones. Photographs whose condition sometimes exacerbates the distance between us and our ancestors.

I have been experimenting with ChatGPT lately, feeding it queries and images to be restored and colorized. The results are somewhat haphazard, with many images weird and off-putting. Other times, the images are breathtakingly sharp and … alive. Black Wide-Awake exists to resurrect forgotten lives, and I believe these images are valuable to help us connect with the men and women we read about in these posts. From time to time, I’ll share the better ones here, clearly marked as AI-generated. Let me know what you think about them.

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Biscoe Hagans (1866-1943), farmer.

Death claims S.H. Vick.

 Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 27 July 1946.

John H. Mincey was an occasional correspondent to Norfolk’s regional African-American newspaper, the Journal and Guide, and it fell to him to write an obituary for Samuel H. Vick. Some of the facts are a little off, but the piece reveals little-known  details like Vick’s desire to study medicine.

Mary Potter graduates, 1947.

The 1947 edition of The Ram, the annual of Mary Potter Academy in Oxford, North Carolina, featured two seniors from Wilson, Preston Walter Diggs and Charity Wells:

In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 205 Vick Street, barber Edgar Diggs, 49; wife Mary, 39; and children Edgar, 12, Mary, 9, and Preston, 11.

In 1946, Preston Walter Diggs registered for the draft in Wilson, Wilson county. Per his registration card, he was born 27 September 1928 in Wilson; lived at 205 North Vick Street, Wilson; was a student at Mary Potter School in Oxford, N.C.; and his contact was Mary Diggs, 205 North Vick.

In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: widow Mazzie Wells, 42, county schoolteacher; children George, 17, and Charity, 12; and brother-in-law George Cooper, 40, fireman at Watson Tobacco Company.

In the 1950 census of Raleigh, Wake County, N.C.: at Estey Hall, Shaw University, Charity M. Wells, 19.

Philadelphia Inquirer, 15 February 1978.