We saw here that a half-dozen or more African-American Odd Fellows lodges were scattered around Wilson County in the early 1900s. Two were in the town of Wilson — Mount Hebron, whose lodge was in the 500 block of East Nash, and Zion Hall, which was in the Grabneck community. Others were in unclear locations in or near Stantonsburg, Black Creek, and Lucama, and three were at locations completely unknown.

I stumbled on a clue today.

While running down a loose end related to Saint Delight Original Free Will Baptist church, at (2), my cursor paused on the square outlined in blue, at (1). I glanced at the owner of this lot. Odd Fellows Society?!? And with the same generic Bishop L.N. Forbes Street address as the Lane Street Project’s Odd Fellows Cemetery. Per the tax record for this parcel, this is a cemetery. [The parcels marked (4) are also cemeteries — Saint Delight’s original cemetery and an expansion lot acquired in 1993. I believe (3) is the lot on which Kirby’s Crossing School once stood.]

Which Odd Fellows lodge was this? And large enough to establish its own cemetery? Wow!

A plat map showing a division of property for the Lucian Kirby heirs, filed in 1992, answers the question. Here’s a detail:

Plat Book 22, page 220, Wilson County Register of Deeds Office, Wilson.

The key identifies the owner of (3) as Lucama Odd Fellows Grand United Order No. 3501. (This may be a typo, as other documents record the lodge number as 3561.)

I don’t have access to Deed Book 51 online, but I’ll run to the courthouse for it next time I’m in Wilson. (The Bishop L.N. Forbes mailing address for recent tax records for this property is clearly a recent clerical add-in. It’s erroneous, and serves no purpose other than to cloud the picture. The address is insufficient for mail delivery; there is no mailbox; and, in any event, both cemeteries are tax-exempt.) I’ll also need to take another look at the cemetery, which I assumed belonged to the church when I photographed it in September 2017.

Here’s a clue I missed:

James A. Kirby‘s fallen headstone shows the Odd Fellows’ linked chain symbol, marked F-L-T. Lucama Lodge was chartered in 1892, and Kirby may have been among the original members.