This April 1909 execution of a $40 judgment in Superior Court reveals the existence of an early twentieth-century African-American business — Hardy & Sugg. John Hardy was a livery man, and it is reasonable to conjecture that George W. Suggs opened a stable with him.

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On 5 February 1902, John Hardy, 22, married Florence Williams, 20, in Wilson. Zion minister C.L. Alexander performed the ceremony in the presence of Mrs. Canna Alexander, L.C. Ligon, and A.L. Darden.

Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory (1908).

In the 1910 census of Wilson township, Wilson County, Wilson County: on Nash Street: barber Walter Maynor, 19, and wife Alice, 23; barber William Sutson [Sutzer], 65, barbershop proprietor; wife Mary J., 49, hotel proprietor; son Leondas Taylor, 23, pressing club laborer, and daughter-in-law Anna, 22; and boarders Lemuel Yancy, 36, drugstore clerk; Harry Carter, 35, music teacher; Ernest Allen, 30, hotel cook; and John Hardy, 30, livery stable owner; his wife Florence, 23, and daughters Lida, 7, and Estell, 5.

Wilson County, N.C., Court Dockets 1909-1910, Civil Issues Dockets, http://www.familysearch.org.