On 11 January 1866, Malvina E. Rountree entered into an agreement with the Goldsboro District Office of the Freedmen’s Bureau to indenture four orphaned children — Dewitt, 13, Charles, 10, George, 8, and Ike, 6.
Malvina Gill Rountree was the widow of Jonathan D. Rountree, who died in 1865. By time the 1870 census was counted, none of these children were in her household.
Wilson Daily Times, 21 May 1946.
In May 1946, Evangelist Lloyd Price, a preacher out of Sampson County, North Carolina, conducted a revival at Flat Rock Church of Christ. Flat Rock at that time was at 402 Vick’s Alley. By late 1948, Elder D.C. Artis had established a second church with the same name in Sims, which remains active today.
Artis was a Greene County native who arrived in Wilson in the mid-1940s by way of Wayne County. In 1950, he, his wife Rosa Lee, and adopted daughter Mary lived in Parker’s Alley, Wilson. (Parker’s was a later name for Vick’s Alley.)
David C. Artis died 15 October 1972 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was born 27 April 1903 to Ruffin Artis and Florence Cannon; was married to Rosa Lee Artis; lived at 402 Parker Avenue; worked as a carpenter and minister; and was buried in Masonic cemetery.
In a will dated 29 March 1851, Daniel Land left his wife Martha a life estate in, among items, four enslaved people — Jason, Violet, Boston, and Venus. (Land lived in a section of Edgecombe County that became Wilson County in 1855. Interestingly, in the 1850 census of Edgecombe County, Land, whose occupation was “overseer of the poor,” claimed no slaves.)
Land’s estate was inventoried and sold on 21 December 1857. The administrator made note of the property passed via the terms of his will.
However, his remaining enslaved people were sold on twelve months’ credit: Louis, Mary and her child George, John, Cherry and her child Lonzo, and Caroline.
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On 21 August 1866, Jason Land and Caroline Pender registered their four-year cohabitation with a Wilson County justice of the peace.
In late December 1867 or very early January 1868, Thomas Drake, son of Thomas Avent and Lucinda Drake, applied for a marriage in Wilson to marry Venis Armstrong, daughter of Mary Armstrong. The license was not returned.
In the 1880 census of Town of Toisnot, Wilson County: railroad worker Thomas Drake, 34, wife Venus, 28, and children Jane, 9, Isaac, 7, John T., 3, and an unnamed infant, 1 month.
In the 1900 census of Elm City, Toisnot township, Wilson County: on Broad Street, farmer Thomas Drake, 55; wife Virginia [Venus], 46; and children Mattie, 20, cook, Ernest, 15, and Clarence, 11.
In the 1910 census of Toisnot township, Wilson County: Tom Drake, 65, wife Venus, 62, and daughter Pearl, 10.
Venus Drake died 5 February 1917 in Elm City, Wilson County. Per her death certificate, she was about 55 years old; was a midwife; was born in Edgecombe County to Amos Braswell and Mary Braswell; and was buried in [Elm City] “col. cemetery.” Tom Drake was informant.
In 1866, Mary Land and Amos Braswell registered their 14-year cohabitation with a Wilson County justice of the peace.
In the 1870 census of California township, Pitt County, N.C.: farmhand Amos Braswell, 40; wife Mary, 35; children John, 17, and Polly, 15; and Fereby Bassett, 28.
In the 1870 census of Joyners township, Wilson County: Lewis Land, 30, farm laborer; wife Martha, 29; and Winnie, 10, and Charles, 2.
North Carolina Wills and Probate Records, 1665-1998, http://www.ancestry.com.
The City of Wilson celebrated its 177th birthday today. Take a look at “our city’s story,” they said. “Explore Wilson’s history and timeline.”
I did. And it’s neither the story, nor the history, nor much of a timeline. I suppose glossy boosterism is one way a city can choose to commemorate its past, but which past? In 2026, Wilson has adopted the viewpoint of its business and political elite, furthering cementing this limited perspective as the one that counts.
Mere days from February 1, I’m reminded of the why of Black Wide-Awake. In the end, it’s up to us to write ourselves into the narrative.
In a will executed on 27 November 1859, among other items, Jacob Barnes bequeathed to his daughter Zilpha Ann Barnes, “three Negroes Milby, Anna, and Milby Jane” and directed his executor to “sell two Negroes Ephraigm and Randall.”
He also bequeathed:
North Carolina Wills and Probate Records, 1665-1998, http://www.ancestry.com.
Congress established the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands (Freedmen’s Bureau) in 1865 to assist millions of formerly enslaved black people (and impoverished whites) in the aftermath of the Civil War. The Bureau provided immediate relief in the form of food, clothing, and fuel; managed confiscated or abandoned land; established schools for African Americans; legalized marriages; negotiated labor contracts; and investigated and adjudicated disputes involving freed people.
Millions of Bureau records, including invaluable correspondence by and about freed men, women and children; labor arrangements; marriage records; and various reports are available for genealogical research via Familysearch.org, Ancestry.com, the National Archives, and the Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture. Many records have been digitized and indexed; many have not.
Researching Wilson County residents in Freedmen’s Bureau is complicated by geography. There was no Bureau office in Wilson, so those who sought the Bureau’s services had to apply to offices nearby. Wilson was officially under the jurisdiction of the Goldsboro Bureau office, and most relevant documents are found there. However, people who lived north of the town of Wilson, especially in the area of what is now Elm City, often looked to the Rocky Mount office.
The map above shows the locations of the five offices closest to Wilson County. A thorough search for documents of genealogical interest should touch Goldsboro, Rocky Mount, Kinston, Smithfield, and Raleigh.
Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 15 September 1934.
Sara Vick and Bessie Parker Hargrave visited with Annie M. Vick in September 1934. Hargrove, the wife of former Wilson physician Dr. Frank S. Hargrave, was the cousin of Annie Vick’s husband, Samuel H. Vick. Who was Sara Vick?
Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 27 January 1940.
