“An Old Reporter,” i.e. Hugh B. Johnston Jr., wrote a genealogy column for the Rocky Mount Telegram in the 1950s. On 22 February 1957, he featured Edgecombe/Wilson County farmer Hartwell Williford. The piece mostly detailed Williford’s business transactions, but includes some personal anecdotes, including a description of Williford’s torture of an unnamed enslaved man — delivered with a chuckle by the writer.

On a less funny note, Williford and his son were indicted for murdering an enslaved man named Thomas in 1860.