When I first hit Wilson, I always pay my respects to my father and grandmother at Rest Haven and to the dead of Vick, Odd Fellows, and Rountree Cemeteries, and I always check on 303 Elba Street.
My family owned this little house from 1908 until 1938. My grandmother grew up here, Jack Henderson lived here when he first arrived in Wilson, and my father and his siblings were born here. It was, as the old folk say in Wide-Awake, my family’s “home house.”
Friday, for the first time since I’ve been paying attention, a For Sale sign hung out front.
If I were burning money, maybe I’d hand over $38,000 for a tiny house that needs a complete gut to be habitable. As it is, I’ll just pull up to the curb to pay homage to Hattie Henderson Ricks and Jesse and Sarah Henderson Jacobs as long as 303 stands.
Photo by Lisa Y. Henderson, May 2026.
Am tracing my family tree for Hattie M Jacobs. She lived with Sarah Jacobs at this same location as a granddaughter of Thomas/Belle Smith in 1930.
You’re mistaken. Hattie M. Jacobs, also known by her birth surname Henderson, was my beloved grandmother. She and her maternal great-aunt Sarah Henderson Jacobs appear at 303 Elba, Wilson, in 1930. (The census taker missed my two uncles, who were toddlers.) There’s no Thomas or Belle Smith in the household, and the Smiths were not her grandparents.
Thank you for replying. I found Hattie Mae Jacobs lived with Sarah Jacobs in Wilson NC city directory in 1930. Do you have family from Lumberton NC
My grandmother was reared by her maternal great-aunt, Sarah Henderson Jacobs, and Sarah’s husband Jesse A. Jacobs, who died in 1926. She was not biologically related to Jesse, but he reared her as his own. He was born in Sampson County NC in the 1850s to parents with Cumberland County roots, but certainly was linked to Robeson County Jacobses.