Month: July 2026

Private Arthur Braswell, stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas.

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In the 1930 census of Upper Town Creek township, Edgecombe County, N.C.: George Braswell, 41; wife Lizzie, 35; and children Cornelius, 15, James, 13, Eloise, 10, Arthur, 8, Rena, 5, Ollin, 3, and Walter, 1.

In the 1940 census of Olds township, Greene County, N.C.: farmer George Braswell, 54; wife Lizzie, 42; children James, 23, Luther [sic], 18, Reaner, 16, Arland, 13, Walter, 12, Everlina, 8, and Julious, 4; and lodger Richard Sutton, 43. The family reported having lived in Wilson County in 1935.

In 1942, Arthur Braswell registered for the World War II draft in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born 21 October 1921 in Wilson County; lived at Route 3, Wilson; his contact was Dick Suggs; and he worked for Dick Suggs.

On 7 February 1952, Arthur Braswell, 29, of Sims, son of Lizzie Braswell, married Viola Ward, 19, of Sims, daughter of Moses and Rosetta Bynum Ward, in Wilson. 

Image courtesy of Veterans of World War II Wilson County, spiral-bound volume, Wilson County Public Library.

Pauline Coley buys a cemetery plot.

Deed Book 290, page 592, Wilson County Register of Deeds Office, Wilson.

On 8 November 1944, Pauline Coley bought lot number 24, Street H, of the Southwest section of Rest Haven Cemetery. This would seem to indicate that Wilson Cemetery Trustees (as opposed to the Colored Cemetery Trustees or Commission) were handling lot sales by this time, but no records remain from this period.

The apprenticeship of Edward and William H. Fields (1910).

On 26 December 1910, a Wilson County Superior Court judge ordered Edward Fields, 14, and John Henry Fields, 13, bound as apprentices to their maternal grandfather Washington Fields until they reached 18 years of age.

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  • Edward Fields
  • William Henry Fields

In 1918, William Henry Fields registered for the World War I draft in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born in August 1896 in Wilson County; lived in Lucama; his nearest relative was his grandfather Washington Fields, Lucama; and he worked as a tenant farmer for Ira Barnes. 

On 16 November 1918, Wm. H. Fields, 21, of Cross Roads, son of Henry Barnes and Lurindy Fields, married Eliza Woodard, 21, of Cross Roads, daughter of William Woodard, in Wilson County.

In the 1920 census of Cross Roads township, Wilson County: farmer William H. Fields, 22, and wife Eliza W., 23.

In the 1950 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 200 East, William H. Fields, 52, “feeding the belt” at local canal mill; wife Liza, 51; niece Dorothy M. Woodard, 13, and nephew John Woodard Jr., 11.

Eliza O. Fields died 2 June 1950 at Mercy Hospital, Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was born 4 July 1900 in Wilson County to William Woodard; was married; lived at 200 North East Street; and worked as a tobacco laborer. William Henry Fields was informant.

William Henry Fields died 13 November 1958 in Bailey, Nash County, N.C. Per his death certificate, he was born 1 January 1897 to William Henry Barnes and Marinda Fields; was a widower; and lived at 200 North East Street. Informant was Mattie Newsome, 200 North East Street.

Apprentice 1910, Miscellaneous Records, Wilson County Records, North Carolina State Archives.

Taylor’s Spring Club news.

Wilson Daily Times, 7 July 1944.

Where was Taylor’s Spring? Presumably, based on the reference to Mitchell School, somewhere west of Elm City.

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  • Bertha Lee Evans
  • Rosie Lee Evans — probably, in the 1940 census of Toisnot township, Wilson County: farmer John Evans, 34; wife Rosa, 30; and children Rosa Lee, 12, Effie Pearl, 11, John Evert, 10, Penny Roberta, 8, Annie Doris, 7, Karl Randolph, 4, and Rayfield, 2.
  • Sadie Isom
  • Pearlie Savage — in the 1940 census of Toisnot township, Wilson County: farmer Henry Locus, 67; wife Ida, 64; daughter Lula, 38; granddaughters Elsie, 18, and Pearley Mae Savage, 13; and grandsons Clinton, 6, and Irelander Armstrong, 4.
  • Viola Scafe — Earnest and Viola Hill Scafe likely were migrants from South Carolina. They settled in Toisnot township in the late 1930s, had at least three children there between 1937 and 1942, and migrated to New Jersey before 1950.
  • Florence McKinnon — in the 1940 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: Will McKinnon, 55; wife Elizabeth W., 53; children Ada Belle, 19, Mary E., 16, Florence G., 15, Charlie S., 12, and Benjamin F., 23; daughter-in-law Mary V., 19; grandson Benjamin F. Jr., 1; son James W., 21, and daughter-in-law Cora C., 18.
  • J.A. Boyd

603 East Green Street, updated.

We saw 603 East Green Street here and here.

Below are photos of the Washington Wilkins house taken circa the mid-1980s for the East Wilson Historic District nomination report.

603 East Green today.

N.87-12-360-362, Washington Wilkins House, 603 E. Green Street, East Wilson Historic District, Wilson, Wilson County, Survey and National Register Branch, State Historic Preservation Office; photo by Lisa Y. Henderson, July 2026.

Immunization schedule for colored.

Wilson Daily Times, 7 July 1948.

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  • Jack Vale’s store, Elba Street — in the 1950 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 316 Elba, Jack Vail, 50, retail grocery store manager; wife Addie, 45; and son J.C., 22.
  • Best Stewart‘s store
  • Calvary Baptist church
  • Lodge Street store

601 East Green Street, part 2.

601 East Green is described in the nomination form for the East Wilson Historic District: “ca. 1950; 1 1/2 stories; stone-veneered cottage with Neo-Colonial motifs.”

This house, built for physician William C. Hines and his family in the late 1940s, was a latecomer to the 600 block of East Green. It was demolished more than 20 years ago.

601 East Green, today.

Wilson Daily Times, 12 June 1951.

Contact sheet frames from N.87-12-363-375, Dr. William Hines House, 601 E. Green Street, East Wilson Historic District, Wilson, Wilson County, Survey and National Register Branch, State Historic Preservation Office; photo by Lisa Y. Henderson, May 2026.

The Fourth.

My conventional, performative patriotism probably hit peak when I was 12. I spent the Bicentennial summer in western Massachusetts, and who celebrated 1976 more fervently than small-town New England? Consensus builder Gerald Ford was president, the Reflecting Pool sparkled, and the U.S. was not (anymore) bombing anybody. Though I was called “ni**er” for the first time in my life that summer, the world — my world — seemed simpler, and I could uncritically, unselfconsciously, wave a tiny stars-and-stripes.

These days, I’m more likely to observe Independence Day with a rereading of Frederick Douglass’ astonishing, searing, stirring “What, to the slave, is the Fourth of July?” and a reflection on all that my people have done, in spite of, to make this country worth shooting fireworks over. Black Americans have believed in America, in American ideas and ideals, with an incandescent intensity. And yet here we are at the Semiquincentennial, ‘buked and scorned high and low.

I’ll take some time today to remember the ancestors, to vibe to our world-spanning culture, to acknowledge this country’s jaw-dropping natural beauty, and to demand better.

“For this is your home, my friend, do not be driven from it; great men have done great things here, and will again, and we can make America what America must become.” James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time

Marchers in Alabama cross the horizon on the march from Selma to Montgomery on 21 March 1965. Matt Herron, photographer.

Happy birthday, America. Happy birthday.