Wilson Daily Times, 12 June 1896.
The welcome mat laid out for Little Richmond was quickly rolled up. Within months, the neighborhood developed a reputation for violent crime, and complaints replaced the cheers.
Wilson Daily Times, 12 June 1896.
The welcome mat laid out for Little Richmond was quickly rolled up. Within months, the neighborhood developed a reputation for violent crime, and complaints replaced the cheers.
East Wilson’s new property owners often turned to Wilson Home and Loan Association, a savings and loan association affiliated with George D. Green, for short-term financing.
This note from Wilson Home & Loan to Wilson County Register of Deeds is pasted in the deed book.
Daniel Vick‘s prominence in local and regional Republican politics broadened the network of people upon whom he could call for favors. In 1898, he reached out to Henry E. Hagans of Goldsboro, for a loan. Hagans had been personal secretary to United States Congressman George H. White and remained active in politics even as assumed a position as principal of Goldsboro’s State Colored Normal School.
On 9 November 1898, Daniel and Fannie Vick executed to Henry E. Hagans of Goldsboro a promissory note for $400 to be paid by 9 February 1899. If Vick defaulted, Hagans would sell at public auction two lots on Church Street and Barefoot Road in Wilson. The Vicks missed the mark, but Hagans did not call in the loan. A handwritten note on the mortgage deed states: “The within papers transferred to S.H. Vick this the 6th day of May AD 1899 /s/ H.E. Hagans”
Henry E. Hagans (1868-1926), in a portrait appearing in a feature article in the 21 September 1904 The Colored American.
Samuel H. Vick, of course, was Daniel and Fannie Vick’s wealthy son, who was also active and well-connected in Republican circles. The deed was filed in Wilson County on 16 April 1903 and recorded in Deed Book 66, page 236. Another note states: “This mortgage is satisfied in full by taking taking a new mortgage and is hereby cancelled 4 Dec 1903 /s/ S.H. Vick”
Deed Book 66, page 236.
By the late 1800s, the area of present-day Green Street east of the railroad tracks — largely farmland — was held by a handful of large landowners, notably George D. and Ella M. Green and Frank I. and Annie Finch. We’ve seen here how the Samuel H. and Annie Washington Vick sold parcels in the 600 block to their friends and family to solidify a middle-class residential district for African-Americans. The Vicks themselves bought fifteen acres from the Greens, which they later divided into the lots they sold to others.
These transactions disclose more early settlers on East Green:
Detail of T.M. Fowler’s 1908 bird’s eye map of Wilson. Green Street slices diagonally across the frame. Samuel H. and Annie Vick’s new multi-gabled mansion is at (1). The church he helped establish, Calvary Presbyterian, is at the corner of Green and Pender at (2). At (3), Pilgrim Rest Primitive Baptist Church, which bought its lot from the Vicks. At (4), the original location of Piney Grove Free Will Baptist Church.
Deed Book 81, page 323.
In 1893, Ellen Williams, J.H. Joyner, Joseph Short, Haywood Batts, Amos Whitley, William Barnes, George Barnes, Robert Barnes, Agatha Williams, Frank Barnes, James Williams, Doublin Barnes, Amerson Parker, George Gaston, Joshua Farmer, Louis Deans, Leah Bullock, Elbert Locust, John Marshaw, Richard Battle, William Pender, George Barnes Jr., and Proctor Battle “associate[d] themselves” to purchase land to establish an African-American cemetery just outside Elm City. The group bought a two and a half acre parcel from Thomas G. Dixon and wife on 6 January 1893. As they began to sell burial plots, however, they ran into a problem. Securing the signatures of all the owners on every single sale was difficult and time-consuming.
After fifteen years of this struggle, on 28 September 1908, the owners conveyed the Elm City Colored Cemetery to three of their number — Robert Barnes, Haywood Batts, and George Barnes — as trustees.
As we saw here, Samuel and Annie Washington Vick owned scores of rental properties in east and south Wilson. Sam Vick also subdivided tracts of land to sell to developers and individuals wishing to build homes, such as here and here.
Perhaps the pinnacle of the Vicks’ real estate achievement was the establishment of early twentieth-century Black Wilson’s premier residential street, the 600 and 700 blocks of East Green. The Vicks were not the first buyers on the block, but over the course of a decade or so, sold lot after lot to their middle-class friends and relatives.
Deed Book 50, page 73, Wilson County Register of Deeds Office.
Wilson Advance, 9 January 1896.
John A. Corbett collided with the Red Hots’ hose reel as both dashed to a fire in January 1896. The Red Hots’ reel, which was pulled by hand until the city gave them a horse in 1921, likely looked much like the one below, restored and displayed in the Raleigh Fire Museum. See here for interesting info about the history and operation of hose reels.
Photo courtesy of the Raleigh Fire Museum, Raleigh, North Carolina.
Deed book 51, page 70, Wilson County Register of Deeds Office.
On 4 February 1899, Alex Williamson entered into an agreement to purchase from J.D. Farrior one back mare mule for $125.00. The purchase was made on credit, due 1 September 1899, and until Williamson paid in full, title to the mule remained with Farrior.
[Sidenote: “Ellick” was the local pronunciation of Alex.]