1890s

Misfortunes of Marcus.

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Wilson News, 7 December 1899.

The course of events here is not entirely clear, but it seems that Haywood Marcus, Lee Whitaker and John Mobley were on the west side of the tracks at a saloon or shot house. Mobley was drunk, and Whitaker and Marcus tried to help him get back “across the railroad” home. Mobley’s brother Jim Mobley intercepted them, cursed Marcus out, and shot him. (Huh?)

  • Haywood Marcus
  • Lee Whitaker
  • John and Jim Mobley — John and James Mobley were sons of John H. and Jane Rountree Mobley.

Towe buys a house and lot for $900.

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North Carolina, Wilson County  }

This Deed made this the 30th day of March 1898 by Silas Lucas and wife, Charity Lucas, parties of the first part and G.H. Towe party of the Second part, all of the State and County aforesaid, Witnesseth:- That for and in consideration of the Sum of Nine Hundred Dollars in hand paid the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged, the Said parties of the first part have bargained and Sold and do by this deed bargain, Sell and convey unto the Said party of the Second part, his heirs and assigns, the following described land: One lot or parcel of land lying and being Situate in the town of Wilson, State and County aforesaid on Nash Street on the South Side of the Colored Odd Fellows Lodge, beginning at the corner of Said Odd Fellows lot, thence about eighty feet Eastward to Charles Dardin‘s line, thence South with Said Dardin’s line about Eighty feet to a light wood Stake, thence west parallel with the first named line to Nash Street, thence with Nash Street to the beginning, being part of the lot purchased by the said Silas Lucas from A.D. Farmer and also being the lot on which the Said G.H. Towe now resides To Have and To Hold To Him the Said G.H. Towe, his heirs and assigns, forever. And the Said Lucas does for himself, his heirs, administrators and executors, covenants and agrees to and with the Said Towe that he will forever warrant and defend the title to the above described real estate against the lawful Claims of all persons whatsoever.

In Testimony whereof the Said parties of the first part have hereunto Set their hands and Seals the day and year first above written.    /s/ Silas Lucas, Charity Lucas

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A year after he bought this property, Granville H. Towe‘s lot on Nash Street was listed on a delinquent property tax list.

Deed book 46, page 455, Register of Deeds, Wilson County Court House.

Like most negroes, she was full of superstition.

In 1891, Rev. Owen L.W. Smith‘s sister, Millie Smith Sutton, shot and killed his wife Lucy Smith at point-blank range, believing that Lucy had poisoned her son.

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Wilson Advance, 9 July 1891.

On 5 November, the Advance reported that Smith had been found “mentally deranged” at the time she killed Smith and was committed to the insane asylum in Goldsboro.

The Wilson Mirror offered more on 11 November:

This tragedy had sequels.

Six years later, Sutton’s walking companion, Nettie Vick Jones, was stabbed to death on the street by her husband, A. Wilson Jones.

Ten years later, on 22 November 1901, the Times reported that Sutton had been released from the hospital and had returned to Wilson and, with Carrie Pettiford, had threatened the life of her brother’s newest wife, Adora Oden Smith. (In the 1900 census, Carrie was a boarder in the Smiths’ home.) Both were arrested.

I hope my white friends will remember me.

I do not know the context of this puzzling letter Rev. Jeremiah Scarborough wrote to the editor of Wilson Times.

Wilson Times, 15 September 1899.

Twenty years later, Scarborough was still preaching the gospel of accommodationism.

Wilson Times, 2 June 1919.

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Scarborough is elusive in records, too. He appears in the 1877 edition of Shaw University’s catalog as a Wake Forest native and graduate of its Normal School division. He is also listed in Claude Trotter’s History of the Wake Baptist Association, Its Auxiliaries and Churches, 1866-1966 (1876) as a pastor in 1878 at Wake County’s Friendship Chapel, near Wake Forest.