Deed Book 66, page 565, Wilson County Register of Deeds Office, Wilson.
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J.D. Reid borrowed $200 from Nancy Harriss in January 1904, guaranteeing the loan with a mortgage on a lot he owned on Green Street that bordered Short Barnes and Louis Battle. The loan was to be repaid in twelve months, but margin notes reveal the mortgage wasn’t cancelled until March 1912. Note that S.H. Vick acted as Reid’s agent.
Deed Book 66, page 489. Wilson County Register of Deeds, Wilson.
In December 1903, Henry Dupree borrowed $100 from his neighbor Calvin Blount. He secured the loan with a mortgage on the quarter acre piece of land he owned “east of and off of the road leading from the town of Wilson, to William Bynum’s in the southeast suburbs of the town of Wilson … south of a path or lane leading to the colored cemetery from said road ….”
The “colored cemetery,” of course, was Oakdale.
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In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on Stantonsburg Road, farm laborer Henry Dupree, 34, and wife Ellar, 38.
Wilson, N.C., city directory (1912).
Henry Dupree registered for the World War I draft in 1918 in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born 3 December 1873; lived in Bynum Lane, Wilson; farmed “for self” “with D.C. Sugg“; and his nearest relative was wife Ella Dupree.
In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on Railroad Street, Henry Dupree, 44; wife Ella, 47; granddaughter Ella Faison, 13; and nephew Issac Thigpen, 22.
In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: widower Henry Dupree, 68, farm laborer, and lodgers David Brewington, 80, Issac Thigpen, 40, and David Faison, 19, public service laborer.
In 1942, Davis Faison registered for the World War II draft in Wilson County. Per his death certificate, he was born 24 November 1921 in Wilson; lived at 606 South Blount Street; his contact was Henry Dupree, 606 South Blount Street; and he worked for L. Arner Junk Shop, Jones and Railroad Streets, Wilson.
Henry Dupree died 18 April 1956 in Mercy Hospital, Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was born 2 December 1881 in North Carolina to Celie Dupree; lived at 610 Blount Street; was separated from wife Bessie Dupree; and worked as a farmer. Dave Faison was informant.
I am ambivalent about using artificial intelligence to restore photographs. Or, more specifically, I’m concerned about manipulated photographs supplanting original images and further blurring the line between reality and misinformation. However, the allure of AI-enhanced images is strong, as I often contend with blurry, poorly lit photographs in unnatural sepia or black-and-white tones. Photographs whose condition sometimes exacerbates the distance between us and our ancestors.
I have been experimenting with ChatGPT lately, feeding it queries and images to be restored and colorized. The results are somewhat haphazard, with many images weird and off-putting. Other times, the images are breathtakingly sharp and … alive. Black Wide-Awake exists to resurrect forgotten lives, and I believe these images are valuable to help us connect with the men and women we read about in these posts. From time to time, I’ll share the better ones here, clearly marked as AI-generated. Let me know what you think about them.
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Roderick Taylor Jr. (1883-1947), barber.
This April 1909 execution of a $40 judgment in Superior Court reveals the existence of an early twentieth-century African-American business — Hardy & Sugg. John Hardy was a livery man, and it is reasonable to conjecture that George W. Suggs opened a stable with him.
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On 5 February 1902, John Hardy, 22, married Florence Williams, 20, in Wilson. Zion minister C.L. Alexander performed the ceremony in the presence of Mrs. Canna Alexander, L.C. Ligon, and A.L. Darden.
Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory (1908).
In the 1910 census of Wilson township, Wilson County, Wilson County: on Nash Street: barber Walter Maynor, 19, and wife Alice, 23; barber William Sutson [Sutzer], 65, barbershop proprietor; wife Mary J., 49, hotel proprietor; son Leondas Taylor, 23, pressing club laborer, and daughter-in-law Anna, 22; and boarders Lemuel Yancy, 36, drugstore clerk; Harry Carter, 35, music teacher; Ernest Allen, 30, hotel cook; and John Hardy, 30, livery stable owner; his wife Florence, 23, and daughters Lida, 7, and Estell, 5.
Wilson County, N.C., Court Dockets 1909-1910, Civil Issues Dockets, http://www.familysearch.org.
In November 1908, Wilson County Superior Court named George W. Suggs guardian to sisters Kate, Sarah, Bettie and Ida McIver, the minor children of Amanda McIver. Their father, Rev. Byron D. McIver, was still alive, but had been removed as guardian overseeing the tiny inheritance from their deceased mother. L.A. Moore signed the bond with Suggs.
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In the 1900 census of Hookerton, Greene County, N.C.: clergyman Byron D. McIver, 44; wife Amanda, 29; and daughters Laura, 16, Minnie, 11, Katie, 6, Sarah, 3, and Bettie, 2.
Wilson County, N.C., Guardianship Records 1903-1909, http://www.familysearch.org.
In 1909, Moyton Lodge #5101 — the Stantonsburg-area Odd Fellows — bought a lot at the corner of Broad Avenue and South Yelverton Street. Did they ever build a lodge hall there?
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STANTONSBURG LAND & IMP. CO.
TO
MOYTON LODGE #5101 OF THE O. F. OF WILSON CO.
(DEED)
STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA, WILSON COUNTY }
THIS DEED, Made this the 28 day of December, 1909, by the Stantonsburg Land and Improvement Company, a Corporation duly organized and existing under the laws of the State of North Carolina, party of the first part, and S.H. Burney, G.W. Applewhite, A.J.S. Edwards, C.B. Best, J.H. Edwards, Joseph Jones, Sr., and W.H. Hall, Trustees of Moyton Lodge No. 5101 of the G.U.O. of O.F. of Wilson County, State of N. C., parties of the second part,
WITNESSETH: THAT the said party of the first part, for and in consideration of the sum of One Hundred and Twenty-Five Dollars to it paid, the receipt of which is hereby acknowledged, has bargained and sold, and by these presents does bargain, sell and convey to the said parties of the second part and their successors in Office, a certain tract or parcel of land in Stantonsburg Township, Wilson County, State of North Carolina; being known as lot No. 12 in block 23 of a town site laid out and plotted for said party of the first part, said plot being recorded in the Office of the Register of Deeds of Wilson County in Book …., page ….. and more particularly described as follows, to-wit:
Beginning at the corner of Broad Ave. and ….. St., and runs North 150 feet, corners, thence East 50 ft. to corner of lot No. 11, thence South 150 ft. to Broad Ave., thence West with Broad Ave 50 ft. to the beginning.
TO HAVE AND TO HOLD the aforesaid tract or lot of land and all privileges and appurtenances thereto belonging to the said party of the second part, Trustees as aforesaid, and their successors in Office, to their only use and behoof forever.
And the said party of the first part covenant that it is seized of said premises in fee and has a good right to convey the same in fee simple; that the same is free and clear from all incumbrances, and that it will warrant and defend the title to the same against the lawful claims of all persons whomsoever.
IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF the said Stantonsburg Land and Improvement Company has caused its name to be hereunto signed by its president, attested by its Secretary, and its corporate seal hereto affixed, all by order of its Board of Directors, this the day and year first above written.
Stantonsburg Land & Improvement Co.
BY: S. H. Crocker, President.
Attest: H. E. Thompson, Secretary
Broad and Yelverton today. Bethel A.M.E. Zion is visible at the other end of the block.
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Deed book 91, page 381, Wilson County Register of Deeds Office, Wilson; photo by Lisa Y. Henderson, October 2025.
We read here of North Carolina’s Good Roads Policy, which authorized counties to use mobile convict labor camps, manned overwhelmingly by African-American convicts, to build roads. Above, minutes from the 8 September 1903 Wilson County Commission meeting reflect the assignment of “the convict force” to Toisnot township to work on a road project for up to a month. George D. Green, chairman of the Commission, was ordered to “take such steps as necessary to supply the food and have same cooked by the convicts of this County for the road hands.” Also, W.H. Pridgen was ordered to “have 3 sections of 16 feet each of Portable convict quarters built.”
This 1996 article about a prison cage found behind Angus Barn in Raleigh and donated to the State Department of Corrections includes photographs of two other portable convict cages known to exist today in North Carolina. See also this 1994 article.
What a strange story.
The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, Va.), 7 September 1952.
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The Miners Journal (Pottsville, Pa.), 15 May 1903.
This brief account of the murder of T. Percy Jones snatched at my eye. A man killed by a mob in Wilson in 1903? The backstory is complicated … and surprising.
Jones was a white insurance salesman from Little Rock, Arkansas, who had been boarding at the Fryar Building downtown for several weeks. A crowd of at least eleven white men broke into Jones’ room to confront him about (1) black women occupying his room and (2) suspicions that he was a detective investigating Wilson’s flourishing gambling dens. Allegedly two weeks earlier, the police had gone to Jones’ room looking for Fannie Adams, a black woman from Goldsboro wanted for stealing a watch. Adams was not there, but a letter addressed to her was found, as was a different black woman. Jones allegedly also had been spotted in a “Negro eating house” with a black woman. A posse sent a message to Jones to get out of town. Anticipating conflict, Jones kept a loaded shotgun at the head of his bed. When the mob broke down Jones’ door, guns blazing, Jones fired back. His shot lodged in the ceiling, Jones was struck in the abdomen. (Two of the mob caught friendly fire as well.) The men scattered, jumping out of windows and shimmying down ladders.
The police rounded up fish dealer J.B. Piver, merchant tailor Samuel J. Walls; brickyard laborer, prison guard and whiskey still operator John Pittman; Times pressman George Whitley, who also drove a hose wagon for Wilson Fire Company; W.P. Croom; carpenter William W. Barnes; Lawrence Morgan, who ran a gambling house; William H. Rich, a cotton mill superintendent from Alabama; farmer J. Thomas Bass of Wayne County, N.C.; barkeep Gil D. Ward, originally of Wayne County; and barkeep and Pitt County native John R. Allen, the man who was shot. At the coroner’s inquest, Mayor Doane Herring, who was among the first on the scene, gave testimony unfavorable to the arrested men, and feeling in town ran against them. Additional testimony hinted that police officers W.P. Snakenburg (a 21-year veteran and former police chief), Frank Felton, and George Mumford had been encouraged to make themselves scarce the night of the attack, and A.C.L. Railroad night watchman Peter Nichols had failed to stir when he saw the crowd moving. (Snakenburg was soon fired; Felton drew a ten-day suspension; and Nichols was stripped of police power.)
At trial, Barnes turned state’s evidence, and others each swore their innocence, claiming they had never conspired with their codefendants, were not on the scene, and in general knew nothing about the incident. A single black witness, George Moye, testified:
The Farmer and Mechanic (Raleigh, N.C.), 19 May 1903. This paper carried a blow-by-blow of both the coroner’s inquest and the trial.
In his summation, defense attorney Frederick A. Woodard thundered: “… when this crime came to my knowledge there also came to my mind the fact that a man was living here in sight of a church steeple in adultery with a negro woman. … And had he gotten what his acts deserved he would have been driven out and this horrible killing would have been averted.” Prosecutor F.S. Spruill, who had been brought in from Louisburg, N.C., shot back, “They not only killed the body but this defense has attempted to raise over this body the black name of infamy. Let those who are not guilty throw the first stone. Rich, in [Cora Duty‘s] bawdy house; Morgan in the home of a harlot when arrested and Ward, the slayer of his [black] mistress [in Wayne County.] Can these man point at a man who, it is claimed, has committed adultery?”
The first trial ended in mistrial, but in February 1904, Whitley, Ward, Rich, Pittman, Allen, and Bass were found guilty of the reduced charge of manslaughter and given sentences of six to ten months’ hard labor at the state penitentiary. Piver and Walls were tried separate from the others and were acquitted.
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In the 1900 census of Wilson, Wilson County: kinship laborer George Moye, 52, widow, and boarders Annie Graves, 40, widow, and Cora Williamson, 23, both day laborers.
