Wilson Daily Times, 7 January 1921.
The unidentified Judge Harrison was a popular speaker in Wilson, having delivered the first commencement address for graduates of the Wilson Normal and Industrial Institute two years earlier. That speech was notably conservative, and it’s no wonder the Times‘ editor approved.
We saw this 1923 plat map of Daniel C. Suggs‘ property here.
Plat Book 1, page 215.
The plat map below shows that most of Suggs’ property was purchased by W.E. Batts. In 1925, a Durham auction house prepared a new plat for the Batts property.
Plat Book 3, page 17.
Here’s a present-day view of the area. New Street kept its name, but a truncated Hines Street is now Blount Street at its west end, and Elvie School Drive at its east. This map makes clear that the south end of the old Oakdale Cemetery (“colored cemetery” on both plats) lay under the circular driveway and front law of Elvie Street School [later M.M. Daniels Learning Center.] Its graves (or some of them, anyway) were moved to Rest Haven in 1941.
In 1946, to assemble land on which to build a replacement for the Sallie Barbour School, the Board of Trustees of Wilson City Schools began to buy up parcels in the property, also known as Suggs Heights and adjacent lots, including these:
This aerial photograph of C.H. Darden High School likely dates to the late 1960s. The original Rosenwald-funded section of the school, with later added wings, at right. The building with a central entrance at lower center, adjacent to the original building, is an addition that dates to the 1940s. The buildings behind, which included an auditorium, gymnasium, lunchroom, and additional classroom space, were added in the 1950s and ’60s.
The photo is also interesting for the glimpse of the surrounding neighborhood. The streets behind the school were developed starting in the 1950s from a large parcel owned by Martha Woodard, Louise Fike, and Hadley Blake. Darden faced Carroll Street, of course, and the termini of Viola and East Green Streets. The houses that once stood on land now occupied by Seeds of Hope Wilson’s garden are visible near bottom left.
Vick Elementary School now stands on the site.
Photo courtesy of C.H. Darden High School Alumni Association.
Wilson Daily Times, 11 February 1929.
Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 9 March 1929.
Kudos to the teachers of Lucama School!
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Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 15 January 1927.
Among the early January social happenings reported to the Journal and Guide in 1927, we learn that attorney Glenn S. McBrayer was the keynote speaker at Wilson’s January 1 Emancipation Celebration, held in the Wilson Colored High School auditorium. We also learn that Mount Sinai Missionary Baptist Church had wrapped up a series of Good Will services at their new chapel, i.e. the building Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church now occupies.
News and Observer (Raleigh, N.C.), 16 July 1925.
Garage owner James Edward Smith died of complications resulting from an automobile accident in March 1925. His widow Annie B. Smith, as administrator, sold two of his buses at public auction in August of that year. Alex Obey later bought the garage.
While a student, Daniel E. Freeman designed a new scoreboard for Tuskegee Institute’s athletic stadium.
Montgomery Advertiser, 21 August 1926.
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In the 1900 census of Wilson, Wilson County: 56 year-old carpenter Julius Freeman, wife Eliza, 46, and children Elizabeth, 19, Nestus, 17, Junius, 11, Ernest, 9, Tom, 6, Daniel, 4, and Ruth, 4 months.
In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: house carpenter Julius Freeman, 65; wife Eliza, 54; and children Nestus, 28, bricklayer; Ollie, 18, Daniel, 14, John, 7, Junius, 22, Ernest, 20, and Thomas, 17.
On 28 May 1921, Dedquard [Daniel Edward] Freeman, 25, born in Wilson, N.C., to Julius Freeman and Eliza Daniel, sign painter, married Ellen D. Wilson, 22, born in Wilson, N.C., to William Wilson and Sarah Bullard, in Cuyahoga County, Ohio.
In the 1930 census of Tuskegee, Macon County, Alabama: Daniel A. Freeman, 32, private school drama teacher; wife Ellaine, 28; and daughter Elaine, 6, born in Ohio.
In the 1940 census of Greenwood, Macon County, Alabama: at Tuskegee Institute, Dequard Freeman, 43; wife Ellen, 35, laundry checker; and daughter Elaine, 16.
Montgomery Advertiser, 21 August 1946.
In the 1950 census of Greenwood, Macon County, Alabama: Daniel E. Freeman, 53; wife Ellen D., 47; and cousin Donald McLauren, 10, born in New York.
Daniel E. Freeman.
Dedquard E. Freeman died 27 January 1972 in Tuskegee, Alabama.
After Jackson Chapel and Saint John A.M.E.Z., the building in which Saint Mark’s Episcopal worships is the third oldest continuously occupied African-American sanctuary in Wilson. However, recent structural stresses have imperiled its future.
Around 1925, Mount Sinai Missionary Baptist erected a church on Reid Street just south of East Nash. Ten years later, Mount Sinai had vacated the building. Looking for a location away from the downtown tobacco warehouse district and closer to its congregants, the Episcopal diocese purchased the church to house Saint Mark’s. With a few repairs, and the installation of its old circular stained glass cross, the church was ready for its new occupants in January 1936.
I took a few photos on a recent visit to Saint Mark’s, but they don’t adequately capture its simple beauty. Though its liturgical articles and ornaments have largely been removed, its altar, pews, and simple stained glass windows tell a century-old story.
The spine of Saint Mark’s building is broken, but the spirit of its worshippers, now largely members of the Guadalupana Mission, continues to soar.
Photos by Lisa Y. Henderson, October 2025.
Twin City Daily Sentinel (Winston-Salem, N.C.), 3 December 1921.