1920s

Historic Black Business Series, no. 21: Robert Kearney’s grocery.

The 500 block of East Nash Street is justly remembered as the 20th century epicenter of Wilson’s African-American-owned businesses. However, in the late 1800s and early 1900s, Black entrepreneurs and tradespeople also operated across the tracks. As Wilson’s downtown experiences a resurgence, let’s rediscover and celebrate these pioneering men and women.

Check in each Sunday for the latest in the Historic Black Business Series!

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The 1912, 1916, and 1920 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directories list Robert Kearney as proprietor of a grocery store at 330 South Street. The site, at the corner of South and Lodge, is now a vacant lot.

The 1913 Sanborn fire insurance map of Wilson shows Kearney’s store in the Little Washington neighborhood near a church we’ve studied before and across Lodge Street from Imperial Tobacco Company. Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church and school stood across South, off this map.

Detail from 1913 Sanborn fire insurance map of Wilson, N.C.

Historic Black Business Series, no. 20: Coley & Taylor’s barbershop.

The 500 block of East Nash Street is justly remembered as the 20th century epicenter of Wilson’s African-American-owned businesses. However, in the late 1800s and early 1900s, Black entrepreneurs and tradespeople also operated across the tracks. As Wilson’s downtown experiences a resurgence, let’s rediscover and celebrate these pioneering men and women.

Check in each Sunday for the latest in the Historic Black Business Series!

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Though they spent most of the careers working for Walter S. Hines, David H. Coley and Roderick Taylor Sr. briefly joined forces to open their own barbershop in the mid-1920s. They set up at 105 South Goldsboro Street, as shown in the 1925 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory. By 1928, however, the partnership had dissolved.

1925 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory.

The death of Handson Bowers.

Migrants from Texas were unusual in Wilson County. Handson Bowers apparently did not live there long, leaving only his death certificate to record his presence. He was about 40 years old when he died 23 January 1923; was married to Bertha Bowers; and lived at 306 South Street. Daisy McClain of the same address was informant. Bowers likely was buried in Vick Cemetery.

Colored barber wanted.

News and Observer (Raleigh, N.C.), 1 June 1925.

News and Observer (Raleigh, N.C.), 29 August 1938.

News and Observer (Raleigh, N.C.), 25 September 1947.

Walter S. Hines Barber Shop regularly advertised for barbers in the Raleigh News and Observer. Hines died in 1941, but his son Carl W. Hines continued to manage the business. By 1947, Hines’ ad touted the availability of housing — likely in the family’s large real estate portfolio — for a family man.

Historic Black Business Series, no. 18: Neverson Green’s Grocery.

The 500 block of East Nash Street is justly remembered as the 20th century epicenter of Wilson’s African-American-owned businesses. However, in the late 1800s and early 1900s, Black entrepreneurs and tradespeople also operated across the tracks. As Wilson’s downtown experiences a resurgence, let’s rediscover and celebrate these pioneering men and women.

Check in each Sunday for the latest in the Historic Black Business Series!

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Neverson Green owned a series of grocery stores in the 400 block of South Spring [now Douglas] Street in the early 20th century. We know he was in business as early as 1906, when he paid $57.50 for a computing scale, but the earliest address for which we have evidence is 410, a location taken over for Agnes Taylor‘s eating house.

On 24 December 1906, Neverson Green agreed to purchase a #10 Computing Scale from The J.H. Parker Co. of Richmond, Virginia, for $57.50 payable in installments. Deed Book 72, page 205.

Neverson Green’s first name was occasionally mistaken as “Nelson.” 1908 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory.

In 1909, Green’s grocery was burgled by the son of a rival grocery storeowner, Jacob Tucker.

City directories appear to show Green’s grocery store sliding up and down South Spring every year, which doesn’t seem probable. In 1912 and 1916, he is at 412 South Spring. In 1920, at 424. In 1922, he’s at 420, but in 1924, he’s back at 424. In 1925 and 1928, he’s at 400 South Spring.

Detail from 1922 Sanborn fire insurance map of Wilson.

Remnants of the old Norfolk Southern tracks, seen in the map above, are still visible in the asphalt of Douglas Street. They offer a glimpse of the chaotic landscape of early 20th-century downtown Wilson.

In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: grocery merchant Neverson Green, 58, grocery merchant; wife Isabella, 54; daughters Lula, 21, Bessie, 16, and Eva, 12; and roomer Willie Ward, 19.

In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: grocery store merchant Nelson Green, 72; wife Isabella, 65; daughters Lula, 30, and Eva, 23; and grandchildren Lila R. Barnes, 12, and Lissa Strickland, 12.

In the 1930 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Green Nelson (c; Isabella) gro 400 Spring h 502 S Lodge

The Grabneck baseball park.

Wilson Times, 2 May 1911.

In the spring of 1911, African-American baseball teams from Wilson and Greenville squared up at “the Grab Neck park.” Where was that?

Greensboro Daily News, 14 January 1920.

Nine years later, we find this reference to the (white) Wilson baseball club securing a park at Grabneck. Is this the same park? The article seems to suggest a new place. Or did the new grandstand signify an upgrade to an existing field?

The 1930 Sanborn map of Wilson depicts the Grabneck ball park, whose grandstand and separate bleachers (for Black patrons?) stood in the middle of West Gold Street and North Clyde Avenues, streets that had not yet been laid.

Detail of 1930 Sanborn fire insurance map of Wilson, North Carolina.

Keith spends the winter in Wilson.

In news of South Boston, Virginia:

New Pittsburgh Courier, 17 April 1926.

What did Peter Keith do in Wilson all winter?

His World War I draft registration card provides a clue. Peter H. Keith registered in Halifax County, Virginia, in 1918. Per his registration card, he was born in March 1880; lived in South Boston, Virginia; and worked for Imperial Tobacco Company. Wife Maggie Keith was his contact.

It’s likely that Imperial Tobacco Company sent Keith to its Wilson facility to work, train, or be trained in the winter of 1926.

Peter Hamilton Keith died 20 April 1964 in Veterans Hospital, Richmond, Chesterfield County, Virginia. Per his death certificate, he was born in March 1884 in Darlington County, South Carolina, to George Keith and Patience Small (Phillips); lived in South Boston, Halifax County, Virginia; was married to Maggie P. Keith; and worked as a laborer.

Suggs is the richest Negro in North Carolina.

Cleveland (Oh.) Gazette, 29 March 1924. 

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$1,285,000 was a staggering net worth in 1924. Greensboro was the city in which Daniel C. Suggs lived, but was not his hometown. He was a native of Wilson and owned considerable property there, too. Though I question the accuracy of the valuation of Suggs’ property, he was unquestionably a wealthy man in the lead-up to the Great Depression.

Rats? No rent.

Los Angeles Evening Herald, 19 January 1928.

In January 1928, attorney Charles S. Darden went into court to defend himself against a suit filed by his landlord for non-payment of rent. Darden asserted that the Central Avenue office space was uninhabitable because it was overrun by rats. His attempts to combat them with a cat called Jack Dempsey had failed, and Darden and his stenographer Viola Lambert had abandoned the premises. The judge was not swayed and entered judgment for the plaintiff landlord.