Wilson Daily Times, 29 April 1942.
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Wilson Daily Times, 6 March 1940.
Elm City’s first black high school was damaged beyond saving in a fire in early 1940. County school authorities quickly made plans to replace the building using Works Progress Administration funds. As to the question of the 334 “schoolless” students, no decision was ever made, and children whose families could not arrange to transfer them elsewhere sat out until the new facility — Frederick Douglass High School — opened in 1941.
In 1945, the Reid family sold 600 East Green Street to the Redemptorist Fathers of North Carolina, who converted it into a school and a convent for the Oblate Sisters of Providence. (Saint Alphonsus Catholic School moved to Carroll Street circa 1948.)
The 1950 census of Wilson, Wilson County, lists sisters Mary Juliana, Mary Antoinette, Mary Miriam, Mary Antonio, and Mary Cornelia in the house. Sister Mary Juliana was head of the convent. Three sisters were described as Catholic school elementary teachers, and one as a kindergarten teacher. The fifth, Sister Mary Antoinette, a native of Martinique and the eldest by twenty-plus years, did not work. (At least in the way defined by census takers.)
Wilson Daily Times, 9 September 1948.
Hertford County Herald, 16 July 1942.
Bessie Mae Williams was actually just over three years old when she was struck on Wilson-Pinetops highway (now known as N.C. Highway 42) by a driver on the wrong side of the road. She lingered for two days at Mercy Hospital before succumbing to a brain injury.
I have not been able to determine if the driver, Mrs. J.J. Taylor, was charged.
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In the 1940 census of Gardners township, Wilson County: farmer Willie Williams, 30; wife Lucy, 22; and daughters Maggie L., 4, and Bessie M., infant.
Deed Book 290, page 596, Register of Deeds Office, Wilson.
Abe and Edna Darden bought 701 East Vance Street from Home Development Company on 18 October 1944.
Home Development Company was a real estate subsidiary created by Durham, N.C.-based North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company, once the oldest and largest black-owned life insurance company in the world. North Carolina Mutual used H.D.C. to acquire, build, and develop residential properties for African American buyers, who were largely marginalized or completely shut out of the traditional mortgage market at the time.
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In the 1950 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 701 [East Vance], ditcher Abe Darden, 53; wife Edna, 48; grandson Delma Earl Darden, 7; granddaughter Eva Gray Kerney, 18; and nephew John T. Johnson, 29.
Edna Darden died 13 February 1966 in Goldsboro, Wayne County, N.C. Per her death certificate, she was born 6 May 1902 to Henry and Ida Tyson; was married to Abe Darden; lived at 701 East Vance Street, Wilson; and worked as a tobacco factory laborer.
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In the 1930 census of Upper Town Creek township, Edgecombe County, N.C.: George Braswell, 41; wife Lizzie, 35; and children Cornelius, 15, James, 13, Eloise, 10, Arthur, 8, Rena, 5, Ollin, 3, and Walter, 1.
In the 1940 census of Olds township, Greene County, N.C.: farmer George Braswell, 54; wife Lizzie, 42; children James, 23, Luther [sic], 18, Reaner, 16, Arland, 13, Walter, 12, Everlina, 8, and Julious, 4; and lodger Richard Sutton, 43. The family reported having lived in Wilson County in 1935.
In 1942, Arthur Braswell registered for the World War II draft in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born 21 October 1921 in Wilson County; lived at Route 3, Wilson; his contact was Dick Suggs; and he worked for Dick Suggs.
On 7 February 1952, Arthur Braswell, 29, of Sims, son of Lizzie Braswell, married Viola Ward, 19, of Sims, daughter of Moses and Rosetta Bynum Ward, in Wilson.
Image courtesy of Veterans of World War II Wilson County, spiral-bound volume, Wilson County Public Library.
Deed Book 290, page 592, Wilson County Register of Deeds Office, Wilson.
On 8 November 1944, Pauline Coley bought lot number 24, Street H, of the Southwest section of Rest Haven Cemetery. This would seem to indicate that Wilson Cemetery Trustees (as opposed to the Colored Cemetery Trustees or Commission) were handling lot sales by this time, but no records remain from this period.
Wilson Daily Times, 7 July 1944.
Where was Taylor’s Spring? Presumably, based on the reference to Mitchell School, somewhere west of Elm City.
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Wilson Daily Times, 7 July 1948.
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