Williamson High School opened in 1941 as the third post-elementary school for black children in Wilson County. I first visited in 2017. The six-room cinderblock school is still standing, though almost completely hidden from the road by encircling sweet gums and wax myrtles. Inside, the floor of the central hallway has collapsed at the west end of the school, but otherwise the interior seems about the same.
Photos by Lisa Y. Henderson, October 2024.
I’ve long been curious about the trio of little houses behind the Mary Jane Taylor Sutzer house in the 500 block of East Nash Street. In an interview a few months ago, Samuel C. Lathan mentioned them:
Lathan: … And Rev. [Russell B.] Taylor had an orchard.
Henderson: Oh, okay.
Lathan: Back there where those houses at down Nash Street.
Henderson: Okay. Back behind?
Lathan: Yeah, it was an orchard back there. …
Not long after, I noticed a little notation in a margin of the 1940 census of Wilson. Listed adjacent to the Taylor household were the three households of … Taylor’s Alley.
Here they are yesterday morning:
Per description in the nomination form for Wilson Central Business-Tobacco Warehouse Historic District, Sutzer purchased the house on the left from Alfred Robinson prior to building her own house in 1915. The two dwellings on the right are described as “small, four-bay by one-bay, two-room bungaloid houses.”
A little further west on the 500 block of East Nash, the census records another alley, Gilliam’s, with a duplex.
The 1930 Sanborn fire insurance map of Wilson reveals Gilliam’s Alley as the tiny space running from Nash Street between Dr. Matthew S. Gilliam‘s medical office and the Orange Hotel. (Of the buildings shown below, only the Orange still stands.)
Photo by Lisa Y. Henderson, October 2025.
Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 29 June 1940.
Georgia Eugenia Cooke married George William Gant at Saint John A.M.E. Zion Church in 1940. Members of the wedding party from Wilson included Clara G. Cooke, Vertist Crawford, Annie E. Cooke, Jerry L. Cooke Sr., Monte Vick, Henderson Cooke, Jerry L. Cooke Jr., Randall James, Malcolm Williams, Charles James, Milton Fisher, and Edwin Cooke.
Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 23 June 1945.
——
In the 1928 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Robinson Golden (c; Bertie) barber h 202 N Vick
In the 1930 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Robinson Golden (c; Bertie) (Cherry Hotel Barber Shop) h 202 N Vick
In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 202 Vick Street, barber Golden Robinson, 30; wife Bertie, 23; and children Parthenia, 5, Gold M., 3, and Glean, 1.
In the 1941 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Robinson Golden (c; Bertie) barber Walter S Hines h 202 N Vick
Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 20 July 1940.
——
Chicago Defender, 4 March 1944.
Father Francis Goodwin Johnson, son of Saint Mark’s rector Robert J. Johnson and Anna Burgess Johnson, became engaged to marry Grace E. Days, a Spelman College and University of Michigan graduate.
Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 27 April 1946.
——
In the 1910 census of Willow Grove township, Greene County, N.C.: farmer Henry J. Jackson, 38; wide Addie, 27; and children Macon H., 8, Permiller, 6, Preston, 4, and Nellie, 2.
In 1918, John Henry Jackson registered for the World War I draft in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born 27 September 1872; lived at R.F.D. #6, Wilson; worked as a farmer for H.H. Walston; and his contact was wife Addie Jackson.
In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on Black Creek Road, farmer John H. Jackson, 47; wife Addie, 34; and children Macon, 17, Permiller, 16, Preston, 13, Nellie, 11, Loyd, 9, Herbert, 7, Mabel, 5, Willie, 3, and Bertha Lee, 1.
Addie Jackson died 8 March 1920 in Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was born 4 September 1881 in Henderson, N.C., to John Daniel; was married to John Jackson; and was buried in Wilson [probably, Vick Cemetery].
On 24 November 1920, Jno. Henry Jackson, 47, married Ida May Bryant, 20, in Wilson. Free Will Baptist minister A. Bynum performed the ceremony in the presence of Henry Bryant, Henry Oats, and Charles White.
In the 1930 census of Jackson township, Nash County, N.C.: farmer John Jackson, 57; wife Ida, 29; and children Layse, 19, Mable, 16, Herbert, 17, Willie, 13, Bertha, 12, and Addie, 10.
In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 1201 Washington Street, rented for $12/months, J.H. Jackson, 67, “unable” to work; wife Ilamae, 39, sewing; daughter Addie, 20, tobacco factory laborer; grandchild Estella Stevens, 17; and mother[-in-law] Harriett Bryant, 62, private nurse.
In 1940, Preston Jackson registered for the World War II draft in Wilson. Per his registration card, he was born 28 May 1906 in Microfield [Macclesfield], N.C.; lived at 910 Washington Street, Wilson; his contact was father John Henry Jackson, 1201 Washington Street; and he worked for F.M. Valentine, Wilson.
John H. Jackson died 7 April 1947 at the Veterans Administration hospital in Asheville, North Carolina. Per his death certificate, he was born 27 September 1872 in Surry County, N.C., to Tom Jackson; was married to Ila Mae Jackson; lived at 12o1 East Washington Street, Wilson; worked as a laborer; and was a veteran of the Spanish-American War.
Howard M. Fitts applied for a military headstone on his behalf. It was placed on his grave in “Rountrees” Cemetery — most likely what we now know as Vick Cemetery — and apparently among those covered over or destroyed by the City of Wilson circa 1995.
Chicago Defender, 27 July 1940.
The race businesses (nearly all of which were in the 500 block of East Nash Street:
