agriculture

Agent Spellman’s excellent report, part 1.

Wilson County Negro Extension Agent Cecil A. Spellman did not stint. His two-part 1939 Annual Narrative Report is a 146-page treasure chest whose nuggets create a finely textured view of rural African-American life just before World War II — home demonstration, community entertainment, school improvement, test farms, engineering activities, tobacco work, gardening, corn-growing, meat-cutting, 4-H clubs, camp, spelling matches, Negro Health Week, projects, spotlights on people, houses, and schools — including photographs — and more.

There’s nothing to do but present Spellman’s report in totality, serialized.

The 66 pages of Section 1 are devoted to general and adult extension work. We meet Outstanding Man of the Year, Henry Armstrong of Elm City, and Outstanding Woman of the Year, Mrs. Charles Ruffin [Henrietta Ruffin] of the Saratoga side of the Fountain area.

Spellman praised the location of the county extension office at 559 1/2 East Nash Street, Camillus L. Darden‘s commercial building. He then described the equipment and furnishings supplied by the county (plus a few things he brought in.)

Spellman set out the organization of the extension agency and identified the eight-member County Advisory Committee as Seth T. Shaw, Thomas Hilliard, Robert L. Mitchell, Earnest A. Jones, Charlie Ruffin, Chester Woodard, John H. Clay, and Isaac Renfrow.

Spellman briefly mentioned the 4-H Club, which would be covered in detail in Section II, noting that its council met at Darden High School’s auditorium. He also lauded the principals of the county schools that hosted 4-H Clubs “as a very helpful body in the promotion of junior work in the county.”

Spellman then praised the agent training program he had attended at Hampton Institute [now Hampton University] in July.

North Carolina County Agent Annual Narrative Report, Wilson County, N.C., North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service, UA102.002, Special Collections Research Center at N.C. State University.

Jack Williamson signs up for sharecropping.

We have seen Jack Williamson as a blacksmith in Wilson in the late 1800s. However, prior to establishing his business in town, he was a sharecropper. The contract below sets out in detail Williamson’s arrangement with white farmer Jacob H. Barnes to work a farm Barnes owned on Hominy Swamp.

The contract’s terms (which read like a set-up for failure):

  • Barnes would provide the land and a house on it, rent-free.
  • Williamson would “plant and properly cultivate” 30 acres of cotton on land designated by Barnes.
  • Williamson would plant additional acreage “with the force he employs” in corn and cotton, at Barnes’ designation.
  • Williamson would plant “seed oats” on 15 acres “on the left side of the path leading from his house to Hominy Swamp,” then cut and store it.
  • Williamson would plant peas on all the uplands planted in corn.
  • Williamson would store all crops harvested.
  • Williamson would furnish, feed, and pay all labor [this likely meant Williamson would put his family to work, with — or without — pay.]
  • Williamson would furnish the feed for his team of work animals; compost all the land planted in cotton; furnish all farming utensils; furnish any guano that “Barnes shall consider most advisable to use”; would clean out all the ditches; and would repair all fences.
  • Barnes would own all the cotton seed Williamson produced.
  • Williamson’s two-thirds of the crop would remain in Barnes’ control until Williamson repaid all advances made in provisions, fertilizer, money, etc.
  • Barnes had sold Williamson one bay horse mule and one cart for $135, which, while in Williamson’s possession, would remain Barnes’ property until paid for.

Barnes and Williamson signed the contract on 2 February 1875, with Frank W. Barnes as witness.

Deed book 10, page 215-216, Wilson County Register of Deeds, Wilson.

Williamson and Williams post bond for distressed farmer.

In August 1912, Luther Vailes‘ landlords, George W. Dew and D.W. Dew, sued him for allegedly failing to produce the crops due under the terms of a sharecropping agreement.

Pending a judgment, the Wilson County sheriff seized from Vailes a thousand pounds of tobacco and four acres each of fodder and cotton. Alex Williamson and Jonah Williams stepped forward to post bond for Vailes, each averring that they owned sufficient property to do so. Williamson was one of the most prosperous African-American farmers in Springhill township, and his involvement is not surprising. Primitive Baptist elder Williams was also relatively well-to-do, but has no obvious links to Vailes beyond a shared home county.

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In the 1900 census of Goldsboro, Wayne County, N.C.: farmer Lafayette Vail, 30; wife Jane, 27; and children Luther, 9, Minnie, 3, Dallas, 1, and Lafayette, 6 months; plus Hattie Edmondson, 23, servant.

In the 1910 census of Bull Head township, Greene County, N.C.: farmer Lafyette Vales, 40; wife Jane, 38; and children Luther, 19, Dallas, 11, Lafyette, 9, Clarence, 7, and Pearlie Jane, 1.

On 12 August 1911, Luther Vail, 20, of Springhill township, married Della Whitley, 19, of Springhill township, in Wilson County. Rev. J.M. Richardson performed the ceremony in the presence of Willie Edmundson, Elizzi Edmundson, and John Newsom.

In 1917, Luther Vailes registered for the World War I draft in Washington, D.C. Per his registration card, he was born 3 October 1891 in Wayne County, N.C.; lived in Deanwood, Washington, D.C.; worked for C.H. Thompkins; and supported a wife and four children.

In the 1920 census of Washington, D.C.: Luther Valle, 29, wiper at round house; wife Della, 27; children Leonard, 7, Ola, 5, Ethel, 3, J.T., 9 months; and brother Lafayette, 18.

In the 1930 census of Dale township, Chesterfield County, Virginia: Luther Vailes, 39, odd jobs laborer; wife Della, 37; and children Leard, 18, Alia, 15, Ethel, 13, Claud, 7, Olive B., 5, Bernie, 4, Kenneth, 2, and Virginia, 5 months.

In the 1940 census of Richmond, Virginia: Luther Vailes, city government laborer; wife Della, 42; and children Ollie, 23, Claude, 17, Ollie B., 15, Bernice, 13, Kenneth, 11, Virginia, 8, Dorsey, 6, and Dolores, 4.

In 1942, Luther Vailes registered for the World War II draft in Washington, D.C. Per his registration card, he was born 3 October 1891 in Wane [sic] County, North Carolina; lived at 1704 V Street, N.W., Washington, D.C.; his contact was Della Vailes; and he worked for Ross Company Construction, Captain Johns, Maryland. Vailes was measured at 4’5″ tall.

In the 1950 census of Kings County, New York: Luther Vailes, 58, butler; wife Della, 54; children Ollie B., 27, Bernice, 25, Virginia, 19, Dorsey, 16, and Delores, 13; and grandchildren Gloria Jean Vailes, 4, Patricia Ann Harvey, 4, Robbie Stuckey, 2, Carol Stuckey, 18 months, and Deborea Vailes, 1.

Civil Issues Dockets, Wilson County, N.C., Miscellaneous Records, http://www.familysearch.org.

He is to give me one half of everything except peas.

Just eight months after Emancipation, freedman Riley Robbins entered into a sharecropping contract with white farmer David W. Weaver to tend a small (“one-horse”) farm north of Wilson.

Articles of agreement between D.W. Weaver and Riley Robins

I D.W. Weaver do promise to let the aforesaid Riley Robins have for the balance of this year enough of my land lying on the W&W R R five miles from Wilson to attend a one horse crop. With the understanding that he is to give me one half of the corn one half of the fodder one half of the cotton or whatever else may be raised except Peas. I also agree to furnish him with a house garden and potato patch

Witness W.L. Pearce    D.W. Weaver   This the 24th day of January 1866

I Riley Robins do promise to cultivate and attend the aforesaid crop to the best advantage and likewise to keep everything in good repair such as keeping the fence and ditches cleaned out &c

Witness W.L. Pearce  Riley (X) Robbins

Approved Geo. O. Glavis [illegible]

——

The arrangement seems to have gone bad — note the “contract broke” scrawled at the top of the cover page — but I have found no further records.

U.S. Freedmen’s Bureau Records, 1865-1878 [database on-line], http://www.ancestry.com.

Farm club men honor their wives.

Wilson Daily Times, 13 December 1944.

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  • Yelverton school
  • Robert Swain — Robert Swain died 7 June 1946 in Saratoga township, Wilson County. Per his death certificate, he was 19 October 1893 in Bertie County, N.C., to Robert Swain and Mattie Sutton; was married Lucinda Swain; was a farmer; and lived in Wilson County near Walstonsburg.
  • Charlie Ruffin — in the 1940 census of Saratoga township, Wilson County: farmer Charles Ruffin, 39; wife Henretta, 38; and children Bertha, 19, Charles, 17, James R., 16, Juanita, 12, Gladys Lee, 10, Christine, 8, Bruce, 7, Bertie Mae, 4, and Curtis, 10 months.
  • Arlestus McNair
  • Paul Barnes — in the 1940 census of Saratoga township, Wilson County: farmer Paul Barnes, 39; Sarah, 35; and children Ethel Mae, 17, Paul Jr., 15, Jimmie, 12, David, 8, Irene, 7, Louisa, 4, and William A., 2.
  • Jasper Jones — in the 1940 census of Saratoga township, Wilson County: farmer Jasper Jones, 64; wife Mary, 51; children Mary Lee, 19, and James, 14; and Henry Bynum, 40, hired hand.
  • Wesley Beaman — in the 1940 census of Saratoga township, Wilson County: farmer Levi Barnes, 30; wife Elizabeth, 27; children Nora Mae, 11, Vernistine, 9, Levi Jr., 7, Eula Sue, 5, James M., 3, and Willie E., 1; brother-in-law Wesley Beamon, 32, and wife Ethalene, 28.
  • Mack Ellis — in the 1940 census of Saratoga township, Wilson County: farmer Mack Ellis, 44, widower; children William Henry, 20, Lena, 17, Robert Lee, 15, Tempie Ruth, 14, Mamie, 10, and Helen, 8.
  • Ollie Barret — in the 1950 census of Saratoga township, Wilson County: farmer Ollin J. Barrett, 24; wife Mary L., 27; and children Alice F., 5, Hurley J., 3, and Shirley J., 1.
  • John C. Edwards — in the 1940 census of Saratoga township, Wilson County: John Edward, 37; wife Bettie, 30; and children Roy McCray, 15, Mary C., 10, James J., 7, Betsy, 4, and Carrie Lee, 3.
  • Levi Barnes — see Wesley Beaman, above.
  • James Mercer — in the 1940 census of Saratoga township, Wilson County: James Mercer, 57; wife Ida, 54; children Fannie, 19, Eulis and Mary Lee, 17, Chris, 16, and Clifton, 12; and granddaughter Mary Lee, 8.
  • Howard Barrett — in the 1940 census of Saratoga township, Wilson County: widower Howard Barrett, 44; daughters William A., 16, Ines, 14, Beatrice, 12, and Thelma Lee, 10; and grandson Howard, 5.
  • Dennis Swain — in the 1930 census of Saratoga township, Wilson County, farmer Robert Swain, 39; wife Leora, 33; children Denis, 11, and Arthana, 10; and boarder Henry Bynum, 33.
  • C.W. Foster — Carter W. Foster.

Peg-Leg Williams and the Exodusters.

Goldsboro Headlight, 6 November 1889.

This brief, disparaging piece appeared in the Goldsboro Headlight in 1889, but very well could have described attitudes in Wilson County. Silas Herring was an African-American Wayne County native, but Alabama-born, former Confederate Robert A. “Peg-Leg” Williams criss-crossed the Upper South as a labor agent, partnering with local Black men to entice African-Americans to migrate to the Deep South.

On 27 November 1889, the Wilson Mirror reprinted a Goldsboro Argus piece that described Williams and Herring as “railroad hirelings and speculators.” “However much the desire should be divided among our people — and by this we mean the white people — for the negro to exodus this country or remain, the solid, stubborn truth shall not be kept from the poor, deluded, half-informed negro, that this is his home, the climate of his nature; that our people are the most tolerant and generous in the world; and his best friends, and that, therefore, he should stay right here where his associations date back through the centuries; where his faults, and there are many (but who of us is without faults?) are borne with from custom; where his privileges as a free citizen are unquestioned and untrammeled, and where his destinies are linked by law with the whites, who, under a Democratic administration, have for twenty years paid 90 per cent. of his government and education, while he has furnished 90 per cent. of the crime and ignorance of the State.” Best friends, indeed.

The 20 December 1889 issue of the Wilmington Messenger chimed in with mockery, noting that “Peg leg Williams and Silas Herring have not dissolved copartnership. Peg leg is now in [Goldsboro], and he and Silas are as active as bees in inducing the ‘coons’ of this section to leave their homes of peace and plenty here, to go the far off miasmatic lands of the West, there to die like cattle with the black tongue.”

“Peg-Leg” Williams is memorialized in 100 Americans Making Constitutional History: A Biographical History, edited by Melvin I. Urofsky. Described as the most famous and successful of Southern “emigrant agents, Mississippi-born Williams, a Civil War veteran, assisted 16,000 African-Americans in leaving North Carolina in the wake of discriminatory labor laws passed in 1889.”

Working as an agent for plantation owners and railroad companies from the lower Mississippi Valley states and Texas, Williams recruited laborers to work their immense cotton plantations or, in the case of the railroads, buy up their vast acreages of former federal land. Williams generally paid transportation costs for migrating families, who would have been required to enter into onerous agreements to repay the money the planters had fronted to Williams.

Daily Journal (New Bern, N.C.), 28 May 1890.

Mecklenburg Times (Charlotte, N.C.), 25 December 1891.

After two years of perceived depredations, in 1891 the North Carolina legislature joined other states in enacting a law aimed directly at men like Williams, imposing one thousand dollar fees on labor recruiters, who overwhelmingly targeted African-Americans. The law stayed on the books for seven years.

The Wilmington Messenger, 5 November 1901.

By 1913, Peg-Leg Williams was the stuff of nostalgia….

The News-Herald (Morganton, N.C.), 3 July 1913.

… and as late as 1947, his name and work could still inspire journalists. If you skim the condescension off the top, this lengthy piece is noteworthy for details about Exoduster life provided by men and women who made the journey (or knew someone who had.)

News and Record (Greensboro, N.C.), 26 October 1947.