Business

Sponsors of the Interstate Classic.

Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 20 September 1941.

Five Black businesses in the 500 block of East Nash Street took out a joint ad welcoming fans to the 1941 Interstate Classic — North Carolina College for Negroes (now North Carolina Central University) vs. South Carolina State College.

After the game, Johnson’s Happy Pals were playing a dance at Reid Street Community Center.

Isaac Woodard of Smithfield, North Carolina.

The Johnsenior (1926), yearbook of Johnston County Training School, Smithfield, N.C.

Undertaker Isaac Woodard of Smithfield, Johnston County, N.C., was a Wilson County native.

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In the 1880 census of Stantonsburg township, Wilson County: farm laborer Isaac Woodard, 32; wife Anner, 26; and children Fannie, 12, Nellie, 10, James, 9, Frank, 6, Isaac, 3, and Sis, 1.

In the 1900 census of Stantonsburg township, Wilson County: Frank Farmer, 22; wife Fannie, 23; son John H., 4; nephew George, 18; and boarder Isaac Woodard, 20.

In the  1900 census of Wilson, Wilson County: house mover John Boykin, 50; wife Dicy, 44, cooking; and children Sallie, 19, cooking, James, 18, day laborer, Dotia, 14, Susia, 14, Lillie, 10, and Eliza, 7.

On 26 November 1905, Isaac Woodard, 23, of Wilson, son of Isaac and Susan Woodard (he, living in Arkansas), married Sudie Boykin, 19, of Wilson, daughter of Jno. and Eliza Boykin, in Wilson township, Wilson County. Missionary Baptist minister W.H. Woodard performed the ceremony in the presence of C.L. Darden, Thomas Barnes, and J.J. Langley.

In the 1908 Rocky Mount, NC., city directory: Woodard Isaac (c) blksmith h 907 Beal

In the 1910 census of Rocky Mount, Nash County, N.C.: Isaac Woodard, 25; wife Sudie, 24; children Pauline, 3, and Russell, 18 months; and grandmother Edith Woodard, 65.

In 1918, Isaac Woodard registered for the World War I draft in Johnston County. Per his registration card, he was born 4 July 1882; lived on Market in Smithfield; worked for himself as a horseshoer and undertaker; and his contact was Sudie Woodard.

In the 1920 census of Smithfield, Johnston County: blacksmith Isaac Woodard, 35; wife Sudie, 33; and children Pauline, 13, and Russell, 11; and grandmother Edith Woodard, 83.

Edith Woodard died 16 October 1920 in Smithfield, Johnston County. Per her death certificate, she was 86 years old; was born in Wilson to Ester (no surname given); was a widow; and was buried in Wilson County by Isaac Woodard. Sudie Woodard was informant.

In 1926, Russell Woodard was one of four boys in the Johnston County Training School’s junior class. From the The Johnsenior.

In the 1930 census of Smithfield, Johnston County: on Market Street, Isic Woodard, 43, undertaker; wife Sudie, 40, public school teacher; children Pauline, 23, Russell, 21, Isic Jr., 4, and Hattie, 11 (adopted); and boarder St. Julian Walker, 25, high school teacher.

In the 1940 census of Smithfield, Johnston County: funeral director/undertaker Isaac W. Woodard, 48; wife Suda, 46, public school teacher; and son Isaac Jr., 14.

In 1943, Isaac Woodard Jr. registered for the World War II draft in Smithfield, Johnston County. Per his registration card, he was born 15 November 1925 in Smithfield; lived at 811 East Market Street; his contact was Isaac Woodard Sr.; and he was a student at A.&T.

The Washington Star, 19 November 1978.

B.W.A. Historical Marker Series, no. 28: East Nash Street Monument Company.

In this series, which will post on occasional Wednesdays, I populate the landscape of Wilson County with imaginary “historical markers” commemorating people, places, and events significant to African-American history or culture.

We been here.

EAST NASH STREET MONUMENT COMPANY

Clarence B. Best began cutting marble and granite headstones in 1914 and in 1946 established his own monument company in his backyard at 1306 East Nash St. Known for his distinctive font, deep cuts, stylized plant motifs, and use of recycled material, thousands of Best’s headstones can be found in Wilson and Surrounding counties.

Wilson Daily Times, 13 October 1945.

 

Hardy & Suggs.

This April 1909 execution of a $40 judgment in Superior Court reveals the existence of an early twentieth-century African-American business — Hardy & Sugg. John Hardy was a livery man, and it is reasonable to conjecture that George W. Suggs opened a stable with him.

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On 5 February 1902, John Hardy, 22, married Florence Williams, 20, in Wilson. Zion minister C.L. Alexander performed the ceremony in the presence of Mrs. Canna Alexander, L.C. Ligon, and A.L. Darden.

Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory (1908).

In the 1910 census of Wilson township, Wilson County, Wilson County: on Nash Street: barber Walter Maynor, 19, and wife Alice, 23; barber William Sutson [Sutzer], 65, barbershop proprietor; wife Mary J., 49, hotel proprietor; son Leondas Taylor, 23, pressing club laborer, and daughter-in-law Anna, 22; and boarders Lemuel Yancy, 36, drugstore clerk; Harry Carter, 35, music teacher; Ernest Allen, 30, hotel cook; and John Hardy, 30, livery stable owner; his wife Florence, 23, and daughters Lida, 7, and Estell, 5.

Wilson County, N.C., Court Dockets 1909-1910, Civil Issues Dockets, http://www.familysearch.org.

An appeal to support your own (and spy on those who don’t.)

Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 4 February 1928.

What in the East Germany is this?

In 1928, the Negro Business League suggested that “members of the race” become “a committee of one” and carry little notebooks to jot down their neighbors’ patronage habits. Beyond the bizarre and chilling embrace of citizen spies, this brief bit, which appeared as part of an otherwise breezy column of Wilson society news, raises some interesting implications.

Readers were counseled to “see whether” others “are having a white or Negro physician, a white or Negro undertaker.” An examination of death certificates discloses that up until about World War I, white undertakers like A.D. McGowan and Amerson-Boswell handled a significant amount of black custom. There’s less evidence of this practice by 1920, however.

It’s more difficult to assess the degree to which black residents patronized white doctors instead of black physicians like Drs. Frank S. Hargrave Michael E. DuBissette, Matthew S. Gilliam, or William A. Mitchner. Major surgeries, especially in emergency situations, were often performed by white doctors at one of the two white hospitals — black patients returned to Mercy to recuperate — and some white doctors, most notably A.D. Williams, routinely delivered black babies. However, death certificates of the era were signed overwhelmingly by black doctors.

Finally, there was concern about who was “patronizing the white theatre for Negroes and who is patronizing the Negro theatre.” The Negro theatre, of course, was Samuel H. Vick‘s Globe, housed in an upper floor of the Odd Fellows building he constructed on East Nash Street. The “white theatre for Negroes” was the Lincoln, opened by a Greek-American in the Nash Street block just east of the railroad. Vick was an early member of the Negro Business League and no doubt was stung by the financial hit the Lincoln created.

Carolina hospitality and race business in Wilson.

Chicago Defender, 27 July 1940.

The race businesses (nearly all of which were in the 500 block of East Nash Street:

Numbers bust in Wilson.

Chicago Defender, 26 August 1939.

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  • George Peterson
  • Julia Armstrong — in the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 411 East Green Street, owned and valued at $6000, Hallie Armstrong, 48, pool room operator; wife Julia, 29; and lodgers Annie M. Brown, 39, hospital nurse, Jeanett M. Lee, 24, hospital nurse, and Lawrence Peacock, 27, servant.

New remedy for straight hair.

What (or who) was the Cra-Mi Company?

The Sunday News (Charleston, S.C.), 16 March 1924.

Birmingham (Ala.) Post-Herald, 21 March 1924.

Portsmouth (Va.) Star, 29 March 1924.

Chicago Defender, 12 April 1924.

Southwest American (Fort Smith, Ark.), 27 April 1924.

… and rheumatism?

The Sunday Record (Columbia, S.C.), 29 June 1924.

Placement of ads in dozens of newspapers across the South (and in the Defender) implies the success, or perhaps ambition, of this competitor to Gordon’s Glory Hair Dressing.

The company was serious enough that it registered a patent for its product in January 1924, as this poor reproduction shows.

Official Gazette of the United States Patent Office, 18 March 1924.

Cra-Mi kept up its widespread advertising blitz for the first half of 1924 … then disappeared. I have not been able to determine who owned the business or anything else about it.