Business

Wilson-born pharmacist joins successful Newport News business.

Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 18 May 1946.

Pharmacist Albre Russell Artice was born in 1901 in Wilson to Elroy and Cora Artice Artice. Trained at Temple University, Artice practiced in Raleigh, North Carolina; Elizabeth City, North Carolina; and Newport News, Virginia.

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In the 1910 census of Western Branch township, Norfolk County, Virginia: odd jobs laborer  Elroy E. Artice, 36; wife Cora, 37; and children Atwood, 13, and Albrey, 9.

In the 1920 census of Portsmouth, Norfolk County, Virginia: on Mount Vernon Avenue, Navy Yard boilermaker helper Elroy Artice, 46; wife Cora, 45; sons Atwood, 22, railroad shop machinist’s helper, and Albre, 17; and brother-in-law Freddie Artice, 28, railroad freight handler.

Daily Press (Newport News, Va.), 21 April 1928.

In the 1930 census of Elizabeth City, Pasquotank County, N.C.: renting at 18 Speede Street, druggist Arbrey R. Artice, 29, and wife Sallie, 26.

Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 1 April 1939.

In the 1940 census of Elizabeth City, Pasquotank County, N.C.: at 509 East White Street, Albre Artice, 41, pharmacist; wife Sallie, 37, teacher; and two lodgers.

Richmond Times-Dispatch, 23 April 1946.

In the 1950 census of Newport News, Virginia: drugstore pharmacist Albre R. Artice, 50; wife Sallie W., 45, city school teacher; and foster son Claude Richardson, 11.

Albre Russell Artice died 1 August 1964 in Newport News, Virginia. Per his death certificate, he was born 9 May 1901 in North Carolina to Elroy Artice and Cora Artice; was married to Sallie W. Artice; worked as a pharmacist; and was buried in Lincoln Cemetery, Portsmouth, Va.

Daily Press (Newport News, Va.,) 4 August 1964.

W.L. Morgan, newspaper salesman.

Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 29 August 1942.

The Norfolk Journal and Guide enjoyed wide readership in Wilson County, and young Winford Lee Morgan was one of their local salesmen.

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In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 611 Spring Street, James Morgan, 34, redrying plant laborer; wife Addie May Morgan, 29, redrying plant laborer; son Winford Lee Morgan, 9; mother Eunice Lou Fisher, 55, widow; and cousin Ruth Richard, 14.

 

A glance at Wilson.

Though this newspaper article issued a few years after Black Wide-Awake’s coverage, I could not resist its images of East Wilson.

The Afro-American (Baltimore, Md.), 21 February 1953.

Below, the 500 block of East Nash Street, Wilson’s former Black commercial center. The three-story building at right is the Odd Fellows Building, built by Samuel H. Vick in 1894. Beside it, we see the verandas of the Biltmore Hotel (earlier known as the Union and the Whitley), Wilson’s only Green Book hotel. On the left, we see the hedges that fronted several residences that once lined that side of the street.

Below, Yancey’s Drug Store, which stood at 563 East Nash.

Other buildings shown include Mercy Hospital, the then-brand-new Elvie Street School; Jackson Chapel First Baptist Church; the home of Daniel and Bertha Carroll, which still stands on Lincoln Street; and a taxi and driver of United Cab Company.

Snipeses open the Biltmore Hotel.

Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 27 May 1933.

Anna Fisher Snipes‘ hotel, which operated only briefly, was eventually named the Wilson Biltmore. Snipes occasionally contributed society pieces to the Norfolk Journal and Guide and on 15 July 1933, wrote a column that largely chronicled doings at her hotel. (What kind of business were all these Black Durham lawyers conducting in Wilson?)

Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 15 July 1933.

Similarly, in the 11 August 1934 Journal and Guide, Snipes opened her column with:
“The Biltmore Hotel is a grade A hotel and anyone wishing to stop in our city at any time of the day or night will find a hearty welcome waiting at this hotel and just such accommodations as one wants when traveling. And the proprietors Mr. and Mrs. E.T. Fisher will on every occasion prove to be hospitable and obliging in every way.”

“Mr. and Mrs. E.T. Fisher”? Presumably this was Snipes’ parents, Edwin W. and Daisy Fisher. (Her brother Edwin D. Fisher was a widower who did not remarry until 1941.) Either way, it reveals the Snipeses had transferred ownership of the hotel barely a year after it opened.

The Biltmore was the only Wilson hotel to make The Green Book. Its building replaced an earlier hotel, known as the Union and then the Whitley, that burned down in the early 1930s.

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In the 1910 census of New Haven, Connecticut: at 30 Hazel Street, hardware merchant Edwin W. Fisher, 37; wife Daisy, 32; and children Edwin D., 16, Eugene L., 13, Clarence R., 10, Anna V., 6, Milton W., 3, and Susie A., 1.

In the 1932 Orange, New Jersey, city directory: Snipes John A (Anna F) r 18 Clifford EO

Anna F. Snipes’ bylines indicate that she was living at 624 East Green Street (the former Hargrave house) circa 1933.

In 1936, Anne Snipes appears in the voter register for Manhattan, New York, New York. She lived on Saint Nicholas Place; was 31 years old; was a housewife; and asserted she had lived in New York state for 9 years.

Snipes also appears in the 1937, 1938, 1940, 1941, 1942 and 1946 voter registers for Manhattan, New York, New York. She is described as a housewife in all but the last, when she was a bar owner.

In the 1940 census of Manhattan, New York, New York: on Saint Nicholas Avenue, Anne Snipes, 35; daughter Robnette, 18; brother Floyd Fisher, 27, hotel bellhop; and lodger Louise Evans, 28, maid in artist’s studio. [Fisher reported that he had lived in Wilson 5 years earlier. Evans had lived in Wilberforce, Ohio.]

In 1940, John Allen Snipes registered for the World War II draft in New York, New York. Per his registration card, he was born 29 December 1905 in Clarksburg, West Virginia; lived as 590 Saint Nicholas Avenue, #105 [later, 79 Saint Nicholas Place, Apartment C], New York, New York; his contact was wife Anna Virginia Snipes; and he worked for H.C. Andrews.

In the 1945, 1946, and 1948 New York, New York, city directory: Snipes Anne F Mrs 75 St Nich Pl WAdswth 6-7944.

Artis Funeral Parlor succeeds!

Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 27 May 1933.

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Though he is little-remembered now, for several decades in the early-to-mid 1900s, Columbus E. Artis was the premier black undertaker in Wilson. Here’s what Samuel C. Lathan recently told me about him:

SCL: … One time, I remember C.E. Artis — I think it was a ‘48 hearse. They went to Detroit and bought that thing. And it had a record player in it. And then it had a hydraulic cable in it where, when you open up the side, that hydraulic would raise up and come out, and the casket would come out by itself.

LYH: Wow.

SCL: And the pallbearers would stand right there and take it right out. Oh, man, it was all kind of – them people would wear hickory-stripe pants, black wool and silk jacket with the vest. Aw, man …. Wont no patent leather. Everybody’s shoes was just shined.

…

LYH: And it’s funny because you talk about things that people don’t talk about. When I, you know, when I tell people that at one time C.E. Artis and Darden were rivals.

SCL: That’s right.

LYH: I mean, C.E. Artis was just as big as Darden was.

SCL: Yeah. Yeah.

…

SCL: And then Darden didn’t have the business that C.E. had.

LYH: Mm-hmm.

SCL: Darden was the old-fashioned thing. Even … I remember one time I was talking to Charles [Darden James], … [and] Charles was saying, “Well, you know, we’re the old standby.” I never will forget that, you know? But C.E. – see, until Hamilton came to Wilson, C.E. was the sporting one. C.E. was the town. C.E. was the thing, man. C.E. was the thing. Yessir buddy. Yeah.

A&T alumni form electrical service company.

Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 13 August 1938.

Though Arnold Walker and Carl Hines were full-time high school teachers, and V.A. Burgess appears to have left Wilson before 1940, Walker Electric was in business at least eleven years.

Wilson Daily Times, 22 April 1946.

Wilson Daily Times, 8 October 1948.

In March 1949, Walker Electric filed letters of incorporation with the State of North Carolina. A.G. Walker, his wife Doris Vick Walker, and Sallie Steverson were stockholders.

Wilson Daily Times, 17 March 1949.

On 21 May 1949, the Journal and Guide ran another feature on the company in which we learn that Walker employed nine salesmen and electricians and had two trucks covering service routes.

Several months later, the company auctioned off a Westinghouse refrigerator in order to satisfy a laborer’s lien, i.e. a claim against the company’s property for unpaid wages.

Wilson Daily Times, 30 August 1949.

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  • A.G. Walker — Arnold G. Walker. In 1940, Arnold George Walker registered for the World War II draft in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born 22 February 1907 in Columbus, Georgia; lived at 622 East Green Street, Wilson; his contact was mother Della Walker, Talledega, Alabama; and he was employed by the City Board of Education in Wilson.
  • Doris Vick Walker
  • Carl Hines
  • V.A. Burgess

Barnes displays an enormous tarantula.

Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 16 April 1931.

A tarantula is bad enough, but one with “nine tentacles”? Kudos to whoever had the presence of mind of kill it in a manner that allowed display. (Spiders in crates of tropical fruit are not uncommon, even today.)

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In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 1118 East Nash Street, rented for $20/month, Johnnie Barnes, 33, cafe proprietor; wife Rachel G., 35, cafe cook; cousin Leatha Clark, 22; and Henrietta Walker, 25, both cafe waitresses.

In the 1930 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Barnes Rachel G (c) restr 503 E Nash r 1118 E Nash

In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 526 East Nash Street [the Orange Hotel], Rachel G. Barnes, 49, “housekeeper-rents rooms”; husband Johnnie, 42, “dry cleaner-retail pressing concern”; daughter Mary Lee, 17; cousin Clarence Holley, 18, “shoeshiner-barber shop”; and lodger William Robert Faison, 66, widower.

Rachel Barnes died 11 August 1957 in Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was born 25 July 1887 in Bertie County, N.C., to Henry Pugh and Mary Basmore; and lived at 1013 Atlantic Street, Wilson. Mary Lee Barnes was informant.