Business

The estate of Haddie D. Swinson.

Grocery merchant Haddie Davis Swinson was waylaid and murdered in January 1921, presumably in a robbery gone worse. The year’s support his widow Ianthia Swinson received for herself and their two minor children consisted largely of goods and store fixtures from his grocery, including 17 cans of black-eyed peas, 29 cans of sardines, 11 jars of vinegar, 20 bottles of soft drinks, and so on.

Most of the goods were generic, but note the national brands Swinson carried — Campbell’s soup, Red Devil lye, Pet milk, Octagon soap, Gold Dust soap, Louiseann [Luzianne] tea, and P. Lorillard snuff.

Wilson [County, North Carolina] Special Proceedings, http://www.familysearch.org.

Historic Black Business Series, no. 29: Collins & Vick Livery Company.

The 500 block of East Nash Street is justly remembered as the 20th century epicenter of Wilson’s African-American-owned businesses. However, in the late 1800s and early 1900s, Black entrepreneurs and tradespeople also operated across the tracks. As Wilson’s downtown experiences a resurgence, let’s rediscover and celebrate these pioneering men and women.

Check in each Sunday for the latest in the Historic Black Business Series!

During its brief existence, Collins & Vick Livery Company sold buggies at this location (but perhaps in a predecessor building.)

Photo by Lisa Y. Henderson, December 2024.

The dissolution of Coley & Taylor Barbershop.

We saw here that David H. Coley and my grandfather Roderick Taylor Sr. briefly operated a barbershop on South Goldsboro Street. The document below pinpoints the date of the dissolution of their business partnership. Unable to agree on terms, on 20 April 1926, Coley and Taylor turned over “all fixtures, equipment, barber supplies” and other property in the shop at 105 South Goldsboro to trustee Calvin F. Young. Young was to sell the property, pay off any liens, pay wages due any “workmen, barbers and servants,” pay off debts, and pay out the remainder to the parties.

Wilson County, North Carolina, Miscellaneous Records, http://www.familysearch.org.

Judgment against Collins & Vick.

Samuel H. Vick briefly partnered with J.C. [J.F.?] Collins to do business as Collins & Vick Livery Company. In early 1907, Ellis Carriage Works of Kinston, North Carolina, sued Collins & Vick when the firm failed to pay for buggies ordered in August and October 1906. In his defense, Vick asserted that he had left the partnership in July 1906, well before the orders were placed. He had notified people in Wilson of the dissolution by word of mouth, but admitted no official notice was published until January 1907. A justice of the peace found in Ellis Carriage’s favor and assessed a two hundred dollar judgment. Vick appealed.

The first order, dated 4 August 1906: “Ellis Carage Works Kinston NC Deare sir som time ago yours agent was Hears and we Romes[?] to Hantle a fue of your Buggys Now you can please shift 2 of your nice Buggys for sanple at once and we will sell as meney as we can for you Yours Respctly Collins and Vick Co” Though not dispositive of his responsibility for the debt, the well-educated Vick clearly did not write this letter, with its shaky penmanship and haphazard spelling. Unfortunately, I can find no trace of J.C. (or J.F.) Collins in Wilson.

Nor the second: “Wilson NC 10/17 1906 Mr Ellis Deare sir please send me 2 Buggy side spring one Red coller and one Black Coller Please send then like the las side spring you shipt me But not Red in tope I will sell a good meney for you please shipe at once Yours truly J.F. Collins and Vick”

Civil Action Papers, Wilson County Government Records 1907-1908, Wilson County, North Carolina Miscellaneous Records, http://www.familysearch.org.

Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company.

Chatham Observer (Pittsboro, N.C.), 4 November 1903.

Five years after North Carolina Mutual and Provident Association‘s founding in Durham, James E. Shepard and Samuel H. Vick were among the incorporators of Carolina Mutual Life Insurance. (Shepherd would found North Carolina Central University six years after this.)

The company’s letterhead reveals Shepard and Vick’s titles and Carolina Mutual’s other officers: President William G. Pearson of Durham; Secretary-Treasurer J.A. Dodson of Durham; Auditor Henry E. Hagans of Goldsboro, and Medical Director Dr. Charles H. Shepard of Durham. Shepard, Pearson, and Dodson were founders of Durham’s Mechanic and Farmers Bank, and central figures in the establishment of Durham’s Black Wall Street.

Lenoir [County, North Carolina] Court Records 1907=1908, http://www.familysearch.org.

 

Downtown Wilson aerial, 1925.

The reverse side of this aerial photograph of downtown Wilson reveals that it was taken by the United States Army Air Service, 20th Photo Section. In the bottom left corner of the image there appears to be a date: 8-3-25. Tested against the construction of dates of the former Atlantic Coastal Line passenger station, completed in 1924 and visible here; the Wilson County Courthouse, completed in 1925 and visible here; and the former United States Post Office and former First National Bank building on Nash Street, both completed in 1927 but not even under construction here, 1925 can be confirmed.

In its lower right corner, the photo offers a rare glimpse of Wilson’s primary Black business block at, arguably, its prime in the decade before the Great Depression. 

Identifiable buildings include:

  1. First Missionary Baptist Church
  2. Saint John A.M.E. Zion Church
  3. Calvary Presbyterian Church
  4. Wilson Hospital and Tubercular Home [later Mercy Hospital]
  5. Baxter & Company Grocery
  6. Orange Hotel
  7. Odd Fellows Lodge hall, with Globe Theatre on second floor
  8. Whitley Hotel (earlier known as Union Hotel)
  9. Charles H. Darden house, 111 North Pender
  10. Lee A. Moore house, 106 North Pender
  11. Wilson Chapel Free Will Baptist Church
  12. “old” First Baptist church building
  13. apartment building
  14. C.E. Artis funeral home

Back of the house at an oyster saloon.

Julius C. Rhodes and G.M. Smith were partners in Smith & Rhodes, a Goldsboro Street oyster bar, saloon, and billiard parlor. Rhodes died intestate in December 1886, setting off a battle for the equitable distribution of the business’ assets. Rhodes’ estate file contains pages and pages of testimony from employees, associates, and even his physician about Rhodes’ alcoholism, his excessive generosity, and the free withdrawal and commingling of funds that marked Smith & Rhodes’ affairs and offer a rare glimpse into the workings of a late nineteenth-century Wilson social space.

Rhodes lived in rooms at the rear of the store and took his meals in its restaurant. Full board cost $12.50 to $16 a month, but Samuel Farmer paid in firewood. Rhodes kept a private gaming room upstairs, which was not profitable. He gave away shots of whiskey on Sundays to regular customers — many showed up for “treats” after church. He also gave out loans from the cash drawer.

Among the witnesses were cooks Andrew Pearce and Burt Bowser. Pearce testified that Rhodes ate at the store, but only about one small meal day. (His mother often sent him chicken soup and pickles.) Smith did not eat there often, but ate more than Pearce when he did. Smith had a private family residence, and mostly ate at the restaurant during the busy season. [From other testimony, we know that was fall.] Pearce sometimes went to Smith’s house to get vegetables for the restaurant. The lamp oil and coal Rhodes used in his rooms came from the firm’s supplies.

Burt Bowser preceded Pearce as cook. His testimony was brief: he cooked special meals for Rhodes; Smith ate at the restaurant more often than Rhodes; and Smith sometimes supplied vegetables to the restaurant.

Peter Taylor was subpoenaed to testimony, but either did not appear or was not called. Dave Barnes is briefly named as someone who “kept” the gaming room. This may have been Dave Barnes who was later a porter at Briggs Hotel. Hilliard Ellis was named as owing a small debt to the firm. Rhodes’ widow and administrator Louisa Rhodes filed an account in March 1889 that noted a payment of $2.50 to barber Alfred Robinson and $1.50 to blacksmith Charles Battle.

Estate of J.C. Rhodes (1887), Wilson County Probate Estate Case Files, 1954-1959, http://www.familysearch.org.