Church

Rebecca Thorpe hosts a church social.

Wilson Daily Times, 7 June 1943.

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In the 1900 census of Cross Roads township, Wilson County: farmer Elbert Kent, 55, widower, and children Joseph, 18, Albert, 15, Bettie, 8, Rebecca, 7, and Isaiah, 4; plus daughter Martha Barnes, 23, widow, and her children Rebecca, 4, and Joseph, 2.

In the 1910 census of Springhill township, Wilson County: farmer Elbert Kent, 64; wife Lizzie, 43; and children Bettie, 18, Rebecca, 17, and Isiah, 15.

In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 217 Pender Street, farmer Sam Collins, 61; wife Bell, 52; daughter Early May, 8; and lodger Rebecca Kintz, 25, seamstress. 

On 16 November 1921, Walter Thorp, 44, of Wilson, son of Anderson and Lucinda Thorp, married Rebecca Kent, 28, of Wilson County, daughter of Elbert and Lissie Kent, at the A.M.E. Zion church in Wilson. 

In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 1111 Washington Street, carpenter Walter Thorp, 63; wife Rebecca, 46, sewing; and roomer Jane Boyd, 36, county home demonstration agent.

Walter T. Thorpe died 21 January 1941 in Mercy Hospital, Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was 47 years old; was born in Granville County, N.C., to Anderson and Lucy Thorpe; was married to Rebecca Thorpe; and lived at 1111 Washington Street.

Mount Sinai Missionary Baptist rents temporary space.

Shortly before Mount Sinai Missionary Baptist Church built the church that now houses Saint Mark’s Episcopal, they rented the second floor of the Knights of King Solomon building on Stantonsburg Street (now South Pender.) The Knights agreed to provide fuel, light, and janitorial service to the church.

Deed Book 147, page 193, Wilson County Register of Deeds Office, Wilson.

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  • J.S. Spell of Wilson, N.C. — John S. Spell.
  • S. Carraway of Kinston, N.C. — Stephen Carraway Sr. (1864-1949) was grocery merchant in Kinston.
  • W.M. Mitchell of Rocky Mount, N.C. — William M. Mitchell (1874-1931) was a Atlantic Coast Line Railway fireman in Rocky Mount.
  • Ed Holden
  • Chas. Woodard
  • Lloyd Thomas

 

Lane Street Project: Flat Rock A.M.E. Church, Fayetteville, Georgia.

Though I will always be of Wilson, I have lived in Atlanta nearly all of my adult life. It is very much “home” for me, too, and is a bottomless well of African-American culture and history that often informs the way I process research and work related to Black Wide-Awake and Lane Street Project.

I’ve begun visiting metro Atlanta’s historic African-American burial grounds. How have they weathered exploding population growth, shifting demographics, outmigration, land loss, and other pressures? The seventh in a series — Flat Rock African Methodist Episcopal Church Cemetery in Fayetteville, Georgia.

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Flat Rock A.M.E. Church, a few miles southeast of downtown Fayetteville, is believed to be the oldest congregation in Fayette County. Like many early churches in Wilson County, Flat Rock also offered schooling for the community.

Its cemetery lies adjacent to the church, with the newest section closest to the building.

In 2025, this historical marker was erected in Fayetteville’s historically white town cemetery to commemorate the Union Benevolent Aid Society.

Photos by Lisa Y. Henderson, May 2026.

Trinity Burial Society celebrates its anniversary.

Wilson Daily Times, 15 May 1945.

Burial societies are mutual aid organizations that provide funeral expenses and support for members, funded by voluntary subscriptions. Membership in a burial society, with small dues often paid weekly, ensured affordable, dignified burials, especially for families whose incomes were stretched. 

Trinity A.M.E. Zion‘s burial society was founded in 1918, when Vick Cemetery was the primary African-American burial ground in Wilson.

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B.W.A. Historical Black Marker Series: Trinity A.M.E. Zion Church.

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.

TRINITY A.M.E. ZION CHURCH

Second oldest active African Methodist Episcopal Zion church in Wilson. Former sanctuary stood here on land purchased in 1909 from Rev. O.L.W. Smith, former consul to Liberia and A.M.E.Z. presiding elder.

The Smiths sell Trinity a lot for its church.

On 7 December 1909, Rev. Owen L.W. Smith and his wife Cynthia A. Smith sold the trustees of Trinity A.M.E. Zion Church — Rev. William J. Moore, Rev. Wyatt Studaway, and Morrison Speight — a 50′ by 100′ lot on the south side of Banks Street, 45 feet west of Goldsboro Street in Wilson. 

Deed book 86, page 299, Wilson County Register of Deeds Office, Wilson.

Trinity built its first church on the site and, to my amazement, owned the property until February of this year.

Detail, Wilson County, N.C., GIS Mapping Website.