Court Actions

Silah and her daughter Lucinda mortgaged to pay the debts of James Viverette.

On 20 February 1855, James Viverett of Edgecombe County, North Carolina, conveyed to trustee James Wiggins “two Slaves one woman by the name of Silah & child name Lucinda three head of houses five head of cattle twenty five head hogs three goats all my featherbeds & furniture together with the whole of my house hold & kitchen furniture all my corn & blade fodder peas &c” as security for debts owed to six entities, most of which appear to have been mercantile outfits. If Viverett were to default, all the listed property would be sold at public auction to pay off his debt. Viverett and his creditors appear to have lived on either side of the Wilson County-Edgecombe County border in the Town Creek-Temperance Hall area.

One of the creditors, William J. Armstrong, a merchant in what is now Elm City, died two years later. His estate records show that “Scilla” and her unnamed children were among Armstrong’s enslaved property. Scilla and one unnamed child (presumably an infant born after the conveyance above) were given to Armstrong’s son-in-law Willie G. Barnes and Barnes’ wife (unnamed in the document, but Mary E. Armstrong Barnes.) A Lucinda, who may have been Scilla’s older child above, went to W.J. Armstrong’s son-in-law John H. Winstead and wife (who was Crissie Armstrong Winstead.) (Children over about age eight were listed individually in inventories and freely separated from their mothers.) Thus, in the space of two years, Scilla changed hands twice and was separated from a daughter who was probably no more than about age eight or nine.

The transaction is recorded in Deed Book 1, page 21, Wilson County Register of Deeds Office.

The apprenticeship of Cora Joyner (1902).

On 10 September 1902, a Wilson County Superior Court judge ordered 15 month-old Cora Joyner bound as an apprentice to Van Dawson until she reached 21 years of age. A note written at the top of the indenture stated the arrangement was “By consent and presence of Louiza Ann Joyner mother of the child Cora Joyner.”

  • Cora Joyner
  • Louisa Ann Joyner
  • Van Dawson

On 18 February 1897, Van Dawson, 21, married Annie Braswell, 27, at the bride’s residence in Wilson County.

In the 1900 census of Toisnot township, Wilson County: day laborer Van Dawson, 23; wife Anne, 37; and niece Sally Armstrong, 17.

In the 1910 census of Toisnot township, Wilson County: on Elm City Lane, lumber wagon teamster Van Dawson, 36; wife Annie, 42, laundress; and daughter Estell, 9.

In 1918, Van Dawson registered for the World War I draft in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born 2 March 1873; lived in Elm City, Wilson County; was a self-employed farmer; and his nearest relative was wife Annie Dawson. He signed his card with an X.

In the 1930 census of Toisnot township, Wilson County: Joe Hagans, 29, mechanic at automobile shop; wife Estelle, 28; sons Joseph, 2, and William I., 1; and father-in-law Van Dawson, 55, farmer, widower.

On 2 September 1932, Van Dawson, 56, of Toisnot township, son of Sarah Dawson, married Jennie Batts, 30, of Toisnot township, daughter of Dennis and William Ann Batts, in Wilson.

In the 1940 census of the Town of Elm City, Toisnot township, Wilson County: on Cobb Avenue, Van Dawson, 67; wife Gennie, 34, cook; son Lee Roy, 8; daughter Sarrah, 7; and stepdaughter Anna Batts, 15.

Van Dawson died 24 December 1947 in Toisnot township, Wilson County. Per his death certificate, he was born 2 June 1874 in Wayne County, N.C., to Tank Ivory and Sarah Dawson; was married to Jennie Dawson; lived in Elm City, Wilson County; and worked as a farmer.

United States Indenture and Manumission Records, 1780-1939, database at https://familysearch.org.

I didn’t think it was any business of mine what the government did.

Rocky Mount Telegram, 27 January 1939.

In January 1939, a judge sentenced Claud Blake to 30 days’ labor on public roads for defrauding the North Carolina Unemployment Compensation Commission of $1.14. Blake had claimed to be disabled as a result of his World War I service, and, during questioning about it, revealed that he knew a former wife had collected $45 a month in death benefits for three years after she (or someone) filed a false claim. Blake testified that none of it had been any of his business.

Though described as a “Wilson Negro,” Blake was a native of Johnston County native and apparently spent most of his life there. In 1956, however, when he was about 73 years old, he married Mary Joyner, 57, of Elm City, daughter of Dock Powell and Hazel Dawes Powell. Blake died in Raleigh, N.C., in 1961 and is buried in the National Cemetery there.

Cocaine, knock-out drops, and boosted clothes.

We first met Cora Moore when we read of her daring escape from the Wilson city jail. Here’s what put her there to begin with.

It started with the arrest of Mamie Ricks for possession of cocaine and “knock-out drops” after she tried to poison Ada McNeal. When Ricks was arrested at her Railroad Street home, police found “a number of pieces of fine clothing.” Efird’s Department Store quickly identified two silk dresses as goods stolen from them. The remaining items were a mystery, but Joe and Ada McNeal were also charged with larceny.

Wilson Daily Times, 27 November 1923. 

Less than two months later, the police cracked the case.

In short, a New York coat and suit manufacturer shipped goods south via Norfolk Southern freight. About three miles outside Wilson, someone (a co-conspirator?) threw the boxes of clothing off the train. Joe McNeal witnessed “two negroes in a large seven passenger car” stash the clothes at a spot in Grabneck. As the goods were already hot, he tipped off two friends, Cora Moore and Aaron McKeithan, and three retrieved some of them and hid them in a trunk in Moore’s house. When they realized they were under suspicion, they sold as much of the loot as they could.

Wilson Daily Times, 15 January 1924.

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Neither Cora Moore, Mamie Ricks, Ada McNeal, Joe McNeal, nor Aaron McKeithan are readily identifiable in Wilson County records. The surnames of the McNeals and McKeithan suggests they came from the Cumberland County, N.C., area, and they may not have remained long in Wilson.

The stabbing death of Archie McLean.

The initial reporting of Archie McLean‘s terrible death, in addition to being breathlessly gory, tries and convicts his assailant, “a negro from South Carolina” named Bennett Bethea or Bennett McCarroll or Bennett McNeal. Also, note the third paragraph, in which Officer John Walston fired at a man he “thought” was Bethea/McCarroll/McNeal and instead shot a white woman bystander in the thigh. The reporter laconically noted the target “happened to be the wrong negro,” and Mrs. Davis was all right.

Wilson Daily Times, 29 September 1919.

Benny McNeal (as his name turned out to be) remained on the lam for more than two months before surrendering. He claimed self-defense, and witnesses at the inquest backed him up. After fleeing the scene, McNeal had stopped at his mother’s house, then headed south, finding work on a Hoke County farm.

Wilson Daily Times, 10 December 1919.

The grand jury agreed that McNeal had acted in self-defense and refused to indict him. Witnesses testified that McLean had come at McNeal with a piece of scantling (a small section of sawn timber) studded with twenty-penny (four-inch) nails, and McNeal had lashed out with a trench knife that penetrated McLean’s heart.

Wilson Daily Times, 16 December 1919.

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In 1917, Arch McLean registered for the World War I draft in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born March 1895 in Raleigh, N.C.; lived at 509 Stantonsburg Street; worked as a laborer at W.L. Russell Box Company; and was single. He signed his card with an X.

Archie McClain died 28 September 1919 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was  born in February 1894 in Wake County, N.C., to John Beckwith and Vicy Jones; was single; lived on Stantonsburg Street; and worked as a wagon driver for a  L.&M. [Liggett & Meyers] tobacco factory. Bessie McClain was informant.

“Stabed to Death by a man”

 

The apprenticeship of Charity Sanders (1904).

On 19 May 1904, a Wilson County Superior Court judge ordered 12 year-old Charity Sanders bound as an apprentice to Julius Hagans until she reached 18 years of age.

Charity was the daughter of Mary Sanders and Edmund (or Edward) Sanders (or Wrenn?) and was likely an orphan at the time of her apprenticeship. Julius Hagans had recently married Charity’s aunt, Martha Sanders.

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In the 1900 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: teamster Edman Sanders, 39; wife Winne, 32; son Andrew, 12, day laborer, and daughter Charty, 9; sisters Martha, 19, and Bettie Sanders, 20; and boarders Willie Sanders, 21, day laborer, Preston Bryant, 24, day laborer, and Chrischana Sanders, 18.

On 2 January 1901, Julius Hagan, 36, of Wilson County, son of Richard and Allie Hagan, married Martha Sanders, 22, of Wilson County, daughter of Lovett and Charity Sanders, at Ed Sanders’ residence in Wilson County.

On 6 December 1906, James Tate, 27, of Wilson, son of Isaac and Emily Tate, married Charity Sanders, 17, of Wilson, whose parents were dead and whose guardians were Julius Hagans and wife. Missionary Baptist minister William Baker performed the ceremony at Julius Hagans’ residence in the presence of Martha Hagans, Jason Farmer, and Bettie Boykin. [Charity Sanders, in fact, was only about 15 years old.]

In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on Raleigh Road, James Tate, 27; wife Charity, 18; step-son Henry Sanders, 3; son Hollie Tate, 2; and lodger John Pleasant, 39. All the adults were farm laborers. [On nearby Finch Mill Road, Charity Sanders Tate’s brother Andrew Sanders, 21, was living with Julius and Martha Hagans as a hired man.]

On 9 February 1914, Charity Sanders, 22, married Cordy Tillery, 22, in Wilson. A.M.E. Zion minister B.P. Coward performed the ceremony in the presence of Allen Nelson, Edward Hill, and Lacy Sloane.

In 1917, Cordy Tillery registered for the World War I draft. Per his registration card, he was born 9 August 1889 in Manchester, Virginia; lived at Spring Street, Wilson; was a convict of the County of Wilson (for “misdemeanants”); and had a wife and one child to support.

In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on Park Avenue, tobacco factory worker Cordy Tillery, 28, and wife Charity, 27.

In the 1920 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Tillery Charity dom h ft [foot of] Daniel; Tillery Cordy lab h 510 Railroad; Tillery Lorena dom h ft Daniel

Charity Tillery died 18 May 1920 in Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was 25 years old; was born in Smithfield, N.C., to Edward Wrin of Raleigh, N.C., and Mary Saunders of Smithfield, N.C.; was married to Cordy Tillery; worked as a tenant farmer; and lived on Daniel Street. William Smith was informant.

United States Indenture and Manumission Records, 1780-1939, database at https://familysearch.org.

“He tink he’s sum punkins.”

Josephus Daniels’ News & Observer loved a good laugh at the expense of Black folk, even the ones back home in Wilson. Here, a “special” report of the antics of Wesley Rogers at the Mason Hotel one Saturday night. Rogers, a swell and a dandy, had taken offense at remarks made by another patron and had thrown the man out the door. Rogers’ alleged performance in Mayor’s court was deemed worthy of several column inches of print.

News and Observer (Raleigh, N.C.), 11 November 1908.

  • Wesley Rogers — I had assumed this to be John Wesley Rogers, but the facts do not fit. Rogers owned several businesses over the course of his life, but not a clothes cleaning establishment, and he was in 1908 a married man with children who was not likely to have been lodging at a hotel.
  • “the Mason Hotel, a joint on the east side of the railroad where the negroes do congregate” — I do not know of a Mason Hotel on Nash Street. The description sounds rather like the Orange Hotel (whose owner, Samuel H. Vick, was a well-known Mason), a boarding house that was cited often for gambling and prostitution.

The apprenticeship of the Artis boys (1871).

On 4 February 1871, a Wilson County probate judge indentured William “Bill” Artis, age 5 years, six months, and his brother Joshua Artis, age 4 years, one month, to Jacob H. Barnes. The boys were to serve Barnes until age 21 and learn farming skills.

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In the 1870 census of Joyners township, Wilson County: George Barnes, 22, farm laborer; Temperance Barnes, 19; Joseph Barnes, 12, laborer’s apprentice; Nancy Artis, 36, farm laborer; William, 7, and Joshua Artis, 3; George Barnes, 20, works on railroad; Robert Barnes, 18, farm laborer; and Isaac Taylor, 19, works on farm.

In the 1880 census of Toisnot township, Wilson County, the Artises were still in Barnes’ household, described as “apprentices to farmer.”

United States Indenture and Manumission Records, 1780-1939, database at https://familysearch.org.

The apprenticeship of Condary Taylor (1895).

On 25 October 1895, a Wilson County Superior Court clerk issued an indenture binding Condary Taylor, age 10 years and 8 days, described as an orphan, to serve Jackson Hayes until she was 21 years of age.

A year later, however, the same clerk rescinded the indenture after Jackson Hayes came into court asking to be released. His wife had died, leaving him with “seven children of his own” that were apparently all he could handle.

United States Indenture and Manumission Records, 1780-1939, database at https://familysearch.org.

Negroes to receive lifetime pension for amputated feet.

When I stumbled upon this article, I was not sure if the terrible incident it described involved African-Americans from Wilson County. (It turns out they were not.) I did know, however, that state legislator Troy T. Barnes of Wilson co-sponsored a bill to award the victims pensions, and I knew I wanted to know more.

Wilson Daily Times, 29 March 1935.

A review of the widespread state news coverage reveals:

  • In December 1934, Woodrow Wilson Shropshire, 19, was sentenced to 120 days on a chain gang for drunkenness and drunk driving. In January 1935, Robert Barnes, also 19, was sentenced to a year “on the road” for possession of a stolen camera. Both were sent to a Mecklenburg County labor camp.
  • In January 1935, Shropshire and Barnes were placed in solitary confinement for alleged insubordination and cursing at a guard. The men were chained in a standing position against a wall for eight hours a day for four days. During the cold nights, they slept in an unheated room with little covering. The camp doctor failed to check on them as required by law. Both suffered severe damage to their feet that led to gangrene.
  • In early March, Wilson and Barnes were taken to Central State Prison in Raleigh where their feet were amputated. The following week, the state legislature opened an investigation into the matter. 
  • Per testimony, the men originally been held at Mecklenburg County camp #411. When they attempted to warm themselves at a fire without permission during frigid January temperatures, a guard warned them away and Shropshire cursed him. Because camp #411 had no solitary confinement, they were moved to camp #413. Barnes, Shropshire, and a former prisoner named John Reid testified that a prison guard beat Barnes unconscious for spitting on the floor. The men were fed half a biscuit twice a day and a small amount of water. Prison officials claimed the men’s feet had been damaged by erysipelas, a strep bacterial infection. And/or their gangrene had been caused by the men stuffing rags too tightly between their skin and shackles. (“It is astonishing,” [testified prison physician] Coleman, “how some prisoners will mutilate themselves to escape work.”]
  • The investigation turned up an additional atrocity — the secret burials of Black convicts in a Watauga County cornfield during construction of the Boone Trail state highway in 1930. (The men had been reported as escapees.) Legislators had questions about the laws concerning prisoners in state camp, the limits (or lack thereof) on the kind of punishment guards could mete out, and the practice of transferring prisoners to camps with “little dark houses” used for solitary confinement. Three state representatives, including Barnes of Wilson, sponsored a bill providing a lifetime pension for Shropshire and Barnes.
  • In early April, the camp superintendent, camp physician, and three guards were arrested and charged with crimes including neglect, torture, maiming, and assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill. Shropshire was taken by ambulance from Raleigh to testify before a Mecklenburg County grand jury; Barnes was still too weak from his injuries.
  • The committee’s recommendation, issued in late April, was conservative. North Carolina penal camps could continue using whips and “dark cells” to punish prisoners. On the bright side, Shropshire and Barnes were to receive prosthetic feet and jobs in the highway or prison departments. 
  • By mid-May, the State had spent $500 for four sets of artificial limbs for the two men, but neither was strong enough to use them.
  • The trial got underway in mid-July. Surprise — all defendants were acquitted!
  • Shropshire made good progress adjusting to his prosthetics. He declined a job in Raleigh, preferring to return to Mecklenburg to be near family, and the State promised to find him a job there. Barnes continued to struggle. In 1940, when he registered for the World War II draft, he was described as unemployed. His card noted “both feet amputated below knees.”