Court Actions

The guardianship of the McIver girls.

In November 1908, Wilson County Superior Court named George W. Suggs guardian to sisters Kate, Sarah, Bettie and Ida McIver, the minor children of Amanda McIver. Their father, Rev. Byron D. McIver, was still alive, but had been removed as guardian overseeing the tiny inheritance from their deceased mother. L.A. Moore signed the bond with Suggs.

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In the 1900 census of Hookerton, Greene County, N.C.: clergyman Byron D. McIver, 44; wife Amanda, 29; and daughters Laura, 16, Minnie, 11, Katie, 6, Sarah, 3, and Bettie, 2.

Wilson County, N.C., Guardianship Records 1903-1909, http://www.familysearch.org.

School row continues in Wilson.

I don’t know who the Chicago Defender‘s Wilson correspondent was, but he (or she) filed several vivid reports in the wake of Superintendent Charles L. Coon’s assault on teacher Mary C. Euell on 9 April 1918.

On April 27, the Defender reported that school principal J.D. Reid had fled for his life after being beaten in the streets by angry citizens as he left church services. (Though it downplayed the severity of the clouting, the Wilson Daily Times reported the incident, as well as the meeting of community leaders with the school board.)

Chicago Defender, 27 April 1918.

A week later, the Defender reported that Reid was hiding out in the woods near town; that parents were refusing to send their children to school if Reid remained principal; and that three men were hauled into court because they had held their children out.

Chicago Defender, 4 May 1918.

On May 11, the defender reported Coon’s indictment on assault and battery charges and claimed Coon had allegedly said he knew how “to handle n*ggers.” Reid reportedly was still in the woods, having been spotted slipping in and out carrying food.

Chicago Defender, 11 May 1918.

The estate of Emma L. Evans.

Emma L. Evans‘ administrator, Major J. Loftin, paid $271.oo to C.H. Darden & Son for burial expenses, $25.00 for a tombstone, and $15.00 to rent three cars to transport mourners to the funeral.

Per her death certificate, Evans was buried in Wilson. In 1923, this generic designation usually meant Vick Cemetery (though Rountree, Odd Fellows, and, to a much lesser extent, Oakdale were possible.) I’ve never seen it. If Evans was laid to rest in Vick, her headstone is either deeply, and perhaps irretrievably, buried or destroyed. If in Odd Fellows or Rountree, perhaps it will be found.

Wilson County, N.C., Property Settlement Records 1923-1931, http://www.familysearch.org.

The apprenticeship of the Beaman siblings, Patrick, 8, Lydia, 9, Jennie, 10, and Chloe, 15.

On 16 March 1871, a Wilson County Probate Court judge ordered eight year-old Patrick Beaman, 8, Lydia Beaman, 9, Jennie Beaman, 10, and Chloe Beaman, 15, bound as apprentices to Lawrence Ward until the girls reached 18 and the boys reached 21  years of age. He was to be trained for farmwork.

The Beamon children, then using the surname Pope, were living in Lawrence Ward’s household before they were formally apprenticed.

In the 1870 census of Saratoga township, Wilson County: farmer Larrence Ward, 25; wife Mary, 20; and daughter Mary A., 3; plus Chloie, 14, Jenny, 11, Lydia, 10, and Patrick Pope, 7; and Sophia Ward, 48.

Wilson County Apprentice Bonds 1869-1914, database at https://familysearch.org.

The estate of Clarissa Williams.

Clarissa Williams, teacher and principal at Wilson Colored Graded School, died in October 1921. Her niece Mamie Battle Ford, daughter of her maternal half-brother Richard Battle, was issued letters of administration.

North Carolina Wills and Estates, 1665-1998 [database on-line], http://www.ancestry.com.

Williams’ estate consisted of a house and lot (at 605 East Green Street) worth about $3000 and an estimated $100 in personal property. Her heirs at law were her nieces and nephews Mamie Ford, Fanny Battle, Clinton Battle, and Glynn Battle.

The inventory of Williams’ property, prepared in June 1922, included two dressers, two washstands, four bedsteads, six trunks, a table and six chairs, two sewing machines, a writing desk, two stoves, four center tables, a safe, two bowls and pitchers, 11 bed quilts, eight pillows, two feather beds, three sets of springs, and two rockers.

Ford filed her final report on 24 March 1923. The sale of Williams’ personal property had netted what must have been a disappointing $77. Nearly half of that amount went to pay a tax bill and $15.oo went to pay medical bills, including five dollars to Henrietta Colvert for nursing services.

Wilson County, N.C., Property Settlement Records 1923-1931, http://www.familysearch.org.

Ford reported that she was “unable to give the bond for the proceeds of the house and lot sold by the mortgagee” and resigned as administrator.  In her stead, the Superior Court appointed E.A. Darden, trust officer for Branch Banking and Trust, as the bank held the mortgage on Clarissa Williams’ house.

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In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: Clarcy Williams, 50; roomer Curtis Ford, 37, house carpenter; nephew [sic] Mamie Ford, 24; and roomers [sic] Lias L., 4, and Quincey B. Ford, 2.

Raped by white men, 17 year-old girl gets no justice.

This article contains descriptions of a sexual assault against a minor and the injustice that followed. For privacy, I have redacted the girl’s name and those of her family members.

Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 5 August 1933.

I have not found the Daily Times‘ “brief statement” about this incident, and I continue to search for information about what happened after charges were dismissed against the alleged assailants.

Prophet held in Baltimore; trafficked children released.

In August 1933, Bishop John A. Means, a “prophet” of the Church of the Living God, was sentenced to jail in Baltimore, Maryland, for trafficking children across state lines to make them sing and beg in the streets. One of the children, eight year-old Mary Gibson of Wilson, had been taken without consent of State Aid and Charity office.

Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 5 August 1933.

Affidavits of good behavior, no. 3.

I’ve been hunting for digitized evidence of the trade of Wilson County slavers like Wyatt Moye, Robert S. Adams, Stephenton Page Jr., and Joshua Barnes in Aberdeen, Mississippi. I finally found some in a deed book dated 1847-1850. (Wilson County, of course, had not yet formed, but these and other traders lived or had lived in parts of Edgecombe, Nash, Wayne, or Johnston Counties that are now Wilson County.) These registered affidavits attest to the affiants’ personal acquaintance with an enslaved person who had been sent from North Carolina to Mississippi for further sale.

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Deed Record 13, page 640. Chancery Clerk’s Office, Monroe County, Mississippi.

Know all men by these presents that we Jesse Simpson and Isaac Williamson Citizens and free holders of the County of Nash and State of North Carolina do hereby certify that we are acquainted with a negro man named Abram aged about twenty three years old a Stout Strong well musselled boy about five feet two inches high and darke culler and cross eied, furthermore that said Slave has not been guilty or convicted of murder arson burglary or felony within our knowledge or belief in said County nor no other County.  /s/ Jesse Simpson, Isaac Williamson

Deed Record 13, page 640. Chancery Clerk’s Office, Monroe County, Mississippi.

Know all men by these presents that we Jesse Simpson and Isaac Williamson Citizens and free holders of the County of Nash and State of North Carolina do hereby certify that we are acquainted with a negro man named Aberdeen aged about twenty three years old, a large Stout Strong Boy and of dark complection, furthermore that said Slave has not been guilty or convicted of murder arson burglary or felony within our knowledge or belief in said County of Nash or any other County.  /s/ Jesse Simpson, Isaac Williamson

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  • Abram and Aberdeen — Abram (or Abraham) and Aberdeen appear in the 1835 will of Elisha Applewhite, who devised them to his daughter Smithey D. Applewhite. Eventually, they came into the hands of Bartley Deans, whose daughter Elizabeth had married Smithey’s brother Robert Applewhite. In 1848, Deans placed both Abram and Aberdeen with the slavetradiing firm Moye & Adams to sell or hire out in Monroe County, Mississippi, a transaction that ended in litigation.
  • Jesse Simpson — Simpson is listed in the 1850 slave schedule of Nash County, N.C., with three enslaved people — two men, aged 55 and 33, and a young woman aged 16.
  • Isaac Williamson — Williamson is listed in the 1850 slave schedule of Nash County, N.C., with two enslaved people — two women, aged 40 and 24.

Documents reproduced at www.familysearch.org.

Robbers convicted of attack on Vick and Robinson.

The Virginian-Pilot, 19 May 1921.

When we first read of the robbery of Samuel H. Vick and Alfred Robinson (not Albert Roberson), a man named George Jenkins had been arrested. However, Henry Berkley and Jack Bullock were found guilty of the crime and sentenced to seven years in state prison.