Crime

Missing teens believed to have left home to seek work.

Though the Great Depression had ended, poverty ground on for many Wilson County families in the early 1940s. Like boys of the era, who regularly left home to seek better opportunities, girls were drawn by rumors of good money to be made in big cities further North. Many lucked into good positions, but others, as vulnerable runaways, were drawn into sexual exploitation.

Wilson Daily Times, 23 November 1942.

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  • Ethel Robbins
  • Eula Parnell — Parnell appears in the 1940 census in a Factory Street household in which no one was employed.
  • Ida Mae Reville

Jackson shot to death while pulling fodder.

Chicago Defender, 30 August 1924.

“He is said to have been drinking,” but was “an unknown white man.”

Per his death certificate, the murdered man was named Sam Jackson. His employer, George Dew, knew little else about him. A coroner’s inquest ruled his death a homicide.

Two weeks later, Joe Cockerell was arrested and charged with second-degree murder in Jackson’s death. He was convicted in December and sentenced to ten years in prison.

Wilson Daily Times, 19 December 1924.

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On 9 December 1918, Sam Jackson, 19, of Wilson, son of Turner and Nellie Jackson of South Carolina, married Victoria Watson, 18, of Wilson, daughter of Will and Alice Watson, in Wilson.

Victoria Watson Jackson died 19 December 1918 in Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was born 14 April 1900 to William Watson and Alice Dew; lived at 423 Railroad Street; was married to Samuel Jackson; worked as a tobacco factory stemmer; and was buried in Clayton, N.C.

On 4 January 1919, Sam Jackson, 20, of Wilson, son of Simon and Nellie Jackson of Conway, S.C., married Mary Carroll, 19, of Wilson, daughter of Major and Dollie Carroll. Free Will Baptist minister A.A.J. Davis performed the ceremony.

In the 1920 census of Taylors township, Wilson County: Sam Jackson, 22, and wife Mary, 23, both farm laborers.

Pal does his job!

Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 8 January 1938.

“Scotch Collie”?

Per the website of the Old-Time Scotch Collie Association, “In 1900 the Scotch Collie was the dog to have. They were sought after by farmers for their herding ability, and they were sought after by city dwellers because they were intelligent and loyal pets. In fact, the qualities that made the Scotch Collie a great farm dog were largely the exact same properties that made it a great family dog, their intelligence and desire to please. Later in the 20th century, fancy show dogs and the decline of the small family farm made the Scotch Collie obsolete, a few people began searching for and reviving these dogs in the 1980s and 1990s. Today we have a small population of these fantastic dogs left. Join us as we work to preserve and increase the Old-Time Scotch Collie.”

Good boy, Pal!

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Cook confesses to aiding jail break.

Chicago Defender, 30 July 1938.

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Perhaps, in the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 116 Pender Street, Clara Davis, 19, tobacco factory stemmer; Charles Davis, 22, cook at Bill’s Quick Lunch; Jack Ellis, 36, tobacco factory redryer; Beulah Ellis, 21, cook; and Ollie M. Ferguson, 33, tobacco factory grader. [All were relatively recent arrivals to Wilson from towns across eastern North Carolina and from Tennessee.]

Numbers bust in Wilson.

Chicago Defender, 26 August 1939.

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  • George Peterson
  • Julia Armstrong — in the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 411 East Green Street, owned and valued at $6000, Hallie Armstrong, 48, pool room operator; wife Julia, 29; and lodgers Annie M. Brown, 39, hospital nurse, Jeanett M. Lee, 24, hospital nurse, and Lawrence Peacock, 27, servant.

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.