In March 1912, clerk of court Theo. A. Hinnant recorded evidence in State vs. Will Evans, a case alleging robbery.
S.L. Long swore that Evans had come into his store with a woman to buy eggs, then returned for beer and crackers but refused to pay his bill. When Long insisted, Evans allegedly grabbed him, threw him out onto the sidewalk, and took Long’s wallet.
Criminal Action Papers, 1912, Wilson County Records, North Carolina State Archives.
Wilson Daily Times, 21 October 1913.
News and Observer (Raleigh, N.C.), 18 December 1913.
Jane Barnes was quickly released, but Luther Woodard’s trial was set for early February 1914. I have not found record of the verdict. Speculation about their relationship notwithstanding, he and Jane were married on February 23, which suggests he was acquitted.
——
The Daily Journal (Wilmington, N.C.), 16 September 1876.
——
Wait. What?
Who was Mary Carrow? Who was Charles Smith? And what (and where) was the Black Creek Male and Female Institute “for colored boys and girls”???
I have found only two Mary Carrows in Wilson County during the time period — a mother and daughter, both white, listed in the 1880 census of the Town of Wilson. The daughter, Mary Estelle Carrow, wasn’t born until in 1879. Her mother Mary Dew Carrow, born about 1853, was married to John B. Carrow, a grocer and barkeep.
However, in the 1880 census of Goldsboro, Wayne County, there is a Mary Carrow, 52, white, “teaching.” This Mary Carrow operated a private primary school in Goldsboro in the late 1870s and was a much-loved teacher at Goldsboro’s graded school from 1881 until her death in 1899.
Goldsboro Argus, 28 August 1879.
This Mary Carrow was not a “young colored lady,” and I have not yet found anyone who could be the one hired to teach in Black Creek.
Charles Smith, formerly principal of Wilson Academy, was born about 1855, and married Virginia Barnes (or Winstead), sister of Braswell R. Winstead. Smith gave his occupation as minister in the 1880 when his brother-in-law, who lived in his household, was a teacher.
Wilson Advance, 10 September 1880.
In the 1870 census of Town of Wilson, Wilson County: farm laborer William Smith, 27; wife Temperance, 31; son Charles, 20, farm laborer; and Nancy Brown, 51.
On 28 August 1874, Charles Smith, 22, married Jennie Barnes, 17, in Wilson County.
In the 1880 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on Pettigrew Street, minister Charles Smith, 26; wife Virginia, 22; and children Arminta, 7, John T., 3, and Charles H., 1; and brother-in-law Braswell Winstead, 20, teaching school.
Charles H. Smith went on to become a prominent A.M.E. Zion minister. B.R. Winstead remained in Wilson all his life as a close associate of Samuel H. Vick.
Most mysterious is Black Creek Male and Female Institute, about which I have found nothing at all.
Statesville Record & Landmark, 9 September 1937.
A grand jury indicted 21 year-old Jack King for housebreaking. At trial, Mrs. Larry Strickland testified that King had entered her bedroom while she was asleep and touched her leg. Per the Wilson Daily Times, King pleaded guilty to the housebreaking charge, but the judge rejected the plea and ordered stronger charges brought against King. The solicitor obliged, and the grand jury indicted him for first degree burglary, which was generally defined as burglary with intent to rape, a capital crime. King pleaded guilty to second degree burglary and was sentenced to life in prison.
——
In the 1920 census of Saratoga township, Wilson County: York King, 36; wife Annie, 30; children Dock, 14, David, 12, Shandy, 10, Almeta, 7, Isaac, 3, and Annie, 1; brother Jack, 46; and nephews James, 13, and Jack, 6.
In the 1930 census of Stantonsburg township, Wilson County: Jack King, 51; wife Nancy, 25, farm laborer; children Sadie B., 8, Cora, 12, and Jack, 16; and lodger Roland Barnes, 24.
In 1943, Jack King Jr. registered for the World War II draft in Hendersonville, North Carolina. Per his registration card, which was transferred to Wilson County, he was born 10 June 1914 in Wilson; his permanent address was Route 4, Wilson; his contact was father Jack King Sr., 618 Darden Alley, Wilson; and he was “employed” by N.C. State Prison, Camp No. 1007, Hendersonville, Henderson County, N.C.
In the 1950 census of Prison Camp 1007, Hendersonville, Henderson County: Jack King, 33, prisoner, never married.
Jack King died 27 April 1996 in Wilson.
Durham Sun, 1 March 1933.
Robert Jones was finally arrested in Raleigh in early October. Within days, he was on trial, but facing a reduced charge of manslaughter. Jones had recanted a confession that he had shot Wilson native Mildred Powell in “a Hayti rooming house” over a liquor dispute. His defense then claimed he and Virginia White had been tussling over a gun that accidentally discharged and fatally struck Powell. While Jones was on the lam, White died of tuberculosis and the investigating detective was murdered, severely cramping the state’s case against Jones. Nonetheless, he was convicted and sentenced to 30 years in prison.
——
Mildred Powell died 28 February 1933 in Durham, Durham County, North Carolina. Per her death certificate, she was 26 years old; was born in Wilson County to John Powell and Sarah Hagan; lived at 518 Elm Street; worked in a factory; and died of “gun shot wound (pistol) of chest; homicide.” Virginia White was informant, and Powell’s body was returned to Wilson for burial.
In July 1915, Howard Barnes swore out a warrant against a police officer for striking him during an arrest. The Times reported some confusing jurisdiction and procedural matters and identified charges against Barnes himself — public drunkenness (to which he pleaded guilty) and resisting arrest. The paper then laid out the testimony concerning “Officer Cooper.”
Howard Barnes was admittedly drunk and wandering from one cathouse to another in Wilson’s red light district. (These establishments were staffed by white sex workers for white clients.) He sat down to rest on the steps of “the colored Episcopal church,” Saint Mark’s, which stood at South and Lodge Streets. Then (or maybe before then — the timeline is hard to follow) Barnes stumbled around on the railroad tracks, perhaps falling and hitting his head. At some point, he crossed paths with Officer Cooper — and “Crazy Pete.” Cooper beat Barnes bloody. Or so Barnes claimed. Saint Mark’s rector, Rev. Robert N. Perry, was called to the stand. His testimony was notably circumspect. He “heard loud talking and heard two or three licks. Sound[ed] as if slaps with open hand. Went to door and saw officer going with Barnes.” In other words, he did not actually see what happened. Staying out of white folks’ business was a cultivated talent among African-Americans of the day.
Wilson Daily Times, 9 July 1915.
News & Observer, 17 August 1948.
James Alston died 14 August 1948 in Oldfields township, Wilson County. Per his death certificate, he was born 14 September 1928 in Wilson County to Herman Alston of Nash County and Mildred Jones of Wilson County; worked in farming; and died of homicide, specifically, “left thoracic pulmonary hemorrhage due to blast from shotgun shell to the left chest and arm.”
Deans claimed he shot into the dark without seeing his victim. He was convicted of manslaughter less than a month later and sentenced to four to six years in prison.
Wilson Daily Times, 19 September 1911.
Incarcerated men — overwhelmingly African-American — built North Carolina’s roads.
“In 1868, North Carolina adopted a new State Constitution that provided for building a state penitentiary. Inmates began building the state’s first prison, Central Prison, in 1870 and moved into the completed castle-like structure in December 1884. In 1881, the state leased two tracts of land near Raleigh for inmates to farm. State law 379 enacted in 1885 provided for the allowance of good time as an incentive for inmate cooperation.
“As early as 1875, private employers could lease inmates as laborers. Under the lease, businesses had complete responsibility for the inmates. Many worked in rock quarries and built railways. In 1901, lawmakers changed the system to provide for contract inmate labor. Inmates worked for private employers, but prison officials retained responsibility for the inmates’ custody.
“A system of mobile camps developed that moved from worksite to worksite. By 1893, demand for labor contracts dwindled and most inmates went to work at leased farms.
“In 1901, the Good Roads Policy provided inmate labor to build the state’s roads. Horse-drawn prison cages that moved from one worksite to the next housed the inmates. In 1910, the incentive wage system began and inmates earned up to 15 cents a day, paid upon release.
“In 1925, the General Assembly enacted a law changing the state’s prison from a corporation to a department of state government. At that time, the state prison system included Central Prison, Caledonia Prison Farm, Camp Polk Prison Farm and eight road camps. Over the next eight years, six more road camps were added. By then, the facilities at these units were in deplorable condition for lack of regular maintenance and repair.
“In 1931, the General Assembly enacted the Conner bill which enabled the state to take over control of all prisons and inmates. The condition of prison facilities and the need for inmate labor led the General Assembly to consolidate the State Highway Commission and the State Prison Department. …” History of the North Carolina Corrections System, North Carolina Department of Public Safety.
In contrast to Deep South states, such as Texas, in which convict labor was leased extensively to private individuals and corporations well into the 21st century, convicts in North Carolina were overwhelmingly funneled into county and state roadwork. To be sentenced for low-level crimes in county criminal court was not to go to jail or prison, but to be sent “to the roads.”
Wilson Daily Times, 5 November 1897.
Wilson Daily Times, 11 April 1911.
Wilson Daily Times, 5 August 1921.
As succinctly stated in Stories from the Inside: Four Eras of North Carolina Prison History, “Imprisoned people built North Carolina’s roads. People incarcerated in the state’s prisons worked on railroads, farms, and factory floors, but most dug and graded roads. It was dangerous work; conditions were bad and prisoners worked ‘under the gun’ of law enforcement without adequate food or medical care.
“In 1930, North Carolina’s highway department took over its prisons. It built dozens of new prisons, including Wagram’s—each one a road labor hub. Consider that: The State’s transportation department constructed road camp prisons and oversaw forced labor of prisoners. Within a few years, most of North Carolina’s 100 counties housed a road camp prison. Until the 1990s, North Carolina had the highest number of prisons in the country.”
Wilson prison camp’s bloodhounds ran folks down all across eastern North Carolina. Wilson Daily Times, 26 October 1934.
Wilson County’s prison road camp closed in the early 1960s, but its ghost lingers at the North Carolina Department of Transportation/Wilson County Transportation Services site at 509 Ward Boulevard.
Wilson Daily Times, 15 August 1932.
——
