Wilson Daily Times, 19 May 1937.
When 16 year-old John Lane was snatched from one of U.H. Cozart’s fields in May 1937, authorities blamed his mother. Seven years earlier, she had allowed a family named Williams to adopt the boy, and she migrated to Washington, D.C. A radio bulletin went out seeking three men and a women traveling in older model Paige automobile with D.C. tags.
Ryan Mitchell got off a flight from Lagos to this news:
During a roadtrip to New Orleans in summer 2021, I stopped by to see my cousin Zella Palmer. The pandemic was still cutting up, so we sat on her porch and chatted, mostly about family, food, and history. At one point, Zella mentioned that she’d received an email feeling out her interest in co-writing a book about North Carolina barbecue. Specifically, about Ed Mitchell and his family. “Girl, call them,” I urged. “Mr. Mitchell is a legend — and my dad’s good buddy!”
The rest … well, is a James Beard nomination!!
(You don’t have a copy of Ed Mitchell’s Barbeque?? What you waiting for??)
Image courtesy of Ryan Mitchell.
Wilson Daily Times, 21 March 1944.
Rocky Branch community named its home demonstration club for agent Jane Amos Boyd.
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Wilson Daily Times, 10 February 1950.
Cotton contest winners included Howard W. Farmer, Joe Hester, Amos Smith, and Charlie Batts. Hester and Batts were repeat champs.
Wilson Daily Times, 17 August 1945.
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In the 1930 census of Black Creek township, North Carolina: farmer James Caple, 36; wife Mary, 37; and children Willie, 16, and Augusta, 12.
On 29 December 1937, Clinton Ford, 23, of Crossroads township, son of Jonathan and Annie Ford, married Augusta Caple, 20, of Crossroads township, daughter of James and Mary Caple. Primitive Baptist minister David Bynum performed the ceremony in the presence of Leslie Lee Miller, Robert Bynum, and Lonnie H. Rose.
In 1940, John Clinton Ford registered for the World War II draft in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born 18 April 1914 in Wilson County; lived at R.F.D. #1, Lucama; his contact was wife Agusta Ford; and he was self-employed.
In the 1950 census of Oldfields township, Wilson County: farmer John C. Ford, 35; wife Augusta C., 32; and roomer Nathaniel Williams, 20.
Augusta Ford died 16 September 1951 at Mercy Hospital, Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was born 6 September 1917 in Rockingham County, N.C., to James Capel and Mary Riggins; was married to Clinton Ford; worked as a farmer; lived at R.F.D. 1, Simms; and was buried in Rest Haven Cemetery.
Clipping courtesy of J. Robert Boykin III.
In the lead-up to my February 8 talk at Wilson County Public Library, every day I’ll feature a post related to Wilson County’s Rosenwald schools. (Or schools, like Mitchell, which were not Rosenwald-funded, but were contemporaries.)
Wilson Daily Times, 21 February 1944.
In the lead-up to my February 8 talk at Wilson County Public Library, every day I’ll feature a post related to Wilson County’s Rosenwald schools. As seen here, the schools became the centers of rural communities. The Williamson Home Demonstration Club was comprised of women who lived in Williamson’s district. In this contribution to the Daily Times, the Club reported on members’ gardening, canning, and sewing work; their contribution to a fire fund for demonstration agent Jane Amos Boyd; a successful picnic with the clubs affiliated with Sims, New Vester, and Rocky Branch Schools; a baby shower; and the sick and shut-in.
Wilson Daily Times, 3 July 1945.
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Wilson Daily Times, 19 January 1945.
Wilson Daily Times, 8 January 1945.
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In the 1940 census of Taylor township, Wilson County: widower Edgar Moore, 58, farmer; daughter Pauline, 32; and lodgers James Joyner, 23, and farm laborer Herman Moore, 22, wife Clara, 20, and children Edwin, 2, and Dorothy, 10 months.
Sampson Hinnant was near 60 when sold to his last enslaver in 1861. A year after freedom, he and Mary Boykin formalized their marriage. They apparently did not have children, and Hinnant died in 1878, leaving a small estate. His was one of a relative handful of estates of formerly enslaved people that entered probate in Wilson County in the decades after freedom.
Hinnant’s estate file contains only the record of the widow’s allotment paid to Mary Hinnant for one year’s support. In addition to the harvested crops on hand — potatoes, peas, wheat, “greens” — she received all their furniture, working tools, fodder, four head of cattle, five hogs, and eight barrels (of what?).
The census taker apparently missed the Hinnant household when making his rounds in 1870. Their cohabitation registration and this estate file are the only known documentation of their lives in freedom.
Estate File of Sampson Hinnant, Wilson County; North Carolina Wills and Probate Records, 1665-1998, http://www.ancestry.com.