(Josephus Daniels was editor of the Advance at the time, so it’s no surprise he thought it paramount to note that Hagans faithfully voted the white supremacist Democratic ticket. He tells us nothing of Hagans’ family, his occupation, his history — but we know this.)
Wilson Advance, 30 July 1880.
The Advance‘s follow-up was devoted almost exclusively to the exculpation of J. Frank Eatmon, primarily via inferences from the testimony of Hagans’ “old, half-idiotic” unnamed wife, who had been severely beaten the night her husband was killed.
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In the 1860 census of Nahunta township, Wayne County: Mordecai Hagans, 23, farm laborer, living alone.
In the 1870 census of Upper Town Creek township, Edgecombe County: farm laborer Mordecai Hagans, 37, and wife Cherry, 45.
In the 1880 census of Oldfields township, Wilson County: laborer Mordicia Hagins, about 50, and wife Cherry, about 45. [They are listed immediately after the households of J. Frank Eatmon and Pearson Eatmon’s mother Aquilla Eatmon and likely lived on the property of one or the other.]
I have not found him in records, but Joseph Boone was likely a member of the small extended Boone family of free people of color who migrated into Nash County from adjoining counties to the north. After allegedly killing Uriah Ricks, he fled to Wilson, where he hopped a train south, most likely on the Wilmington & Weldon Railroad. Note Boone’s description — “about one-fourth free negro, but generally passes for white.” Race was more fluid in nineteenth-century North Carolina than we credit.
Did you know Wilson was the site of a Confederate hospital?
Its remnants stand at the corner of Lee and Goldsboro Streets.
In 1954, North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources’ North Carolina Highway Historical Marker Program installed a marker near the original site of the hospital, and the agency’s website features the startling essay below.
“The Confederacy organized its Medical Department late in 1861 and within months, in April of 1862, the North Carolina General Military Hospital No. 2 was established in Wilson in what had once been the Wilson Female Seminary. Dr. Solomon Sampson Satchwell, who had graduated from Wake Forest College and studied medicine at New York University before serving as a military surgeon with the Twenty-fifth North Carolina Infantry, was appointed Surgeon-in-Charge. In the 1864 Confederate States Medical and Surgical Journal the Wilson hospital was listed as one of twenty-one principal hospitals in North Carolina. It served those wounded in fighting along the coast.
“The hospital made Wilson known outside of the state of North Carolina. Employing thirty-five to forty people, it also boosted the local economy. Most nurses and orderlies were unskilled soldiers; however, at least seven local women were known to have worked at the hospital as matrons. Their duties included food preparation and cleaning. The Atlantic Coast Line Railroad that ran through Wilson provided the military hospital with supplies, including ice and turpentine, used to treat fevers.
“Fighting never broke out in Wilson, but, on July 20, 1863, ‘an immense armament of negroes and Yankees’ advanced on Wilson. Reportedly, a group of invalids from the hospital and local militia defended Wilson by destroying the bridge over the Toisnot Swamp to halt the invaders. All of those who died at the hospital were buried in a mass grave. The hospital closed at the end of the war. When Wilson created a town cemetery, they were re-interred there with a Confederate monument erected over the site. Wilson Female Seminary reopened in the former hospital and received a charter as Wilson Collegiate Institute in 1872.”
The interpretive signboard in front of the building, erected by the North Carolina Civil War Trails program (and badly in need of a good wash), reads:
“This is the only known surviving portion of one of Wilson’s earliest school buildings, the Wilson Female Academy, which also served as a Confederate hospital during the war. Wilson’s location on the Wilmington & Weldon Railroad, the principal north-south line that was linked to Virginia in Weldon by the Petersburg Railroad, made the town a good site for a hospital after the war began. On April 1, 1862, Confederate authorities seized the building for use as a general military hospital.
“Dr. Solomon S. Satchwell, the surgeon in charge, turned the forty classrooms and other rooms into wards and treated hundreds of patients there. The frame, two-story building had a two-hundred-foot-long facade and a large one-story rear addition. It also had dozens of large windows, essential for summer ventilation.
“Soldiers who died there of wounds or disease were buried near the academy grounds. In 1894, they were reinterred under a burial mound in Maplewood Cemetery two blocks north of here. The Confederate monument on top of the mound was dedicated on May 10, 1902.
“Edmund G. Lind, a British architect who emigrated to New York in 1855 and subsequently practiced in Maryland, North Carolina, and Georgia, designed the Italianate-style school building. It was completed in 1859 about two blocks south of here. After the war, the former female academy and hospital served as Wilson Collegiate Institute from 1872 until it closed in 1898, when the building was separated into housing units. This section, part of the school’s rear addition, was moved here in 2005 and rehabilitated.”
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Typically, the historical marker essay makes no mention of the men and women performing the hospital’s essential grunt work. Enslaved men and women toiled as nurses, cooks, and laundresses, and the reports Dr. Satchwell was required to file regularly reveal their names.
Daniel, Samuel, Benjamin, Edy, Annie, Sarah, William, Francis, Flora, Eli, Jerry, Matilda, Harmon, Hoyt, Martha, Dorcas, Laura, Mary, Oliver, Alvana, Alfred, George, America, Isabella, Harriet, Rachel, Henry, Joseph, General, Ansley, Tilda, Minerva, Delphia, Maria, Mahala, Nicey, Chaney, Esther, Eliza, Tom, and Charles cooked, cleaned, and cared for wounded Confederate soldiers over the next two years. Pomeroy P. Clark, a Connecticut-born buggy manufacturer who arrived in Wilson in 1851, had a near-monopoly over the provision of enslaved people to the hospital, supplying almost all of the men and women named above.
Muster Roll dated 1 April 1862 showing enslaved people, at bottom left, rented to the Confederate Hospital.
This is curious. P.P. Clark is listed in 1850 slave schedule of Nash County, North Carolina, as the owner of four enslaved people. In the 1860 census of Wilson, Wilson County, he is described as a lumber manufacturer with $2000 in personal property, but is not listed in the slave schedule. We know that in 1860 Clark bought four enslaved people from John P. Clark as trustee of Nancy B. Clark. The adult in this group of four, a woman named Peggy, is not named as a hospital laborer. Peggy had once belonged to Henry Flowers, whose daughter was Nancy B. Clark. Flowers’ estate also included enslaved women named America and Isabelle, and an enslaved man named Henry (known as Harry), who married a woman named Flora around 1859. These four match names of people put to work at the Confederate Hospital, but who were the others? If Clark (who himself worked at the hospital as steward were acting as a broker for other enslavers, would Dr. Satchwell have recorded the workers as “Negro slave hired of P.P. Clark”?
In addition to enslaved people, a few free people of color worked at Confederate Hospital No. 2. On 26 May 1864, Lemon Taborn and William Jones were hired to perform unspecified work at $11.00/month. Alexander Jones was hired five days later at the same rate and, on June 1, Mord. Hagans came aboard for $10/month. The Jones cousins appear in the 1860 census of Old Fields township, Wilson County, and Mordecai Hagans in the 1860 census of Nahunta township, Wayne County.
Muster Rolls, Hospital Department, Wilson, N.C., 1862-1864, War Department Collection of Confederate Records, National Archives and Records Administration; photos by Lisa Y. Henderson.
Miles Lassiter did not live in Wilson County, but I recommend Margo Lee Williams’ book as a detailed chronicle of an African-American family history research journey and because Miles Lassiter may have been linked to Wilson County’s Hardy Lassiter through common roots in Gates County, North Carolina.
Priscilla Joyner was born in Nash County, not Wilson, but close enough for her life story — and the context in which it unfolded — to be of particular interest to Black Wide-Awake readers.
“Priscilla Joyner was born into the world of slavery in 1858 North Carolina and came of age at the dawn of emancipation. Raised by a white slaveholding woman, Joyner never knew the truth about her parentage. She grew up isolated and unsure of who she was and where she belonged—feelings that no emancipation proclamation could assuage.
“Her life story—candidly recounted in an oral history for the Federal Writers’ Project—captures the intimate nature of freedom. Using Joyner’s interview and the interviews of other formerly enslaved people, historian Carole Emberton uncovers the deeply personal, emotional journeys of freedom’s charter generation—the people born into slavery who walked into a new world of freedom during the Civil War. From the seemingly mundane to the most vital, emancipation opened up a myriad of new possibilities ….
“… Uncertainty about her parentage haunted her life, and as Jim Crow took hold throughout the South, segregation, disfranchisement, and racial violence threatened the loving home she made for her family. But through it all, she found beauty in the world and added to it where she could.”
Priscilla Joyner’s family in the 1860 census of Dortches township, Nash County, N.C. She is believed to have been the daughter of Ann Liza Joyner and an unknown African-American man.
Deed book 26, page 309, Edgecombe County Register of Deeds Office, Tarboro, North Carolina.
We’ve discussed Hardy Lassiter‘s estate here and here. Above, we see the 5 January 1854 deed transferring to his widow Obedience Lassiter her dower share of his real estate — “beginning at a small sweet gum in Henry Ruffin line then west to a small water oak on the run of Mill swamp then up the various courses of said swamp to the line of Simon Barnes heirs line then along said line to Nathan Rountree line then along said line to said Ruffins line again, then along said line to the beginning.” Lassiter’s will had not provided for his wife, and she sued for dower.
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In the 1850 census of Edgecombe County: Hardy Laster, 73, wife Beady, 54, and children Mathew, 26, Silas, 26, Green, 25, Hardy, 21, and Rachel, 20; all described as mulatto. Hardy reported owning $650 of real property.
In this second post, a look at Adam T. Artis’ life with his second wife.
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Per an unsigned narrative (“The Adam Artis Family History”) written, I think, by one of Adam Artis’ great-grandchildren:
Adam Artis had about five wives and 39 children. His first legal wife was Frances Hagens of Eureka. She was very fair and had beautiful long black silky hair. Adam was very tall and slender. He owned a large farm in Eureka and was a first class carpenter. They lived in a nice two story house. Frances’ brother, Napoleon Hagens, owned a very large plantation near Eureka. He had several tenants and/or slaves there. He was very mean to his wife and tenants. He would sit on the fence in the shade and watch the tenants plow. If they didn’t plow the way he wanted them to, he would crack them with a whip. One day a tenant grabbed the whip and beat Napoleon’s shirt off.
This is a nice starting point for this phase of Adam Artis’ life, if not entirely accurate. Frances Seaberry was Adam’s second legal wife, not his first. (If he had 39 children, not even his last surviving daughter, Josephine Artis Sherrod, could name them.) Frances, born free in 1845 in Wayne County to Aaron Seaberry and Levisa Hagans Seaberry, married Adam Artis 20 August 1861 in Wayne County. (Frances’ half-brother Napoleon Hagans never owned slaves, though he had many tenants, and he cast a shadow large enough that his sister’s descendants thought his last name was hers.)
Marriage license of Adam Artis and Frances Seaberry, Wayne County Register of Deeds Office, Goldsboro, North Carolina.
The “Family History” goes on to state: Frances and Adam Artis had 9 children (Hayward, William, Walter, Addie, Jesse, Doc, Georgianna, Luvicie and Ida.) Luvicie and Ida were twins. Frances died when the twins were only 13 years old.
In fact, Adam and Frances Seaberry Artis had 11 children:
Ida Artis was born about 1861. She married Isaac Reid (1853-??), son of Zion and Lucy Reid, about 1876. Their children were Frances Reid (1877-??) and Lorenzo Eli Reid (1879-1952). Ida Artis Reid died 1880-1900.
Napoleon Artis, known as “Doc,” was born 28 February 1863. He married Sallie Taylor; their sons were Humphrey, Leslie, and Odell Artis. Doc died 16 October 1942. His descendants still live on land along Route 222 between Stantonsburg and Eureka once owned by Adam Artis.
When Luvicie Artis was 13 years old, she married John Aldridge of Dudley. John was the son of Robert and Eliza Aldridge. … Luvicie had very high cheek bones. Luvicie was a mid-wife and nurse. She died at the age of 64. She only wanted to eat peas and sweet potatoes. She wouldn’t eat much meat or green vegetables, and would drink hardly any water.
Louvicey “Vicey” Artis was born in 1865 and married John Aldridge in 1879. Their children surviving to adulthood were Zebedee Aldridge, Lula Aldridge, Frances Aldridge Cooper, John J. Aldridge, James Thomas Aldridge, Amanda Aldridge Newsome, Beulah Aldridge Carter, Correna Aldridge Newsome, Catherine Aldridge Davis, and Christine Lenora Aldridge Henderson. Vicey Artis Aldridge, a midwife, died 13 February 1927.
Louvicey’s twin, Eliza Artis, married Haywood Everett. Before 1900, the couple migrated to Lonoke County, Arkansas. They had no children, and Eliza died 10 October 1936.
Georgeanna Artis was born 1867. She married Henry Reid (1859-1930), son of John and Mozana Hall Reid (and first cousin to Isaac Reid, above) on 29 November 1883. Their children were Alice Reid Williamson, Cora Reid Sampson, William H. Reid, Brodie Reid, Lenny Reid, Nita Reid, Henry N. Reid, Linda B. Reid, and Georgia Reid. She died 18 August 1923 in Goldsboro NC.
Adam Toussaint Artis Jr. was born in 1868. He married Rena G. Wynn in 1893 in Wayne County and had one son, Lafayette. Adam Jr. migrated to Washington DC, and married second wife Agnes West in 1904. Their son was Harry L. Artis.
Haywood Artis was born in 1870. He migrated to Norfolk, Virginia, in the 1890s, and married Harriet Hawthorne. Their children included Bertha Artis, Jesse Artis, Hattie Artis Johnson, Mae Willie Artis, Haywood Artis Jr., and Charles Artis.
Emma Artis, born 1872, married Robert H. Locust and died within months of the wedding.
Walter Scott Artis was born 2 October 1874. He married Hannah E. Forte. Their children: Napoleon Artis, Beatrice Artis, Estelle Artis, Adam Toussaint Artis III, and Elmer Hazel Artis. Walter Artis died 25 June 1951.
William Marshall Artis was born 28 August 1875 and married Etta Diggs. Their children: Beulah M. Artis Exum, Margaret Artis Thompson, Irene Artis Carter, Frances Artis Edmundson, William M. Artis Jr., Adam H. Artis, Fletcher Artis, Doris V. Artis Carr, Haywood T. Artis, and Elmer W. Artis. William died 28 September 1945.
Jesse Artis was born in 1878. Frances Seaberry Artis died the same year, perhaps from complications from her last childbirth.
The Artises were a large extended free family of color with roots in late 17th-century Tidewater Virginia. They began to migrate individually into North Carolina in the mid-1700s, and John Artis Jr. is the earliest Artis recorded in Edgecombe County. In 1765, Artis bought a parcel of land on the south side of Toisnot Swamp in what is now Wilson County. He sold it in 1782. His deed reflects the earliest known land purchase by an African-American in the county.
In his groundbreaking (and often conjectural) study of colonial free people of color, Paul Heinegg posited John Artis Jr. as the ancestor of several Artises who appear in Edgecombe County records in the late 1700s and very early 1800s, including Absalom Artis, who died in Wayne County circa 1864. However, the links, if any, between John Artis Jr. and the Artises featured elsewhere in Black Wide-Awake is not known.
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North Carolina } To all persons to whom these presents shall come I Jesse Blackwell send Greeting This Indenture made the 10th day of June Anno Dom. one thousand seven hundred & sixty five Between Jesse Blackwell of the County of Edgcombe Planter of the one part & Jno. Artiss Jr. of the County afs’d of the other part Witnesseth that for the consideration of this sum of ten pounds [illegible] money to him in hand paid by the sd. Jno. Artiss before the sealing & Delivery of this Presents the Receipt thereof Is hereby Acknowledged & the sd. Jno. Artiss thereof & every part thereof acquitted & Discharged hath given granted Bargained Sold Aliened Enfeeofed Conveyed & Confirmed & by these Presents do fully & absolutely give Grant bargain sell convey and Confirm assigned [illegible] over all that tract of parcel of Land unto the sd. Jno. Artiss his heirs & assigns Forever Lying & being in the County of Edgcombe & Province aforesd. Beginning at a maple in the mill Branch then North to Arthur Dews line to a pine & by the sd. Dews line and Hickmans Line So. a pine then along sd. Hickmans line to the mill Branch to a live Oak it B part of a Grant granted to the sd. Jesse Blackwell bearing date the third day of Nov’r Anno Dom 1761 To have & to hold the sd. Land & Premises with all Liberties Privileges prophets Benefits & Comodities thereto belonging to gether with the woods Meadows waters & timbers & the Impertinances belonging to the same unto him the sd. Jno. Artiss his hairs for ever he & they Subject to pay the Quitrents Due to his Lordship & the sd. Jno. Artiss his heirs & Assigns forever Shall & may from time to time & at all times for ever here after by Virtue of these presents Lawfully peaceably & quietly have Hold Occupy & Injoy the sd. Land & Premises & all the Appertainances pertaining there to against the Lawfull Claim & Demand of him the sd. Jesse Blackwell against all & every other person or Persons, whom so ever shall & will For ever warrant & Defend & Secure unto him the sd. Jno. Artiss his heirs & assigns forever firmly by these presents in Witness whereof the sd. Jesse Blackwell hath set his hand & assigned his seal the day and the Year first above written Jesse X Blackwell
Signed seald & Delived in presence of Jesse Pitman Nath’l Hickman Sen’r
October Court 1765 The above deed of sale was duly proved in Open Court & on mo[illegible] Ordered to be Regis’d Test Jas. H[illegible]
Deed Book C, page 369, Edgecombe County Register of Deeds Office, Tarboro, North Carolina.
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This Indenture made this twenty first day of December in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty two John Artis Jun’r of the State of North Carolina & County of Edgecombe planter of the one part & Thomas Vivrett and Thomas Vivrett of the said Place of the other part Witnesseth that I the said John Artis for & in consideration of the sum of Twenty Five pounds Specie to me in hand paid but the said Thomas Vivrett before the Sealing & delivery of these presents the receipt whereof I do hereby acknowledge & myself to be fully satisfied and contented therewith, Hath granted bargained & Sold aliened enfeoffed conveyed and confirmed & by these presents do grant bargain sell alien enfeofe convey & confirm unto him the said Thomas Vivrett his Heirs and Assigns forever one certain Tractor parcel of Land situate lying and being in the County aforesaid and South side of Tosneot Swamp Viz. Beginning at a maple in the Mill Branch and runs thence down to Arthur Dews line to a Pine, then by the said Dews & Nathaniel Hickman jun’r to a Pine then along the said Hickmans line to a live Oak in the Mill branch, being part of a Tract of Land granted to Jesse Blackwell bearing date the 3rd November 1761, To Have and to Hold the said Land and Premises, together with all Houses, Orchards, buildings ways water & water courses tenements, priviledges and all other profits and priviledges whatsoever belonging to the said Land or in any wise Appertaining to him the said Thomas Vivrett his Heirs and Assigns & to their only proper use benefit & behoof of him the said Thomas Vivrett his Heirs & Assigns forever & I the said John Artis for myself my Heirs Exec’s Admr’s and Assigns doth Covenant & agree to and with the said Thomas Viverett his Heirs Exrs Admires & Assigns that the said land and Premises with the appurtenances to the sd Thomas Vivrett his Heirs Executors Admors and Assigns and I the sd John Artis for myself my Heirs Admrs Admrs & assigns shall and will warrant & forever defend the sd Land and Premises from all Persons whatsoever laying any claim or claims in any wise hereof to him the said Thomas Vivrett his Heirs & Assigns forever, the Taxes of the State only excepted. In witness whereof I the said John Artis have hereunto set my hand and fixed my Seal the day and year above written John Artis {seal}
Signed Sealed & delivered in the presence of Jas Cobb Stephen Cobb Natha’l Hickman Junr. Benj’a Cobb
Edgcombe County February Court 1783. The execution of the within deed of sale was duly proved in open Court by the Oath of Jas. Cobb a subscribing witness thereto. Ordered ti be registered Test Edward Hall Cl[erk]
Deed Book E, page 256, Edgecombe County Register of Deeds Office, Tarboro, North Carolina.
This Indenture made this twenty third day of May in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and twenty nine Between Moses Farmer of the County of Edgecombe and State of North Carolina of the one part and Hardy Lasiter of the County and state aforesaid of the second part. Witnesseth that I the said Moses Farmer for and in consideration of the sum of Two Hundred Dollars to me in hand paid the said Hardy Lasiter the receipt where of I do hereby acknowledge do bargain sell and Deliver unto said Hardy Lasiter a certain tract or parcel of Land lying and being in County and State afor said and bounded as follows. Beginning at a pine formally Robert Colemans Corner thence along his line south two hundred & fourteen poles to a hickory in said line Joseph Sims Corner thence along his line East one Hundred and twenty poles to that Corner a stake thence along said line to Isaac Farmers Corner thence south to the first station Containing two Hundred Acres more or less. To have and to hold the above Lands and premises free and Clear unto him the said Hardy Lasiter for ever and I the aforesd. Moses Farmer for myself my heirs Exers. Admrs. and assigns do warrant and defend the said Lands and premises free and Clear unto the said Hardy Lassiter his heirs Exers. Admrs. and assigns forever. In Witness where of I the said Moses Farmer have hereunto set my hand & seal the day and date above written — Moses Farmer {seal}
signed sealed and acknowledged in presents of Jesse F. Wood, Samuel Farmer
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This was Hardy Lassiter’s first recorded land purchase in what is now Wilson County. Samuel Farmer, who witnessed the transaction, owned Lassiter’s son John.
Deed book 19, pages 374-375, Edgecombe County Register of Deeds Office, Tarboro, North Carolina.
This Indenture made this Twenty eighth day of October in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred & forty six Between James Tomlinson of the county of Edgecombe & State of N. Carolina of the one part & Hardy Lasiter of County & State aforesaid of the other part. Witnessesth that I the said James Tomlins[on] for & in consideration of the sum of Two hundred & fifty dollars & fifty cents to me in hand paid before the sealing & delivering of these presents the receipt whereof I do hereby acknowledge & myself feeling satisfied contented & paid have bargained sold & delivered unto the aforesaid Hardy Lasiter his heard & assigns forever one tract or parcel of land lying & being in the county of Edgecombe & the East side of Homony Swamp & bounded as follows (viz) Beginning at a pine in Benjamin Simms line then running with his line to the mill swamp then down the various of said swamp to said Simms line again & then nearly west with his line to an oak & pine then N. 8″ west to the beginning containing by estimation 81 acres To have & to hold the above land & premises with all the appurtenances thereunto belonging to him & his heirs forever. And I the said James Tomlinson do for myself my heirs & assigns warrant & forever defend the right & title of said Land & premises unto the said Hardy Lasiter his heirs & assigns forever. In witness whereof I the James Tomlinson have hereunto set my hand & seal the day & date above written James X Tomlinson [witnesses] Edwin Barnes, Lewis Ellis
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In the 1850 census of Edgecombe County: Hardy Laster, 73, wife Beady, and children Mathew and Silas, 26, Green, 25, Hardy, 21, and Rachel, 20.
In 1851, Lassiter executed a will whose first provision bequeathed “unto my son Silas Laseter all that tract of Land where he now Lives known by the name of the Tomlinson tract containing Eighty one acres more or less adjoining the Lands of Benj Sims ….” I have not been able to identify the precise location of this property. Hominy Swamp arises near the Wilson airport and runs southeast through present-day Wilson into Contentnea Creek about a mile southwest of Beddingfield High School. Lassiter’s parcel was likely somewhere between Hominy Swamp and Toisnot Swamp north of present-day Raleigh Road.
Deed book 24, page 203, Edgecombe County Register of Deeds Office, Tarboro, North Carolina.
