Wilson Daily Times, 6 December 1949.
Two African-American women and six African-American men volunteered to sell Christmas Seals in their community in 1949. Christmas Seals were special holiday “stamps” sold to raise money for certain charities.
The committee may have sold these 1949 Christmas Seals.
This past September, the Department of Veterans Affairs posthumously awarded an Exceptional Service Award to Wilson native Dr. Joseph H. Ward for his leadership of the V.A.’s first all-Black hospital “during an era of severe discrimination and racial hostility.”
To learn more about Dr. Ward and Tuskegee Veterans Administration Hospital, see this recent NPR piece, A Century Ago, Black WWI Vets Demanded Better Care. They Got Their Own Hospital, and this National Archives blogpost, The Trials and Triumphs of Dr. Joseph H. Ward.
Dr. Joseph H. Ward stands at center in the first row in the photograph taken of the V.A. Hospital’s ground-breaking all-Black medical staff.
Wilson Daily Times, 29 November 1939.
Doris Croom not only lived, she flourished.
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In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: cook Martha Jones, 56, widow; son Cornelious, 28; daughter-in-law Rose, 23; [Cornelious’] brother-in-law John Cameron, 16; lodger Margie Wingate, 26; and grandchildren Doris, 10, Hellen, 6, Oscar, 7, and Herbert Croom, 5.
On 8 April 1944, Robert O. Caldwell, 33, of Detroit, son of Winnie Caldwell, married Doris Crooms, 24, daughter of Lloyd Crooms of Brooklyn, N.Y., and Maggie Crooms, in Wilson. United Free Will Baptist minister E.J. Cox performed the ceremony.
On 24 October 1959, Doris Crooms, 39, of Wilson, married Hubert Robinson, 33, of Lumberton, in Wilson. Rev. O.J. Hawkins performed the ceremony.
The Spanish flu pandemic decimated families within days.
Between October 23 and 28, 1918, Daniel and Celia Lewis Ellis lost sons Sam, 20, Jackson, 17, and Orran Ellis, 8.
Sam Ellis died 23 October 1918.
His brother Jackson Ellis had passed three hours earlier.
Their little brother Orran Ellis died five days later on 28 October 1918. Will Artis buried all three on the E.C. Exum place in Wayne County.
Austin and Clara Lawrence Dawes lost sons Rosevelt, 8, Handy, 1, and Thomas Dawes, 4, over a four-day span.
Rosevelt Handy died 19 October 1918.
Handy Dawes died the next day.
Thomas Dawes died on the 23rd.
And then their father Austin died.
Austin Dawes, 49, tenant farmer.
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In the 1910 census of Stantonsburg township, Wilson County: on Stantonsburg Road, farmer Daniel Ellis, 50; wife Celia, 35; and children Maeliza, 13, Willie, 14, Samson, 11, Harry, 10, Robert, 7, and Jackson, 8.
In the 1910 census of Toisnot township, Wilson County: farmer Austin Daws, 37; wife Clara, 26; and children Hazel M., 9, Annah M., 4, Lara L., 2, and Theodore R., newborn.
Virginia Pou Doughton Papers, housed in the North Carolina State Archives’ Private Collections, contain dozens of letters written by an African-American man named Johnnie Farmer, who had worked as butler and cook for Doughton’s grandparents, Floyd S. and Elizabeth Barnes Davis. (Farmer’s mother, Bettie Farmer, and sister, Emma Farmer, also worked as servants for the Davises.) Farmer, a World War I veteran, had been hospitalized at the Veterans Administration hospital in Kecoughtan, Virginia, apparently for complications from diabetes.
Farmer’s letters make reference to several Davis family members, including Miss Lizzie (Elizabeth B. Davis), Miss Helen (Virginia Doughton’s aunt by marriage, Helen Patterson Davis), Mr. Frank (her uncle, Frank Barnes Davis), and Sammy Pou (Doughton, herself, by a childhood nickname.) Miss Harris was likely Alice Barnes Wright Harriss, who lived next door to the Davises at 701 West Nash Street and was Lizzie B. Davis’ sister.
In this letter to an unknown recipient, written in October 1941, Farmer speaks briefly of how he is faring, mentions two unknown men, and expresses sympathy for “Teance,” who has to wear glasses. He finishes by giving, I think, instructions for care of a boxwood.
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Wed Oct 8 1941
Rec your Letter Monday after noon and sunday is the First day the Doc would Let me set up Eanny and then in bed at that saw you all can see that i have time to see them about Enny Like that it was some, Whair around 11 oclock in i got hear did not see but one Doc and one nuce they ak a Lots of Qustions and gave me some cind of a Little white Pill and when I went to bed I did not know nothen untill the next morning I am in the man part of the hospital and Howard and John B. is just a bout a half mile from me and you see it is hard to see them so glad you all wend dow to hope she is getting along all Right and the same thing We are only arlied to see out three Letters a week unless you have your own stampe and then you can seend as miney as you wont so sorry teance has got to wair glases hope she wont have to wair then all the time I am still in bid yet so I am going to write you all Just as often as I can my ankles and Leges has gone down still they wont Let me be op Except in bet the stuff I pout the Box Wood is in the gareige is true and you dont have mix Enny thing with it tharr is a Little sprain in the aket but it may not be Long Enuff to do Enny good so Just Pour the stuff in a Pan and take that bug Brush and Just sprankly it on Like that
Hospital at Veterans’ Administration Facility, Hampton, Va., 1940s. “C.T. Art-Colortone” Postcard, Curt Teich Company.
This month marks the 105th anniversary of the arrival of the Spanish influenza pandemic to Wilson County. As detailed here, scores died as the virus scorched its way from house to house. This 14 October 1918 expressed hope that “disease” in the city had reached a climax. Though the contagion did peak that month, influenza swirled through Wilson County the rest of the year.
Wilson Daily Times, 14 October 1918.
I have not found death certificates for the children named in the article. However, the men, women, and children below died of influenza October through December 1918 and were likely buried in Vick Cemetery.
October
11 — Lula Winstead, 23, a Liggett & Meyers tobacco factory stemmer.
13 — Benjamin Jones, 54, a city worker who lived at 628 Viola Street.
13 — Arch Morrison, 37, a Hackney Wagon employee who lived at 217 Banks Street.
13 — Abon Neal, 30, a laborer.
15 — Beatrice Edwards, 23, a homemaker who lived at 113 Pender Street.
17 — Zula Leach, 16, a tobacco factory stemmer who lived on Wiggins Street.
18 — Elma Stokes, 35, a cook who lived on Stantonsburg Street.
18 — Theresa Carolina Williams, 4, who lived at 413 Walnut Street.
18? — Wallie Campbell, 19, laborer for Lee Woodard.
19 — Annie Mae Parker, 1. (And perhaps her brother, Jessie Parker, 15, a farmer who died on the 16th.)
19 — Mannie Battle, 38, a homemaker.
21 — Jim Offie Jr., 1.
22 — Samuel Jenkins, 35, a brickmason.
23 — Irene Bynum, 26, a cook who lived on Daniel Street.
24 — Will Johnson, 29, a prisoner in Wilson County jail.
25 — Mary Farmer, 32, a laborer.
25 — Lizzie Ruffin, 30, a homemaker.
25 — Mary Elizabeth Williams, 19 months.
26 — Avester Evans, 6, who lived on Green Street.
26 — John Farmer, 6, who lived on Suggs Street.
27 — Olive Barnes, 20.
28 — Frances R. Batts, 20.
28 — Jennie Batts, 33, a homemaker.
29 — John Berthia, 33, who was on the chain gang.
29 — Julia Jones, 29, a homemaker who lived at 645 Green Street.
30 — Elvis Alston, 4, who lived on Walnut Street.
30 — Luburta Bynum, 3.
30 — Curley Rozin, 35, who was on the chain gang.
November
1 — Emanul Lundsford, 21, a grocery store deliveryman who lived at 637 Vance Street.
3 — Bennie Roberson, 2, who lived on Hackney Street.
5 — Hattie Novilla Bynum, 5, sister of Luburta, above.
17 — Sarah Haggens, 37, a laborer.
December
28 — Lizzie Jenkins, 29, a tenant farmer.
Wilson Daily Times, 6 August 1940.
“… [I]t was extremely unusual for a negro to have gall stones at all, let alone so large a number”?
Wilson Daily Times, 29 May 1916.
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When Wesley Artis died after being bitten by a rabid dog, authorities ordered an autopsy. An examination of his heart revealed advanced heart inflammation, or endocarditis, rather than rabies, had caused Artis’ death.
Wilmington Star, 9 April 1910.
As explained here, Dr. Frank S. Hargrave and Samuel H. Vick originally planned to open both a hospital and a “tubercular home,” i.e. a sanatorium. The hospital opened in 1913, but the following year Charles L. Coon wrote Booker T. Washington for help securing funding for a facility for tuberculosis patients. Unfortunately, Washington could not help.
Letter from Booker T. Washington to Charles L. Coon, 23 May 1914, regarding Coon’s request for guidence in establishing a tuberculosis hospital for African Americans in Wilson, N.C., Folder 47, Charles L. Coon Papers (1775-1931), Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.