The estate of Rev. James O. Vick insured a property at 211 Stantonsburg Street for $1000 in 1946-47.
Vick owned three adjoining properties on Stantonsburg Street [now South Pender] — 207, 209, and 211.
Wilson Daily Times, 24 September 1938.
The edges of Wilson’s downtown warehouse and industrial district were once shot through with tiny alleys lined with duplexes built to house workers and their families. Most that remain have been paved and renamed as “Lane.” In what was once the mill village of Wilson Cotton Mills, however, a couple of dirt tracks remain as Cedar Street and Holly Street. These houses, which have been converted to single-family, were occupied by white families only, but offer a glimpse of what would have been a familiar streetscape to African-Americans living in similar alleys nearby.
Cedar Street, formerly Factory Alley.
Holly Street, formerly Jones Street Alley.
Detail from 1922 Sanborn fire insurance map of Wilson. South Factory Street is now Layton Avenue. Lodge Street Alley (Warehouse Alley) is now Wayne Street. At (A), the house visible above on Cedar Street/Factory Alley. At (B), the house on Holly Street/Jones Street Alley.
Photos by Lisa Y. Henderson, March 2025.
In a will executed 22 May 1928, Argent Harper left her daughter Deborah Swindell her house and part of the lot it sat upon on Suggs Street, and the remainder of her property to all her children — Swindell, Charles Harper, Elizabeth Hampton, and Effie Lewis. She nominated Camillus L. Darden her executor.
——
In the 1870 census of Kinston, Lenoir County, North Carolina: Thomas Morris, 40, works in blacksmith shop; wife Judia, 30; children Clarissey, 21, Argeant, 13, Allice, 11, and Fannie, 5; Jonah Phillips, 26, farm laborer; Eunice Phillips, 1; and Argeant Morris, 66, midwife.
On 6 November 1879, Richard Harper, 28, of Wilson County, son of James and Cloe Harper, married Argent Morris, 19, of Lenoir County, daughter of Tom and Judah Morris, at the A.M.E.Z. church in Kinston.
In the 1880 census of Kinston, Lenoir County, North Carolina: blacksmith Thomas Morris, 56; wife Judy, 45; children Alice, 20, and Fannie Morris, 6; daughter Clarisa Phillips, 30, laborer; daughter Argent Harper, 22, laborer; and grandchildren Henrietta, 7, Jonah, 6, Sally, 1, and Mary Phillips, 13.
In the 1900 census of Pinetucky district, Laurens County, Georgia: farmer Richard Harper, 59; wife Argen, 43; and children Cora, 17, Dora, 16, Deby, 13, Charlie, 12, Estella, 10, Richard, 7, and Elizabeth, 5.
On 8 November 1917, Whit Lewis, 29, of Wilson, married Effie Harper, 24, of Wilson, in Wilson. A.M.E. Zion minister B.P. Coward performed the ceremony in the presence of Alice Carington, Thomas Cooke, and John Graham.
Richard James Harper died 8 January 1918 in Wilson township, Wilson County. Per his death certificate, he was born 31 August 1851 in Greene County, N.C., to James and Clara Harper; was married to Argent Harper; worked as a tenant farmer for Ashley Young; and was buried in Wilson County.
In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: widow Argent Harper, 58, and daughters Deba, 25, seamstress, and Elizabeth, 17.
In the 1920 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Harper Argent (c) dom h 141 Suggs
On 30 January 1924, Louis Swindell, 24, of Washington, N.C., son of Lewis Swindell and Selista [no maiden name], married Deborah Harper, 27, of Wilson, daughter of Richard and Argene Harper, in Wilson. A.M.E.Z. minister B.P. Coward performed the ceremony in the presence of Julia Bryant, Effie Lewis, and Whit Lewis.
In the 1925 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Harper Argent (c) laundress h 630 Suggs
In the 1928 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Harper Argent (c) lndrs h 630 Suggs
Argen Harper died 1 August 1929 in Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was 60 years old; was born in Kinston, N.C., to Tom Morris and Judy Morris; was the widow of Richard Harper; and was buried in Wilson [probably, Vick Cemetery.] Deborah Swindell was informant.
In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 630 Suggs, owned and valued at $1000, Debbie Swindell, 40, helper at beauty parlor; roomer [sic; sister] Effie Lewis, 35, widow, servant; roomers [Effie’s children?] Essie M., 10, Mathew, 8, and William J. Lewis, 4; and daughter Deborar Swindell, 6.
Effie Lewis died 14 March 1958 in Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was born 15 March 1890 in Georgia to Richard Harper and Argent Morris; was a widow; lived at 413 Stantonsburg Street, Wilson; and worked as a domestic. Effie Mae Fields was informant.
Charles H. Harper died 11 May 1965 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Per his death certificate, he was 29 March 1890 in South Carolina to Richard Harper and Argent Morris; was married to Lucinda Harper; and was retired.
Deborah Harper Swindell died 2 February 1979 in Burlington, Alamance County, N.C. Per a North Carolina Death Index, she was born 24 August 1886.
The two hundredth in a series of posts highlighting buildings in East Wilson Historic District, a national historic district located in Wilson, North Carolina. As originally approved, the district encompasses 858 contributing buildings and two contributing structures in a historically African-American section of Wilson. (A significant number have since been lost.) The district was developed between about 1890 to 1940 and includes notable examples of Queen Anne, Bungalow/American Craftsman, and Shotgun-style architecture. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.
The photo above was taken in April 2008 for Google Maps Streetview. A year later, the house at 106 South East Street was sold to the City of Wilson and demolished to make way for the Freeman Place housing development.
As described in the nomination form for the East Wilson Historic District: “ca. 1913; 1 story; Dempsey Lassiter house; L-plan cottage with hip-roofed porch; aluminum-sided.”
In 1918, Dempsey Lassiter registered for the World War I draft. Per his registration card, he lived at 103 East Street; was born 28 October 1874; was a blacksmith for Hackney Wagon Company; and his nearest relative was Mary Jane Lassiter.
In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on East Street, wagon factory laborer Dempsey Lassiter, 35, and wife Mary, 25.
Detail from 1922 Sanborn fire insurance map of Wilson.
In the 1928 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Lassiter Dempsey (c: Mary J) farmer h 106 S East
In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 106 East Street, owned and valued at $1250, Dempsey Lassiter, 55, wife Mary J., 44; nephew Charles Bynum, 16; and nieces Katie Powell, 10, and Willie M. Leonard, 6.
In the 1930 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Lassiter Dempsey (c: Mary J) farmer h 106 S East; Lassiter Robt (c) h 106 S East
In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 106 South East Street, farm laborer Dempsey Lassiter, 65; county school teacher Mary, 55; and widowed sister-in-law Carrie Bynum, 30, a housekeeper.
In 1940, Charles Lee Powell registered for the World War II draft in Wilson. Per his registration card, he was born 10 June 1918 in Nash County, N.C.; lived at 114 South East Street, Wilson; his contact was uncle Dempsey Lassiter, 110 [sic] South East Street; and he worked for G. S. Tucker & Company, South Goldsboro Street, Wilson.
In the 1941 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Lassiter Dempsey (c: Mary J) farmer h 106 S East
Dempsey Lassiter died 16 July 1946 at his home at 106 South East Street, Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was married; was 68 years old; was born in Wilson County to Green Lassiter and Mary Powell; was a farmer; and his informant was Mary J. Lassiter. He was buried in Rountree cemetery [actually, Odd Fellows cemetery].
Mary Jane Lassiter died 21 August 1966 in Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was 84 years old; was born in Wilson County to Charles Bynum and Julia Ann Davis; was a school teacher; and was a widow. James Bynum was informant.
The one hundred ninety-ninth in a series of posts highlighting buildings in East Wilson Historic District, a national historic district located in Wilson, North Carolina. As originally approved, the district encompasses 858 contributing buildings and two contributing structures in a historically African-American section of Wilson. (A significant number have since been lost.) The district was developed between about 1890 to 1940 and includes notable examples of Queen Anne, Bungalow/American Craftsman, and Shotgun-style architecture. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.
This house was demolished between 2012 and 2019. The photo above, courtesy of Google Maps Streetview, was taken in April 2008. The address of this house has vacillated wildly. It has been known as 141, 138, 144, and 218 Ash Street as lot lines shifted and houses were densely packed into Ash Street’s short stretch. Current tax records describe the now-vacant lot as 144 Ash Street. (And Ash is often spelled “Ashe.”)
The inventory list of the nomination form for East Wilson Historic District, prepared in 1987, is confusing. #144 is described as a vacant lot. #138 is a “shotgun with shed-roofed porch,” which obviously is not this house. It appears that #142, “ca. 1908; 1 story; two-room central-hall house with turned post porch,” is the house above, though it does not now have turned posts on its porch.
The last Google Maps image of the house, June 2012.
Ash Street was once part of the Oswald and Sallie Lipscomb farm. On 8 April 1890, Maria Peacock purchased a one-quarter acre lot from the Lipscombs for $37.50. Per the deed, Peacock, who already lived in the lot, received a life interest in the property with the remainder to Levi H. Peacock and his heirs.
Description of 144 Ashe Street from Deed Book 2391, page 143, Wilson County Register of Deeds Office, Wilson.
The 1908 Sanborn fire insurance map of Wilson, N.C., shows the house as 141 Jane Street, as Ash was very briefly known.
In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on Ash Street, post office clerk Levi Peacock, 40; wife Hannah, 38; children Oliva V., 15, Hannah, 13, Levi, 11, Susan, 6, Rubie, 4, and Vivian, 1; and mother-in-law Susan Pryett, 55, laundress.
Detail from 1922 Sanborn fire insurance map of Wilson, N.C.
In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 141 Ash Street, post office clerk Livia H. Peacock, 60; wife Annie, 31; children Olvia, 23, Annie L., 21, Livia H. Jr.; Sudie, 14, Rubie, 12, Vivian, 9, Bennie, 5, and John, 3; boarders Mary S. Roberson, 32, and Mary Brodie, 20; plus widow Susan Byatt, 62.
In the 1922 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Peacock Hannah (c) tchr h 138 Ashe; Peacock Hannah L (c) hair dresser h 138 Ashe; Peacock Levi H (c) clk P O 138 Ashe
Detail from 1922 Sanborn fire insurance map of Wilson, N.C.
In the 1925 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Peacock Levi H (c) clk P O 138 Ashe [But Hannah, Ruby, Susan and Vivian Peacock at 140 Ashe.]
In the 1928 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Peacock Levi H (c; Hannah) h 218 Ashe [But Peacock Hannah H (c) tchr Wilson Graded Sch r 138 Ashe]
In the 1930 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Peacock Levi H (c; Hannah H) bellmn Hotel Cherry h 218 Ashe; Peacock Rubie E (c) sch tchr h 218 Ashe; Peacock Susan M (c) student h 218 Ashe; Peacock Vivian (c) lndrs h 218 Ashe
In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 218 Ash, Levi Peacock, 62; wife Hanna, 64; Susan, 28, Elizabeth L., 26, John H., 24, and Benjamin, 23; Hanna Luke, 80; Susan Piatt, 34; and Ruby Piatt, 15. [There are numerous errors in names and ages in this entry.]
Detail from 1930 Sanborn fire insurance map of Wilson, N.C. The house is labeled (138) 218 Ash.
Levi Henry Peacock died 16 August 1934 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was 72 years old; was born in Alabama to James Peacock and Marie Peacock, both of Wilson County; was married; lived at 218 Ash Street; was an “ex-P.O. clerk”; and was buried in Wilson [Masonic? Odd Fellows? Vick Cemetery?]
Hannah H. Peacock died 29 March 1935 in Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was 50 years old; was born in Edgecombe County to Booker Pyatt of Petersburg, Virginia, and Susan Hines of Edgecombe County; resided at 218 Ash Street; was a school teacher; was the widow of Levi Peacock; and was buried in Wilson [Masonic? Odd Fellows? Vick Cemetery?]
In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: Hana Peacock, 32; her grandmother Susie Pyatt, 84; and brothers John, 22, and Benjamin Peacock, 24.
In 1942, Levi Harry Peacock registered for the World War II draft in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born 6 May 1898 in Wilson; lived at 418 North Reid Street, Wilson; his contact was Hannah Peacock, 138 Ashe Street, Wilson; and he worked for W.E. Barnes at Cherry Hotel, Wilson.
Susan H. Pyatt died 14 January 1944 in Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was born in 1874 in Edgecombe County to Louis Hargrove and Hannah Lewis Hines; was widowed; and resided at 218 Ashe. Hannah Peacock was informant.
In 1944, John Hines Peacock registered for the World War II draft in Wilson. Per his registration card, he was born 16 October 1915 in Wilson County; lived at 218 Ashe; his contact was sister Hannah L. Peacock, 218 Ashe; and he was “unemployed, except working around his home.”
1947 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory
Hannah Lee Peacock died 1 May 1969 in Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was born 12 September 1924 [sic] to Henry Levi Peacock and Hannah Hines; lived at 144 Ash Street; was a retired teacher; and was single. Vivian Peacock Smith, 144 Ash, was informant.
Wilson Daily Times, 22 April 1989.
Doris Smith Herrell sold the Peacock family’s Ash Street properties, including 144, in 2009, ending nearly 120 years of ownership by this family.
In the 1880 census of Tarboro, Edgecombe County, N.C.: minister H.C. Philips, 37, wife Emma, 34, and children Louisa, 12, Hood, 9, Walton, 6, and Cornelius, 3.
On 6 January 1887, Methodist minister H.C. Phillips united Charles Williamson, 21, and Clara Vick, 18, in marriage at the A.M.E. Zion Church in Wilson. Witnesses were S.H. Vick, H.C. Rountree, and Daniel Vick. This is the earliest marriage recorded in Wilson performed by Rev. Phillips.
On 23 January 1891, Henry Clay Phillips and Emma Elizabeth Moore Phillips obtained a $300 loan from Wilson Building & Loan Association, secured with a property on Green Street. A note on the mortgage deed shows the Phillipses paid off the loan in January 1897.
In the 1900 census of Wilson, Wilson County: Emma Phillips, and sons Alonzo, 17, and William, 16. [Though Emma Phillips was listed as married, H.C. Phillips was not listed in the household. Records show that he continued to perform marriages in Wilson after the turn of the century and was named on a 1903 deed as a trustee of Saint Stephen’s A.M.E. Zion Church.]
Rev. Henry C. Phillips died circa 1907, probably in Wilson. As death certificates were not yet required by the State of North Carolina, and no cemetery ledgers survive for any of the African-American cemeteries active at the time, we have no firm record of his death.
In the 1908 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory, Cornelius Phillips and Elizabeth Phillips are listed at 608 East Green Street.
In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: widow Elizabeth Phillips, 66, laundress; son Rhemus [Cornelius], 30, express office laborer, and daughter-in-law Sallie, 28, cook.
In the 1912 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory, Alonzo, Cornelius and his wife Sallie, and Lizzie B. Phillips are listed at 608 East Green.
Emily [Emma] Elizabeth Phillips died 27 August 1918 in Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was born January 1845 in North Carolina; was the widow of H.C. Phillips; and was buried in Wilson County [likely, Vick Cemetery.] William Phillips was informant.
Eldest son Hood S. Phillips died in 1919. He and his brothers William, Cornelius, Alonzo R., and Walter Phillips held an undivided interest in the lot on Green Street, and his widow Phillis Gay Phillips claimed a dower interest in her husband’s share. As dividing the small property would not have benefitted anyone, a petition was filed and granted to sell the lot and divide the proceeds.
I thought this antebellum house was built by a Woodard, but according to a state GIS map, it’s “Roundtree house (A. Cozart house).”
What does that mean? Where did I get Woodard from?
I first saw this house from the windows of my elementary school bus as it rumbled east from my neighborhood, Bel Air Forest, to pick up Robin, a boy who lived a mile down the highway. The road curved, then split, with NC-58 headed southeast to Stantonsburg and 264 more easterly to Saratoga. The two-story house sat in plain view on the north side of 264, up a dirt track. I can’t recall if the house was occupied then, but judging by its condition when I took these photographs circa 1991, I think not. In, as I recall, the late 1990s, the intersection was reconfigured, but the house stood until the early 2000s.
Detail from map of Wilson County at HPOWEB 2.0, nc.maps.arcgis.com.
I did a little poking in deeds. Long story short, S.H. Cozart bought a bundle of parcels, including this one, from Graham Woodard in 1941. Graham Woodard had inherited the property as the only child of Fannie Rountree Woodard, who died in 1894. Fannie Woodard, whose husband Frederick A. Woodard we have met, had inherited it from her father Moses Rountree, the wealthy 19th-century Wilson merchant.
Wilson Advance, 30 November 1883.
Per the Nomination Form for the Moses Rountree House, built about 1869 in town, Rountree “was born in 1822 on the family plantation several miles east of the present city of Wilson on what is now Route 264.”
Detail of a 1894 survey map found in the Moses Rountree estate file showing two lots inherited by Graham Woodard. As the aerial image below shows, the main landscape features remain the same — Toisnot Swamp and its small tributary, a forked road. A tiny square marked “House” is the house in question.
No longer looking for a Woodard property, I went back to Kate Ohno’s Wilson County’s Architectural Heritage and voila — the Rountree House, believed to have been built about 1830 by Moses Rountree’s father Lewis Rountree. (Lewis Rountree enslaved Hilliard Ellis and Warren Rountree, among a few dozen others. Moses Rountree also was a slaveowner, acknowledging three adults and one infant in the 1860 slave schedule.)
Per Kate Ohno, the Rountree House.
But wait. The house depicted in the book is not the house I photographed, though both were two-story structures built during the antebellum period. The most immediately noticeable difference is that the house above has a hipped roof and hip-roof porch, and Ohno’s house has a gable roof and shed-roof porch. But there are other inconsistencies — the number of chimneys, the number of porch posts and second-story windows, the ashlar skirting.
I’m back to square one.
Aerial image (via Google Maps) of Rountree-Woodard-Cozart property. Toisnot Swamp runs at bottom right. Its Mill Branch (2) is visible as a line of trees and a dammed pond. The approximate location of the house is (1).
Estate of Moses Rountree (1884), North Carolina Wills and Probate Records 1665-1998, http://www.ancestry.com.
[UPDATE, 16 March 2025: A course correction and comment on the fallibility of memory. Yesterday, I shared this post with members of Wilson County Historical Association in hopes that someone could help unravel the mystery. Among others, Cliff Darden responded and shared his own childhood recollection of the gable-roof Rountree house. I began to wonder if I were conflating two distinct memories — seeing this house from my school bus window in the mid-1970s and photographing a house in the early 1990s. Though I was not sure the data would go back far enough, I checked Google Maps’ Streetview for images of the site. Voila — here’s the January 2008 view:
The resolution is terrible, but that’s clearly the gable-roof Rountree house. The house had disappeared by time the next image was made in 2012 (and the barn several years later.)
Where, then, did I take the photographs above? I lived in New York City at the time, and on visits home would ramble the backroads of Wilson and Wayne and Edgecombe and Nash Counties, photographing abandoned farmsteads with a Canon AE-1. I’m looking for my contact sheets and will update this post again if I’m able to pinpoint the location. I am reminded of the value of interrogating my own memories and am grateful for the time taken by others to share theirs.]
I was asked a question that stumped me during one of my talks last week. “What was the building that housed the Independent School before it was a school?”
I recalled vaguely that Samuel H. Vick had purchased the building from famed brick maker Silas Lucas Jr., but not much more. Maybe something about the Methodist Church?
I found a deed quickly. On 24 October 1904, S.H. Vick paid Silas and Charity Lucas $1650 for a lot on Vance Street adjacent to property Vick already owned, “it being the same lot on which is situate a nineteen room house.”
Deed book 68, page 227, Wilson County Register of Deeds Office, Wilson, N.C.
In the 1913 Sanborn fire insurance maps of Wilson, the building is labeled “Tenements”:
I can’t find the reference that I seem to recall about the building’s original use and will need to do some additional deed digging to find Lucas’ purchase. (By the way: Lucas was renowned as a brick maker. Not only are his reclaimed original bricks still sought after for renovation projects, the name “Silas Lucas” is now generically used to describe any soft, pinkish brick.)
This house is not within the bounds of East Wilson Historic District. Rather, it lies within Wilson’s Central Business-Tobacco Warehouse District. Demolition, lot consolidation, and in-fill building have resulted in shifting addresses for this house. Now 542 East Nash Street, it was once 549, then 540, and briefly 545. It and the adjacent house are the last of several residences that once lined this stretch of the south side of Nash Street.
Annie Peacock Mitchell bought the lot on which the house stands from Rev. Owen L.W. Smith on 23 December 1907. (See Deed Book 69, page 529, Wilson County Register of Deeds Office.)
On 21 March 1914, Annie Mitchell sold the lot to her daughters Sallie Ann Mitchell and Eva May Mitchell subject to a lifetime right to live in the house her son Floyd Mitchell built.
Deed book 97, page 552, Wilson County Register of Deeds Office.
In 1918, Albert Mitchell registered for the World War I draft in Wilson; was born 15 January 1878; lived at 549 Nash Street; worked as a laborer for Imperial Tobacco Company; and his nearest relative was mother Annie Mitchell.
In 1918, Floyd Alfonso Mitchell registered for the World War I draft in Wilson; was born 2 March 1884; lived at 549 East Nash; worked as a carpenter; and his nearest relative was mother Annie Mitchell, same address.
In 1918, Lee Arnold Mitchell registered for the World War I draft in New York, New York; was born 16 May 1886; lived at 108 West 131st Street; worked as a waiter for N.Y.N.H. & H.R.R.; and his nearest relative was mother Annie Mitchell, 545 East Nash Street, Wilson.
In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 549 Nash Street, widow Annie Mitchell, 71, children Sallie, 46, Eddie, 44, Albert, 42, Eva, 36, and Floyd, 34, niece Severana [Severine], 18, and nephew Lester, 16.
Eva Mitchell Haywood died 1 October 1925 in Wilson; was about 40 years old; was born in Wayne County, N.C., to Edward Mitchell and Ann Peacock; lived at 540 East Nash Street; was the widow of Lucien Haywood; was a dressmaker; and was buried in Rountree Cemetery.
Sallie Ann Mitchell died 29 March 1926 in Wilson; was about 54 years old; was born in Wayne County to Edward James Mitchell and Ann Mitchell; was single; lived at 540 East Nash; and was buried in Rountree Cemetery.
In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 540 East Nash, Albert Mitchell, 52, tobacco factory mechanic, brother Flody [sic], 47, house carpenter, and two roomers.
Albert Mitchell died 9 July 1938 at Mercy Hospital in Wilson; was born about 1878 in Wayne County to Edward Mitchell of Wayne County and Anna Peacock of Wilson County; was the widower of Cora Mitchell; worked as a laborer for Imperial Tobacco Company; and resided at 540 East Nash Street, Wilson.
In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 540 East Nash, Floyd Mitchell, 56, and eight lodgers.
Floyd Alfonzo Mitchell died 18 January 1944 at his home at 540 East Nash Street, Wilson; was born 2 March 1884 in Wayne County to Edward Mitchell and Annie Barnes; worked as a carpenter; and was single.
In the 1947 Wilson, N.C., city directory: Richardson Bessie (c) 540 E Nash
I eulogized 309 Elba Street more than a year ago. It is finally gone.
Photo, Lisa Y. Henderson, February 2025.