Institutions

Signal Boost: Freedom Organization’s cemetery project.

Among its many initiatives, Edgecombe County’s Freedom Organization has been working to restore Princeville’s Wilson Cemetery, the resting place of many of that historic community’s early residents. Many hands make light work, and I share here news of their next Community Conversation. The event falls on the Saturday between Lane Street Project’s two February service days, so you can make all three!

JOIN FREEDOM ORG AT THE NEXT COMMUNITY CONVERSATION
February 15, 2025, 12:00pm – 2:30pm
Princeville Town Hall
201 S. Main Street, Princeville, NC 27886

“Through our Wilson Cemetery Restoration Project, we’re working to restore and preserve sacred community landmarks. By mapping unmarked burial sites and clearing historic spaces, we’re ensuring that these stories remain part of our shared cultural heritage.

“Stay tuned for updates and ways to get involved. Together, we can honor the past and protect it for future generations.”

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For more information about Freedom Org and its work in community economic development, agriculture, and historic and cultural preservation, see http://www.freedomorg.org and follow them on Instagram @freedomorgnc.

Righteous Progress, no. 1.

When I was home before Christmas, I met up with Dr. Michael Barnes to receive a generous gift — scans of documents he has mined from his parents’ papers. These included the booklet for First Baptist Church’s 85th anniversary celebration. I’ll be sharing photographs from this document in a rich series. Look for posts on Tuesdays!

Lane Street Project: what to expect on a service day.

So, you and your friends, family, or coworkers have decided to observe the spirit of the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday or Black History Month by joining a Lane Street Project service day! Thank you!!

What can you expect at a clean-up day?

When you arrive, seasoned volunteers will be there to greet you. They’ll ask you to sign a waiver and invite you to add your name to a contact sheet to get more information about LSP activities. You’ll receive a brief orientation about our work, including do’s and don’ts, and will learn of the history and significance of Odd Fellows Cemetery. You’ll be asked what kind of tasks you’d like to engage in. (Remember: all ages and abilities are welcome!)

To help you decide how you might best contribute, here’s what you’ll see and where we’ll need the most help the first four service days.

  • Mowing and weedwhacking the front section

Ordinary lawnmowers and weedwhackers will work for this section, which contains the Dawson, Tate, Hines-Barnes, Mincey, and Vick family plots, among others. Be careful cutting around the headstones, as the soft marble is easily damaged by trimmer string.

  • New growth elimination

Inside the tree line, you’ll see light-colored twigs sprouting waist-high. These are new wisteria vines. Wisteria infests Odd Fellows Cemetery. We’ve made tremendous progress in eliminating the older growth — some of the vines were as thick as a man’s arm! — but cutting back new growth is a perennial task. Weedwhackers fitted with cutting disks are the best option for cutting these sprouts, which will then need to be raked to tarps for easy transport to the curb. There may also be dead tree limbs that can easily be dragged away. Place any brush in neat piles of lengths of about 6 feet for claw truck collection by the city’s Sanitation Department.

Removing the heavy canopy of wisteria has exposed the cemetery to increased sunlight, which spurs other new growth like these tiny pines. Cute as they are, they have to go. Weedeaters will make short work of this task.

On the other hand, never cut the yucca! These tough little plants were placed by families as grave decoration, and may be seventy to one hundred years old.

Privet, the green bushes seen above, are also highly invasive. They should be pulled up by the root if small or otherwise cut very low. Pruners, loppers, or hedge trimmers are best for this job.

  • Fence clean-up

We use the fence between Odd Fellows and Vick Cemeteries to post information and seasonal decoration. The little orange streamers that bear the names of all known Odd Fellows burials are torn and faded, as are flowers placed at the beginning of last season. A few small vines have also begun to grow through the wire. If you’d like to help remove them, please bring scissors or other small snipping tools.

The only known Wilson County grave of an African-American Spanish-American war veteran lies in Odd Fellows, about thirty feet from the fence. We know there are many World War I veterans buried here, too. Will anyone commit to replace our little flag and to remember our veterans on Memorial and Veterans Days?

  • Odds and ends

A shallow ditch partially separates the boundaries between Odd Fellows and Rountree Cemeteries. We cleared the worst of it last year, but need to tackle the regrowth.

Our Senior Force, led by Castonoble Hooks and Briggs Sherwood, has identified additional small trees for removal in the interior of Odd Fellows. This work will be done under their discretion and direction, depending on the skillsets and tools of volunteers and weather conditions.

If you’ve been out to Odd Fellows before, THANK YOU and WELCOME BACK!! If you’re a first-timer, THANK YOU — WE’RE GLAD TO HAVE YOU!

Photos by Lisa Y. Henderson, December 2024.

County Home residents give thanks for gifts.

Wilson Daily Times, 29 December 1944.

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“Inmates” in this context were not prisoners, but indigent people who lived at the Wilson County Home. The Home was located near the current intersection of Ward Boulevard and Goldsboro Street, behind the gas station/convenience store. 

Rev. Frank Moore and his wife, Ara Moore, regularly ministered to residents of the Wilson County home in the 1940s. Frank Hilliard is listed in the 1940 census of Wilson as one of 46 lodgers at the home, 19 of whom were African-American.

Expenses of white and colored schools.

Wilson Daily Times, 12 December 1921.

In 1921, Wilson County paid expenditures for its white and “colored” schools at a ratio of 16:1. Note not only the overall money spent, but what it was spent for. (Or not.) There were no African-American high schools anywhere in the county — hence, no salaries paid. No assets used for African-American students were insured, and no transportation was provided. No furniture, blackboards, desks, stoves, new houses, sites, or equipment accrued to Black students. The County did pay out $67.50 in rent, however, as many rural schools did not have their own buildings.

A post office that is a credit to the town.

The Morning Post (Raleigh, N.C.), 4 January 1902.

Samuel H. Vick‘s post office was located on the ground floor of the newly built Seabrook Hotel. We met Vick’s assistants Braswell R. Winstead and Levy H. Peacock here.

News and Observer (Raleigh, N.C.), 8 April 1902.

The 1903 Sanborn map of Wilson describes the Seabrook as a boarding house and shows the post office on the right side of the building’s ground floor. The site is now a parking lot.

Sanborn fire insurance map, page 4, Wilson, N.C., 1903.

Under the convict system, we expect to have the best roads in the state.

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.