Letters

Johnnie Farmer writes home, no. 2.

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.

Lane Street Project: response to the 23 July 2023 records request, part 5.

See below my two takeaways from this email, in which City Manager Grant Goings summarizes and comments on remarks made by the public at the 18 May 2023 council meeting.

First, “Obviously, the company that performed the survey will not recommend we build a fence on top of potential graves. We will coordinate the location of any fence with the survey results. The width of land we have to work with between the survey border and the required road right of way may determine what type of fence options we have.”

  • Here’s New South’s recommendation on fencing. Keyword: “possibly.”

  • There is no “width of land … to work with between the survey border and the required road right of way.” The right-of-way contains graves. The power poles are in the cemetery, running along, but outside, the right-of-way. Where’s a fence going to go?

Second, “Mr. Hooks criticized the Council for following the recommendations of the study as it applies to a fence.”

  • Castonoble Hooks, like every other citizen (or even non-citizen) of Wilson, has every right to criticize council. Full stop.

Third, off topic, but: I happen to agree with the concern expressed by another person about Wilson’s decision not to broadcast public comment.

Lane Street Project: response to the 23 July 2023 records request, part 4.

On a lighter note, this is an interesting one:

So, Rodger Lentz reads Black Wide-Awake! I love to see it.

The post he linked to is here. The book is Joan L. Howell’s Wilson County Cemeteries, Vol. V: The Two City-Owned African-American Cemeteries, containing alphabetical listings of 11,472 burials in Rest Haven cemetery and 650 presumed burials in “Rountree-Vick” cemetery.

As I’ve noted repeatedly, Volume 4 is a valuable resource. However, it perpetuates inaccuracies by conflating Rountree, Odd Fellows, and Vick Cemeteries — all separately owned — into a single “Rountree-Vick” Cemetery. Despite the engraving on the large granite pillars at the entrance to the parking lot, there is no such thing as Rountree-Vick Cemetery. The names listed as burials in Rountree-Vick are actually presumed burials in the three cemeteries. (A handful are actually in Rest Haven Cemetery.)

I’m glad City Hall has purchased a copy of Volume 4. And I hope the City will support our request to establish a digital database to track the names (and other vital stats information) of people likely buried in Vick Cemetery.

Lane Street Project: response to the 23 July 2023 records request, part 2.

First, let me show you the public records request I submitted on 8 September 2023.

The request goes to my attempts to find out what happened to the headstones removed from Vick Cemetery circa 1995-96. My 2019 records request to the City yielded nothing helpful. The calls by me and others for an investigation into their disappearance has fallen on deaf ears. I’ve heard bits and pieces though. Second-hand and third-hand accounts of their removal and storage in a city warehouse, possibly near Maplewood Cemetery. A recent rumor describes the warehouse being damaged or flooded during a hurricane, perhaps Floyd, perhaps some other.

I screenshot this image from the Wilson County GIS website.

It shows the “city lot” adjacent to Maplewood. The superimposed blue shaded area is the “Flood Hazards” layer. There are faint outlines that appear to have been left by demolished buildings. Is this flood-vulnerable area where the headstones were stored? Or were they in some altogether different location?

My public records request is an attempt to determine where the headstones were and when and h0w they left the City’s custody. In the total absence of information from the folks charged with caring for these relics, I crafted my request in the broadest terms.

Here’s what City Manager Grant Goings had to say about that:

A few thoughts:

(1) No, Mr. Goings. Not “one individual.” I’m seeking the truth as a descendant of the dead of Vick Cemetery and a representative of everyone who wants to see a terrible wrong righted.

(2) In other words, we are too busy trying to get the Mudcats to come to Wilson to go on wild-goose chases for dusty documents related to embarrassing chapters in recent city history?

(3) “It is unfortunate that the law allows an individual to use up so many tax-payer resources and further harm the City by taking so many hours of staff time away from current opportunities.” North Carolina has had a Public Records Act since 1935. What’s “unfortunate” is that the highest-ranking administrative manager of the City of Wilson views as a nuisance a law fundamental to good governance and an informed public.

(4) “One (non-resident) attorney.” I was born and raised in Wilson. I don’t have to prove my bona fides to anybody at City Hall. Moreover, anyone may make a public records request.

(5)  I’ve responded to FOIA requests in my day. If we received one that seemed overly broad or vague or burdensome, we would contact the requestor to ask a few questions aimed at clarifying or narrowing the scope of the request. Simple as that. In fact, both the City Attorney and the City Clerk have reached out to me before concerning requests I’ve submitted. One time resulted in my withdrawal of the request. The second time resulted in a fine-tuning of the request to make more clear the information I was seeking. I have to assume that Grant Goings understands how public records requests work. Why he chooses to cavil and complain to council rather than contact me for clarity is a question only he can answer. As soon as I read his email, however — or, rather, as soon as I picked my jaw up off the floor — I emailed the City Attorney and others: “Mr. Cauley, given Mr. Goings’ concerns about my exercise of rights afforded under NC law, if there are questions about the scope of any request I submit, including that submitted on September 8, please let me know and I will do my best to clarify or even narrow said request.”

Lane Street Project: in acknowledgment of allies.

If by “secure” we mean acknowledge, honor, protect, and restore, yes — let’s. Wilson Times editorial cartoon, 23 May 2023.

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Let’s take a moment to acknowledge Lane Street Project’s allies, men and women across the Wilson community who have taken vocal public stances on Vick Cemetery and related matters. Vick Cemetery is not just an East Wilson issue. The desecration of public cemeteries spreads a stench across the whole city. Thank you, Charles P. Farris Jr.

Johnnie Farmer writes home, no. 1.

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 Lizzie Davis, written sometime in 1941, Farmer laments being flat on his back and unable to get around, expresses cautious optimism about the condition of his feet, and asks Davis not to share his update.

Ward 3 Room 363     1941

Miss Lizzie I know theease has bin werren you all to deth and it hasen warred you all half a bad as it has warred you know lenying flalt of you back and cant get up and get around to do nothen for your self it is a hard job to get enny baurdy to do enny thing for yo now; write miss Hellen about my foot now i realy dont wornt you all to write the Doc a boud of corse he haven tould me so but I got infore machen from the nurs and the

she said she did not know theeair was a little life comming back in it and she said as long as you see som kind of life in it ther was some so dont say enny thing to enny baurdy at hom and dont write the doc for if you all d he will come stratt to me and give me the Devel a bout it i gave the Dcoc the blanker [about?] three [??] and there  is not bout one doc on this warrd and thear is a 300 mens he have to look at and i ask him to day and he said he would look after them

Just a soon a he could as warred as I am I haven eve got the blanks to thank [think?] I wont to day againg not to say enny thing about the foot untell you hear from me again tell Mr Flank I got his letter and yours togather will write him when i feal like up tell Miss Harris I am goinge to write hear soon i got enny more to say this time write when ever you feal like got a real long lettler from Sammey Pou sure did enjoy readin it Johnnie Farmer

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In the 1900 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: farmer George Farmer, 51; wife Bettie, 46; and children George W., 21, Miner, 19, Aulander, 18, Willie, 17, Johnny, 15, and Emma, 12.

In the 1910 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: laborer George Farmer, 71; wife Bettie, 62; and children John, 18, and Emma, 16.

George Farmer died 4 April 1918 in Wilson township, Wilson County. Per his death certificate, he was 88 years old; was born in Wilson County to Harry Farmer and Betty Crumley; was married to Betty Farmer; worked as a farmer; and was buried in the Masonic Cemetery. William Farmer was informant.

In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on Bynum Street, widow Bettie Farmer, 56; daughter Emma, 23, cook, and son Johnnie, 25, butler.

Emma Farmer died 12 October 1926 in Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was 28 years old; was born in Wilson County to George Farmer and Betty Crumble; was single; lived at 808 West Broad Street; and worked as a cook for Mrs. Jas. H. Pou. John Farmer was informant, and she was buried in Wilson, N.C. [probably Vick Cemetery.]

In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 705 West Nash, owned and valued at $20,000, widow Elizabeth B. Davis, 59; son Frank B., 35; daughter-in-law Hellen P., 34; grandchildren Frank B. Jr., 13, and Hellen P., 4; and servants Jollie [sic], 40, and Bettie Farmer, 72.

Will Farmer died 7 April 1938 in Wilson after an auto accident near Goldsboro, Wayne County, N.C. Per his death certificate, he was 51 years old; was born in Wilson County to George farmer and Betty Crummel; was married to Eula Farmer; lived at 903 East Green Street; and worked as a hotel porter. He was buried in Wilson, N.C. [probably Vick Cemetery.]

In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 714 Stronach Street, Johnny Farmer, 50, cook, and widowed mother Bettie Farmer, 85.

Arlanda Farmer died 14 March 1940 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was 55 years old; was born in Wilson County to George Farmer and Bettie Crumble; was married to Marsha Farmer; worked as a truck driver for Carolina Ice Company; and was a veteran. He was buried in Wilson, N.C. [probably Vick Cemetery.]

Johnie Farmer died 30 March 1944 at the Veterans Administration hospital in Kecoughtan, Elizabeth City County, Virginia. Per his death certificate, he was born in 1893 to George Farmer and Betty Crowell; his usual residence was 714 Stronach Alley, Wilson; and his body was returned to Wilson for burial.

Bettie Cromartie Farmer died 23 July 1945 at her home at 913 Faison Street, Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was born 5 August 1857 in Edgecombe County, N.C.; was widowed; and was buried in the Masonic cemetery.

Johnny Farmer Letters, 1941-1944, Virginia Pou Doughton Family Papers, P.C. 1981.1, Private Collections, State Archives of North Carolina.

Lane Street Project: pulling back the curtain at City Hall (annotated.)

Thursday, I presented a timeline drawn from emails produced by the City of Wilson in partial response to two public records requests. Today, I insert my own thoughts about what these documents reveal. My overarching reaction is deep disappointment. I searched the pages for any expression of compassion, sympathy, empathy. Anything other than the callous indifference and deflection that I read. I found none.

We’ve been focusing on reaching the hearts and minds of elected officials, but it’s the career powerbrokers we need to be taking hard looks at. The city manager, the department heads, the communications director who gate-keep and decide whether elected officials — and local press — get information at all.