Another unexpected find among the World War I draft registration cards — a native of England! (Maybe.)
In 1917, Frederick DeLisle Pike was living in Wilson at 412 1/2 East Green Street and working as a barber for Garfield Ruffin a block away at 504 East Nash. He reported that he was a resident alien born in Southampton, England, and had spent three years in an English military band. He also stated that he was married. I don’t know when Pike arrived in Wilson, but he is not listed in the 1916 directory. He did not stay long.
In 1918, Pike registered for the draft again, this time in Richmond, Virginia. He reported then that he was born in 1885 (not 1887); lived at 107 West Duval, Richmond; worked as a barber for W.C. Scott at 4 North 9th Street; and his nearest relative was mother Sarah Anne Pike, Port of Spain, Trinidad.
Pike’s whereabouts in 1920 are not clear, but he possibly was the Freeman F. Pike, 35, barber, who lodged in a home on Richmond’s West Clay Street and reported his birthplace as West Virginia.
In the 1923 Richmond city directory, barber Frederick Pike and wife Octavia Pike, a domestic, are listed at 615 North 6th Street. Their lives, though, were poised for dramatic change.
The 1927 city directory for Charlottesville, Virginia, shows this entry: Pike Fred L Rev (c; Octavia R) pastor Trinity Episcopal Church h 324 6th SW. How was Pike transformed from barber to Episcopal priest in that four years?
The change in Pike’s profession was permanent, even as other details shifted. In the 1930 census of Richmond, Virginia: at 116 East Leigh Street, Frederick D.L. Pike, 42, Episcopal clergyman; wife Octava, 31; and widowed mother-in-law Emma Robinson, 68. Pike reported that he was born in South America (!) and spoke Spanish as his first language.
By 1932, Pike was in northern Virginia. The 1932 city directory of Alexandria, Virginia, shows: Pike Fredk de L (c; Octavia R) pastor Meade Memorial Chapel h 818 Duke
A history of Meade Memorial written by David Taft Terry, “Community, Service, and Faith: Meade Church in the mid-20th Century,” briefly mentions Pike:
Beyond detailing Pike’s foundational role in developing lay leadership, this piece reveals he was trained at Petersburg, Virginia’s Bishop Payne Divinity School, graduating in 1930.
Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), 28 April 1934.
By 1935, the Pikes had shifted west to Charles Town, West Virginia, where the reverend led Saint Phillip’s.
Washington Tribune, 20 April 1935.
Baltimore Afro-American, 11 April 1936.
A marriage register column in the 3 May 1939 Northern Virginia Daily reported that “Frederick de Lisle-Pike, Charles Town, W.Va., Episcopal” had performed one of the ceremonies.
And then another leap: by 1941, the Pikes were in Oklahoma, where Rev. Pike was pastor of Saint Phillip in Muskogee and Saint Thomas in Tulsa. In 1942, Frederick de Lisle Pike registered for the World War II draft in Muskogee. Per his draft registration, he was born 28 August 1886 in Richmond, Virginia; lived at 310 North 11th Street; his contact was William P. Green, 503 North 9th; and he worked as a minister in the Protestant Episcopal Church.
The Oklahoma years were trying. Per documents posted by the Episcopal Diocese of Oklahoma Archives, Rev. Pike’s debts (and debt collectors) followed him from West Virginia, and another priest was assigned to oversee his spending. Notwithstanding, he made rash expenditures that drew the ire of his bishop — and his congregants began to complain of his “Masonic activities.” Rev. Pike held on, however, until mandatory retirement in 1954 at age 68.
Meanwhile, Rev. Pike’s wife Octavia found a position at Langston University, where she weathered her own storms.
The Black Dispatch (Oklahoma City, Okla.), 15 January 1949.
After retirement, Rev. Pike lived in a cottage on Langston’s campus, where he worked as Dean of Men in the education and social work departments. When he retired from Langston in 1961, the Pikes moved to Guthrie, Oklahoma, where he died impoverished in 1967.
