Photographs

On his 90th birthday.

My father had a brief career as a journalist his sophomore year in high school covering Darden football games for the Wilson Daily Times under the byline “Skip Henderson.” By his senior year, he was editor of Darden’s yearbook. His writing career ended there, but he spent the rest of his educational life in sports, as a player, coach, and mentor.

Rederick C. Henderson would have turned 90 today. I miss him to my core and not a day passes that I don’t think of him and give thanks for all poured into those he loved.

Wilson Daily Times, 29 September 1950.

 

Wilson Daily Times, 27 October 1950.

Editor-in-chief R.C. Henderson, front, with some of the annual staff. From “The Trojan,” the yearbook of C.H. Darden High School, 1952.

B.W.A. Historical Marker Series, no. 14: Camillus L. Darden House.

In this series, which will post on occasional Wednesdays, I populate the landscape of Wilson County with imaginary “historical markers” commemorating people, places, and events significant to African-American history or culture.

We been here.

DARDEN HOUSE.

1925. Black brickmason John M. Barnes built this Charles Benton-designed house for undertaker Camillus L. Darden and wife Norma. Now home to local chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority.

Photo by Lisa Y. Henderson, August 2024.

Lane Street Project: late summer at Odd Fellows.

Many thanks to LSP Senior Force member Castonoble Hooks, who has engaged Curtis Moore this week to assist in the clearing of dog fennel and other rambunctious weeds at Odd Fellows. Though our heavier work is done in winter and spring, without summer maintenance, the cemetery would quickly slide back into wilderness. 

We need your help. Please plan to volunteer during Season 5, and encourage your friends, family, coworkers, and other affiliates to join you. There are many ways to help beyond physical labor. Please contact us at lanestreetproject@gmail.com for opportunities.

B.W.A. Historical Marker Series, no. 13: Oakdale Cemetery.

In this series, which will post on occasional Wednesdays, I populate the landscape of Wilson County with imaginary “historical markers” commemorating people, places, and events significant to African-American history or culture.

We been here.

OAKDALE CEMETERY

Also known as Oakland or Oaklawn. City-owned African-American cemetery established c. 1895. Last burial in early 1920s. Nearby Cemetery Street named for site. In 1940, city disinterred graves and moved to newly opened Rest Haven Cemetery.

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I took this photo on New Street at the opening of an alley leading to an open field at the rear of former Elvie Street School. No evidence of Oakdale Cemetery remains on the site. The cemetery’s exact boundaries have not been determined, but evidence is strong that this area was within its territory. Wilson Cemetery Commission has no maps of Oakdale Cemetery or records of its burials. Nor are there records pertaining to the disinterment of bodies from Oakdale and reburial in Rest Haven. Read more about this forgotten burial ground here and here and here and here and here.

“Passing the legacy” — the Coleman-Barnes Family Reunion.

In 1942, when the descendants of Spicey Barnes Barnes and Hannah Barnes Coleman gathered for a birthday dinner to honor both sisters, they began a tradition that has lasted more than eight decades!

If Coleman-Barnes Reunion isn’t the longest-running African-American family gathering in Wilson County, I want to know what is!

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  • Spicey Barnes Barnes

In the 1880 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: George Barnes, 55; wife Gracy, 45; and daughters Spicey, 7, and Hannah, 5.

On 5 January 1899, Joe Barnes, 35, of Wilson County, son of Richard Barnes and Amanda Toodle, married Spicy Barnes, 23, of Wilson County, daughter of George Barnes and Grace Strickland. Nestus Bagley applied for the license, and Free Will Baptist minister Daniel Blount performed the ceremony.

In the 1900 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: Jospeh Barnes, 26; wife Spicy, 25; and children Daisy A., 9, Wiley, 8, Naster, 7, Gray, 6, and Earnest, 1 month.

In the 1910 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: Joseph Barnes, 52; wife Spicy, 39; children Earnest, 10, George E., 8, Annie, 4, and Turner, 3; step-daughter Gracie Moore, 21; and children Daisy, 21, Leslie, 15, and Wily, 18.

In the 1920 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: Joe Barnes, 52; wife Spicy, 42; and children Ernest, 19, Geo., 16, Annie, 14, and Turner, 11.

On 23 December 1929, Ernest Barnes, 29, of Wilson, son of Joe and Spicy Barnes, married Lillie Ellis, 29, of Wilson, daughter of Jack and Mintree Yancey, in Wilson. Disciple minister W.W. Webb performed the ceremony in the presence of Calvin Baker, Ella Adams, and Martha Ellis.

In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: Ernest Barnes, 40, widower; sister Annie, 38; and mother Spicey, 60, widow.

In 1942, Ernest Barnes registered for the World War II in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born 12 May 1900 in Wilson; lived in Wilson County; his contact was mother Spicey Barnes; and he worked for Zell Winstead, Tarboro Street Extension.

In the 1950 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 313 Finch, Ernest Barnes, 49, widower, cement mixer at concrete pipe company; mother Spicey, 78, widow; sister Annie, 44, tobacco factory picker; and cousin Stephen Coleman, 43, barber.

Spicey Barnes died 9 August 1963 in Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was born 1 June 1868 in Wilson County to George Barnes and Grace Barnes; lived at 414 Lane Street; and was a widow. Annie B. Barnes was informant.

  • Hannah Barnes Coleman

On 30 March 1894, Robert Coleman, 23, of Oldfields township, son of Jack and Nancy Coleman, married Hannah Barnes, 18, of Oldfields township, in Oldfields township, Wilson County.

In the 1900 census of Taylors township, Wilson County: farmer Robert Coleman, 39; wife Hannah, 25; and children Mary, 9, James, 7, and Clary, 4.

In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on Finch Mill Road, farmer Robert Coleman, 46; wife Hannah, 39; and children James, 16, Clara, 14, Martha, 8, Thomas, 6, Stephen, 4, and Katrina, 3 months.

In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on Finch Mill Road, farmer Robert Coleman, 52; wife Annie, 45; and children Martha, 18, Tom, 16, Stephen, 12, and Katie, 9.

In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: widow Hannah Coleman, 57, and children James, 38, William G., 26, both farm laborers, and Stephen, 23, barber.

Martha Holley died 19 July 1934 in Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was 33 years old; was born in Wilson County to Robert Coleman and Hannah Barnes; was married to Will Holley; lived in New Grabneck; worked on a farm; and was buried in Wilson [likely, Vick Cemetery.]

In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: widow Hannah Coleman, 68; son Thomas, 36; and grandsons Robert Holiday Holly, 14, William Holly, 13, and Cal Waddell Holly, 8.

William Thomas Coleman died 11 April 1973 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was born 18 February 1904 to Robert Coleman and Hannah Barnes; was a widower; lived on Black Creek Road; and had worked as a laborer. Darnell Coleman was informant.

Image of reunion program courtesy of Tijuana Locus. Thank you!

A legacy repurposed.

Restoration of the platform canopy of Wilson’s historic railway station began in May of this year. The ornamental ridge cap and copper gutters will be faithfully restored, as will the slate roof. These lustrous, deep gray shingles might look familiar to the keenly observant eye — they were sourced from the recently replaced roof of the Samuel H. Vick house!

Photos by Lisa Y. Henderson, August 2024.

Family ties, no. 12: great big old black ones.

Wilson’s emergence as a leading tobacco market town drew hundreds of African-American migrants in the decades after the 1890s. Many left family behind in their home counties, perhaps never to be seen again. Others maintained ties the best way they could.

Sarah Henderson Jacobs Silver and her husband Jesse A. Jacobs Jr. left Dudley, in southern Wayne County, North Carolina, around 1905. They came to Wilson presumably for better opportunities off the farm. Each remained firmly linked, however, to parents and children and siblings back in Wayne County as well as those who had joined the Great Migration north. This post is the eleventh in a series of excerpts and adaptations of interviews with my grandmother Hattie Henderson Ricks (1910-2001), Jesse and Sarah’s adopted daughter (and Sarah’s great-niece), revealing the ways her Wilson family stayed connected to their far-flung kin. (Or didn’t.)

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It’s muscadine season. In my grandmother’s day, and even well into mine, bronze muscadines — scuppernongs — were called scuffalongs, and, as I gorge like a squirrel approaching winter, I am always reminded of one of my grandmother’s favorite stories. Her great-uncle, James Lucian Henderson, who lived near Dudley in southern Wayne County, grew grapes for his church’s Communion wine — and they were off-limits:

“Great big old black ones. Lord, he might as well have told me to go out there and eat all I wanted. I eat all the way down the corn row down to that lady’s house, Mary Budd, and come up through the corn field and come back to the road and went over there stood up there and eat all I want and throwed the hulls over in the pasture. The hog pasture, or whatever that thing was out there where pigs was. They thought I was gon give ‘em something to eat, I reckon. And I throwed the things over there, and I reckon that’s where Uncle Lucian discovered that we was eating ‘em. And he said, “Y’all stay away from out there! Somebody’s been out there —!”  “Wont me!” [She laughs.]  Them things seem like was the best things I ever had. And the arbor there on the yard where was all up in the trees, it’d be grapes. And I’d go there and eat them, but they was little. It was what they call scuffalongs. White grapes. And I’d eat them, too, but I wanted some of them old big ones. Them old big black ones.”

Georgia muscadines, which are not quite as delectable as North Carolina’s, but will absolutely make do.

Interview of Hattie H. Ricks by Lisa Y. Henderson; all rights reserved. Photo by Lisa Y. Henderson, August 2024.

A surprise in Black Creek Cemetery.

I did a quick tour of Black Creek’s tidy little cemetery. As noted earlier, historically it was not open to burials of African-Americans, but I had this unexpected encounter while there:

A Clarence B. Best monument!

Off the top of my head, I cannot think of another headstone Best carved for a white customer, but I am not surprised that he welcomed the trade. (Note that Inez S. Holland’s death date was hand-cut in Best’s style 15 years after he died.)