Religion

Rev. Woodward meets success at revival.

Raleigh Gazette, 17 April 1897.

Rev. W.T.H. Woodward’s surname often appears as “Woodard,” which suggests roots in what is now Wilson County. However, he is apparently absent from Wilson County census records and appears only sparingly elsewhere, such as the listed officiant on marriage licenses between 1892 and 1898. (See, for example, Alex Warren and Ida Davis in 1896 and Jordan Taylor and Eliza Taylor in 1897.) When he, as a 31 year-old, married Martha S. Paschall in Warren County, N.C., in 1881, he listed his residence as Greensboro, N.C. In 1898, when he married Mollie J. Paschall in Vance County, he listed Halifax County as his home. The family is found in Littleton, Halifax County, in the 1910 census, and I have not found Woodward after.

The Wilson County roots of Bishop J. Delano Ellis.

Bishop Jesse Delano Ellis II of the Pentecostal Church of Christ was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Jesse Lee Ellis, a migrant from Wilson County, North Carolina, and Lucy Mae Harris Ellis.

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In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 508 East Walnut Street, ice plant laborer Calvin Ellis, 33; wife Matha, 29; and son Jessie L., 10; plus roomers Wilson Webb, 47, a Contentnea Guano laborer, wife Victoria, 40, and daughter Minnie Webb, 2.

In the 1940 census 0f Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: domestic Martha Ellis, 39, widow; sister Lucy Lucas, 33; and son Jessie, 20, coal yard laborer. In 1935, Martha Ellis had lived in Atlantic City, New Jersey; Lucas, in Philadelphia; and Jesse Ellis in Wilson, North Carolina.

In 1940, Jesse Lee Ellis registered for the World War II draft in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Per his registration card, he was born 18 August 1919 in Wilson, N.C.; his contact was mother Martha Ellis; and he worked for the 1355th Company, Civilian Conservation Corps, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

Jesse and Lucy Mae Ellis, presumably at their 1943 wedding in Philadelphia.

In the 1950 census of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Martha Ellis, 49, widow; son Jesse L. 30, stevedore on docks; daughter-in-law Lucy Mae, 21; and grandsons Jesse D., 5, James B., 1, and John C., born in November [1949].

In 1950, Jesse L. Ellis applied for World War II compensation in Pennsylvania. Per his application, he was born 18 August 1919 in Wilson; lived at 616 Mercy Street, Philadelphia; and his dates of service were 22 June 1942 to 26 March 1943.

Photo courtesy of Ancestry.com user Dawn Speaks. 

B.W.A. Historical Marker Series, no. 15: Saint Alphonsus Catholic School.

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.

SAINT ALPHONSUS SCHOOL

Second location of Black Catholic school, 1948-1968, staffed by sisters of Oblate Sisters of Providence. Succeeded by co-op kindergarten Kiddie Kollege of Knowledge.

Photo by Lisa Y. Henderson, August 2024.

B.W.A. Historical Marker Series, no. 5: Saint Luke A.M.E. Church.

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

We been here.

SAINT LUKE A.M.E. CHURCH

In 1906, Saint Luke A.M.E. trustees purchased lot on Suggs St. and erected church. In 1930s, St. Luke moved to present location on Vick Street.

Note of thanks from the County Home.

Wilson Daily Times, 27 May 1947.

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Rev. Frank Moore and his wife, Ara Moore, regularly ministered to residents of the Wilson County home, which was located near the intersection of present-day Ward Boulevard and Goldsboro Street.

Frank Hilliard is listed in the 1940 census of Wilson as one of 46 lodgers at the home, 19 of whom were African-American.

The early activism of Dr. Evangeline Royall Darity.

Barber-Scotia College’s Evangeline Royall was among a multiracial group of students who lived together at a Black family’s home while working to build a credit union office for African-American farmers. A mob, led by a sawmill operator (straight out of central casting), gave white students 24 hours to get out of Columbia, North Carolina, and milled around their bus as they packed up to leave.

This news report of the incident is studiously neutral in its account of events, but carefully sets out the names and school affiliation of each student, as well as the ethnicity of non-white students like Royall.

Hope Star (Hope, Ark.), 21 August 1947.

We first met Evangeline Royall as the high school student regarded as the first “librarian” of Wilson’s Negro Library.

Per http://www.prabook.com, Evangeline Royall Darity was born 16 June 1927 in Wilson, North Carolina. She received a Bachelor of Science in Religious Education, Barber-Scotia College, 1949; Master of Education, Smith College, 1969; and Doctor of Education, University of Massachusetts-Amherst, 1978. She held various positions with the Young Women’s Christian Association, 1949-1953, and was executive director in Holyoke, Massachusetts, 1979-1981; taught in Egypt, North Carolina, and Massachusetts, 1953-1967; and was the assistant to class deans at Smith College, 1968-1975. Dr. Darity was vice-president of Student affairs at Barber-Scotia College, 1978-1979; associate dean at Mount Holyoke College, 1981-1994; and a member of the Amherst (Mass.) Town Meeting, 1971-1980. She was a member of the American Association of University Women; the American Association of Counseling and Development; the National Association of Women Deans, Counselors and Administrators; the League of Women Voters; Phi Delta Kappa; and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority.

Her husband, William Alexander Darity, was the first African-American to earn a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her son, William A. Darity Jr., is Samuel DuBois Cook Professor of Public Policy, African and African American Studies, and Economics at Duke University. Her daughter Janki E. Darity is an attorney.

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In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 203 Pender Street, widow Ossie M. Royall, 33, an elevator girl at the courthouse; her mother Tossie Jenkins, 53, stemmer at a tobacco factory; daughters LaForest, 16, and Evauline Royall, 14; and a roomer named Ed Hart, 45, a laborer employed by the town of Wilson.

On 23 December 1950, William A. Darity, 26, of East Flat Rock, Henderson County, N.C., son of Aden Randall Darity and Elizabeth Smith Darity, married Evangeline Royall, 23, resident of “(Wilson) Charlotte, N.C.,” daughter of Dock Moses Royall and Ossie Mae Jenkins Royall, in Wilson. Presbyterian minister O.J. Hawkins performed the ceremony in the presence of Mary B. Moore, Grace L. Coley, and Solomon Revis Jr.

In the 1952 Danville, Virginia, city directory: Darity Evangeline R Mrs (c) dir Y W C A h 330 Holbrook; Darity Wm A (c; Evangeline R) insp City Dept Pub Health h 330 Holbrook

Wilson Daily Times, 20 April 1963.

Evangeline Royall Darity died 27 September 1994.