When he registered for the World War I draft in 1918, Ernest Bullock reported that he operated a barbecue stand on Kenan Street in Wilson.
In the 1916 Wilson city directory, Ernest Bullock’s occupation is listed as janitor at Primitive Baptist Church. He is not found in the 1920 census of Wilson, but was described as a house painter in the 1930 census and on his 1931 death certificate. I have not been able to locate a barbecue stand on Kenan. I suspect Bullock’s business was on the eastern end of the street among and catering to workers in the tobacco warehouses crowded beyond Tarboro Street.
Hackney Wagon Company (and related Hackney Brothers Company, and later iterations) manufactured thousands upon thousands of wagons, buggies, drays (and later truck bodies) during its 140+ year existence in Wilson. Hackney employed innumerable African-American men over its long existence, and this running list can capture only a fraction.
The 500 block of East Nash Street is justly remembered as the 20th century epicenter of Wilson’s African-American-owned businesses. However, in the late 1800s and early 1900s, Black entrepreneurs and tradespeople also operated across the tracks. As Wilson’s downtown experiences a resurgence, let’s rediscover and celebrate these pioneering men and women.
Check in each Sunday for the latest in the Historic Black Business Series!
Lemon Taborn (later spelled Tabron) was born free about 1834 in Nash County, North Carolina, to Celia Taborn. He moved to the town of Wilson before 1860 and soon established a barbershop — the earliest known Black-owned business in Wilson.
E.B. Mayo noted Taborn’s shop into his 1872 map of Wilson on Tarboro Street just north of Vance Street. Taborn owned a large parcel of land in this block. (The house above was built after the family sold the lot.)
The Wilson Advance, 24 September 1880.
His barbershop also is drawn into the 1882 map of the city.
In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 609 East Green Street, William Battle, 43; wife Nora, 30; and children Ester, 12, Jessie, 9, William Jr., 7, Aurtha L., 4, and Walter E., 1; and roomers William, 57, widower, and Mary Christmas, 24.
In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at the rear of the household of Will A. and Mamie Lucas, Walter Battle, 20, private cook.
In 1940, Walter Ervin Battle registered for the World War II draft in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born 14 July 1919 in Wilson; lived at 1407 West Nash Road, Wilson; his contact was mother Nora Battle, 608 East Green Street; and he worked for W.A. Lucas, 1407 West Nash Road.
Walter E. Battle died 25 October 1962 at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Durham, North Carolina. Per his death certificate, he was born 14 July 1919 in Wilson to William Battle and Nora Williams; lived at 1407 West Nash Street, Wilson; had never married; and worked as a restaurant cook.
Battle’s brother Arthur Lee Battle applied for a military headstone for his grave in Rest Haven Cemetery.
Walter I. Battle (1919-1962).
Photo courtesy of Ancestry.com user PHILLYEVANS44.
City directories offer endless possibilities. Who were these intriguing folk?
1916
Allen C. Wooten sold (made?) patent medicines.
——
What kinds of baskets did Samuel W. White make?
——
We’ve met Hood Vick before. I assume he played baseball professionally, but for whom?
1920
Toilet preparations? What exactly was Oscar C. Gordon cooking up on East Nash Street?
——
The Eat More? How charming! But where was Preston McCadden‘s business? Two of the four corners at this intersection were houses, the third was Calvary Presbyterian. The fourth was the site of a white-owned grocery store for nearly all of the 20th century. (Sidenote: McCadden also worked as a chauffeur and lived at 201 West Nash.) [Update: a quick look at the 1922 Sanborn map informed me. The northwest corner contained not the house facing Green with which I am familiar, but a small grocery facing Pender. This was likely McCadden’s Eat More. My grandmother was 12 years old and lived a block away and surely was a patron!]
1922
What did W. Clyde Crawford‘s Wilson Building & Construction Company build? Who transacted with its loan division? The company’s offices were at 563 East Nash,
——
Evander Eddy was a confectioner. What kind of candy did he make?
——
I thought at first John Robertson and John W. Best were bottlers of soft drinks, but now believe they operated soft drink shops. What, exactly, did they sell? Who were their customers?
——
But here is a bottler. Did Edward Hunter work for the local Coca-Cola bottler? Or did he have his own business?
——
What did William H. Brown print?
——
William Picot was both a cabinet maker and repairer of furniture. Was the studio on East Vance a house or commercial business? The 1922 Sanborn shows a small wooden building at the location.
——
For which dairy did Luther Hall work?
——
Though she lived over in Elm City, Sarah Lucas was Amos Batts‘ private secretary. There were several Amos Battses, but this was likely the undertaker.
——
Beyond her interesting first name, Sister McMillan is one of very few, and the only woman, mill worker, I’ve spotted. What kind of mill did she work in?
——
Lena Woody lived at the rear of 301 East Nash? A commercial building?
—–
Ice puller?
——
George Martin is the earliest African-American electrician I’ve found in Wilson.
The 500 block of East Nash Street is justly remembered as the 20th century epicenter of Wilson’s African-American-owned businesses. However, in the late 1800s and early 1900s, Black entrepreneurs and tradespeople also operated across the tracks. As Wilson’s downtown experiences a resurgence, let’s rediscover and celebrate these pioneering men and women.
Check in each Sunday for the latest in the Historic Black Business Series!
Of a photograph taken about 1920, my grandmother said: “Yep, that’s me standing up there, and [my sister] Mamie sitting in the chair. And that little arm [of the chair] off there, it was Picture-Taking Barnes, they called him then. You were gon have your pictures made, you went to Picture-Taking Barnes.”
Mamie Henderson (1907-2000, seated) and Hattie Mae Henderson (1910-2001).
I have seen that telltale chair in photo after photo – a light-colored wicker chair with a high rounded back and just one arm rest, the one on the left.
Per Stephen E. Massingill’s Photographers in North Carolina (2004), George W. Barnes was perhaps the first of three African-American photographers operating in Wilson in the early part of the twentieth century and, in the 1908 city of directory of Wilson, he is working with white photographer Orren W. Turner in a studio at 105 West Nash.
By 1916, Barnes had his own studio. On the second floor of what was then 113 1/2 [later 114] East Barnes and is the site of a parking lot adjacent to P.L. Woodard Hardware, Barnes settled his clients into his one-armed chair.
Picture-Taking Barnes’ Barnes Street studio, Sanborn fire insurance map of Wilson, N.C. (1922).
In the 1880 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: south of the Plank Road, farmer George Barnes, 41; wife Anna, 34; and children Hardy, 19, Reny, 17, Jessee, 12, Edmonia, 11, George, 9, Minnie Adeline, 6, Joshua and General, 3, and William, 1 month.
In the 1900 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: George A. Barnes, 60, farmer; wife Annie, 53; children George, 23, teacher, Joshaway, 22, farmer, and Jenerl, 22, teacher; grandson Paul, 11; son Harda, 32, and daughter-in-law Nancy, 30.
On 30 January 1905, George Barnes, 29, of Wilson, son of George and Annie Barnes, married Mary Jane Green, 23, of Wilson, daughter of Nelson [Neverson] and Isabella Green, at Neverson Green’s residence in Wilson. Baptist minister Fred Davis performed the ceremony in the presence of A.J.C. Moore.
In the 1908 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Barnes Geo W (c) photographer O W Turner h e Green nr Vick
In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: George W. Barnes, photographer-home gallery; wife Mary J., 29; and children Jessie, 4, Lala Rook, 2, and Isabella A., 6 months.
George W. Barnes’ occupation in the 1910 census.
In the 1912 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Barnes Geo W (c) photo Orren V Foust r 654 E Green
In the 1916 and 1920 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directories: Barnes George W (c) photo 113 1/2 e Barnes r 702 e Green
In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 702 East Green, George Barnes, 49, photographer in own shop; wife 38; and children Jessie, 14, Alma Gray, 10, Elizabeth, 6, and Lila Rook, 2 [named for her elder sister?].
In the 1922 and 1925 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directories: Barnes George W (c) photographer 114 e Barnes r 803 e Green
1922 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory.
In the 1928 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Barnes Geo W (c) photo 114 E Barnes r 803 E Green
In the 1930 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Barnes Geo W (c) photog r 803 E Green
George Washington Barnes died 13 April 1936 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was 65 years old; was married to Mary Barnes; was born in Wilson County to George A. Barnes and Annie Battle; lived at 803 East Green Street; and was a photographer.
The 500 block of East Nash Street is justly remembered as the 20th century epicenter of Wilson’s African-American-owned businesses. However, in the late 1800s and early 1900s, Black entrepreneurs and tradespeople also operated across the tracks. As Wilson’s downtown experiences a resurgence, let’s rediscover and celebrate these pioneering men and women.
Check in each Sunday for the latest in the Historic Black Business Series!
I was tickled to find Willie C. Reid‘s Wilson Barber Shop and William Hines Barbershop included in this directory of former businesses at 130 South Goldsboro Street. Kudos to this building owner!
In 1933, Hines announced a barbershop merger with Reid at this location, as well as the opening of a beauty salon. Both Reid and Hines operated earlier barbershops in downtown Wilson catering to white customers. More about those locations later.
Page 31, 1922 Sanborn fire insurance map of Wilson, N.C.
Which undertaker operated this business at the corner of Nash and Carroll Streets shown in the 1922 Sanborn fire insurance map of Wilson?
Almost certainly, this was the establishment of one of the undertaking businesses with which Amos Batts was associated. Batts lived next door at 1113 East Nash Street and was in business around this time with Columbus E. Artis. In an era in which the deceased were generally laid out at home, the building likely was used for embalming and preparation, but not actually funerals.
The 500 block of East Nash Street is justly remembered as the 20th century epicenter of Wilson’s African-American-owned businesses. However, in the late 1800s and early 1900s, Black entrepreneurs and tradespeople also operated across the tracks. As Wilson’s downtown experiences a resurgence, let’s rediscover and celebrate these pioneering men and women.
Check in each Sunday for the latest in the Historic Black Business Series!
Hardy & Holland’s livery stable was wedged, improbably, between a wholesale grocery and a garage with a second floor print shop.
1908 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., City Directory.
In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: livery stable laborer Jim Hardy, 32; wife Lizzie, 31; sons James, 8, and Lovelace, 6; and boarders Lincoln Sellers, 29, widower and brick yard laborer, and [blank] Batts, 37, water works laborer.
Wilson Daily Times, 13 May 1910.
Per the Wilson, North Carolina, Industrial & Commercial Directory, published in 1912, “JAMES HARDY, SUCCESSOR TO HARDY BROS. — Feed and Livery Stables. This business is located on South Goldsboro street between Nash and Barnes streets and the business has been established for the last four years. The proprietor has succeeded in building up a good patronage. He is very prompt in answering calls and his prices for Livery are very reasonable. Telephone Number 9. Hack and Dray work solicited. The proprietor wants your patronage and guarantees the right sort of treatment. He is a colored man and has the good wishes of all.”
Hardy’s business partner was Thomas Holland, a Wake County, North Carolina, native. The brother with whom James Hardy did business earlier may have been John Hardy, who is listed in the 1908 city directory as a livery worker and was a witness to Jim Hardy’s 1901 marriage to Lizzie McCullen in Wilson.
Thomas Holland died 4 January 1914 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was born 23 November 1882 in Wake County to Benjamin Holland and Charity Jones; lived on Goldsboro Street, Wilson; was single; and worked as a livery stable day laborer. Charity Parker was informant, and he was buried in Wilson [likely, Oakdale, Rountree, Odd Fellows or Vick Cemetery.
James P. Hardy died 20 April 1914 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was born 27 April 1879 in Greene County to Petter Hardy and Jane Foreman; was married; lived at 508 Vance Street; and was a livery stable employer. Lizzie Hardy was informant.
Both Holland and Hardy died of pulmonary tuberculosis.
Today, the site of Hardy & Holland has been transformed into Bankers Plaza.
