Wilson Daily Times, 21 August 1918.
Advertisement in the January 1918 edition of Motion Picture World for “The House of Hate.”
Wilson Daily Times, 17 December 1919.
On 1 November 1882, A.D. Dawson, 25, of Wilson, son of Robert and Rachel Dawson, married Lucy Gatlin, 24, of Wilson County, daughter of Joseph and Sally Hill, at Gatlin’s residence in Wilson County. Methodist minister P.M. Hilliard performed the ceremony in the presence of Sam Collins, Lewis Battle, and Martha Tyson.
In the 1900 census of Wilson, Wilson County: dealer in fish Edd [Alexander D.] Dawson, 40; wife Lucy, 40, dressmaking; and children Mattie, 14, Virginia, 9, Lucy, 8, Edd, 5, Clarence, 3, and Augusta, 1.
In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: restaurant cook Alexander Dawson, 50; wife Lucy, 49; and children Sophie, 25, school teacher, Mattie, 23, stenographer, Virginia, 19, school teacher, Lucile, 17, Alexander, 15, Clarence, 13, Augusta, 11, and Arlander, 1.
On 10 December 1919, Simon Frazier, 24, of Georgia, married Lucille P. Dawson, 24, of Wilson, in Wilson.
In the 1920 census of Savannah, Chatham County, Georgia: medical doctor Simon F. Frazier, 30; wife Lucile, 24; and lodger Martha Daniels, 39, public school teacher.
In the 1930 census of Savannah, Chatham County, Georgia: at 222 East Park Avenue, physician Simon F. Frazier, 40; wife Lucille P., 33; and children Muriel E., 9, Ouida, 6, and Wahwee A., 3 months.
In the 1940 census of Savannah, Chatham County, Georgia: at 222 Park Avenue East, physician Samuel Frazier, 50; wife Lucille, 47; and daughters Muriel, 19, Ouida, 16, and Wahwee, 13.
In the 1950 census of Savannah, Chatham County, Georgia: at 222 Park Avenue, physician S.F. Frazier, 56, and wife Lucille D., 54.
Macon News, 15 May 1952.
Charles J. Elmore, Black America Series: Savannah Georgia (2001).
See this Coastal Courier article about the demolition of the small house Dr. Frazier built to house his rural medical practice. Dr. Frazier had deep roots in Georgia’s Sea Islands and was born in 1890 in the Gullah-Geechee community of Freedmen’s Grove, near present-day Midway, Georgia.
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Harper’s Weekly was famed for its lithographs. Though none are known to depict Wilson County scenes, several feature tableaux that would have been typical of the area. This engraving from a sketch by Mary L. Stone, published 20 April 1872, shows two African-American women at the counter of North Carolina country store. One wears a head wrap and large gold hoop earrings and a short jacket over layers of skirt. She is barefoot. The other woman, who appears to be handling cloth or some other merchandise, is bare-headed and wears a long, full dress and boots.
Thanks to J. Robert Boykin III for sharing this image.
Wilson Daily Times, 19 August 1922.
Ben Mincey and the Red Hots win yet another state tournament.
Wilson Daily Times, 16 September 1950.
Clipping courtesy of J. Robert Boykin III.
In the early 1960s, the brick building marked B.P.O. Reindeer Lodge No. 32 at 205 South Pender. The building has been demolished.
As described in the nomination form for the East Wilson Historic District: “#205 [formerly 203 1/2]; ca. 1930; 2 stories; (former) Central Grocery and Market; simple brick commercial building has parapet front and five-bay facade; remodeled recessed entry; upper floor at one time contained Knights of King Solomon civic club; interior has been altered for apartments.”
In April and May 1935, a series of notices appeared in the Wilson Daily Times alerting the public of the court-ordered sale of “the Knights of Solomon building, located on Stantonsburg Street, in the Town of Wilson” on May 18 of that year.
The 1941 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory shows Wade H. Pridgen as the proprietor of a grocery at 203 1/2 Stantonsburg Street, with tobacco worker Eva Pringle as the upstairs tenant.
The 1947 and 1950 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directories show Hocutt’s Grocery (William S. and Roland B. Hocutt, proprietors) at 203 1/2 Stantonsburg Street, with Eva Pringle still upstairs.
The 1963 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory shows BPO Reindeer at the address.
By the early 1970s, the first floor of this building housed the East Branch of the Wilson County Public Library, the successor to the Negro Library formerly located two blocks north on Pender Street.
The building was occupied as a lodging house during its final decades before demolition circa 2005.
I am a champion of oral histories and memoirs as sources of information that adds texture and nuance to the dry data of documents. In Crossroads: Stories of the Rural South, Montress Greene has published her recollection of growing up in Pender’s Crossroads, a community anchored around Bridgers Grocery and Farm Supply, her family’s country store, in the 1940s and ’50s. Though Greene’s focuses her memories largely though the prism of family life, she offers invaluable granular detail for our imagining of the world through which the men and women of this blog moved. Though that world was legally segregated, whites and African-Americans interacted closely and regularly, and Greene addresses race relations forthrightly, if through the eyes of a child. “Much of this will revolve around the strength of women and especially black women,” she writes. Beyond these personal stories, however, Crossroads reveals the country store as public space vital to all in the community.
Montress Greene in the early 1940s outside Bridgers Store. An older African-American man is seated on a box behind her.
North Carolina A.&T.’s eight-page monthly newsletter The Register, “The Cream of College News,” covered campus happenings throughout the year. The July 1939 issue featured several short pieces about the young women vying for the title Miss A.&T. of Summer School. Among them, Lucille Jones of Wilson:
The Register, “Social News,” 12 July 1939.
On the same page, in “Candidates Interviewed”:
Another article revealed that Jones placed second in the contest.
Wilson Daily Times, 5 March 1943.
Hartford E. Bess‘ Handel’s Chorus, comprised of teens and young adults, performed to standing-room-only crowds for decades. In 1943, its members included Clara B. Taylor, Pauline Farmer, Ernestine Floyd, Mattie Ford, Eunice McCall, Devera Jackson, Eunice Cooke, Dora Dickerson, Henrietta Hines, Matteele Floyd, Inez Dickerson, Deloris Haskins, Romaine Hagans, Doris Joyner, Herman Hines, Harding Thompson, Ambrose Towe, Thomas Dawson, John W. Jones, Arthur Brodie, and Rudolph Best. Unfortunately, the accompanying photograph is not available.