Travel

Home for the holidays.

  • Robert Vick
  • Madelia Wilkins
  • Irene Wilson — in the 1930 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Wilson Irene (c) student r 302 N Vick (Wilson married Ralph Sherrod, below, on 25 March 1932 in Greensville County, Virginia.)
  • Ralph Sherrod
  • Floyd Fisher — in the 1928 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Fisher Floyd (c) student r 624 E Green
  • Willie Hargrove
  • Inez Speight — in the 1930 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Speight Inez (c) student r 308 Hackney

Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 3 January 1931.

  • William McCollum
  • Levi Godwin — in 1940, Levi Godwin registered for the World War II draft in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born 29 January 1910 in Wilson; lived at 900 Washington Street, Wilson; his contact was wife Esther Godwin; and he worked for North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company, 633 East Nash Street.
  • James Knight — perhaps, James H. Knight Jr.
  • Ethel Moye

Lula Howard goes North to visit.

Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 1 June 1940.

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In the 1900 census of Taylor township, Wilson County: farmer Doctor Farmer, 45; wife Elizabeth, 43; children Loula, 16, William L., 13, Ella E., 12, Emma L., 9, Walter W., 5, and Geneva A., 2; plus, boarder Sarah Parker, 24.

On 28 March 1905, William Howard, 22, of Taylor township, son of Ira and Harriet Howard, married Lula Farmer, 22, of Taylor township, daughter of Dock and Elizabeth Farmer, in Wilson.

In the 1910 census of Taylor township, Wilson County: farmer William Howard, 26; wife Lula A., 26; and children Percy Lee, 3, and Essie May, 11 months.

William Howard died 18 January 1918 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was born 30 June 1892 in Wilson County to Ira Howard and Harriett Wilkins; was married; and worked as a farmer. Lula Howard of Wilson was informant.

In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 906 Atlanta [sic] Street, owned and valued at $2000, Lula Howdard [sic], 47; daughter Essie Pender, 22; son-in-law Fred Pender, 24; children Lara, 17, William, 16, Arthur P., 14, and Walter L., 11.

In 1940, William Ira Howard registered for the World War II draft in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born 27 October 1913 in Wilson; lived at 906 East Atlantic; his contact was other Lula Annie Howard; and he worked for C.L. Hardy at Service Barber Shop, 113 South Tarboro Street. He “can’t hear out of right ear.”

In 1940, Arthur Poe Howard registered for the World War II draft in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born 12 October 1915 in Wilson; lived at 906 Atlanta; his contact was other Lula Anna Howard; and worked for Imperial Tobacco Company.

In 1940, Walter Lenord Howard registered for the World War II draft in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born 6 May 1917 in Wilson; lived at 906 Atlanta; his contact was other Lula Anna Howard; and he was unemployed.

In the 1950 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 906 Atlanta, widow Lula A. Howard, 66; children Ezzie M., 40; and granddaughter Barbara J., 3.

Lula Howard died 27 May 1959 in Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was born 23 November 1883 in Wilson County to Dock Farmer; was the widow of William Howard; and was buried in Howard Cemetery, Wilson County.

Back-to-school in Wilson, October 1934.

Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 6 October 1934.

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School opened on October 1.

Sara Shade visited her brother John Shade in New York.

Walter and Sarah Hines and their son Carl Hines and Camillus and Norma Darden visited the Chicago World’s Fair.

Herbert Reid came home to see his mother Eleanor P. Reid.

Rupert Brown and Esther Moore went off to Livingston College. Mary Della Wilkins went to Fisk. James Bess left for N.C. State College (now North Carolina Central University). William C. Hines went to Johnson C. Smith. Cora J. Whitted went to Bennett College, and sisters Mary Frances and Connie Freeman went to Barber-Scotia College, where Scottie Hines was an instructor.

Wilson news, August 1930.

Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 23 August 1930.

The various African-American social clubs of the early 1900s deserve of a post of their own, and it’s coming soon. Meanwhile, we meet the Ever Ready Club, which gave a “social” at the Whitley on a Friday night in August 1930.

Where was Green Wreath/Green Reef Park?

The “local graduate nurses club” was probably the Mary Mahoney Nurses Club. Its officers were Ada D. Artis (Mrs. C.E. Artis), Charlotte M. Faison, and Henrietta Colvert. Picnic guests were Sarah E. Hines, Elba Vick Valle (Mrs. Carlos C. Valle) and her daughter Mabel Valle, Catherine Clark, Lelia Washington, and Willie L. Hargrove.

Hartford Bess, though unable to complete his studies at Fisk, went on to make an enduring musical mark in Wilson.

Vicks visit “thriving Afro-American settlement.”

Philadelphia Tribune, 19 August 1916.

In 1916, Samuel H. Vick drove his “big touring car” on a visit to Whitesboro, New Jersey, with his young son George White Vick, Clarence Dillard, and Alfred Robinson. On the way back, they stopped in Washington, D.C.

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Cornet player Worsley visits Suffolk.

Suffolk News-Herald, 17 May 1940.

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  • James Worsley

In the 1910 census of Tarboro, Edgecombe County, N.C.: on Saint James Street, Albert Worsly, 39; wife Maggie, 34; and children Lavinia, 15, George, 13, Johnny, 9, James, 6, Maud, 4, and Willis, 3.

In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 900 Mercer Street, owned and valued at $2000, James Worsley, 26, musician; wife Mabey, 26, laundry; son Frank, 12; and mother-in-law Martha Melton, 56, widow.

In the 1930 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory:

In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 900 Mercer Street, owned and valued at $1000, widow Marie Melton, 71; daughter Madie M. Worsley, 45, “in service”; grandson Frank Barnes, 25, scrap room overseer in tobacco factory; granddaughter Jewel Worsley, 8; nephew Jim Barnes, 39, gardener assistant; roomer Percy Farrell, 37, rolls hogsheads in redrying plant; grandson James Williams, 30, stick boy in redrying plant; and son-in-law James Worsley, 37, trumpet player in dance band.

In the 1950 census of Goldsboro, Wayne County: at 704 Crawford Street, James Worsley, 46, and Lillian Worsley, 27, were two of four minstrel show entertainers lodging in the household of Ransom Corbett.

James Albert Worsley Jr. died 17 August 1953 in Tarboro, Edgecombe County, N.C. Per his death certificate, he was born 16 December 1904 in Edgecombe County to Albert Worsley and Maggie Caine; was divorced; lived at 404 Wagner Street, Tarboro; was a musician; and was buried in Wilson Cemetery, Princeville, N.C.

Vick family and friends take a roadtrip.

The Afro-American (Baltimore, Md.), 25 September 1926.

Samuel H. Vick, his daughter Doris Vick, and Vick’s cousin (whom he informally adopted) Bessie Parker Hargrave drove from North Carolina “North” (probably to New Jersey) with Presbyterian minister and educator Clarence Dillard and Eliza Bass, whom I have not identified further.