The 1920 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory lists some of the staff members of the breakaway Wilson Normal and Industrial Institute, known variously as the Industrial School, the Independent School, the Wilson Training School, and here, Wilson Normal School.
Principal Mary M. Jennings and Georgia Burke (not Burton) were among the teachers who resigned in 1918 after superintendent Charles L. Coon’s assault on Mary C. Euell.
Today, about a dozen Barton College students (including three from abroad) demonstrated their commitment to community, spending their Day of Service at Odd Fellows with Lane Street Project’s Senior Force. This is the third year we’ve hosted Barton students, and we are grateful both for their help and for the opportunity to share some Wilson history. Thank you, Professor Lydia Walker, for making and keeping this connection!
Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 1 October 1938.
Rev. Richard A.G. Foster made the most of his few years in Wilson. Among other things, he led the fight for improved school facilities for Black students in town and in the county. With Camillus L. Darden, he successfully mobilized African-American voters to put unresponsive county commissioners out of office. The two new schools they eventually secured were Frederick Douglass High School in Elm City and Samuel H. Vick Elementary School in Wilson.
We read here of North Carolina’s Good Roads Policy, which authorized counties to use mobile convict labor camps, manned overwhelmingly by African-American convicts, to build roads. Above, minutes from the 8 September 1903 Wilson County Commission meeting reflect the assignment of “the convict force” to Toisnot township to work on a road project for up to a month. George D. Green, chairman of the Commission, was ordered to “take such steps as necessary to supply the food and have same cooked by the convicts of this County for the road hands.” Also, W.H. Pridgen was ordered to “have 3 sections of 16 feet each of Portable convict quarters built.”
This 1996 article about a prison cage found behind Angus Barn in Raleigh and donated to the State Department of Corrections includes photographs of two other portable convict cages known to exist today in North Carolina. See also this 1994 article.
In April 1896, Cherry Hinnant, Henry R. Hinnant and wife Pennie Adella Hinnant, and John T. Revell sold Dock H. Hinnant, Vandorn Hinnant, and Guilford Wilder a parcel of land adjacent to the “colored Christian church,” i.e. Rocky Branch United Church of Christ, and “colored free school” number 12, i.e. the precursor to Rocky Branch School. The Hinnants and Wilder were officers and trustees of Rocky Blue Lodge #56, Prince Hall Masons.
Deed Book 43, page 442, Wilson County Register of Deeds Office, Wilson.
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On 15 September 1915, Lucintha Miller executed a will that bequeathed ten dollars to her son Cleveland Miller of Norfolk, Virginia, and her remaining property to daughter Cora Washington of Wilson.
Maggie Foster Barnes (1911-1945).
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In the 1920 census of Stantonsburg township, Wilson County: tenant farmer Claud Foster, 37; wife Cora, 37; and children Mammie, 16, Booker T., 12, Maggie, 9, Claud Jr., 7, Carry, 6, Leroy, 5, Sammie, 1, and Estell, 1 month.
On 11 December 1927, Rosevelt Barnes, 19, of Stantonsburg, son of Jim Henry and Appie Barnes, married Maggie Foster, 15, of Stantonsburg, daughter of Claud and Cora Foster, in Stantonsburg. A.M.E. Zion minister M.M. Patrick performed the ceremony in the presence of Edith Bell Barnes, Orlando Williams, and Pearlie Camron.
In the 1930 census of Taylor township, Wilson County: farmer Roosevelt Barnes, 19; wife Maggie, 18; and daughter Hellen, 2.
Roosevelt Barnes Jr. died 21 February 1934 in Wilson County. Per his death certificate, he was born 15 June 1933 in Wilson County to Roosevelt Barnes and Maggie Foster; and was buried in Wilson [probably, Vick Cemetery.]
In the 1940 census of Taylor township, Wilson County: farmer Roosevelt Barnes, 32; wife Maggie, 29; children Hellen, 12, Mammie Lee, 8, and Claud, 2; and lodger [nephew] Jimmie D. Foster, 19.
Roosevelt Barnes registered for the 1940 draft in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born 28 February 1911 in Wilson County; lived on Route 1, Wilson; his contact was wife Maggie Foster Barnes; and he worked for Doc Mercer.
Maggie Barnes died 23 April 1945 in Brooklyn, New York.
Photo courtesy of Ancestry.com user Robert Faithful.
Why was the Wilson County Commission paying Rev. O.L.W. Smith, and why was his remittance reduced to $833 per year in September 1902?
Wilson County Minutes of County Commission, Wilson County Public Records 1895-1914, http://www.familysearch.org.
The City has updated the City Projects page of its website to include its spend plan for Vick Cemetery. At the end of the short list provided to me by the Mayor, there’s an additional item:
Rather than with robust, proactive engagement, this is how transparency and accountability show up for Vick Cemetery. One-way and passive.
As always, we press on.