What’s crazy is that the sheriff and a medical professional would consign a man to a notorious mental institution because of his religious fervor.
Wilson News, 24 August 1899.
——
Philip Falkner — Philip Falkland.
In the 1870 census of Joyners township, Wilson County: David, 17, and Phil Falkland, 15.
On 25 March 1880, Phil Falkland, 21, married Jane Farmer, 20, at Jane Farmer’s in Wilson County.
In the 1880 census of Toisnot township, Wilson County: Philip Falkland, 25, and wife Jane, 19.
On 27 December 1888, Phil Falkner, 32, of Toisnot township, married Rachel Woodard, 23, of Toisnot township, in Toisnot township.
On 13 April 1940, Willie Faulkland, 56, widower, born in Wilson County, N.C., to Phil Faulkland and Jane Farmer, married Ella Pender, 58, widow, born in Wilson County to William Hinnant and Lou Hinnant, in Emporia, Greensville County, Virginia.
Willie Faulkland died 1 November 1955 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was born 16 November 1883 in Wilson County to Phillip Faulkland and Jannie Farmer; lived at 718 Viola Street; was married; and worked as laborer. Ella Faulkland was informant.
Samuel J. Faulkland died 27 January 1975 in Richmond, Virginia. Per his death certificate, he was born 21 July 1886 in North Carolina to Fields Faulkland and Jane Farmerand worked as a clerk.
Peter Cherry
Perhaps, Peter Cherry, born about 1879, who appears in Edgecombe County, N.C., records.
I’m reading Grace Elizabeth Hale’s In the Pines: A Lynching, A Lie, A Reckoning (about which, more, later), and this passage stood out: “The categories of public and private did not quite capture how schools operated in the early twentieth century in many areas of the rural South. In one sense, most schools were ‘private,’ meaning they were organized and run by the families that sent students and provided a building and other resources. In another sense, they were almost all public, as most got some funding — for Black schools it could be a pittance — from public revenues ….”
Until just after World War I, Wilson County’s Board of Education comprised dozens of tiny school districts designated white or colored. The schools in these districts dated as far back as the 1880s and, by 1900, one-, two, and three-room schoolhouses, mostly serving white students, dotted the landscape. The Board consolidated its white schools into several modern brick facilities in the early 1920s, and many of the old wooden buildings, already long past their prime, were converted to use for Black students.
However, a few early African-American schools were purpose-built on land donated or sold at low cost by Black farmers to “colored school” commissioners for the benefit of the community. Howard Colored School in western Wilson County was an example.
In the summer of 1891, A.M. Thompson (a well-to-do white farmer) and Ira Howard, committeemen for colored district number 17, paid John and Mary Howard Taylor a nominal sum for a small plot of land. John Taylor was Ira Howard’s brother-in-law. The Howards, Taylors, and other families, such as Eatmons and Brantleys, descended from free people of color with close kinship ties to white families on both sides of the Nash-Wilson county border. They were generally prosperous farmers, and it is not surprising their members took leading roles in the establishment of a community school.
This deed made this the 6th day of June AD 1891 Between John Taylor and wife Mary of the County of Wilson and State of North Carolina of the first part and A.M. Thompson and Ira Howard School Committee for the Colored Race in district No. 17 and State and County aforesaid of the second part witnesseth that whereas the said John Taylor and wife Mary has for and in consideration of the sum of Ten Dollars to them in hand paid by the said A.M. Thompson Ira Howard as school committee out of Public School funds appropriated to said district, the receipt and payment whereof is hereby acknowledged have bargained and sold and by these presents does hereby bargain sell and convey unto the said A.M. Thompson and Ira Howard and to their successors in office one lot of land lying and being in Taylors township Wilson County and State aforesaid commencing at a red oak on the line between T.R. [Thomas Ruffin] Lamm and John Taylor thence South to a black jack oak thence East to lightwood stake thence North to a lightwood stake thence with west to the beginning containing one acre more or less to have and to hold and to their successors in office bounded by the lands of T.R. Lamm and ….”
Deed book 30, page 82, Wilson County Register of Deeds Office, Wilson.
——
A.M. Thompson
John and Mary Taylor
In the 1880 census of Taylors township, Wilson County: farmer John Taylor, 34; wife Mary, 25; and children Mouzouria, 4, and George, 2.
In the 1900 census of Taylors township, Wilson County: farmer John Taylor, 50; wife Mary, 45; and children Jessie, 19, Hubard, 14, John R., 13, Eddie, 10, and Addie, 6.
In the 1910 census of Taylors township, Wilson County: farmer Mary Taylor, 55, widow; children George, 31, Jesse, 29, John R., 23, Eddie, 20, and Addie, 17; and brother Allison Howard, 34.
Addie Brantley died 15 February 1917 in Taylors township, Wilson County. Per her death certificate, she was 22 years old; was born in North Carolina to John Taylor and Mary Howard; was married; and worked as a farmhand. Charlie Brantley was informant.
John Richard Taylor died 7 November 1917 in Wilson township, Wilson County. Per his death certificate, he was born 2 March 1884 in Wilson County to John Taylor and Mary Howard; was married; worked as a carpenter; and was buried in Wilson County. Eddie Taylor was informant.
Jessie Taylor died 23 June 1920 in Taylors township, Wilson County. Per his death certificate, he was 38 years old; was born in Wilson County to John Taylor and Mary Howard; was married to Fannie Taylor; and worked as a farmer. Gilbert Howard was informant.
Missouri Moore died 28 July 1920 in Taylors township, Wilson County. Per her death certificate, she was 46 years old; was born in Wilson County to John Taylor and Mary Howard; and was married. Dewitt Moore was informant.
In the 1930 census of Taylors township, Wilson County: widow Mary Howard, 80, and brother Gilbert Howard, 65.
Mary Taylor died 31 May 1930 in Wilson township, Wilson County. Per her death certificate, she was 80 years old; was born in Wilson County to Deal Howard and Rhoda Eatman; was a widow; was a farmer; and was buried in Wilson. Gilbert Howard was informant.
Do you recognize any of the children or teachers in the photograph taken on the steps of the Wilson Colored Graded School? I estimate that it was taken circa 1920.
In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: widow Nannie Best, 48, cook; her children Francis, 28, cook, Eliza, 24, public school teacher, and son Aaron, 9; and lodgers, Lula, 24, cook, and Nannie Best, 16, private nurse.
On 27 November 1919, Aaron Best, 21, of Wilson, son of Aaron and Nan Best, married Willie Burton, 21, of Wilson, daughter of Will and Mary Burton, in Wilson. A.M.E. Zion minister B.P. Coward performed the ceremony in the presence of William H. Phillips, Jewel J. Phillips, and Thomas Bowser.
In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 330 South Spring Street: widow Nannie Best, 61, her daughter Frank, 30, son Aaron, 21, daughter-in-law Estelle, 19, widowed brother Harper Best, 65, and a lodger, nurse Henrietta Colvert, 24.
In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 406 East Walnut, ice plant laborer Aaron Best, 31; wife Estell, 31; and children William A., 9, Audry L., 6, Rudolph V., 5, Vera M., 3, and Royce D., 1.
Vera Mae Best died 15 June 1938 in Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was born 1 November 1927 in Wilson to Aaron Best and Estelle Burton; was a student; and lived at 406 Walnut Street. She was buried in Wilson.
In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 406 Walnut, rented for $12/month, Aaron Best, 39; wife Estelle, 39; and children Rudolph, 14, Royce, 10, Harper and Gerald, 8, Eddie, 7, and Nannie Jean, 5.
Willie Estelle Best died 16 November 1940 at her home at 1009 East Nash Street, Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was born 6 April 1900 in Henderson, N.C., to William Burton and Mary Jane Hicks and was married to Aaron Best. She was buried in Rountree Cemetery [perhaps the Best plot in Odd Fellows?]
In 1942, Aaron Best registered for the World War II draft in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born 21 September 1899 in Wilson; lived at 1009 East Nash Street; his contact was mother Nan E. Best, same address; and he worked for a contractor at Marine Barracks, New River, Onslow County, North Carolina.
In 1943, Rudolph Best registered for the World War II draft in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born 17 September 1925 in Wilson; lived at 1009 East Nash Street; his contact was Aaron Best, same address; and he worked part-time at Briggs Hotel.
William Aaron Best died 21 August 1949. Per his death certificate, he was born 21 September 1900 in Wilson County to Aaron and Nannie Best; was a widower; and worked as a laborer for Export Tobacco Company. Audrey Best, 1009 East Nash, was informant. He was buried in Rountree Cemetery [perhaps the Best plot in Odd Fellows?]
Established in 1923, the Tuskegee Veterans Administration Hospital was the first and only hospital to provide equitable healthcare to African-American veterans returning from World War I. This historic institution faced fierce opposition from the Ku Klux Klan, which sought to maintain segregationist control over the hospital. Available on YouTube, a new PBS mini-documentary explores Tuskegee VA’s origins, its significance for Black veterans’ healthcare, and its battle against the Klan and Jim Crow. Discover the legacy and impact of the Tuskegee VA Hospital on the fight for equality and justice — and the role played by Wilson’s own Dr. Joseph H. Ward!
“Tuskegee: Where a Hospital Became a Battleground” is part of the In the Margins series produced by Alabama Public Television, PBS Utah, and WHYY for PBS.
I’ve written before of the 1951 consolidation of Wilson County’s tiny rural African-American graded schools following a lawsuit by Black parents seeking adequate education for their children.
“Wilson County Schools Institute Large Expansion Program This Year; Two New Colored Schools Are Among Listed Improvements,” Wilson Daily Times, 11 August 1950.
Some were Rosenwald schools, but others predated that program. During a recent visit to Wilson, I began to try to pin down the locations of the school buildings, nearly all of which have disappeared from the landscape.
In 1951, the county’s three school systems — Wilson City Schools, Wilson County Board of Education, and Elm City Schools — began to run notices in the paper publicizing auctions of the excessed buildings. Finding deeds of sale for most of the school properties was simple, but interpreting their archaic metes and bounds — with references to grocery stores, churches, and long-dead neighbors — is a frustrating exercise. If time and energy ever allow, I’ll run title searches forward to pinpoint locations.
I’ve created a spreadsheet to track what I find and of course will keep you posted. In the meantime, in case a name or place resonates with you, here are the descriptions set forth in deeds of sale filed at Wilson County Register of Deeds Office:
Brooks Colored School. Deed book 447, page 291.
Wilbanks Colored School. Deed book 447, page 37.
New Vester Colored School. Deed book 445, page 400.
Bynums Colored School. Deed book 445, page 333.
Williamson Colored School. Deed book 447, page 330.
Jones Hill Colored School. Deed book 445, page 322.
Turner School and Pender School. Deed book 505, page 295.
Minshew Colored School. Deed book 465, page 224.
Sims Colored School. Deed book 463, page 92.
Calvin Level Colored School. Deed book 463, page 37.
Yelverton Colored School. Deed book 447, page 187.
Lofton Colored School. Deed book 447, page 184.
Howard Colored School. Deed book 447, page 203.
Evansdale Colored School. Deed book 447, page 249.
Stantonsburg Colored School. Deed book 445, page 325.
Sallie Barbour School. Deed book 441, page 5.
Rocky Branch Colored School. Deed book 449, page 380 (correcting deed book 447, page 23).
Farmers Mill Colored School. Deed book 447, page 278.
I did a quick tour of Black Creek’s tidy little cemetery. As noted earlier, historically it was not open to burials of African-Americans, but I had this unexpected encounter while there:
Off the top of my head, I cannot think of another headstone Best carved for a white customer, but I am not surprised that he welcomed the trade. (Note that Inez S. Holland’s death date was hand-cut in Best’s style 15 years after he died.)
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.
FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF ELM CITY
Est. 1904. In 1964, Ku Klux Klan threatened integrated volunteers painting church, prompting state police intervention.
For more about the church and this incident, see here and here.
In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 506 Green, railroad laborer James Auston, 54; wife Martha, 49, “wash & iron”; cousin Neicy Edmundson, 39, cook; and son Charles Auston, 23.
In the 1922 and 1925 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directories: Edmundson Necie (c) cook h 507 E Green
Edwin Cooke — in 1940, Edwin Donald Cooke registered for the World War II draft in East Orange, Essex County, New Jersey. Per his registration card, he was born 25 December 1911 in Wilson, N.C.; lived at 255 Elmwood Avenue, East Orange; his contact was wife Natalie Rose Cooke; and he worked for Mrs. Thomas O. Sloane, 55 Montrose Avenue, South Orange.
Eunice Carter — Eunice Carter Fisher died 13 November 1970 in Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was born 20 November 1884 to Rufus and Nancy [Godette] Carter; was a widow; lived at 1321 East Washington Street; and was a retired laborer. Addie F. Morgan was informant.
