Through September 1. 14 people with deep roots in Wilson — 7 black, 7 white — speak of memory, history, and territory.
American Center for Photographers, 230 Goldsboro Street South, Wilson.
County schools, no. 19: Stantonsburg School, no. 3.
In the background, with the banks of windows? The Rosenwald-built Stantonsburg School!
It appears the school was in excellent condition when this photo was taken in 1997, but it was demolished within a few years.
Many thanks to my cousin Adam S. Artis for sharing this photo!
First Lieutenant H.B. Taylor Jr. assigned to Tuskegee Field.
The Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), 15 November 1943.
——
In the 1920 census of Town of Wilson, Wilson County: at 700 Green Street, preacher Henry [sic; Halley] Taylor, 40; wife Louise, 28; and children Bettie, 8, Louise, 6, Robert, 5, and Halley, 4.
In the 1930 census of Washington, D.C.: at 1715 First Street, minister Halley B. Taylor, 50; wife Marie L., 45; and children Bettie S., 19, M. Louise, 17, Robert E., 14, Halley B., Jr., 12, and Harold H., 1.
In the 1940 census of Washington, D.C.: Halley B. Taylor, 60; wife Marie L., 54; and sons Halley Jr., 22, and Holard T., 11.
On 15 June 1944, Halley Blanton Johnson married Doris Eugenia Johnson in Washington, D.C.
In 1946, Halley Blanton Taylor registered for the draft in Washington, D.C. Per his registration card, he was born 18 August 1917 in Wilson, N.C.; lived at 1715 First Street, Washington; his contact was wife Doris E. Taylor; and he was an unemployed veteran.
In the 1950 census of Paterson, Passaic County, New Jersey: medical doctor Halley B. Taylor, 32; wife Doris E., 25; and Luanne E., 3.
Halley B. Taylor Jr. died 12 February 2006 and was buried Quantico National Cemetery, Quantico, Virginia.
Family ties, no. 11: going down to Dudley.
Wilson’s emergence as a leading tobacco market town drew hundreds of African-American migrants in the decades after the 1890s. Many left family behind in their home counties, perhaps never to be seen again. Others maintained ties the best way they could.
Sarah Henderson Jacobs Silver and her husband Jesse A. Jacobs Jr. left Dudley, in southern Wayne County, North Carolina, around 1905. They came to Wilson presumably for better opportunities off the farm. Each remained firmly linked, however, to parents and children and siblings back in Wayne County as well as those who had joined the Great Migration north. This post is the eleventh in a series of excerpts and adaptations of interviews with my grandmother Hattie Henderson Ricks (1910-2001), Jesse and Sarah’s adopted daughter (and Sarah’s great-niece), revealing the ways her Wilson family stayed connected to their far-flung kin. (Or didn’t.)
Minnie Lee Simmons Budd was Sarah Henderson Jacobs’ niece, the daughter of her sister Ann Elizabeth Henderson Simmons. Minnie, a dressmaker, and her husband Jesse M. Budd married in 1904 and migrated to Philadelphia around 1905. They returned to Wayne County for several years, then settled permanently in Philadelphia in the 1920s. Both their sons died young, and Minnie asked to adopt my grandmother, but Mama Sarah would not split her and sister Mamie Henderson Holt. (Minnie later reared several of her brother Daniel Simmons’ children after their mother died.) In the late 1950s, my grandmother migrated to Philadelphia, and she and Cousin Minnie were regular visitors until Minnie’s death in 1960.
——
“Cousin Minnie she had a piano – that’s a piano there, and when you come in her front door on the right hand side, that room where it set, that was her living room. This was their house in Mount Olive. And when I went down there to stay with her two weeks, and she was practicing and playing the piano, she wanted to learn how to play the piano. Well, I guess she had already learnt. But the house was nice, nobody but her and Uncle Jesse. She wanted to adopt me. I used to go down there and stay with her and Cousin Jesse. And Cousin Cousin Annie Cox and Uncle Hardy Cox was living at that time, and I used to go down there. I stayed with her when Cousin Jesse, her husband, come up to bring tobacco to sell. They used to bring it to Wilson, and I went with them back on the car. They had a truck one time, and then they had the car. And they’d just come up and visit. Mama was living then.”
Interview of Hattie H. Ricks by Lisa Y. Henderson adapted and edited for clarity. Copyright 1994, 1996. All rights reserved. Photo in collection of Lisa Y. Henderson.
BLACK WIDE-AWAKE POST #6000! THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
John W. Perrington of Portsmouth, Ohio.
John W. Perrington appears on Wilson’s 1926 delinquent property tax list, owing $3.81. Perrington had left Wilson more than a dozen years earlier to make Portsmouth, Ohio, his home.
——
In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 614 Gold Street, widow Louise Perrington, 48; daughters Annie, 22, and Omma, 23, both cooks; son John, 17; and grandchildren John, 2, and Virginia Glastor, 4.
In the 1912 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Perrington Jno (c) lab h 324 S Spring
In the 1916 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Perrington John (c) porter h 324 S Spring
In 1917, John Perrington registered for the World War I draft in Wilson. Per his draft registration card, he was born 22 November 1894 in Wilmington, North Carolina; worked as a barber for Morris Ellis in Black Creek; and had “weak eyes.”
In the 1920 census of Reidsville, Rockingham County, North Carolina, John Perrington, 27, barber, is a boarder in the household of Robert and Annie Penn.
On 22 November 1921, John W. Perrington, 27, of Wilson, son of Weldon and Louisa Perrington, married Nannie F. Frazier, 21, of Smithfield, daughter of Leslie and Amanda Drew, in Raleigh, Wake County, N.C.
In the 1924 Portsmouth, Ohio, city directory: Perrington John W (Nannie) barber Play House Barber Shop h 1012 11th
Portsmouth Daily Times, 5 March 1925.
In the 1928 Portsmouth, Ohio, city directory: Perrington John W (Nannie) barber Gooden & Phifer h 1409 Union
In the 1929, 1930, and 1932 Portsmouth, Ohio, city directories: Perrington John W (Nannie) barber Gooden & McConnell h 1409 Union
In the 1930 census of Portsmouth, Scioto County, Ohio: at 1409 Union Street, owned and valued at $3500, barber John W. Perrington, 35; wife Nannie, 29; and stepsons John, 14, and James, 13. [The boys’ surname was actually Thomas.]
In the 1935 Portsmouth, Ohio, city directory: Perrington John W (Nannie) barber Gooden’s Barber Shop h 1409 Union
Portsmouth Times, 29 October 1936.
Portsmouth Times, 11 March 1937.
John Weldon Perrington died 29 November 1937 in Portsmouth, Scioto County, Ohio.
Helen Tate appears in dazzling fashion show.
Helen Tate won ten dollars in gold in the busiest “fashion show” ever.
Pittsburgh Courier, 9 May 1925.
——
In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: barber Noah Tate, 28; wife Hattie, 24; and children John P., 3, and Helen, 2.
In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: barber Noah Tate, 42; wife Hattie, 34; boarder Mary Jennings, 28, teacher; and children Helen, 13, Mary Jane, 8, Andrew, 11, and Noah Jr., 3.
In the 1928 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Tate Helen (c) sch tchr h 307 Pender
In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 307 North Pender, seamstress Hattie Tate, 44, widow, and children Hellen, 23, insurance agent, and Andrew, 21, hotel bellboy, as well as lodger Lucy Davis, a public school teacher.
In the 1930 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Tate Helen (c) clk h 307 Pender
B.W.A. Historical Marker Series, no. 11: Rountree Cemetery.
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.
ROUNTREE CEMETERY
In 1897 and 1906, Rountree Missionary Baptist Church purchased two lots on either side of street to establish cemetery for church members. Cemetery name later applied to two adjoining African-American burial grounds. Burials ceased ca. 1950.
Rev. Foster writes a letter of appreciation.
Frederick Douglass High School alumni association celebrates its 50th!
Big thanks to the Wilson Times for highlighting Frederick Douglass High School Alumni Association’s 50th anniversary with an interview with the lovely and ageless Amanda Mitchell Cameron!
Wilson Daily Times, 6 August 2024.
Town taxes, 1926: the colored delinquent list.
Even delinquent real estate tax lists were segregated in Jim Crow Wilson. Just over ten days from auction, dozens of African-American property owners had not yet settled their accounts. The list reveals a number of absentee owners — some living in neighboring counties and others hundreds of miles away in Great Migration cities. Samuel H. Vick‘s whopping $775.94 bill reflects the more than 100 parcels he owned across the city.
…
Wilson Daily Times, 21 August 1926.