Lane Street Project: please bring that same energy.

More from Thursday’s council meeting. As the figurative credits were rolling on public comments, Glenn Wright focused attention on the Wilson County Memorial Fountain, i.e. the Confederate monument squatting at the center of town in the county courthouse’s front yard. Wilson County Commissioners have been agonizing over this embarrassment for a year and still it sits.

Per the Wilson Times,

Friends, please read that two times. “In those times, people could not read”??? Gaona ran for mayor last fall. Wilson dodged a bullet.

Public comments ended, and Mayor Carlton Stevens started straightening up the papers on his desk, noting, “you all need to go to county meeting” with this. The monument is not the city’s business. Suddenly, Rev. Michael S. Bell, late of “Let the Dead Rest” fame, let fly.

Our direct ancestors, our dead stripped of headstones and desecrated by power poles within the past 30 years? Demand answers about that and you’re accused of creating “animosity and strife.” But a hundred year-old memorial to the Confederacy? Now that really gets his blood boiling.

Don’t mistake me. Wilson County needs to find a way a haul this segregationist relic away from its front door. Or if North Carolina law doesn’t offer a workaround, the County needs to erect signage providing context and plainly stating its original purpose — COLORED and WHITE water fountains and all. But I am put off by Rev. Bell’s indignation about this county matter, yet relative indifference to an issue squarely within the purview of City Council. More than four years have passed since I first reached out to council with questions and concerns about the removal and destruction of Vick Cemetery’s headstones. Since then, not one finger — Bell’s or anybody else’s — has been lifted to investigate this tragedy or mitigate its consequences. Not one council member’s emotional outburst has demanded justice for Vick’s dead and their families.

Wilson County Commission, you’re taking too long to handle your business. Rev. Bell, propose a council proclamation about the monument, then sweep around your own front door.

Historic Black Business Series, no. 5: Ideal Pharmacy.

The 500 block of East Nash Street is justly remembered as the 20th century epicenter of Wilson’s African-American-owned businesses. However, in the late 1800s and early 1900s, Black entrepreneurs and tradespeople also operated across the tracks. As Wilson’s downtown experiences a resurgence, let’s rediscover and celebrate these pioneering men and women.

Check in each Sunday for the latest in the Historic Black Business Series!

Dr. Frank S. Hargrave, newly arrived in Wilson, established Ideal Pharmacy circa 1905. On 14 September 1906, Dr. Hargrave sold to F.O. Williston “all of the Drugs, Medicines, Sundries, and fixtures of the Ideal Pharmacy,” as well as accounts payable and receivable, but not the soda fountain, tanks, and other apparatus in the shop. Williston, a Cumberland County, N.C.-native who married a Wilsonian, did not remain in town long, and by 1908, Darcey C. Yancey was co-owned of the Ideal with Dr. Hargrave.

1908 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory.

1908 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory.

Wilson Daily Times, 11 November 1910.

Per the 1912 Wilson, North Carolina, Industrial & Commercial Directory, “IDEAL PHARMACY — This is the only colored Drug store in Wilson, and it has been established for about seven years. The proprietor, D.C. Yancy, Ph.G., receiving his degree from the Leonard School of Pharmacy, Shaw University Class of 1905-06, has been connected with the store for the past three years and has been sole proprietor for the past year and a half. He reports that the business is constantly growing and he hopes within a very few years to have one of the largest stores in the City. He personally presses over the prescription department and absolute accuracy is his watchword. His motto is ‘Not how cheap but how pure.’ The general stock includes fresh drugs, patent medicines, Tobacco, Sundries, etc, soda fountain in connection. 109 South Goldsboro street, phone 219.”

The 1912 Wilson city directory lists Mark Farmer as a porter at Ideal Pharmacy.

Sometime in 1914, the Wilson Times published a three-page insert highlighting the achievements of the town’s African-American community. Not surprisingly, many of the businesses touted placed ads in the pullout, including Ideal Pharmacy: “Any physician’s prescription will be filled at Ideal Pharmacy exactly as it would be by the best drug stores of the country. We guarantee the quality of drugs, accuracy of compounders, reasonableness of charges, and unexcelled service. Give us a trial.” By then, though, the drugstore had moved from Goldsboro Street to 546 East Nash, nearer Yancey’s clientele.

309 Elba Street, a requiem.

I was saddened, but not surprised,* to see this bit in the Wilson Times‘ coverage of Thursday’s Wilson City Council meeting:

309 Elba Street is one of my favorite houses in East Wilson, and I’ve written about it here, here and here, and here‘s a glimpse of it in happy times. Its charmingly quirky details made it a unique addition to the neighborhood, and I would love to know who designed and built it.

I’ve found a bit more about the house’s history. I knew it was built about 1930, and veterinarian Elijah L. Reid and family lived in it briefly around that time. Dr. Reid had owned the lot since 1908. He and his wife Ietta Staton Reid lost the house early in the Depression to Home Owners Loan Corporation, which sold it in October 1938 to Matthew James Smith for $3350. The deed carries this property description:

Deed book 246, page 573, Wilson County Register of Deeds Office, Wilson.

Smith mostly rented the house out, but was living there when he died on 27 November 1949. Per his death certificate, Smith was born 30 May 1889 in Greene County, N.C., to Robert Smith and Ella Harper; was a widower; worked in farming; and lived at “corner of Viola and Elbon Streets.” The house has remained the property of his heirs for the 75 years since.

As no one spoke on 309 Elba’s behalf at public hearing, I offer this post as eulogy.

Talk about site-built — 309 has front doors and porches facing both Elba and Viola Streets. The house is chock-a-block with Craftsman features, including a low-pitched roof, deep eaves, extended rafter tails, brackets, thick tapered porch columns, and shingled gables.

Oh! the unexpected gracefulness of the brackets supporting the oriel window.

If no one else does, I will miss 309 Elba and rue the loss of this remnant of East Wilson’s vibrant early years.

[*133 Tarboro? Yeah, I am pretty surprised about this one. The nomination report for the Wilson Central Business-Tobacco Warehouse Historic District described Tomlinson and Company building at 131-133 South Tarboro as “[t]he only surviving metal-clad building in Wilson, these paired storefronts are impressive examples of the use of metal to commercial buildings in turn of the century North Carolina. They were built circa 1895 ….” In other words, they’re among the oldest buildings in Wilson.]

Photographs by Lisa Y. Henderson, August 2022.

The obituary of Arlando R. Dawson of Cleveland, Ohio.

The Charlotte News, 12 April 1980.

Arlando R. Dawson was another of the accomplished children of Alexander D. and Lucy Hill Dawson.

——

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.

In the 1916 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Dawson Orlando (c) film opr h 505 E Vance

In 1918, Arlander Richard Dawson registered for the World War I draft in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born 26 August 1900; lived at 121 Pender Street, Wilson; worked as a waiter at Girard Hotel, 44th Street, New York City; and his nearest relative was A.D. Dawson, 121 Pender Street.

The Charlotte Observer, 3 May 1923.

In the 1929 Winston-Salem, N.C., city directory: Dawson Arlando R (c) tchr Columbian Hghts Sch bds 636 Bruce

Clementine Azalee Dawson, daughter of Arlando and Clementine Hill Dawson, was born 23 June 1929 in Charlotte, Mecklenburg County.

In the 1930 census of Winston-Salem, Forsyth County, North Carolina: at 636 Bruce Street, lodgers William B. Stinson, 22; Arlando R. Dawson, 29; and George F. Newell, 24; all public school teachers.

Also, in the 1930 census of Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, North Carolina: school paper editor William Hill, 58; wife Alice, 50; daughter Clementine Dawson, 23, school teacher; granddaughter Clementine A. Dawson, 7 months; and mother Caroline Hill, 85, widow.

In the 1934 Winston-Salem, N.C., city directory: Dawson Arlando R (c) tchr Atkins High Sch h 1422 Hattie av

In the 1940 census of Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio: at 10121 South Boulevard, city school teacher Arlanda Dawson, 36; wife Clementine, 31; and daughter Azalea, 10.

In 1942, Arlando Roween Dawson registered for the World War II draft in Cleveland, Ohio. Per his registration card, he was born 26 August 1902 in Wilson, N.C.; lived at 10121 S. Boulevard, Cleveland; worked for the Cleveland Board of Education; and his contact was Clementine H. Dawson.

Clementine Hill Dawson died 15 July 1943 in Cleveland.

Call and Post (Cleveland, Oh.), 31 July 1943.

Arlando Dawson remarried in 1948.

Call and Post (Cleveland, Oh.), 19 June 1948.

In 1953, he and his daughter were oddly featured in a Call and Post article, “Cleveland Father-Son Teams Are Doubly Proud”: “‘Through a daughter’s marriage, fathers inherit sons,’ believes Arlando Dawson of South Boulevard. Dawson is an English teacher at Kennard Junior High school and his daughter, Mrs. Azalea Dawson Wagner, is a teacher at R.B. Hayes Elementary school. He holds a B.A. from Johnson C. Smith University, Charlotte, N.C., and the M.A. from Western Reserve. A graduate of West Virginia State College, Mrs. Wagner is working on her M.A. at Kent State University.”

Call and Post (Cleveland, Oh.), 20 June 1953.

Minceys testify in support of a pension application.

In 1892, Greene County, N.C., native Caleb Williams’ children filed an application to receive pension benefits. Williams, who had been enslaved by Isaac Williams, had enlisted in Company H, 14th Regiment, United Colored Heavy Artillery, in 1865.

Two men with Wilson County ties testified in support of the claim. On 3 June 1892, 56 year-old Prince Minshew of Snow Hill, Greene County, swore that he knew Williams was in the United States Army and that he was present at Williams’ death.

On 30 August 1892, Prince Minshew gave a second statement alongside Judie Ham of Shine, Greene County. They attested that they had been witnesses to the marriage of Caleb Williams and Patsey Minshew in 1865, but the couple had lived as man and wife long prior.  They also identified three of the couple’s children — Alice Williams, Absalom Williams, and Annie Williams Fields.

Within a few years, Prince Minshew and his family moved to Wilson, shifting their surname slightly along the way. In the 1900 census of Wilson town, Wilson township, Wilson County: farmer Prince Mensey, 60; wife Susan, 52; children Ben, 19, Emma, 19, and Oscar, 12; and niece Rosetta Mensey, 7. Prince Mincey’s son Ben, of course, was famed Chief Mincey of the Red Hot Hose Company. Prince, Ben, and Oscar Mincey — and likely other family family members — are buried in a family plot in Odd Fellows Cemetery.

On 25 October 1904, Lewis Mincey, 60, of Wilson also provided an affidavit. He had been born enslaved on the William Edmundson plantation, which was near the Isaac Williams plantation on which Caleb Williams was held. He recalled Caleb Williams’ marriage to a woman named Jane, who died on Haywood Edmundson’s plantation. Williams then married Lewis Mincey’s sister Patsey Mincey. Caleb Williams died of “lung troubles” in 1874; Patsey Mincey Williams died in 1887.

In the 1880 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on Barnes Street, farm worker Louis Minshew, 47, and wife Anna, 30.

In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on Moore Street, odd jobs laborer Louis Minsey, 75, and wife Annie, 60. [Mincey reported that both parents were born in Virginia.]

In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on Moore Street, gardener Lewis Mency, 70, and wife Annie, 72.

Lewis Mincey died 6 March 1923 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was 63 [sic] years old; was born in Greene County, N.C., to Jack Mincey and an unnamed mother; was a widower; and had worked as a day laborer. He was buried in Wilson, N.C., and Benjamin Mincey was informant.

I suspect Prince, Lewis, and Patsey Mincey were siblings. Prince Mincey named a son “Jack,” apparently after their father. Prince’s son Benjamin was the informant for his uncle Lewis’ death certificate.

File #545736, Application of Minor Children of Caleb Williams for Pension, National Archives and Records Administration. Thank you, Trisha Blount-Hewitt, for bringing my attention to this file. For more details, see Trisha’s blogpost.

Warren burned badly in bed.

Wilson Daily Times, 1 January 1948.

Alexander Warren in fact succumbed three days later.

——

In the 1880 census of Wilson, Wilson County: laborer Pompee Warren, 54, wife Della, 26, and sons John, 12, and Alexander, 2.

In 24 December 1896, Alex Warren, 23, married Ida Davis, 22, in Wilson. Baptist minister W.T.H. Woodard performed the ceremony in the presence of Emma Burton, Mary Davis and Isaac Thompson.

In the 1900 census of Wilson, Wilson County: Elic Warren, 24; wife Ida, 25; and son John, 3.

In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 367 Spring Street, ice factory blocker Alex Warren, 34, wife Ada, 36, and son John, 19, the latter two, factory workers.

In 1918, Alexander Warren registered for the World War I draft in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born 13 August 1876; lived at 704 Spring; worked for R.P. Watson as a laborer; and his nearest relative was his wife. He signed his card ‘Alex Warren.’

In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 704 Spring, Alec Warren, 43, tobacco factory worker; wife Ida, 47, tobacco factory worker; and son John, 11.

In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on South Spring, Alec Warren, 51, R.P. Watson truck driver, and wife Ida, 53.

In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on Walnut Street, widower John Parks, 49, laborer at tobacco redrying factory; children Beatrice, 27,  John Henry, 26, Ida Doretha, 22, Mark Alexander, 21, Helen Gray, 17, and Douglas Wright Parks, 15; children [sic] Fred Woods Jr., 9, Vivian Lavonne, 8, and George Randolph, 4; and father-in-law Alexander Warren, 63.

Alexander Warren died 4 January 1948 in Wilson. Per his death certificate: he was born about 1879 in Wilson County to Pompie and Della Warren; had worked as a laborer; resided at 403 E. Walnut Street; and was buried at Rountree cemetery. His neighbor John Parks of 405 E. Walnut was informant.

The obituary of Florence Everette.

Wilson Daily Times, 31 November 1945.

——

Florence Everett died 27 January 1945 in Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was 65 years old; was born in Johnston County, N.C., to Henry Smith and Harriett Green; lived at 802 Happy Hill; was a widow; worked in farming; and was buried in Rountree Cemetery.

Rev. Richard D. Dunn, doing great service to create better feeling between the races?

The Day (New London, Conn.), 27 July 1925.

I have not identified which Missionary Baptist church Richard D. Dunn pastored. Maybe because … he was actually an A.M.E. Zion minister?

Charlotte News, 9 April 1928.

Asheville Citizen-Times, 30 March 1929.

——

In the 1880 census of Contentnea Neck township, Lenoir County, North Carolina: on Harper River Road, farmer Richard Dunn, 52; wife Martha, 44; children William, 26, Jennie, 21, Sarah, 15, Manoah, 14, Robert, 12, John L., 9, Richard, 5, and Martha, 2; and grandson Herman, 2.

In the 1900 census of Falling Creek township, Lenoir County: Richard Dunn, 24; wife Qunce Ann, 22; and children John, 5, Almeter, 3, and Charlie, 1.

In the 1910 census of Falling Creek township, Lenoir County: on Harper River Road, Richard Dunn, 34; wife Quincey Ann, 30; children John, 15, Almeta, 13, Charlie, 11, Noah, 8, Lillian B., 7, and Rosa A., 2; and Pearlie Johnson, 22, widow.

In the 1922 and 1925 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Dunn Richd Rev (c) h 800 E Nash

In the 1930 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Dunn Richd Rev (c; Annie) h 220 (140) Ashe

In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 140 Ashe, rented for $13/month, church minister Richard Dunn, 50; wife Annie, 43; children Rosa, 21, tobacco factory stemmer, Hattie, 17, and Burl, 14; and grandchildren Rosa L., 4, and Annie M., 2.

In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: Richard Dunn, 64; wife Annie, 58, washing; daughter Rosa, 24, tobacco factory stemmer, and son Burrell, 23, tobacco factory laborer.

Lillie B. Dunn died 10 April 1941 at Mercy Hospital, Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was 36 years old; was the widow of Raymond Ried; lived on Spruce Street; was born in Kinston, N.C., to Richard Dunn of Snow Hill, N.C., and Annie Gardner of Kinston, N.C.; and was buried in Rountree Cemetery.

Annie Dunn died 27 May 1948 at her home at 112 North East Street, Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was born 25 June 1884 in Lenoir County, N.C., to Quincey Gardner and Mariah Bryant; was the widow of Richard Dunn; and was buried in Rest Haven Cemetery. Quincey Gardner, 708 Suggs Street, was informant.

Undertaker.

Page 31, 1922 Sanborn fire insurance map of Wilson, N.C.

Which undertaker operated this business at the corner of Nash and Carroll Streets shown in the 1922 Sanborn fire insurance map of Wilson?

Almost certainly, this was the establishment of one of the undertaking businesses with which Amos Batts was associated. Batts lived next door at 1113 East Nash Street and was in business around this time with Columbus E. Artis. In an era in which the deceased were generally laid out at home, the building likely was used for embalming and preparation, but not actually funerals.