More from the fine folk over in Statesville.
This clean-lined little newsletter arrived in my email box a few days ago, chock-full of the latest news of the city’s historic African-American cemetery, developments made possible by inspirational public-private partnerships. Here are highlights, and the full issue can be found here.
Be inspired, Wilson.
Wilson Daily Times, 5 August 1941.
Brothers Avan and Calvin Melvin were arrested and charged with the murder of Willie Knight. Avan Melvin claimed he struck Knight because Knight was cutting Calvin Melvin. Calvin Melvin claimed innocence. I have not been able to determine the outcome of the trial, which was held the month after the incident.
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In the 1910 census of Gardners township, Wilson County: Colonel Knight, 24; wife Flora, 20; and son Willie, 1.
In the 1920 census of Gardners township, Wilson County: Colonel Knight, 34; wife Flora, 28; and children Willie, 11, Nella, 8, George, 7, Colonel Jr., 4, and Percy, 2.
In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 717 Vance Street, rented at $16/month, Cullan Knight, 44, farmer; wife Flora, 37; and children Willie, 21, odd jobs laborer, George, 16, baker, Cullon Jr., bakery delivery boy, Percy, 13, and Gladys, 9.
In 1940, Willie Knight registered for the World War II draft in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born 4 June 1908 in Wilson County; lived at 646 Wiggins Street; was married to Thelma Newman Knight; and worked for R.P. Watson Tobacco Company. The card is marked “Deceased.”
Willie Knight died 2 August 1941 on Banks Street, Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was born in June 1909 in Wilson County to Colonel Knight and Flora Thomas; was married to Thelma Knight; lived at 127 Narrowly Street; and worked as a laborer. Cause of death: “hit on head with brick fracturing skull killing almost instantly.”
Wilson Daily Times, 29 August 1950.
We’ve met William D. Petway here (advertising the sale of several enslaved people) and here (placing an ad for a runaway enslaved man). His home and plantation lay near and across the boundary with present-day Edgecombe County in Wilson County’s Upper Town Creek Rural Historic District.
William Davis Petway house, 1980.
Per the National Register of Historic Places Inventory — Nomination Form for Upper Town Creek Rural Historic District, prepared by Kate Ohno in 1982:
“The oldest house in the district is the William Davis Petway house. Petway was born on October 1, 1799, and was the son of Major Micajah Pettaway, a veteran of the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, and Mary Sugg. Major Pettaway was a prominent planter and in July 1819, he deeded 435 acres on the north side of Poplar Branch to his son. It seems likely that this tract formed the core of Petway’s holdings and was most likely the tract upon which he built his home. He married Cinderella Cromwell, daughter of Elisha Cromwell, prior to 1823. Petway continued to add to his landholdings in the 1820s, receiving 112 acres from the division of his father-in-law’s estate and other tracts adjacent to his property. By the time of this death on October 18, 1858, he owned in excess of 2,270 acres.
The parlor mantel of the Petway house.
“Petway was involved in business and civic matters as well as in farming. He served as sheriff of Edgecombe County from 1835 until 1851. He was also associated in the mid 1850s with W.M.G. Sharp and John T. Sharp in a mercantile business which also sold liquor at Joyner’s Depot [Elm City]. By 1850 Petway was in the turpentine business. He employed four male laborers and produced $800 worth of turpentine and other pine products annually. Petway was an extensive farmer as well. In 1836 he purchased the real property in his father’s estate amounting to 1,364 acres. By 1850 he owned 2,400 acres of which 500 acres were cultivated. Although his real property was valued at only $7,381 he owned forty-eight slaves in 1850. … [Petway’s listing in the 1850 slave schedule of Edgecombe County actually credits him with 49 slaves. Curiously, 43 were reported as women or girls, and only six as men or boys (and none of these above age 18). This is an improbable ratio that suggests a recording error.]
“Petway died intestate in 1858 leaving his widow and seven children ….
“The home tract thus came under the managements of Cinderella Petway for nearly 13 years. At first the plantation prospered; in 1860 Mrs. Petway is listed as a sixty-year old farmer owning real property valued at $25,000 and personal property valued at $16,000. She owned only fifteen slaves due to the division of her husband’s slaves among his heirs. Six slave houses (no longer extant) were on the property. Her son Oliver, age twenty, lived with his mother as well as Ezra Bullock, a farm overseer, and a white female domestic servant. Oliver’s personal property, including slaves, was valued at $18,000 and his slaves were probably used to cultivate and maintain the home tract occupied by him and his mother. …” [Senda Petway appears in the 1860 census of Edgecombe County with women and girls ages 50, 40, 28, 27, 18, 7, 2, and 1, and men and boys ages 70, 45, 28, 19, 8, 7, and 4. Son O.C. Petway claimed women and girls ages 40, 25, 18, 5, and 5, and men and boys ages 50, 13, 8, 8, and 1.]
The Petways enslaved dozens of people, but the surname is now uncommon in Wilson County. I have not been able to identify by name anyone William D. Petway enslaved except freedom-seeker Miles.
The historic district nomination form includes a map pinpointing the Petway house on State Road 1414.
That road is now White Bridge Road, and the Petway house and its outbuildings have been demolished.
A close-up of the site:
Photos courtesy of nomination form, above; aerials courtesy of Google Maps.
Wilson Advance, 1 March 1888.
Wilson township elected a series of African-American men to the office of town constable in the 1880s, including Edward C. Simms, Gray Farmer, and Joseph Blow.
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In the 1870 census of Black Creek township, Wilson County: Charity Blow, 32, domestic servant, and children Joseph, 18, Lenday, 9, Thomas, 3, and Lucind, 1.
Constables were paid out of the county treasury, and several disbursements to Blow appear in year-end summaries published in local newspapers.
From “Statement of Disbursements of Wilson County,” Wilson Advance, 15 December 1887.
Blow left office in November 1888, and “a true white man” took his place.
Wilson Mirror, 7 November 1888.
Wilson Mirror, 26 December 1888.
The county’s fiscal year ran December 1 through November 30, so Blow’s final payments, made after he left office, were not reported until the following year.
Wilson Advance, 19 December 1889.
Blow apparently died before 1900. In the 1900 census of Wilson, Wilson County: Jane Blow, 40, with children Marry, 21, Bettie, 20, Ro[illegible], 16, Henretter, 13, Henry H., 11, and [grandson] Auguster, 2.
On 23 January 1907, Lemon Barnes, 21, son of Charles and Jack Ann Barnes, married Henrietta Blow, 20, daughter of Joe [deceased] and Jane Blow, at Jane Blow’s residence. Missionary Baptist minister Fred M. Davis performed the ceremony in the presence of Merriman Watkins, James Taylor, and Charles H. Barnes.
On 27 May 1909, George Scott, 21, of Johnston County, N.C., son of Lendora Scott, married Henrietta Blow, 22, daughter of Joe and Jane Blow, at Jane Blow’s. Missionary Baptist minister Fred M. Davis performed the ceremony in the presence of Etter Armstrong and W.O. Barnes.
On 26 October 1930, July Wells, 60, son of Adam Wells and Sylvia [no maiden name], married Henrietta Scott, 43, daughter of Joe and Jane Blow. Rev. Holaday performed the ceremony on Suggs Street.
Henry Harrison Blow died 31 August 1937 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was 49 years old; was born in Wilson to Joseph Blow and Jane Barnes; lived at 902 Mercer Street; worked as a common laborer at a tobacco factory; was single; and was buried in Wilson [probably, Vick Cemetery.] Henrietta Scott was informant.
Jane Blow died 3 April 1938 in Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was 79 years old; was the widow of Joe Blow; was born in Wilson County to Hardy Hinnant and Mildred Barnes; and was buried in Wilson [probably Vick Cemetery.] Bettie Earp was informant.
Banks Blow died 26 June 1943 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was 56 years old; was born in Wilson to Joe Blow and Jane Barnes; was married to Mary Blow; lived at 707 East Green Street; worked as a common laborer at a tobacco factory; and was buried in Rountree Cemetery [probably, Vick Cemetery.]
Bettie Blow Earp died 17 April 1954 in Kenly, Johnston County, N.C. Per her death certificate, she was born 15 April 1877 in Wilson County to Joe Blow and Jane Barnes. Informant was James H. Blow, 115 South Reid Street, Wilson.
The devastating earthquake that roiled Charleston, South Carolina, on 31 August 1886 was felt in Wilson and beyond.
Wilson Daily Times, 5 September 1911.
The writer’s recollection focused largely on the reactions to the tremors of African Americans living in various parts of town. Where was “‘Lucas Line’ upon the railroad”?
Wilson Times, 17 February 1925.
In 1925, even an empty house was racialized.
Wilson Downtown Development Corporation has released a request for proposal (RFP) for the Orange Hotel.
Project Manager/Downtown Business Specialist Aramith Trimiar says Wilson Downtown Properties “is hoping to find someone who is experienced in historic preservation, adaptive reuse, and capital structuring, especially as it pertains to the use of Historic Tax Credits. Additionally, we would like to work with someone that will honor the rich history of the property, maintain its cultural integrity, and have an end-use that can be a catalyst to the redevelopment of the area in general.”
Here’s a peek at the RFP, which can be found in full here.
The current floor plan. (I think. Where are the bathrooms?)
A possible renovated layout creating four apartments.
Contact Trimiar at atrimiar@wilsonnc.org for more information.
When wealthy Wilsonians shifted their households to the beach in summer, their domestic servants were pulled with them. Jane Cooke Hawthorne recently shared several photographs taken circa 1910-20 at the North Carolina shore, with thoughtful commentary about her evolving understanding of the relationships between her ancestors and the men and women who eased their lives. These photographs, which captured posed, but casual, groupings of an extended family of wealthy tobacconists, include “the help.”
In the first photo below, Lucy M. “Nolia” Gardner Whitehead stands in a white dress on the porch of the family’s Morehead City, North Carolina, summer home, surrounded by extended family. (For more about the house, which was built as headquarters of the precursor to the North Carolina Education Association, see here.) Her daughter Nolia Whitehead (later Davis) sits on the steps beside Edward K. Wright, who years later would inherite the farm that wraps around Vick Cemetery. The elderly woman in black standing at right is Matilda “Mattie” Bynum Barnes, who, with her husband Frank W. Barnes, sold Rountree Baptist Church land for its cemetery and sold Samuel H. Vick the land that would become Odd Fellows and Vick Cemeteries. The woman leaning on the newel post with clasped hands is Elizabeth Barnes Davis, who received the letter from Johnnie Farmer we read here. The little girl seated on the rail is Virginia Davis Pou, in whose daughter Virginia Pou Doughton’s papers that letter is found. Behind her are her parents Frank Barnes Davis and Helen Patterson Davis. And seated in front of Mattie Barnes is her daughter Alice Harriss Barnes Wright, from whom Ed Wright inherited Wright Farm. At the far edges of the group are four African-American women and one African-American man. The women, whom we have not been able to identify, were likely cooks, laundresses, nannies, and maids. The man is believed to be Simeon Haskins, and he probably worked as a general factotum.
Below, Howell G. Whitehead III sits at top left with a dog. Sim Haskins holds a small boy at bottom left.
Below, Mattie Barnes stands in the middle of another family grouping, with three African-American women and one man sitting cross-legged below. They appear to be a different group than those depicted in the first photograph.
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Do you recognize these men or women?
In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on “N&S RR” [Norfolk & Southern Rail Road], farmer Damp Haskins, 60; wife Stella, 52, servant; children Martha, 23, cook, James, 18, wagon factory laborer, Lessie, 16, lumber mill laborer, John, 15, lumber mill laborer, Annie, 8, Earnest, 7, and Damp, 3; plus grandsons Simeon, 15, retail grocery laborer, and Ambrose Haskins, 7. [Damp Haskins was buried in Vick Cemetery.]
Many, many thanks to Jane Cooke Hawthorne.
