Asheville NC

The roots of Mary C. Euell.

Beyond the record of her astounding heroics leading up to the Colored Graded School boycott, Mary C. Euell left little trace of her short time in Wilson.

Mary C. Euell.

A recently discovered clue describes Euell as a native of Washington — presumably, D.C. Other evidence suggests she left teaching, returned briefly to her hometown, then obtained a pharmacy degree and opened a business in Asheville, North Carolina.

Two Mary C. Euells appear in Washington, D.C., census returns in the early twentieth century.  One was born about 1880, most likely in Virginia, to Minnie Euell Gasbea. The other — the one I believe was our Mary C. Euell — was born about 1890, most likely in Washington, to Henry and Mary C. Euell. Here’s what we know about both.

  • Mary C. Euell, hero

Henry Euell married Mary Allen on 12 August 1882 in Washington, D.C.

In the 1910 census of Washington, D.C.: at 1223 Linden Street, Henry Euell, 49, treasury department laborer; wife Mary, 40; children Oliver H., 26, treasury department laborer, Henry C., 22, treasury department laborer, Mary C., 20, and Edgar H., 18; and grandchildren Oliver H., Jr., 18 [sic], and Earnest C., 3.

In the 1914 Washington, D.C., city directory: Euell Mary bds [boards] 909 44th ne [Henry and Edgar Euell were also listed at this address.]

Mary C. Euell’s mother, also named Mary C. Euell, died 1 April 1915.

The Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), 1 April 1916.

The 23 September 1917 edition of the Evening Star ran a report on salary increases for federal employees by name. Mary C. Euell received a promotion and raise from printer assistant at $1.75 per diem to operative at $2.00 per diem, plus 25 cents per hour. [This appears to be our Mary C., but if so, she quit the printing bureau gig immediately and moved to Wilson to teach. The slapping incident took place on 1 April 1918, and the boycott began on April 9. Euell wrote to W.E.B. Du Bois on the 22nd and was in court on the 30th. There is no record of her in Wilson after that date.]

The 6 December 1919 edition of the New York Age reported Mary C. Euell as a dinner guest of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Jones on Bly Street. [This may be the other Mary C.]

In the 1920 Washington, D.C., city directory: Euell Mary C opr bu ptg [operator — bureau of printing] r 909 44th ne [Edgar and Henry Euell are also listed at this address.]

Between 1920 and 1925, Euell obtained a degree (or otherwise received training) in pharmacy. A report of successful board examinees listed Euell’s home as Kings Mountain, North Carolina, just west of Charlotte.

Druggists Circular, volume 69 (September, 1925).

Eight months later, as pharmacist in charge, she ran an ad in a Columbia, South Carolina, newspaper for the Enterprise Drug Company — “Get acquainted with our ‘If its not right bring it back’ System.”

Palmetto Leader (Columbia, S.C.), 22 May 1926.

She soon relocated to Asheville, however, where she operated the Southside Pharmacy.

In the 1928 Asheville, N.C., city directory: Euell Mary C (c) Southside Pharmacy h 34 Victoria av. The pharmacy was one of three businesses located at 187 Southside Avenue. (The business is not listed in the 1927 directory.)

Mary C. Euell’s brother Oliver Holmes Euell died 18 May 1928 in Washington, D.C.

The Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), 21 May 1928.

On 9 August 1928, Mary C. Euell died in Asheville, Buncombe County. Per her death certificate, she was 35 years old; was single; was born in Washington; and worked at a pharmacy. Informant Nettie Candler, 34 Victoria Avenue, had no information about Euell’s parents. She was buried at South Asheville Cemetery. [Euell apparently had boarded with the Candlers. In the 1930 census, the family was still living at 34 Victoria: shoemaker Wallace Candler, 36, wife Nettie, 34, and daughters Willie A., 8, and Viola, 6. ]

News of her death appeared the next day in an Asheville newspaper. (Who was her “daughter”?)

Asheville Citizen-Times, 10 August 1928.

The Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), 11 August 1928.

The Afro-American, 1 September 1928.

Mary C. Euell died without a will, and a public administrator was appointed to handle her affairs.

  • The other Mary C. Euell

The Colored American, 25 November 1899.

In the 1900 census of Washington, D.C.: at 1011 7th Street, widow Missouri Euell, 62; daughter Minnie, 39; sons William, 34, and Moses, 33; daughter-in-law Dora, 25; and grandchildren Mary, 20, Jessee, 19, Missouri, 15, Georgia, 9, Rubie, 5, Annie, 5, and Jerome, 4. All were born in Virginia except Jerome, who was born in D.C.

In the 1910 census of Washington, D.C.: at 405 L Street, S.E., Minnie Euell, 49, cook, and children Mary C., 25, dressmaker, Missouri, 23, Georgia, 18, and Robbie, 14.

In the 1913 Washington, D.C., city directory: Euell Mary C sewing 405 L se [Georgie M., Jesse, Minnie (widow of Richard), and Moses Euell were also listed at this address.

In the 1914 Washington, D.C., city directory: Euell Mary C smstrs bds 405 L se [Georgie M. and Minnie Euell were also at this address.]

In the 1922 Washington, D.C., city directory: Euell Mary C tchr r 410 L se [Ruby Euell was also at this address.]

Minnie Euell Gasbea died 6 November 1927 in her L Street, S.E., home. Her survivors included daughter Mary C. Page.

Lane Street Project: a road trip to South Asheville Cemetery.

My maternal grandmother was from Iredell County, on the western edge of North Carolina’s Piedmont. Her grandfather John Walker Colvert’s sister, Elvira Colvert Morgan, last appears in records in 1880, when she and her husband shared a household with Squire Gray, a 20 year-old who likely was her close relative. By 1900, Squire Gray, his wife Rachel, and their daughters had moved 100 miles west and were living in the Kenilworth neighborhood of South Asheville. Squire Gray died 21 June 1921. His death certificate noted that he was 61 years old, was married to Rachel Gray, and worked as a common laborer. He had been born in Rowan County to Orange Gray and Rachel Colbert, and was buried in South Asheville Cemetery.

I visited Asheville this past weekend to celebrate my birthday. As we headed home yesterday morning, I pointed the car first at South Asheville Cemetery. Though relatively large, the cemetery is not easy to find. Its address is that of 1920s’ era Saint John “A” Baptist church, now inactive and tucked deep in the middle of a neighborhood that is clearly well-to-do and no longer predominantly African-American. Skirt the gates to the church’s little parking lot, however, and South Asheville Cemetery opens up before you.

It is billed as the oldest and largest public African-American cemetery in North Carolina, and began in the 1840s as a cemetery for the enslaved laborers of the family of William Wallace McDowell. It was active until the 1940s and fell into disrepair thereafter. In the 1980s, church members began working to restore the cemetery and bring it back to the public’s attention. South Asheville Cemetery Association’s website details the cemetery’s history, links to an enviable set of maps of the locations of the cemetery’s two thousand burials, and displays photographs of the site in the early 1990s that make me dare to dream about what is possible at Odd Fellows and Rountree. 

Only 98 headstones have been found in the cemetery, though the large undressed fieldstones scattered about most likely once marked graves. 

A small weathered marker. 

The new neighbors.

The grave of George Avery, the freedman and U.S. Colored Infantry soldier who was caretaker for the cemetery until his death in the 1930s. Avery kept mental, not written, records of the locations of burials in South Asheville.

The fine headstone of barber and Prince Hall mason Tecumseh C. Hamilton.

A cluster of headstones among the oaks, tulip poplars, and maples that tower over South Asheville Cemetery.

Photos by Lisa Y. Henderson, June 2021.

Where did they go?: Intrastate migration, no. 1.
  •      Mahalia Artis and family

Between 1890 and 1900, Mahalia Artis, her adult daughters Sarah and Mary Ella, and Mary Ella’s son Bruce moved 300 miles from Wilson to Asheville, North Carolina.

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In the 1880 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on Goldsboro Street, Mahala Artis, 50, and daughters Sarah, 25, and Mary R., 18, both laundresses. They are identified as white, which was unlikely.

In the 1900 census of Asheville, Buncombe County, North Carolina: at 20R Cumberland Avenue, widow Mahalie Artis, daughters Sarah Artis, 40, and Mary E. Artis, 37, both washerwomen, and grandson Bruce Artis, 10.

In the 1910 census of Asheville, Buncombe County: at 18 Cumberland Avenue, Mary E. Lindsey, 37, her son Bruce S. Lindsey, 19, and widowed sister Sarah Battle, 50. Mary and Sarah were laundry women; Bruce did laundry work.

In the 1920 census of Asheville, Buncombe County: at 34 Gaston Street, laundresses Sarah Battle and her sister Mary Lindsey, ages listed as unknown.

In the 1930 census of Asheville, Buncombe County: laundress Mary Lindsey, 46, living alone in a home she owned.

  • Reddick D. Dew

Reddick D. Dew, son of Alfred and Susan Dew, moved to Wilmington, North Carolina, circa the 1890s.

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In the 1870 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: farm laborer Alford Due, 26; wife Susan, 23; children Jack, 6, Redick, 4, and “no name,” 1 month; plus Oliver Due, 48, Amos Barnes, 23, and Anna Due, 19.

In the 1880 census of Wilson township (south of the Plank Road), Wilson County: Alford Dew, 39, wife Louiza, 35, mother Olivia, 60, children Jackson, 18, Redick, 16, George, 15, Needham, 12, and Martha, 10, and niece Hatta, 4.

On 28 June 1898, Reddick D. Dew, 30, of Wilmington, whose parents lived in Wilson, married Addie J. Cash, 30, daughter of John and Martha Cash of Wilmington.

In the 1900 census of Wilmington, New Hanover County: at 718 Orange Street, widow Marthia Cash, 59, daughter Addie Diew, 33, and son-in-law Reddick Diew, a barber.

In the 1910 census of Wilmington, New Hanover County: at 718 Orange Avenue, South Carolina-born widow A. Martha Cash, 68, a lace stretcher (she reported only one of nine children); son-in-law D. Reddick Diew, 40, barber; and daughter J. Addie, 39; plus three lodgers.

In the 1915 city directory of Wilmington, North Carolina: Redick D Dew, barber, 6 S. 2nd.

In the 1920 census of Wilmington, New Hanover County: at 718 Orange Avenue, barber Redick Diew, 51, wife Addie, 52, and mother-in-law Martha Cash, 82.

Probably, in the 1928 city directory of Goldsboro, North Carolina: Redick D Dew, barber, 603 W. Pine.

Redick Diew died 6 August 1933 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was 3 August 1868 in Wilson County to Alfred and Susan Diew; was a barber; was a widower; and resided at 1108 Wainwright Avenue. Eula Locus of the home was informant.

  • John and Annie Thomas family?

Mattie Thomas was the informant for the death certificates of Nannie Thomas Miller and David Thomas. She indicated that both were born in Wilson, North Carolina, to John and Annie Thomas. Census records, however, paint an unclear picture of the Thomas’ familial relationships and birthplaces.

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In the 1900 census of Asheville, Buncombe County: widowed washerwoman Annie Thomas, 55, children Cora Coldwell, 20, and Nannie, 19, Maggie, 15, John, 10, and Sallie, 9, daughter-in-law Mary, 18, and grandson David, 1. All listed as South Carolina-born, except  Maggie, John, Sallie and David, born in North Carolina.

In the 1910 census of Asheville, Buncombe County: at 6 Brick Street, David Thomas, 27, wife Mary, 26, and daughters Mattie, 9, Annie B., 7, Madlone, 2, and Nannie M., 5 months. At 7 Brick Street, Annie Thomas, 63, and children John, 20, and Sallie Thomas, 17, and Nannie Grant, 24. All were listed as South Carolina-born.

In the 1920 census of Asheville, Buncombe County: at 54 Davidson Street, Annie Thomas, 73, sons David, 36, and John, 25, both bakers; daughter Minnie G., 29, a cook; and grandchildren Mattie, 19, a maid, Annie Belle, 17, Madalon, 11, Eddie, 5, John, 6, David, 21, a transfer company teamster, and Sallie, 7; and daughter-in-law  Hattie, 23, plus a lodger. The birth place of Annie, David and Minnie was listed as South Carolina.

In the 1940 census of Asheville, Buncombe County: at 139 Eagle Street, Mattie Thomas, 35, a hotel maid; brother David, 40, a wholesale produce delivery helper; and three lodgers.