automobile

Fire destroys Vick’s garage and 20 cars.

News and Record (Greensboro, N.C.), 5 November 1917.

We’ve seen that Samuel H. Vick was an early and enthusiastic car collector, but who knew this early and enthusiastic? In 1919, the North Carolina Secretary of State’s office reported five cars registered to Vick — a Chandler, a Reo, two Hudsons, and a Cadillac. Two years earlier, however, he had lost an astounding 20 cars in a garage fire behind his commercial property on East Nash Street.

The 1913 Sanborn fire insurance map of Wilson shows a wooden structure behind the brick Odd Fellows building, which housed the Globe Theatre, and adjacent to the rear of the Hotel Union. It hardly seems large enough to have housed 20 vehicles, but may have been expanded between 1913 and the 1917 fire.

 

Registered motor vehicle owners, 1919 and 1920.

“The first one I knew to have a car was Dr. Reid, the veterinarian. And the Vicks.”

Hattie Henderson Ricks (1910-2001)

In 1919, the North Carolina Secretary of State’s office published a hefty volume listing the first 112,000 motor vehicles registered in the state. Not surprisingly, Samuel H. Vick was an early adopter, registering five automobiles — by four different car companies — at once and receiving license numbers 685 through 689.

The document is not easily searched, but I was able to find these early African-American Wilson County drivers. Most lived in town, and only two — Chestiney Wilder and Georgia Aiken — were women. (May Locus was a man.)

  • 685 — S.H. Vick, Wilson, Chandler
  • 686 — S.H. Vick, Wilson, Reo
  • 687 — S.H. Vick, Wilson, Hudson
  • 688 — S.H. Vick, Wilson, Hudson
  • 689 — S.H. Vick, Wilson, Cadillac
  • 5278 — Albert S. Gay, 620 E. Green St., Wilson, Ford
  • 7563 — J.Z. Staton, 804 Viola St., Wilson, Ford
  • 8583 — C.L. Darden, Wilson, Hudson
  • 17476 — May Locus, Rt. 1, Black Creek, Ford
  • 19608 — Will Artis, Stantonsburg, Oldsmobile
  • 26225 — Chestiny Wilder, Rt. 3 Lucama, Ford
  • 28151 — Josh Armstrong, Rt. 1, Elm City, Grant
  • 29157 — Henry Bryant, 145 Sugg St., Wilson, Dort
  • 32649 — Oscar Best, care of Wilson Live Stock Co., Wilson, Dort
  • 34116 — S.F. Hargrove [F.S. Hargrave], M.D., 625 E. Green St., Wilson, Columbia
  • 47620 — Dr. W.H. Phillips, 530 1/2 E. Nash St., Wilson, Hudson
  • 50184 — Neverson Green, Wilson, Reo
  • 55819 — Noah J. Tate, Wilson, Buick
  • 55820 — W.S. Hines, Wilson, Hudson
  • 57201 — Ned Kent, Rt. 3 Box 100, Kenly, Overland
  • 57479 — D.E. Reid [Dr. Elijah L. Reid], 650 Viola St., Wilson, Ford
  • 57551 — Dr. W.A. Mitchiner [Mitchner], E. Nash St., Wilson, Dodge
  • 60503 — Mrs. Georgia C. Aiken, 314 Barnes St., Wilson, Ford (for hire)
  • 69272 — Dennis Brooks, E. Nash St., Buick (for hire)
  • 71345 — G.E. Tyler, 603 E. Green St., Wilson Ford
  • 72510 — Neil Handy, Rt. 6, Box 144, Wilson, Ford
  • 73129 — A.N. Darden, Wilson, Dodge
  • 85889 — Crawford Darden, Black Creek, Cadillac
  • 86536 — Buck Locus, Rt. 4, Elm City, Grant
  • 87236 — C.E. Artis, 210 Pender St., Wilson, Ford
  • 88103 — Ben J. Ellis, Rt. 1, Box 153, Wilson, Ford
  • 89487 — Roscoe Johnson, 634 E. Green St., Wilson, Jordan
  • 90310 — Jim Brown, 805 Viola St., Ford
  • 90872 — Ed. Artis, Rt. 1, Stantonsburg, Ford
  • 90873 — Leslie Artis, Rt. 1, Stantonsburg, Ford
  • 91282 — Bud Sims, 624 Viola St., Metz
  • 92886 — June S. Artis, Rt. 6, Box 89, Wilson, Ford
  • 93517 — J.D. Reid, 601 E. Green St., Wilson, Reo
  • 94988 — Wm. H. Baker, 1020 E. Nash St., Wilson, Ford
  • 95012 — William Hines, Wilson, Hudson
  • 96664 — Rev. E.S. Hargrove, 702 Viola St., Overland
  • 97230 — Garry Armstrong, RFD, Elm City, Overland
  • 98115 — L.H. Peacock, 141 Ash St., Wilson, Hudson
  • 100721 — John W. Farmer, 635 E. Green St., Wilson, Chalmers
  • 104807 — Linwood Barefoot, E. Nash St., Wilson, Ford
  • 105289 — Turner Hines, Rt. 1, care of J.W. Cherry & Son, Elm City, Ford
  • 109186 — Dotson Locus, Rt. 2, Elm City, Chevrolet
  • 110274 — Garfield Ruffin, 1007 E. Nash St., Wilson, Ford

From the 1920 supplement to the Registry:

  • 113666 — Clifton Best (col.), R. 1, Stantonsburg, Ford
  • 114015 — Harry Carter, 517 E. Nash St., Wilson, Buick (for hire)
  • 121735 — Dempsey Blount, 516 E. Nash St., Wilson, Ford
  • 122953 — George Rutherford, 517 E. Nash St., Wilson, Buick (for hire)
  • 124283 — James Sellers, 651 E. Vance St., Wilson, Oldsmobile (for hire)
  • 124827 — Bill Smith (col.), care of Tilghman Motors Co., Wilson, Columbia

REO touring car, 1919.

Interview of Hattie H. Ricks by Lisa Y. Henderson, all rights reserved. List of Registered Motor Vehicle Owners — North Carolina (1919); List of Registered Motor Vehicle Owners, Supplement No. 1 (1920).

A genius for mechanics.

Greensboro Daily News 4 23 1917

Greensboro Daily News, 23 April 1917.

The same day, in the Wilson Daily Times:

A Genius.

There is a little negro in this town named Luther Mack, whose genius for mechanics should be developed and given unrestricted rein.

This boy, though only about 13 years old, has constructed an automobile all by himself and drives it along the streets.

With an engine closely resembling the one used in motorcycles, he made the connections with wire that he picked up around and the body he built out of a woodbox. It just shows what talent and application will do. The boy has a future before him if given an opportunity to apply the talents that are demonstrated in the toy auto.

——

In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: David Jeffers, 47, wife Ethel Jeffers, 42, step-son Luther Mack, 18, and in-law Stephen Ray, 55. The family was from Cumberland County, North Carolina.

In the Wilson city directory issued the same year, Mack is listed as an auto mechanic.

L Mack 1920

Mack’s love of cars apparently lead him to self-employment as a taxi driver, but he would not live long enough to fulfill his potential as a “genius for mechanics.” Luther Edgar Mack died of kidney disease just before his 24th (or 23rd) birthday in 1924.

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