Baptist church

Rev. J.T. Deans and the Kenansville Association.

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Though Rev. J.T. Deans lived in Wilson (A), the four Missionary Baptist churches he pastored — Mount Gilead, Willard, Shoulder’s Branch, Union Chapel — were in Mount Olive (B), Willard (C), Castle Hayne (D), and Currie (E), North Carolina, respectively. Wilson to Mount Olive is 40 miles. Wilson to Castle Hayne is 108 miles.

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In the 1910 census of Turkey township, Sampson County, North Carolina: preacher/clergyman James T. Deans, 48; wife Mary 20; and son Roosevelt Deans, 7; plus Razzie L. Smith, 1.

In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 514 Lodge Street, school principal James T. Deans, 53, wife Mary, 34, and children Rosevelt, 16, James Jr., 9, Walter, 5, Therodore, 3, and Dixie, 2 months, and boarder Daniel Gunn, 57, a tobacco factory worker.

James Thomas Deans died 20 December 1939 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was 74 years old, born in Nash County to Sarah Deans of Nash County, resided at 514 South Lodge Street, was a preacher, was married to Ada Drewcilla Deans, and was buried in Warsaw [Duplin County], North Carolina. Ada D. Deans was informant.

Minutes of the Forty-Ninth Annual Session of the Kenansville Missionary Baptist Association (1919).

Who’s who among the Baptists.

From Williams and Watkins’ Who’s Who Among North Carolina Negro Baptists: With a Brief History of Negro Baptist Organizations (1940):

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Page 68.

Rev. Frank L. Bullock of Enfield married Bertha A. Davis of Wilson. In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: Fred M. Davis, 50 [see below], wife Minnie, 39, children Fred Jr., 20, Berthia, 22, Addie, 18, and William B., 16, and mother Judie, 76.

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Page 213.

Rev. Fred M. Davis served multiple stints as pastor of First Baptist Church and presided over the marriages and funerals of many of Wilson’s prominent black families.

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Page 241.

Rev. Nathaniel Horton went to school in Wilson County and pastored at New Bethel and Macedonia Baptist Churches in Wilson County.

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Page 286.

As founder, Rev. Andrew Joshua Jackson put the “Jackson” in Jackson Chapel First Missionary Baptist Church.

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Page 294.

Rev. Charles A. Marriott lead the congregation at Williams Chapel Baptist Church in Elm City.

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Page 313-314.

Rev. Marshall Alexander Talley lead Wilson’s First Baptist Church in the 1910s. He moved on to Homestead, Pennsylvania, and then to Indianapolis, where he was elected in 1936 to the Indiana House of Representatives. He died in Indianapolis in 1953.

Talley

Page 379.

Rev. Alfred L.E. Weeks has been discussed here.

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Page 397.

Cornerstones, no. 1.

Calvary Baptist Church, 704 Gay Street, Wilson.

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Wilson Chapel Free Will Baptist Church, 513 East Barnes Street, Wilson.

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This church was founded in 1910. The congregation initially met in a parishioner’s home, then moved into the building first occupied by Jackson Chapel. (Jackson Chapel merged with First Missionary Baptist Church, which stands one block away at Pender and Nash.) The original one-story wooden structure is shown below.

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Sanborn Insurance Map, Wilson, N.C., 1913.

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Pilgrim Rest Primitive Baptist Church, 627 East Green Street, Wilson.

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The church building, at the corner of Green and Elba Streets, is now occupied by Christ Deliverance Tabernacle Ministries.

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Sanborn Insurance Map, Wilson, N.C., 1913.

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Union Grove Primitive Baptist Church, 519 Singletary Street, Wilson.

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The original church, a small wooden building, is at left below. (The larger brick church, designated Tabernacle Missionary Baptist, is now the site of Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church.)

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Sanborn Insurance Map, Wilson, N.C., 1922.

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Branch’s Memorial Tabernacle United Holy Church, 517 Hadley Street, Wilson.

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Organized in North Carolina in 1886, the United Holy Church of America, Inc., is a predominantly black Pentecostal Holiness Christian denomination and the oldest African-American Holiness-Pentecostal body in the world. Bishop G.J. Branch of Goldsboro, North Carolina, established congregations up and down the East Coast.

[N.B. Three of the five cornerstones were engraved by marble worker/artist Clarence B. Best. (Four, if you count the dates added to the Pilgrims Rest cornerstone.]

43rd State Sunday School convention.

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Minutes of the Forty-Third Annual Session of the North Carolina Baptist State Sunday School Convention (1915). 

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  • Mrs. Sallie Barber — Per her death certificate, Sallie Minnie Blake Barbour was born about 1871 in Wake County to Essex and Clara Hodge Blake. In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson township, Wilson County: mechanic Charlie Barber, 47; wife Sallie, 40, teacher; and sons Luther, 21, John, 17, James, 17, and Herbert, 15, plus two roomers. Wilson’s black graded school was named in her honor in the early 1930s. She died in 1942.
  • Mrs. Anne E. Weeks — In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson township, Wilson County: Alfred Weeks, 44, a minister; wife Annie, 44; daughter Marie, 14, and sister Bessie, 26. Annie Elizabeth Cook Weeks, then a resident of Elizabeth, New Jersey, died while visiting Wilson on 19 April 1943. Her death certificate noted that she was born in Wake Forest, North Carolina, in 1875 to Henderson B. and Mariah D. Batchlor Cook of Wake County, and was a teacher.
  • F.S. Hargrave — Dr. Frank Settle Hargrave was a physician.
  • S.Y. Griffin
  • Miss Daisy Holland — In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson township, Wilson county: at 450 Goldsboro Street, widow Charity Holland, 48, laundress; son Charlie Holland, 24, barber; and daughters Jane, 20, Mazie, 18, Daisy, 18, Lue, 16, and Lillian, 12. Daisy died of pulmonary tuberculosis on 10 May 1927. Her death certificate notes her parents as Benjamin Holland and Charity Jones, originally of Wake County; her husband as George Cooper; and her occupation as school teacher.
  • Mrs. A.L. Fauk — Probably, Arzalia L. Faulk. In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson township, Wilson County: barber Hiram Faulk, 44; wife Arzalia L., 40, a dressmaker; and daughter Marie, 14.
  • A.L.E. Week — New Bern native Rev. Alfred Leonard Edward Weeks was minister of Tabernacle Baptist Church in Wilson. He was pastor of First Missionary Baptist Church of New Bern from 1896-1912 and his “dynamic leadership” is credited with the rebuilding of the church after a devastating fire, as well as the founding of the New Bern Industrial Collegiate Institute.

Minutes at Duke Divinity School Library Archives.

Under Rev. Henry, Little Zion grew.

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In the 1900 census of Wilson, Wilson County: Mack Henry, 51, wife Elen S., 38, and children James T., 14, Pochahuntus, 12, Emma G., 9, George B., 7, and Pattie L., 2. All were born in Virginia except Pattie, who was born in North Carolina. Mack, Ellen and James worked as tobacco graders.

In the 1910 census of Clayton, Johnston County, North Carolina: Mack Henry, 55, tobacco grader; wife Ellen, 45, cook; daughters Pocahontas Farmer, 23, and Emma Hinton, 20, washwomen; daughter Pattie L. Henry, 14; son William T. Henry, 10; daughter Jessie Maie Henry, 5; and granddaughters Elizabeth Farmer, 1, and an unnamed Hinton girl, 1 month.

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From Greater Little Zion Baptist Church History. Greater Little Zion is in Fairfax, Virginia, in an area of the city once called Burke.

Baptist State Sunday School Convention, 1924.

Sunday school delegates

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These Wilson County Baptist churches attended the Sunday School convention: Brooks Chapel, First Baptist, Calvary, Mount Sinai, Sandy Fork and Tabernacle in or near Wilson; First Baptist, Williams Chapel and Union Chapel in Elm City; and Elm Grove near Bailey.

First Baptist (now Jackson Chapel First Baptist), Sandy Fork, Williams Chapel, Calvary, and First Missionary Baptist Church of Elm City are living congregations.