benevolent society

Good Samaritans and Daughters of Samaria.

The first quarter of the twentieth century may have been the hey-day of fraternal and benevolent societies in Wilson’s African-American community. The 1908 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory listed the Grand United Order of Good Samaritans and Daughters of Samaria, which rented meeting space at Mount Hebron Masonic Lodge every Tuesday evening.

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  • L.A. Moore — Lee A. Moore.
  • Ella Overstreet — in the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on “N.&S.” [Norfolk & Southern Railroad], gardner Amos Whitley, 57, widower, and daughter Ester, 16, servant; daughter Blanch Hagins, 20, tobacco factory laborer, and her children Nettie B., 2, Pearl, 1, and Gladis, 0. Also [apparently in the other half of a duplex], Thomas Overstreet, 43, railroad laborer, and wife Ella, 29, laundress.
  • Samuel Gay
  • William Washington — in the 1908 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Washington Wm (c) lab h 307 Moore

Knights of Gideon meet every Thursday night.

Knights of Gideon Mutual Society were just one of many fraternal organizations and benevolent societies operating in East Wilson in the early twentieth century. Information about K. of G. is scarce, but Mount Maria [Moriah?] Lodge No. 7 was included in the 1908 edition of the Wilson city directory.

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

Lodge No. 7 met at the Mount Hebron Masonic hall at the corner of Pender and Smith Streets.

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