This photograph of Della Hines Barnes‘ Sunday School class at Calvary Presbyterian appears to have been taken at the same as this one. Della Barnes’ grandchildren Walter Dortch Hines and Elizabeth Scott Hines stand on either end of the front row. Samuel H. and Annie Washington Vick‘s son Robert E. Vick stands between them in knickers. The three were born in 1908 and 1909, which dates the photo a little later than the 1915 earlier estimate.
Thank you to an anonymous contributor.
Calvary United Presbyterian Church issued this commemorative booklet when it celebrated its 90th anniversary in 1979. The photo at top right depicts the church’s 1924 building under construction, with the tower of the 1893 building poking through the unframed roof.
Booklet courtesy of J. Robert Boykin III.
Wilson Daily Times, 3 March 1928.
Rev. Halley Blanton Taylor Sr. was pastor of Calvary Presbyterian Church from 1908 to about 1918. This photo appeared in the 1944 edition of Thomas Yenser’s Who’s Who in Colored America.
Wilson Daily Times, 30 August 1930.
Late in the summer of 1930, Steven Ray issued a call “to all races, tribes and tongues” to join him at Calvary Presbyterian Church to pray for rain. Ray was not pastor of Calvary, and it is not clear of which church he was minister.
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In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on Washington Street, David Jeffers, 47, laborer; wife Ethel, 43; stepchild Luther Mack, 18, laborer; father-in-law Stephen Ray, 55, widower, laborer. [Also on Washington Street: Jessie Williams, 42, wagon factory laborer; wife Lizzie, 38; sisters-in-law Sarah, 14, Hattie, 12, and Katie Ray, 9; brother-in-law Stephen L. Ray, 7; and sister-in-law Lillian Ray, 5; and daughter Margrett Williams, 13.]
In the 1920 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Ray Stephen (c) lab h Washington av nr Vick
In the 1928 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Ray Stephen (c; Emma) 901 Stantonsburg
In the 1930 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Ray Steph (c) porter Miller’s 200 E Nash
Stephen Ray died 24 April 1933 at Mercy Hospital, Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was 59 years old; was married to Emma Ray; lived at 914 Washington Street; was a preacher; and was born in Cumberland County, N.C., to Phillip Ray and Annie Ray. Informant was Lizzie Williams.
Clipping courtesy of J. Robert Boykin III.
Wilson Daily Times, 15 July 1922.
Wilson Daily Times, 13 June 1927.
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[Sidenote: I attended Vacation Bible School at Calvary Presbyterian with my cousins, who were church members. I remember most vividly the summer of 1969, when classes were taught on the first floor of the Mercy Hospital building, closed just five years earlier. Calvary had torn down in 192x edifice and was building a new church on the site. What do I recall best? Singing “Michael Row The Boat Ashore,” making crafts with marbles and popsicle sticks, and having the scab knocked off my smallpox vaccination site.]
Wilson Daily Times, 2 September 1919.
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Camp Zachary Taylor, near Louisville, Kentucky, circa 1918.
Caufield & Shook, photographers; digital image courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C.
Wilson Daily Times, 8 December 1928.
