In 1989, the Atlanta Journal and Constitution published an in-depth piece celebrating Wilson native Augustus S. Clark, his wife Anna W. Clark, and the life-changing school they founded in Cordele, Georgia, in 1902.
I visited Gillespie Institute in the summer of 2021 and wrote about it here.
Atlanta Journal and Constitution, 12 March 1989.
Deed Book 86, pages 570-571, Wilson County Register of Deeds Office.
What is happening here? Why did Walter S. Hines intercede to bid for this parcel at auction?
The land had been the property of Frank W. Barnes, who died in May 1910. His widow Mattie Bynum Barnes was administratrix of his estate; Alice Barnes Harriss was their daughter. Per a judgment of Superior Court (effectively, probate court), the parcel went up for public auction on 10 December 1910. Walter S. Hines was highest bidder at $3000. However, on 19 December 1910, he transferred his bid to Alice Harriss, who paid the money and received the deed for a 71-acre tract adjoining “J.D. Farrior, S.H. Vick, the Clark heirs, the Amerson place, and others.”
The tract appears to be the land later known as the Wright Farm, which wraps around two sides of Vick Cemetery. Here’s the ever-helpful plat map of the farm, which comprises now comprises two tracts with different (but related) owners. Vick Cemetery is the rectangle just above and right of center. The corner vicinity map shows the original parcel, which I believe to be that which Walter Hines bid upon.
Plat book 38, page 198.
Why was he part of this transaction?
I’ve spoken of the database I am developing of likely burials in Vick, Odd Fellows, and Rountree Cemeteries. My spreadsheet draws upon death certificates, obituaries, and other sources — most distressingly imprecise. The term “Rountree Cemetery” on these documents may refer to Vick, Odd Fellows, or Rountree. Some documents broadly refer only to burial in Wilson. However, in the absence of official burial records for any of the cemeteries, we make do.
This series honors the men, women, and children who never had grave markers, or whose stones have been lost or stolen or destroyed. Graves believed to be in Vick Cemetery, which the City of Wilson stripped of remaining markers in 1996, will be identified with a Vick Cemetery logo.
Dr. Judy Wellington Rashid contributed personal details of the lives of two family members believed buried in Vick Cemetery (and a family chart!) I invite you to do the same.
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Catherine Frison McPhail Clark was born 20 February 1871 in Charleston, South Carolina, to David Frison, born about 1840, and Easter Frison, born about 1850. She was married first to Sam McPhail and then to Samuel Clark. She and Sam McPhail had two daughters, one of which was Lottie McPhail Green Cohen. Lottie McPhail married first Henry Green; their children included Cora Ruth Green Wellington Dawson. Dr. Judy Wellington Rashid is among the children of Cora Wellington Dawson.
Cora Wellington Dawson reports that Catherine and Sam Clark owned a horse and a carriage while living on Smith Street in Wilson and attended the Methodist Church on Pender Street. Reportedly, Catherine Clark was a “lady of stature in the community.” As a widow, she lived at 401 Grace Street with daughter Lottie and her four children, including Cora.
Catherine Frison Clark died 9 November 1944 at Mercy Hospital in Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was born 20 February 1875 in Charleston, South Carolina, to David Frison and Easter [last name unknown]; she was a widow; and she lived at 401 Grace Street. She was buried in Rountree cemetery, and Lottie Cohen, 401 Grace, was informant. Clark was neither a member of Rountree Missionary Baptist Church nor an Odd Fellows family, so “Rountree” likely means she was buried in Vick Cemetery.
Mary Joyce Wellington was born in 1949 and died a few hours later. Her father Levi Wellington went with the funeral home directors “to take her to Rountree Cemetery after she was wrapped in a blanket.” Cora Ruth Wellington remained at home since she had just delivered. Records show that she is buried in Rountree Cemetery (more likely than not she was buried in Vick’s Cemetery; she was not a member of Rountree Baptist Church) in Wilson, NC.
We saw a newspaper reprint of this photograph here. John H. Clark stands at the rear of a group of unidentified men in the mailroom of Wilson’s United States Post Office.
A rather pixelated close-up of John Clark.
Photograph courtesy of J. Robert Boykin III.
Late in 1925, Rev. Thomas G. Clark, an African Methodist Episcopal minister in Goshen, New York, pulled out a sheet of his official stationery to scrawl a short letter to his brother John H. Clark of Wilson.
Nov 29, 1925
Dear Bro. John,
I Trust you are well this leaves both of us well. I have not heard from you for some time. Nor any of the rest do you know how they are. Write & let me know. I am writing Jesse Barnes to send me some sweet potatoes & corn meal. How are you all getting on. I will be glad to hear from you all at any Time. I am
Yours, Tom
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Jesse Barnes was very likely Jesse R. Barnes, whose farm adjoined the Clark family’s farm on what is now Bishop L.N. Forbes Street in Wilson. Jesse and Sarah Barnes Barnes sold their property to the Town of Wilson to establish Rest Haven Cemetery in 1933.
Original in my collection; thank you, J. Robert Boykin III.
When the Daily Times covered Sallie Clark Harrison’s 80th birthday, among other reminiscences it included this snippet:
“Eighty Years Old Today,” Wilson Daily Times, 17 August 1935.
Records of ownership and sales of enslaved people are relatively rare for Wilson County, and Harrison’s recollection supplies uncommon detail. John Cherry “brought in” (perhaps to the office in which Harrison’s father Edwin Clark worked as postmaster) a 17 year-old girl. Clark paid Cherry $1200 for her and named her Mariah — what had her name been? — an extraordinary sum for that time (likely toward the end of the Civil War) and place.
The 1870 census of the Town of Wilson, Wilson County, shows 20 year-old Mariah Clark, described as mulatto, living in the Clark household as a domestic servant. Despite Sallie Harrison’s claims of selfless devotion, Mariah Clark is not listed in any further census records with the Clarks or Harrisons, and I have not been able to identify her otherwise.
On early Wilson County death certificates, causes of death were very often less medical than philosophical. Solomon Clark was blind and suffering from debilitating maladies. When all was considered, Dr. William S. Anderson concluded Clark “was just worn out.”
“He had been blind and in feeble health for several years and he was just worn out.”
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On 7 April 1887, Solomon Clark, 26, of Wilson County, married Dellar Braswell, 24, of Wilson County, at Dellar Braswell’s house in Wilson township. Free Will Baptist minister Solomon Arrington presided, and Frank Lipscomb, Mary Lipscomb, and Pattie Lancaster were witnesses.
I have found no other record of Solomon Clark.
Wilson Daily Times, 25 June 1929.
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Through much of the 20th century, the overwhelming majority of African-American women in Wilson who worked outside their homes worked either as domestic servants or tobacco factory laborers. Mittie Clarke‘s death certificate identifies her employment precisely — she performed domestic work for Mrs. W.D. Adams.
Mittie Clark’s parents, Rhoden and Sarah Hill Clark, migrated to Wilson from Scotland Neck, Halifax County, North Carolina, circa the 1890s. Rhoden Clark was a mechanic; Sarah Clark, a laundress. Sarah Clark bought a lot on Green Street from Samuel H. Vick in 1898, and the family built a large house, signaling their ensconcement in East Wilson’s Black middle class. Maintaining their position required the contributions of all, however, and the 1900 census shows five of the seven Clark children, ranging from age 13 to 30, engaged in nursing (as in childcare — this was Mittie), dressmaking, laundry work, and work as waiters.
William D. Adams was president of Barnes-Harrell Company, Wilson’s Coca-Cola bottler. His wife, Bess Hackney Adams, was a granddaughter of Willis N. Hackney, founder of Hackney Brothers Body Company.
[Note that Mittie Clark was buried in Rountree Cemetery. This may indicate Rountree, in fact, but more likely Odd Fellows or Vick Cemeteries. No grave markers for her or her family members have been found to date.]
The first few pages of Wilton M. Bethel‘s photo album contained pages in which to memorialize and be memorialized by friends.
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My Friends
Flora R. Clarke, 706 E. Nash Street, Wilson, N.C., May 31, 1929, Class of ’24, “Je vous aime, toujours.”
Geneva P. Brown, 1013 E. Martin St., Raleigh, N.C., June 2, 1929, Class of ’22, Live not without a friend.
Inez Middleton, 807 East Davie St., Raleigh, N.C., June 2, 1929, Class of ’27, “Be humble or you’ll stumble.”
Bernice Taylor, Box 233, Windsor, N.C., Live for “Lil Flo.”
J. Whiteside Chippey, St. Augustine’s College, Raleigh, N.C., May you always be the “Con.Sten.”
Edith E. Thompson, 504 Weinacker Ave., Mobile, Ala., In your golden chain of friendship always consider me a link.
Alleen J. Poitier, 1837 N.W. 3rd Ave., Miami, Florida, June 9, 1929, Class of ’31, “Always look toward the sunshine and the shadows will fall behind you.”
Arthesa S. Douglas, 117 Edgecombe Ave., New York, N.Y., Always be your very self for to you nature is kind.
A. Zenobia Howse, 816 East Fifth Street, Chattanooga, Tennessee, May you always regard me as one of your friends.
Louise Cherry, 1119 E. Nash St., Wilson, N.C., “Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today.”
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A section for personal notes contained brief letters from Bethel’s sister Jessica Bethel and friends Arthesa Douglas and Louise Cherry.
The stonework caught my eye. This is, I am fairly certain, the Nestus Freeman-built house at 1115 East Nash Street. Bethel’s good friend Louise Cherry lived two houses down at 1119. Is she one of the young women shown?