Cumberland County NC

Certificate No. 6919, Lincoln Benefit Society.

Lincoln Benefit Society of Wilson, N.C., established by Dr. Frank S. Hargrave and Samuel H. Vick, issued burial policies across eastern North Carolina.

Wilson Daily Times, 18 June 1912.

The documents below relate to a policy Lincoln Benefit Society issued in December 1912 to George E. Elliott, a resident of Manchester, Cumberland County, North Carolina. (There were two George E. Elliotts, father and son, and it is not clear which carried the policy.)

Elliott paid thirty cents a month on his policy.

I have not been able to identify J.J. Jordan, who issued Elliott’s initial fee receipt, or his collector H.K. Johnson.

Special thanks to J. Robert Boykin III for sharing these documents.

 

Black River.

Dr. Algeania Freeman recently published Black River, a narrative of the life of her great-grandfather James Woodard. Accordingly to family lore and research, James Woodard was born enslaved in what is now Wilson County about 1850. After his father Amos was sold at auction and his mother died, Woodard ran away, eventually settling in Cumberland County. Dr. Freeman believes she may be descended from or otherwise related to London and Venus Woodard and is searching for proof of that connection. Her family has beaten the odds by maintaining a detailed oral tradition through several generations. Genetic genealogy may hold the key to recovering their Wilson County connection.

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