DuBissette

The Patriotic Order of Ethiopians of America, Inc.

Asheville Citizen-Times, 24 January 1923.

One hundred years ago, the North Carolina Secretary of State awarded a charter to the Patriotic Order of Ethiopians of America, Inc., Wilson. Other than Order’s award to Ben Mincey for bravery, I have found no further mention of the P.O.E.A., and the Secretary of State’s office has no record of the charter. (I’ve added them to the very long list of late nineteenth/early twentieth-century Wilson County African-American fraternal organizations.)

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  • John Alex Mebane

John A. Mebane was the son of Union soldier, educator and Reconstruction-era state legislator George Allen Mebane and Jennie Sanderson Mebane.

In the 1910 census of Elizabeth City township, Pasquotank County, North Carolina: house painter J.A. Mebane, 25; wife Rachel, 24; and children Jennie A., 6, Edmond A., 3, and Julian H., 1.

In 1918, John Alexander Mebane registered for the World War I draft in Perquimans County, North Carolina. Per his registration card, he was born 24 July 1884; was a minister at First Colored Baptist Church; and his nearest relative was Rachel Mebane.

Hattie Esther Mebane was born 10 May 1918 in Hertford, Perquimans County, N.C., to Rev. John A Mebane, 34, of Windsor, N.C., and Rachel Snowden, 33, of Snowden, N.C. She was the eighth of eight children.

Robert A. Mebane was born 10 July 1920 in Crawford township, Currituck County, N.C., to John A Mebane, 34, of Hertford County, N.C., and Rachel Snowden, 33, of Currituck County. He was the ninth of nine children.

In the 1920 census of Hertford, Perquimans County, N.C.: Baptist minister John A. Mebane, 33; wife Rachael, 34; and children Jennie A., 15, Edmund A., 13, Julian H., 11, Vivian B., 8, Myrtle M., 7, John A., Jr., 5, Margaret R., 3, and Ester B., 8 months.

Julian Mebane, The Normal Light, yearbook of Elizabeth City State Normal High School (1925).

On 12 June 1927, Julian H. Mebane, 23, of Elizabeth City, son of John A. and Rachel Mebane of Wilson, married Ollie McLaughlin, 19, of Zebulon, N.C., daughter of John W. and Julia McLaughlin of Zebulon.

In the 1928 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Mebane Jno A Rev (c; Rachel) pastor Mt Sinai Missionary Baptist Ch h 1008 Woodard av. Also: Mebane Vivian B (c) student h 1008 Woodard av

In the 1930 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Mebane Jno A Rev (c) H 308 Hackney

In the 1930 census of Manhattan, New York, New York: Rachel Mebane, 43, odd jobs house worker, and her children Vivian, 19, laundress, Myrtle, 18, restaurant waitress, John, 16, pin setter at bowling alley; Margaret, 13, Esther, 11, Robert, 9, and Omega, 2.

Walter Mebane was stillborn 6 August 1931 in Rocky Mount, N.C. Per his death certificate, he was born in Rocky Mount to John A. Mebane of Rocky Mount and Henrietta Foster of Wilson and was buried in Nash County.

William Allen Mebane was born 7 July 1933 in Tarboro, Edgecombe County, to John A. Mebane and Henrietta Foster.

Vivian Mebane died 30 March 1938 at Riverside Hospital, Bronx, New York. Per her death certificate, she was born 27 May 1910 to John Mebane and Rachel Snowden.

In the 1940 census of Tarboro, Edgecombe County, N.C.: church minister John A. Mebane, 54; wife Henrietta, 38, registered nurse; and children William A., 6, and Florence, 5.

Grace Mebane died 7 February 1940 in Tarboro, North Carolina. Per her death certificate, she was born 11 April 1926 in Petersburg, Virginia, to John Mebane of Bertie County, N.C., and Henrietta Foster of Wilson County; and was buried in Wilson, N.C.

Margaret Rachel Mebane died 18 November 1942 in Manhattan, New York, New York. Per her death certificate, she was born 30 September 1893 in North Carolina to Edmund and Hester Snowden; lived at 54 Morningside Avenue; and was married to John A. Mebane. [Surely, they were divorced. They were certainly long separated, and John Mebane had remarried.]

In the 1950 census of Tarboro, Edgecombe County, N.C.: painter John A. Mebane, 64; wife Heneretta A., 48, public health nurse; and daughter Florence Y., 14.

Henrietta Alline Foster Mebane died 2 June 1950 in Tarboro, Edgecombe County, N.C. Per her death certificate, she was born 24 August 1901 in North Carolina to Walter Foster and Nettie Young; worked as a nurse; was married; and was buried in Rountree Cemetery “near Wilson, N.C.” John A. Mebane was informant.

Rev. John A. Mebane died 27 December 1974 and was buried next to his wife Henrietta in Rest Haven Cemetery, Wilson. [Presumably, Henrietta Foster Mebane’s body was exhumed from the Foster family plot and re-interred in Rest Haven.]

  • W.E. DuBissette — this was surely Dr. Michael E. DuBissette, who practiced medicine in Wilson during this period.
  • Dan Rogers

Elaine A. DuBissette, Howard ’30.

1930

From The Bison, the yearbook of Howard University, 1930.

Elaine A. Du Bissette graduated from Howard University in Washington, D.C., in 1930 with a degree in education. Per her yearbook entry, she was a native of Grenada, British West Indies, and graduated Wilson High School [sic] in Wilson. As shown here, she received her high school diploma in 1926.

Du Bissette was clearly a close relative of Dr. Michael E. Dubissette, but their exact relationship is not clear. Was she his niece? Younger sister? Child from a previous marriage? (This seems unlikely, as he did not declare on his naturalization application.)

Hat tip to S.A. Stevens for pointing out this yearbook entry.

Dr. Michael Edmund DuBissette.

The 1922 Wilson city directory listed three African-American doctors — Michael E. Dubissette, Matthew S. Gilliam, and William A. Mitchner.

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Unlike Gilliam (more about him later) and Mitchner, Dr. DuBissette spent only a few years of practice in Wilson. Born in 1885 in Grenada, West Indies, Michael Edmund DuBissette immigrated to the United States about 1912. He attended Saint Augustine’s College and Shaw University in Raleigh (where he likely met his wife, Betty Alford of Smithfield, Johnston County) and obtained a medical degree from Howard University. He was a resident of New York (and a British citizen) in June 1917 when he registered for the World War I draft. In March 1918, he married Alford in Wake County.

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Wilmington Morning Star, 15 May 1915. (Note Eustace DuBissette, who was likely a younger brother. Born in Grenada in 1890, he opened a dental practice in Wilmington, North Carolina.)

By 1922, the DuBissettes had set up in Wilson, living at 911 East Green Street while Dr. DuBissette saw patients at 550 East Nash. (Not Hicks, as the directory shows.) In his idle hours, he managed to maintain competitive tennis rankings.

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New York Age, 12 February 1927. 

He remained in Wilson as late as 1928, when DuBissette last appears in a city directory. By 1929, however, he had moved on to Enfield, Halifax County, North Carolina. From there he filed in the Eastern District of the North Carolina, United States District Court, a declaration of his intention to seek American citizenship. Wife Bettie and children Bettie Agnes (born 1919) and Michael DuBissette Jr. (born 1921) were still in Wilson.

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In February 1930, Dr. DuBissette resettled in New York City and threw himself into the city’s Negro professional life, giving lectures, fundraising, and gaining hospital credentials.

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New York Age, 27 February 1932.

NY_Age_3_3_1934_Dubissette_hospital_fund

New York Age, 3 March 1934.

In 1936, Dr. DuBissette petitioned for naturalization in the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York. Bettie Alford Dubissette had died two years prior, but his children continued to reside with him at 460 West 147th Street in Harlem.

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By the early 1940s, however, Dr. DuBissette had returned to North Carolina. He married his second wife, Louise Goodson, in 1943 in Goldsboro and established a long-lasting practice there. Michael E. DuBissette died in New York City in 1963.

Wash Af-Am 12-31-1963

Washington Afro-American, 31 December 1963.

Petitions for Naturalization from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, 1897-1944, National Archives and Records Administration, available online at ancestry.com.