foodways

Adam Scott, Barbecue Artist, in Wilson.

If you love the people and culture and history of eastern North Carolina, and you’re not reading David Cecelski‘s beautiful and richly textured essays about the Coastal Plain past, fix that. His most recent blogpost is a deep dive into the life of Barbecue King Adam Scott of Goldsboro, a small city about 25 miles south of Wilson, and draws upon photographs found in the N.C. Department of Conservation and Development Collection at the North Carolina State Archives in Raleigh.

Among the images Cecelski selected is this one of Scott at a barbecue in Wilson in 1948.

A little hunting in the Wilson Daily Times and I found a 16 October 1948 piece about the convention of the North Carolina State Grange to be held in Wilson October 26-28. Ava Gardner, “Wilson’s contribution to Hollywood,” had been invited to attend a fashion show and guests were to be treated to “a special barbecue with Adam Scott, of Goldsboro, doing the cooking.”

Eastern North Carolina pitmasters like Wilson’s Ed Mitchell have expanded the legacy of Adam Scott, who cooked for governors and senators and presidents, as well as the every day folk who stepped through his back door on Brazil Street. Though Scott’s Famous Barbecue Restaurant is long-closed, you can order Scott’s vinegar and red pepper-based, sugar- and fat-free barbecue sauce right now.

Ferrell’s School entertains the superintendent.

Wilson Daily Times, 10 November 1933.

Ferrell’s School, near Black Creek, entertained county commissioners and the school superintendent and laid out a spread of barbecue, cole slaw, fried chicken, potato salad, pumpkin pie, and “cakes of every kind.”

——-

  • Ferrell’s School — see also here.
  • Dora Godwin — in the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 910 Wainwright Avenue, Robert Godwin, 29, odd jobs laborer; wife Dora, 23, public school teacher; and stepson [sic] Paul Helpler, 16.
  • Emily Wilson — in the 1930 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Wilson Emily (c) sch tchr r 711 E Green
  • Augustas Woodard — in the 1930 census of Black Creek township, Wilson County: farmer Gus Woodard, 49; wife Lizzie, 38; and children Eva M., 20, Mamie, 19, Daisye, 18, Ruth, 14, Augustus, 16, Purrell, 15, and James, 8.

Food demonstrations across the community.

Wilson Daily Times, 4 June 1943.

——

Recommended reading, no. 15: Ed Mitchell’s Barbeque.

On a quick escape to New Orleans during that first pandemic summer, I dropped by my cousin Zella Palmer’s for a little socially distanced catching up. Sitting on her front porch, she told me that she’d been contacted about writing a cookbook/memoir with Wilson barbecue pitmaster Ed Mitchell and his son Ryan. In a time of scarce good news, the alignment of family, friends, food, and folkways in this project felt especially serendipitous, and I urged her to do it. 

My copy of their collaboration, its recipes interwoven with piquant stories and lush photographs of the Mitchell family and East Wilson, arrived yesterday. Surely you’ve got yours, too. 

Ed Mitchell’s Barbeque.

In May 2019, Dr. Joseph H. Ward‘s granddaughter and great-granddaughter, both born and reared in the Midwest, came home to Wilson. Zella Palmer FaceTimed me as she and her mother Alice Roberts Palmer stood outside David G.W. Ward‘s house near Stantonsburg, the house in which Joseph Ward’s mother Mittie Ward and grandmother Sarah Ward toiled while enslaved. D.G.W. Ward was the father of at least three of Sarah Ward’s children, including Mittie. Joseph Ward’s father, Napoleon Hagans, who lived not far away in Wayne County, was my great-great-grandmother’s brother, and thus Cousin Alice and Zella are my people. I was so grateful to be able to share, even if remotely, the tangle of emotions the Palmers felt as they stood on ancestral ground. But who knew there was more to come for Zella in Wilson?

This week, Zella announced that the cookbook she wrote with Wilson’s own barbecue pitmaster extraordinaire Ed Mitchell and his son Ryan Mitchell is now available for pre-order on Amazon, with a publication date of June 2023! Zella is chair of Dillard University’s Ray Charles Program in African-American Material Culture in New Orleans and passionately committed to preserving Black foodways. Who better to capture the family stories and recipes of my father’s old friend Ed Mitchell? And who better than I to provide source material and to introduce the world to Black Wilson at the book’s opening?

My gratitude goes to Ed Mitchell, who has long stood in the gap for the preservation of eastern North Carolina food culture (and respect and recognition for its practitioners and purveyors); to Ryan Mitchell, whose True Made Foods embodies the spirit of sankofa; and to my cousin Zella Palmer, who drew me into this project and showed love and grace when I missed deadlines as I struggled to find words during my father’s illness.

“In his first cookbook, … Ed explores the tradition of whole-hog barbeque that has made him famous. It’s a method passed down through generations over the course of 125 years and hearkens back even further than that, to his ancestors who were plantation sharecroppers and, before that, enslaved. Ed is one of the few remaining pitmasters to keep this barbeque tradition alive, and in Ed Mitchell’s Barbeque, he will share his methods for the first time and fill in the unwritten chapters of the rich and complex history of North Carolina whole-hog barbeque.”

Y’all — get your orders in!

The pitmasters of Dixie Inn.

From “Facts … About Wilson North Carolina: The City of Beautiful Trees,” a 1934 publication of the Wilson Chamber of Commerce.

The Dixie Inn opened in 1930 just south of Wilson and quickly established itself as the go-to spot for nights out, civic group meetings, company banquets, and rehearsal dinners. Its painted roof proclaimed its specialties, barbecue and oysters. Like every restaurant of its time and place, Dixie Inn was strictly segregated — at least, in terms of its dining tables. The Inn’s cooks and wait staff were Black, as were their so-called “pitboys,” the men who produced the barbecue for which the Inn was renowned. The photo above shows several African-American men shoveling charcoal under a long row of halved hogs and others tending to the fire that produced the coals while a boy in a cap looks on.

 

Colored boys and girls in the corn and canning clubs.

Without comment, on 7 June 1917, the Wilson Daily Times published a lengthy list of names and addresses of children who were members of corn (for boys) and canning (girls) clubs in Wilson, Lucama, and Stantonsburg. The groups, supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, were the precursors to 4-H Clubs.

Given the canning club membership requirements, it’s astonishing that so many town girls were involved. Per Farm Life Readers, Book 5 (Bryan, Evans & Duncan, 1916, page 38): “Any girl between the ages of nine and eighteen in the county, where the work is organized may become a member. She must plant one-tenth of an acre to tomatoes, and must do all the work connected with her garden except preparing the soil for her plants. Prizes are offered for the largest yield, the largest net gain, the best display in glass jars, best history of garden work, the largest tomato, the most perfect tomato, the largest, neatest best collection of tomato recipes.”

Cover of notebook created by North Carolina canning club girl, 1915. Wilson County girls would have been required to create such a document. Jane Simpson McKimmon Papers (PC 234), State of Archives of North Carolina.

Below, the lists of children consolidated and alphabetized:

Lucama

  • Allen, Rose, Route 2
  • Atkinson, Addie, Route 2
  • Atkinson, Mattie, Route 2
  • Barnes, Fletcher, Route 3 Box 68
  • Barnes, Joseph, Route 3 Box 68
  • Barnes, Sarah, Route 3 Box 68
  • Battle, Jason
  • Battle, Mamie
  • Battle, Redmond (son of Columbus and Sallie R. Battle)
  • Bethea, Lillie, Box 77
  • Boykin, Ida, Route 3 Box 76 (daughter of William T. and Sarah Boykin)
  • Boykin, Katie, Route 3 Box 76 (daughter of William T. and Sarah Boykin)
  • Cherry, Eldora, Route 2 (granddaughter of Arch and Martha M. Atkinson)
  • Creech, Daisy, Route 3 Box 74 (daughter of Troy and Martha Creech)
  • Creech, Dorsey, Route 3 Box 74 (son of Troy and Martha Creech)
  • Creech, James, Route 3 Box 14
  • Creech, Naomi, Route 3 Box 14
  • Creech, William, Route 3 Box 14
  • Dew, Joseph, Box 92 (son of Cornelius D. and Cora L. Dew)
  • Dew, Martha, Box 92 (daughter of Cornelius D. and Cora L. Dew)
  • Ellis, Allman, Route 3 Box 14
  • Dupree, Smithie, Route 3 Box 96 (daughter of Moses and Henrietta S. Dupree)
  • Forsythe, Isabella, Route 3
  • Forsythe, Lena, Route 3 (daughter of Mac and Mary Forsythe)
  • Forsythe, William, Route 3
  • Harris, Alvester (son of Andrew J. and Henrietta Harris)
  • Kent, Elijah (son of Rufus and Maggie Kent)
  • Murchison, Johnnie, Route 3 (John J., son of Samuel A. and Martha Murchison)
  • Newsome, Adam, Route 1 (son of Larry and Louetta Artis Newsome)
  • Newsome, Genatus, Route 1 (William Genatus, Larry and Louetta Artis Newsome)
  • Pate, Alvestor, Route 3 Box 75 (son of James G. and Heterow Pate)
  • Pate, Daisy, Route 3 Box 75-A (daughter of James G. and Heterow Pate)
  • Proctor, Bessie, Route 1 Box 15 (daughter of Charlie and Dorita Proctor)
  • Thomas [Thompson], Addie, Box 11 (daughter of Nelson and Melvina Thompson)
  • Thompson, Lillie, Box 11 (daughter of Nelson and Melvina Thompson)
  • Thompson, Nettie, Box 11 (daughter of Nelson and Melvina Thompson)
  • Westley, Mattie (daughter of John A. Wesley)
  • Whitley, Clarence, Route 1 Box 61-B (son of James and India Whitley)
  • Williams, Beatrice, Route 1 Box 95
  • Williams, Essie, Route 3 Box 68
  • Williams, James, Route 1 Box 95
  • Williams, Martha, Route 1 Box 61
  • Williams, Minnie, Route 3 Box 68
  • Williams, Odessa, Route 3 Box __
  • Williamson, Eliza, Route 3 Box 68

Wilson

  • Adkinson, Viola, 649 East Green Street
  • Allen, Lema [Lena], Raleigh Road (daughter of John and Martha Allen)
  • Bagley, Herman, 609 Viola Street (son of Edward and Effie Newsome Bagley)
  • Barefoot, Martha, 103 Viola Street (son of Wiley and Maggie Barefoot)
  • Barnes, Alena, 504 East Green Street
  • Barnes, Alma, Atlanta [Atlantic] Street (daughter of Lemon and Lizzie Barnes)
  • Barnes, Anna, 103 Wiggins Street
  • Barnes, Annie, 211 Manchester Street
  • Barnes, Annie, 213 Pender Street
  • Barnes, Antelia [Artelia], 121 Pender Street (daughter of John M. and Annie Darden Barnes)
  • Barnes, Ardenia, 563 [East] Nash Street (daughter of Jesse and Sarah Barnes Barnes)
  • Barnes, Boisey, 612 East Green Street (son of Dave and Della Hines Barnes)
  • Barnes, Edward, Atlanta [Atlantic] Street (son of Lemon and Lizzie Barnes)
  • Barnes, Frank, 106 East Nash Street
  • Barnes, Gretchen, Nash and Reid Street
  • Barnes, Jessie, 561 East Green Street
  • Barnes, Joseph, 312 Manchester Street
  • Barnes, Lizzie, Route 3 Box 82
  • Barnes, Lucinda, Grabneck
  • Barnes, Mable, 504 East Green Street
  • Barnes, Margaret, Mason Street
  • Barnes, Rosa, 14 Harper Street
  • Barnes, Thelma, Leigh [Lee] Street
  • Barnes, Victoria, Route 1, Box 126
  • Barnes, Wearland, Leigh [Lee] Street (son of William I. and Madie Taylor Barnes)
  • Battle, Annie, 628 East Nash Street
  • Battle, Annie, 135 Sugg Street
  • Battle, Effie, Suggs Street
  • Bess, Suprema, 1105 East Nash Street (granddaughter of Benjamin and Eliza Ellis Best)
  • Best, Laura, West Nash Street (daughter of Noah and Sarah Best)
  • Best, Mattie, 631 East _____
  • Blount, Joseph, Cemetery Street (son of Daniel and Susana Blount)
  • Blount, Walter, 206 Pender Street (son of John and Mary J. Blount)
  • Boykin, Mabel, 700 Viola Street
  • Brannick, Bessie, 139 Ash Street
  • Bullock, Rachel, 412 Lodge Street (daughter of Richard and Lucretia Beal Bullock)
  • Bynum, Agusta, 143 Sugg Street (daughter of Charlie and Sarah Barnes Bynum)
  • Bynum, Cathrin, 541 [East] Nash Street (daughter of Mack and Victoria Bullock Bynum)
  • Bynum, Irene, 140 Suggs Street (daughter of Archibald and Lillie Woodard Bynum)
  • Bynum, Leah, 541 East Nash Street (daughter of Mack and Victoria Bullock Bynum)
  • Cannon, Ethel, 616 East Nash Street (daughter of John and Florence Cannon)
  • Carroll, Mary, 507 Vicks Alley
  • Chapman, Delzelle, 206 Stantonsburg Street
  • Crawford, Willard, 705 Spring Street (son of Joe and Annie Crawford)
  • Cox, Minnie, 109 Green Street (daughter of Floyd and Lula Cox)
  • Dawson, Almedo, 505 East Vance Street
  • Dupree, Nancy, Vick Street (daughter of Wiley and Victoria Woodard Dupree)
  • Edwards, Jonathan, 609 Robinson Street (son of Henry Edwards)
  • Ellis, Charles, 665 Carolina Street
  • Ellis, Florence, 157 Atlanta [Atlantic] Street
  • Ennis, Freeman, 401 Pine Street (son of Samuel and Maggie Barnes Ennis)
  • Farmer, Clara, Mason Street
  • Farmer, Gladys, Barnes Street (daughter of Jason and Bessie Farmer)
  • Faulk, Marie, 210 Pender Street (daughter of Hiram and Arzulia Mitchell Faulk)
  • Gaston, Lorenzo, 120 Manchester Street
  • Grantham, John E., 205 Reid Street
  • Green, Ida, 628 Green Street
  • Green, William, 1208 Pender Street
  • Griffis, Hazel, Vick Street
  • Hall, Flora, 607 Sunshine Street
  • Hargreaves, Willie, 663 East Carolina Street
  • Harper, Mary, 141 _____
  • Harris, Georgia, 617 Stantonsburg Street
  • Haskins, Estelle, 505 West _____
  • Haskins, Mandy, 303 Varn [Barnes] Street
  • Haskins, Marie, 631 East Green Street
  • Holden, Carrie, 305 John Street
  • Holman, Thelma, 503 East Vance Street
  • Holt, Maggie, 113 Pender Street
  • Hooper, Ruther, 656 Viola Street
  • Howard, Mary, 110 Pender Street
  • Howard, Ophelia, 627 East Green Street
  • Hunt, Lulu, County Road
  • [H]ussey, Rhoda, 634 [East] Nash Street
  • Jackson, Joseph, 619 East Green Street (son of Joseph and Annie Horton Jackson)
  • Jackson, Paul, 619 East Green Street (son of Joseph and Annie Horton Jackson)
  • Jeffreys, Luvinia, 702 Daniel Street
  • Johnson, Maizie Lee, 151 Sugg Street
  • Johnson, Winona, 418 East Nash Street
  • Jones, Alice, 825 Stantonsburg Street (daughter of Wesley and Martha Taylor Jones)
  • Jones, Margaret, 400 Washington Street
  • Jones, Julia, 700 Tarboro Street
  • Kittrell, Rosalie, 637 East Green Street
  • Lane, Archer, 7084 Green Street
  • Lane, Esther, 704 East Green Street
  • Langley, Harriet, 800 Viola Street
  • Lewis, John, 411 Vick Street
  • Lonze, Willis, 619 Vance Street
  • Lude, Martha, 119 Pender Street
  • Marshall, Inez, 315 Jones Street
  • McCoy, Henry, 23 Carolina Street
  • McPhail, Mary, 313 Vick Street
  • Melton, Maggie, 648 Mercer Street
  • Miller, Rebecca, 313 Goldsboro Street
  • Mimms, ___sie, Grabneck Street
  • Mitchell, Lester, 549 East Green Street
  • Moore, Samuel, 406 Wiggins Street
  • Morgan, Ella, 706 Green Street
  • Myselle, Mary, 307 Walnut Street
  • Norfleet, Ruth, 213 Lee Street
  • Norwood, Eliza, Route 4, Box 14-A
  • Oates, Rosa, 542 Narrow Way Street
  • [O’]Kelley, Gladys, 633 East Green Street
  • Palmer, Beatrice, 608 Viola Street
  • Parker, Maggie, 111 Ash Street
  • Parker, Marie, 901 _____
  • Pearce, Almira, 806 East Vance Street
  • Pitt, Elizabeth, 804 East Vance Street
  • Pur___, Alma, 413 Stantonsburg Street
  • Reed, Bruce, 601 East Green Street (son of J.D. and Eleanor Frederick Reid)
  • Rodgers, Alphonza, 607 Lodge Street
  • Sanders, Amelia, 143 East Street
  • Savage, Bedford, 623 Darehis [Dardens] Alley (daughter of Frank and Serena Woodard Savage)
  • Scarborough, Lucile, 1109 East Nash Street (daughter of Festus and Mary Parker Scarborough)
  • Scott, Mary, near Colored Gra. School
  • Scott, Sarah, Woodard Avenue
  • Selman, Francis, West Hines Street
  • Shaw, Willie, 209 Hackney Street
  • Simms, Essie, 509 Mercey [Mercer] Street
  • Speight, Bessie, 627 East Green Street (daughter of Jake and Rebecca Speight)
  • Spells, John, 133 Pender Street (son of John S. and Martha A. Gordon Spell)
  • Stephen, Elsie, 151 Lee Street
  • Stevens, Josephine, Lodge Street
  • Taylor, Gladys, Robinson [Robeson] and Reid Streets
  • Taylor, Mae, 9_6 Carolina Street
  • Taylor, Tilly, 515 East Green Street
  • Thigpen, Amanda, 603 East Elba Street
  • Thomas, Marie, 616 East Green Street (daughter of Charles and Sarah Best Thomas)
  • Utley, George, 39 East Green Street
  • Vick, George, 623 East Green Street (son of Samuel H. and Annie Washington Vick)
  • Washington, _____, 630 East Green Street (child of George and Cora Miller Washington)
  • Washington, James, 630 East Green Street (son of George and Cora Miller Washington)
  • Weeks, Marie, 131 Pender Street (daughter of Rev. Alfred and Annie E. Weeks)
  • White, Patsy, Grabneck Street
  • Wilkins, Hattie, 414 East Lodge Street (daughter of Redden S. and Mary Hines Wilkins)
  • Williams, Dorthea, Rountree Street
  • Williams, Helen, 411 [South] Goldsboro Street
  • Williams, Mattie, 204 Wiggins Street
  • Williams, Nettie, Stantonsburg Road
  • Woodard, Almira, 119 Ash Street
  • Woodard, Herbert, 22 Harper Street

Stantonsburg

  • Applewhite, Alberta
  • Applewhite, Cherry (daughter of George and Jane Edmundson Applewhite)
  • Artis, Estelle
  • Artis, Nora
  • Barnes, Bessie
  • Barnes, Cora
  • Barnes, Hattie
  • Barnes, James
  • Batts, Ada
  • Foster, Mamie
  • Hagans, Luvinia (daughter of Dave and Almeta Ellis Hagans)
  • Hall, Oliver (son of James and Henrietta Hall)
  • Jones, Agnes
  • Jones, Albert
  • Jones, Ernest
  • Jones, Roscoe
  • Locus, Naomi
  • Lucus, Emma
  • Miller, Sarah
  • Newsome, Valdena
  • Reid, Loumiza (daughter of William and Bettie Wilson Reid)
  • Ward, James
  • Ward, Sarah
  • Whitley, Beatrice (daughter of Titus and Ida Whitley)
  • Whitley, Benjamin (son of Titus and Ida Whitley)
  • Winstead, Isaac (son of James Woodard and Annie Liza Winstead)
  • Winstead, Camuel [Samuel?]
  • Winstead, Mena (daughter of Mandy Winstead)
  • Yelverton, Ada (daughter of Ivory and Annie Taylor Yelverton)
  • Yelverton, Albert
  • Yelverton, Claude (son of Ivory and Annie Taylor Yelverton)
  • Yelverton, Henry (son of Ivory and Annie Taylor Yelverton)

Bazaar to benefit the hospital.

Wilson Daily Times, 7 December 1916.

A few years after it opened, friends of the Wilson Colored Hospital (later known as Mercy) held a pop-up shop of sorts in the Odd Fellows Hall on East Nash Street to raise money for indigent tuberculosis patients. On offer, clothing, but mostly undoubtedly delicious food — barbecue, chicken salad, oysters, sausages, sandwiches, sweets and ice cream.