fraternal organization

The incorporation of the Patriotic Order of Ethiopians of America.

The Order of Ethiopians did not last long, but they had lofty goals. For more about this organization, see here, here, here, and here.

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22806

Certificate of Incorporation of

The Patriotic Order of Ethiopians of America, Inc.

This is to certify that we, the undersigned, do hereby associate ourselves into a non-stock corporation under and by virtue of the laws of the State of North Carolina, contained in Chapter 21 of the Revisal of 1905, entitled “Corporations,” and the several amendments thereto, and to that end do hereby set forth:

1. The name of this corporation is The Patriotic Order of Ethiopians of America, Inc.

2. The location of the principal office of the corporation in this state is at No. ___ Street, in the town of Wilson, County of Wilson.

3. The objects for which this corporation is formed are as follows:
(a) To promote the principles of unity, justice, order, solidarity, love, virtue, loyalty, honor, and fidelity; to raise the standard of social life; inspire race culture; reduce illiteracy; encourage morality; promote enterprise, good health, and charity.

This corporation shall have the exclusive right to establish subordinate divisions.

And in order properly to prosecute the objects and purposes above set forth, the corporation shall have full power and authority to purchase, lease and otherwise acquire, hold, mortgage, convey and otherwise dispose of any and all kinds of property, both real and personal, both in this state and in all other states and territories and dependencies of the United States, and generally to do and perform all acts which may be deemed necessary to the proper and successful prosecution of the objects and purposes for which this corporation is created.

4. The corporation is to have no capital stock.

The names and post office addresses of the incorporators are as follows:

Name Post Office Address
Jas. Alex Mebane Wilson, N.C.
Glenn S. McBrayer Box 373, Wilson, N.C.
M.E. Dubissette, M.D. Wilson, N.C.
Dan Rogers Wilson, N.C.
W.C. Crawford Wilson, N.C.
James Crocker Wilson, N.C.
Levi Arrington Wilson, N.C.
N.A. Pierce Wilson, N.C.
J.S. Spell Wilson, N.C.

5. The period of existence of this corporation is limited to 99 years.

6. Members may be admitted after organization upon the following plans:
By initiation or payment of a fee.

In testimony whereof, we have hereunto set our hands and applied our seals this the 20th day of January A.D. 1923.

Jas. Alex Mebane
Glenn S. McBrayer
M.E. Dubissette, M.D.
Dan Rogers
W.C. Crawford
James H. Crocker
Levi Arrington
N.A. Pierce
J.S. Spell

Signed, sealed, and delivered in the presence of
D.C. Yancey, Notary Public

State of North Carolina } ss.
County of Wilson }

This is to certify that on this 20th day of Jan. A.D. 1923, before me, a Notary Public, personally appeared Jas. Alex Mebane, Glenn S. McBrayer, M.E. DuBissette, Dan Rogers, W.C. Crawford, James H. Crocker, Levi Arrington, N.A. Pierce, J.S. Spell, who, I am satisfied are the persons described in and who executed the foregoing certificate of incorporation of The Patriotic Order of Ethiopians of America Company, and having first made known to them the contents thereof, they did each acknowledge that they signed, sealed, and delivered the same as their voluntary act and deed for the uses and purposes therein expressed.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and applied my official seal, this the 20th day of January A.D. 1923.

D.C. Yancey, Notary Public
My commission expires Sept. 20, 1924.

Filed Jan. 22, 1923.
J. Bryan Grimes, Secretary of State
State of North Carolina,
Department of State

I, W. N. Everett, Secretary of State of the State of North Carolina, do hereby certify the foregoing and attached paper writing to be a true copy of the certificate of incorporation of The Patriotic Order of Ethiopians of America, Inc., and that the same is taken from and compared with the original filed in this office on the 22nd day of January A.D. 1923.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and applied my official seal.
Done in Office at Raleigh, this 22nd day of January in the year of our Lord, 1923.

W. N. Everett
Secretary of State
(State Seal)

Corporations Book 2, page 470, Wilson County Register of Deeds Office, Wilson.

Order of Ethiopians hold membership drive.

Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 3 September 1927.

The Journal and Guide‘s 3 September 1927 column sharing news of Wilson mentioned the membership drive carried out by the Phyllis Wheatley Princess Circle of the Patriotic Order of Ethiopians of America, Inc., a fraternal order founded just four years before. Presumably, Saint Simon and John Jasper No. 9 were P.O.E.A. lodges.

Incentives for initiations into the Order of Ethiopians.

We first encountered the Patriotic Order of Ethiopians of America here. Below, a series of agreements detailing financial incentives paid to its organizers.

  • the Imperial Grand Lodge of P.O.E.A. and Glenn S. McBrayer

McBrayer, a South Carolina native and graduate of Howard University Law School, was Wilson’s first Black attorney. In this agreement, the Lodge acknowledged that McBrayer had “spent much of his time, life and energy” into the organization’s creation and, “as founder and promoter [had] furnished the finance with which to bring the … order into being.” In consideration of these services and money advanced, McBrayer was to receive five cents for every member initiated into the order and smaller amounts for Grand Lodge and Princess Circle Auxiliary members and others for various periods of time. President John A. Mebane, secretary Michael E. DuBissette, trustee John S. Spell, and McBrayer himself signed. D.C. Yancey notarized the document.

Deed book 76, page 378, Hertford County Register of Deeds Office, Winton, North Carolina.

  • P.O.E.A. and John Alexander Mebane of Pasquotank County

Mebane was to deliver to the Grand Lodge “a copy of the Rituals and the Modus Operandi … and designs for the Paraphernalia, Regalia, ensigns, designs, escutcheons and seals” in exchange for various per capita sums.

Deed book 76, page 379, Hertford County Register of Deeds Office, Winton, North Carolina.

  • P.O.E.A. and McBrayer

McBrayer agreed to accept the position of Deputy-at-Large and “to set up lodgings int he several States and Territories” in exchange for certain per capita payments.

Deed book 76, page 382, Hertford County Register of Deeds Office, Winton, North Carolina.

Noble Grand Vick celebrates with Boston Lodge.

Like his father Daniel Vick and brother Samuel H. Vick, Ernest L. Vick was an active Odd Fellow, serving as Noble Grand when Boston Lodge celebrated its 26th anniversary in 1909.

Boston Globe, 19 February 1909.

Annual meeting of the Odd Fellows and Households of Ruth.

In 1976, Wilson’s lodges hosted the 94th annual district Odd Fellows and Household of Ruth meeting. Hannibal Lodge #1552, founded in 1873, was older than the district. The county’s first Household of Ruth lodge was established in 1887. Excited as I was to part its covers, the souvenir booklet contains no lodge history or historic photographs and, within a decade after this conference, the lodge was essentially defunct.

Thank you, M.B. Ward.

Grand Union Hall.

The 1912 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory lists the Grand Union hall at Hines Street near Spring.

Here it is — “Lodge Hall (Negro)” — on page 20 of the 1913 Sanborn fire insurance maps of Wilson.

What was the Grand Union fraternal organization? It was not listed in the 1916 city directory, and I’ve found no other reference to the organization or its building.

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 an 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

205 South Pender Street.

In the early 1960s, the brick building marked B.P.O. Reindeer Lodge No. 32 at 205 South Pender. The building has been demolished. 

As described in the nomination form for the East Wilson Historic District: “#205 [formerly 203 1/2]; ca. 1930; 2 stories; (former) Central Grocery and Market; simple brick commercial building has parapet front and five-bay facade; remodeled recessed entry; upper floor at one time contained Knights of King Solomon civic club; interior has been altered for apartments.”

In April and May 1935, a series of notices appeared in the Wilson Daily Times alerting the public of the court-ordered sale of “the Knights of Solomon building, located on Stantonsburg Street, in the Town of Wilson” on May 18 of that year.

The 1941 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory shows Wade H. Pridgen as the proprietor of a grocery at 203 1/2 Stantonsburg Street, with tobacco worker Eva Pringle as the upstairs tenant.

The 1947 and 1950 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directories show Hocutt’s Grocery (William S. and Roland B. Hocutt, proprietors) at 203 1/2 Stantonsburg Street, with Eva Pringle still upstairs.

The 1963 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory shows BPO Reindeer at the address.

By the early 1970s, the first floor of this building housed the East Branch of the Wilson County Public Library, the successor to the Negro Library formerly located two blocks north on Pender Street.

The building was occupied as a lodging house during its final decades before demolition circa 2005.