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.
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.
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.)
——
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.]
In 1929, when Julius Powell provided information for the death certificate of his father Howard Powell, undertaker C.E. Artis noted his address as “K. of K.S. Bldg.” — the Knights of King Solomon Building at 203 1/2 Stantonsburg [now 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.
The first quarter of the twentieth century may have been the hey-day of fraternal and benevolent societies in Wilson’s African-American community. The 1908 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory listed the Grand United Order of Good Samaritans and Daughters of Samaria, which rented meeting space at Mount Hebron Masonic Lodge every Tuesday evening.
——
Knights of Gideon Mutual Society were just one of many fraternal organizations and benevolent societies operating in East Wilson in the early twentieth century. Information about K. of G. is scarce, but Mount Maria [Moriah?] Lodge No. 7 was included in the 1908 edition of the Wilson city directory.
Hill’s Wilson, N.C, city directory (1908).
Lodge No. 7 met at the Mount Hebron Masonic hall at the corner of Pender and Smith Streets.
——
Recently, Brooke Bissette Farmer of Wilson’s fantastic Imagination Station reached out to me with a remarkable set of photos. A man (whom, it turns out, I’ve known since our childhoods) came into the museum to ask about an artifact he found while clearing out a house on Viola Street in the 1990s.
Though rusty and missing its top plate, the instrument is clearly identifiable as the seal embosser for Peaceful Valley Lodge 272, Wilson’s African-American Knights of Pythias lodge.
Peaceful Valley, like most of North Carolina’s Knights of Pythias lodges, is defunct. Lodge 272’s founding date is not clear, but it definitely was established well after Wilson’s Black Masons and Odd Fellows.
Pleasant Valley Lodge 272 was active into the 1980s. Frank W. Barnes, Howard English and Emanuel Spells were among its last leaders.
Wilson Daily Times, 18 July 1974.
Wilson Daily Times, 12 October 1957.
The Jewel of Julia Tent 449 [not “Jewels” and not 444] was established in Wilson in 1933. This is the earliest reference I have found for the organization and would appreciate any information anyone has.
[Update, 2 January 2022: And in a matter of hours, a reader — thank you, Theresa E. Williams! — comes to the rescue.
The Jewel of Julia was a chapter of the United Order of Tents. From their website: “Organized in 1867 by two ex-slaves, Annetta M. Lane of Norfolk, Virginia and Harriett R. Taylor of Hampton, Virginia. The United Order of Tents is a Christian Fraternal Benevolent Organization managed predominately by black women. Its membership spans Georgia, North Carolina, District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia. The Order was incorporated on June 17, 1883, by the Circuit Court of the city of Norfolk as “The J. R. Giddings and Jolifee Union” and began operations as such. Through error, the Corporation became popularly known by its present name and on June 28, 1912, a charter amendment was granted changing the name. The Order was first licensed as a fraternal benefit society in 1906 and has continually operated as such. The entire history of the organization displays a record of providing shelter and service to people who are unable to care for themselves.”
Years ago, I ran across a certificate of memberships in the Tents for my grandmother, Hattie Henderson Ricks. I had never heard her mention the organization, and I suspect she was affiliated only during the years before she migrated to Philadelphia, when she worked at the sanatorium. Assuming there was only one only chapter in Wilson, my grandmother was a Jewel of Julia!]
This beautifully crisp photo depicts a gathering of Prince Hall Masons in front of Saint John A.M.E. Zion‘s distinctive Gothic arches during the church’s construction. Dated 1914-1915, I do not know who took the photograph (though it seems to have passed through the hands of Wilton M. Bethel), the specific occasion for the photograph, or whether it features only members of Mount Hebron Lodge No. 42, whose lodge was just across Smith Street. I do know that it is fantastic in every detail.
Though my focus is on the men assembled at center, the edges of the image are rich with detail as well — the boy in a newsboy cap perched on the scaffolding; the boys peering over the heads of the suited men; the few girls clustered at right, with a woman in a magnificent hat just behind them; another woman at extreme left, visible only as an eye under the wide brim of her hat.
Of the 36 men depicted, as of now, I have only been able to identify only eleven certain and a few possibles. Do you recognize any others?
And a question to any Prince Hall Masons, do the medallions, swords, aprons, or other regalia disclose anything public about the wearer’s status or office within the lodge?
Rev. Halley B. Taylor (1879-??), Worshipful Master, Presbyterian minister.
Julius F. Freeman Sr. (1844-1927), carpenter.
Roderick Taylor Sr. (1883-1947), barber.
William Hines (1883-1981), businessman, hospital administrator.
Camillus L. Darden (1884-1956), businessman, funeral director.
Rev. Bryant P. Coward (1864-1940), pastor of Saint John A.M.E. Zion Church.
Short W. Barnes (1860-1943), carpenter.
Samuel H. Vick (1863-1946), educator, businessman.
Charles H. Darden (1854-1931), blacksmith, funeral director.
John H. Clark (1863-1949), postal employee.
John Mack Barnes (1869-1958), Treasurer, brickmason, builder of Saint John A.M.E. Zion.
Charlie H. Thomas (ca.1865-1945), printing office pressman.
Either barber Levi H. Jones (1877-1961), Rev. Charles T. Jones (1878-1963), or painter Butler E. Jones (ca. 1879-1961), who were brothers.
Probably, Arthur N. Darden (1889-1948), mortician.
Probably, Leonard L. Barnes (1888-1952).
Probably, Edgar H. Diggs (1890-1970), barber.
Possibly, Darcy C. Yancey (1883-1957), pharmacist.
[Sidenote: There is something incredibly moving about seeing these men in the early part of what arguably was Black Wilson’s Golden Age in the 1910s and ’20s. Though the photograph was staged, their expressions (other than Sam Vick, who was obviously accustomed to formal portrait-posing) are almost candid. They are a mix of old heads, born in the final days of slavery, and a new generation of young lions. I was surprised by my instant recognition of Charles and Camillus Darden and William Hines. It took me longer to realize my own grandfather stood at far left. My identification of Arthur N. Darden is based in part on his close resemblance to his mother, Dinah Scarborough Darden. Most of the others I was able to name only after reviewing other photos of men I know to have been Masons. Leonard Barnes, astonishingly, I recognized because of his close resemblance to his grandson, who was my childhood playmate.]
Many thanks to J. Robert Boykin III for the copy of this photograph. And a special shout-out to Stanley Horton, Past Worshipful Master, Foundation Lodge #592, Prince Hall Affiliated, for his help in identifying offices and emblems.
[Updates: Rev. Halley B. Taylor and the Jones brothers added 3 September 2020. Charlie H. Thomas added 1 February 2023.]