We met Howell Vines here, when he complained to a Freedmen’s Bureau official that J.E. Totten had taken his military discharge papers in a fraud scheme. Totten lived in Wilson County, but it was not clear to me if Vines lived in Wilson or Edgecombe. I recently obtained a copy of his wife’s widow’s pension file, which establishes his domicile in the Old Sparta area of southwest Edgecombe. Nonetheless, I am featuring Vines here because of his close ties to Wilson County and the depth and poignancy of the personal information the file contains.
To start, here is the precious discharge paper Vines fought to recover. It establishes that he had enlisted in Company B, 14th Regiment of the United States Colored Heavy Artillery and was discharged at Fort Macon, North Carolina, on 11 December 1865. Vines was 39 years old, had been born in Edgecombe County, was five feet nine inches tall, and dark-skinned.
Howell Vines and Lucilla Eason married first in Edgecombe County while enslaved in 1854, then legalized their union in 1866. Lucilla Vines produced this certified copy of their cohabitation registration.
Vines died 6 June 1881. Ten years later, his wife Lucilla Vines applied for a widow’s pension, calling as supporting witnesses friends, neighbors, fellow soldiers, and even her former enslaver. She hired A.R. Bridgers, Jr., “Attorney at Law and Solicitor of Pension Claims,” to represent her and on 9 May 1892 Bridgers wrote Commissioner of Pensions Green B. Raum seeking action on Vines’ claim. Bridgers described her as “a poor flicted woman destitute of support and soly dependant on her children to sustain her through life,” adding, “She also has a son who is not a sound bodied person.”
Vines’ application included a joint declaration by several of her supporters. An unknown person testified to Howell Vines’ early legal status, stating that Howell had originally been owned by the heirs of Pollie Ruffin and drawn by John Vines in a division of property. Howell had remained John Vines’ property until freed. Benjamin Ruffin, age 81, testified that he had known Howell Vines all his life — “I was sent after the midwife when he was born.”
Charles Vines testified that he had known both Howell Vines and his parents and, while Howell may have gone by the name of his first owners at some point, John Vines was his last master. Ruffin and Charles Vines jointly asserted that they had known Lucilla Vines her whole life, as well as her parents; that she and Howell Vines were married by their owners’ consent; and Howell Vines was “allowed time Saturday night to go see his wife and reasonable time to get home Monday morning.”
In 1866, the couple got a “twenty-five cent license” to remarry under North Carolina’s cohabitation law and lived together until Howell’s death. They had 12 children, five of whom were still living — twins James and Jenny, born 17 October 1855; Lucy, born 27 July 1858; Sarah, born 24 February 1868; and Charles, born 1 April 1870.
Charles Vines and Ruffin asserted that Lucilla Vines was born in 1836 in Edgecombe County, but cite a younger age for Howell than that set forth on his discharge paper. Howell worked as a farmer and was never married to any woman other than Lucilla, whom they described as “flicted” — afflicted — with a large wen on her neck.
Lucilla Vines herself swore that she had known her husband since childhood; that they had married with consent; that they had not had an address during the War (“being slaves had no need of any Post office”); and Howell Vines died of disease contracted while a soldier.
On 31 October 1891, J.E. Eason wrote a note on Lucilla Vines’ behalf, oddly claiming that Evans “beloning to me and I have owened her all of her life.” (J.E. Eason added her X to a similar document four months later in which she modified her claim to assert only that “Lucilla Eason was once a slave of mine.”)
In August 1893, 63 year-old Charles Vines again testified, stating “that he has known Howell Vines all of his life they both belonged to the same white man John Vines, we both ran off the same time to become soldiers.” Charles Vines was rejected (he “was not found a solid man”) and went North, but Howell Vines enlisted. Charles encountered Howell in New Bern, North Carolina, during the War, and Howell told him he had contracted “camp cough.” He was never a well man after.
In October 1898, 58 year-old Dock Baker of Saratoga, Wilson County, testified that he, too, had known Howell Vines all his life. Baker had enlisted in Company B three months before Vines, and they were “comrid soldiers.” Howell had enlisted as a healthy man, but after working months building breastworks, lifting heavy logs, and throwing up dirt, Vines had been “taken down sick” and hospitalized for a month. Thereafter, he could not do much and was given light duty as a cook. Baker could not recall the name of Vines’ condition, but had seen him so ill with “cramp colic” that “it appeared as though it would draw him double.”
Allen Vines swore that he had known both Howell and Lucilla Vines about 45 years; that he and Howell had both belonged to John A. Vines; that he and Howell were not related, but his mother was Lucilla’s mother’s first cousin; and that Lucilla had belonged to Jackie Eliza Eason. Allen Vines was “standing by” when John A. Vines pronounced Howell and Lucilla man and wife. He also attended Howell Vines’ funeral.
James Vines authenticated his father’s discharge paper. “Prior to the war my mother with us children all lived on Miss Eason’s farm & father lived on John Vines’ farm but visited us every week.” “When Miss Eason (white) came to die last July she did not will my mother any thing but she willed me 180 acres of land for my lifetime & then to my two sisters Lucy & Jennie for life and then to their heirs but the executor Joseph Cobb sold the land to pay the debts of the estate.” [Per her estate file, Jacquea Eason died owning $40 in assets (other than land) and $500 in debt. James Vines and his sister Lucy Vines and Jenny Vines Johnson were her sole heirs. Benjamin F. Eagles bought Eason’s land when it went to auction.]
Watson Vines testified that “Howell Vines lingered four or five years before his death; and he was subject to fainting. I was with him when he died, and he had the running off the bowels constantly and died with the same. He continued to wicken down by the running off the bowels and died June 6, 1881. I superintend over his burring.”
Lucilla Vines was awarded a widow’s pension of $8 per month.
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In the 1870 census of Cokey township, Edgecombe County: farm laborer Doctor Baker, 27; wife Charlotte, 19; and children Richard, 6, and Louisa, 3.
In the 1880 census of Cocoa township, Edgecombe County: farm laborer Dock Baker, 45; wife Charlot, 35; and children Richard, 16, Louiser, 13, Marke, 9, Martha, 7, and Mary, 3.
Probably, on 19 February 1887, Dock Baker, 35, married Ellen Knight, 30, in Saratoga township, Wilson County.
Probably, on 21 August 1892, Dock Baker, 45, resident of Saratoga, married Ester Lewis, 23, of Saratoga, in Wilson County.
File #520895, Application of Luciller Vines for Widow’s Pension, National Archives and Records Administration.
