funeral

Funeral announcement for Louis Hagans.

Wilson Daily Times, 2 March 1937.

In the 1900 census of Taylor township, Wilson County: farmer Charles Haggans, 39; wife Charity, 39; and children Martha, 18, Louis, 16, Joney, 14, Isaac, 13, Lou R., 10, and Charles, 1.

On 22 December 1909, Louis Hagans, 24, son of Charlie and Charity Hagans, married Hattie Smith, 17, daughter of Thomas and Edie Smith, in Wilson. Baptist minister Fred M. Davis performed the ceremony.

In the 1910 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: Louis Haggans, 26, servant, and wife Hattie, 17.

In 1918, John Louis Hagans registered for the World War I draft in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born 4 April 1884; lived on Queen Street; and worked as a farm laborer for J.G. Roney.

Lane Street Project: two burials in “Rountree” Cemetery.

The “Wilson, N.C.” society column of the 25 June 1927 Norfolk Journal and Guide noted two recent funerals at which the deceased was buried in Rountree Cemetery by the short-lived undertaking firm, Artis and Freeman.

  • Mary Jane Tate

As noted here, though her gravestone has not yet been found, Mary Jane Tate is likely buried in the Noah Tate family plot in Odd Fellows cemetery. We see here how early the name “Rountree” was applied to all the cemeteries on this stretch of Bishop L.N. Forbes Street.

  • Serenda Morgan

Mrs. Serenda Morgan was in fact Sarah Bullock Morgan, wife of Surrender Morgan. The Morgans were married just two months before she died.

On 12 April 1927, Surrender Morgan, 21, of Wilson, son of Calvin and Almeta Morgan, married Sarah Bullock, 18, of Wilson, daughter of Walter and Sarah E. Bullock. Free Will Baptist minister E.H. Cox performed the ceremony in the presence of Ernest Bullock, Grim Bynum, and Author Williams.

Sarah Morgan died 16 June 1927 in childbirth in Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was 19 years old; was born in Robeson County, N.C., to Walter Bullock Sr. and Emma Clark; was married to Surender Morgan; lived on Atlantic Street; and was buried in Rountree Cemetery.

Surrender Morgan died 19 October 1939 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was 27 years old; was born in Wilson to Calvin Morgan and Almeta Morgan (she of the State of “Missippa”); was the widower of Sarah Morgan; worked as a chauffeur; and was buried in Wilson, N.C. [Other records, including her own death certificate, report Almeta Bynum Morgan’s birthplace as Wilson County.]

The funeral of Ida Ross Clark.

Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 24 January 1942.

This remarkable photograph captures Ida Ross Clark‘s coffin as it was wheeled from old Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church in January 1942. She was buried in the Masonic Cemetery.

Though the Wilson Daily Times ran a brief obituary, only Black newspapers like the Journal and Guide could be relied upon to run respectful images for events the community deemed important.

The funeral of Dr. J.P. Stanley of New Bern.

I came across this transcript of an article in the 14 July 1931  edition of The New Bernian in Afro-American Death Notices From Eastern North Carolina Newspapers 1859-1935, Berry Munson, editor:

An overwhelming crowd turned out Sunday to pay tribute of respect to the late Dr. Judge Pickett Stanley, whose funeral was conducted at St. Peters church on Sunday at 4 o’clock. Rev. H.R. Hawkins, pastor, officiated, assisted by the Rev. Maultsby, Branch, Sutton, Todd, Love, and Johnson. Resolutions from the church were read by Prof. W.S. Todd; there was a solo by Mrs. Ella Battle; statement from the family by Rev. W.F. Todd who also gave intimate remarks about the deceased. Rev. Hawkins preached from the text, “There is a time to die,” an eloquent discourse on the meaning of life and death. An impressive part of the service was the address by Col. J.H. Ward, commanding officer at U.S. Veterans hospital in Tuskegee where Dr. Stanley had worked for several years. He closed by reading  resolutions from the staff of the hospital. The following members of the medical profession were present from out of the city. Drs. Bynum, Harrison and Wright of Kinston; Drs. Delaney, Sebastian, Winston, and Fleming of Raleigh; Drs. Dilliard and Williams of Goldsboro; Dr. Battle of Greenville; Dr. Dudley of Veterans Hospital, Tuskegee. These with our local staff, Drs. Mann, Fisher, Munford, Martin, Davies, Alston and Hill were honorary pall-bearers. The active pallbearers were I.H. Smith, Guy Howard, Jessie Pearson, W.S. Todd, W.T. Lewis, L.C. Starkey and Ambrose Harget. Other visitors were W.C. Redding of Kinston; Mr. and Mrs. E.W. Fisher and Camillus Darden of Wilson; Miss O.L. Bigsby of Tuskegee; Miss Jessie Williams and friends of Goldsboro and Dr. and Mrs. Bynum of Kinston. Interment was in the family plot in Greenwood cemetery.

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Friends with Wilson ties were:

What might have been.

A post office custodian by day, African-American photographer Richard S. Roberts maintained a studio in Columbia, South Carolina’s segregated business district. Between 1920 and 1936, he created a prodigious visual archive of Black life in the city.

Roberts captured the arresting image below circa 1926. The undertaker firm is believed to be Manigault-Gaten-Williams, and it is reasonable to think that a high-end Darden and Sons funeral in Wilson might have looked much the same way.

Treat yourself to A True Likeness: The Black South of Richard Samuel Roberts 1920-1936, an extraordinary compilation of this artist’s work. I am painfully reminded of the lost oeuvre of George W. “Picture-Taking” Barnes, Ray J. Dancy, John H.W. Baker, and other Wilson photographers.

The burial of Jonah Pitt.

Wilson Daily Times, 17 February 1923.

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Jonah Pitt’s military service card.

On 10 November 1921, Jonah Pitts, 24, of Wilson, son of Haywood Becton and Martha Pitts, married Annie Mae Dillard, 18, of Wilson, daughter of Abe Dillard and Sallie D. White. Chesley White applied for the license, and Missionary Baptist minister John A. Mebane performed the ceremony at 206 Pender Street, Wilson, in the presence of James Crocker, Nancy Crocker, and Rosetta Bunn.

Jonah Pitt Jr. died 4 February 1922 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was born 3 February and lived only 20 hours; his parents were Jonah Pitt and Annie Mae Dillard; and he lived at 604 Spring.

Jonah Pitt died 14 February 1923 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was born 18 July 1897 in Wilson to Haywood Beckwith and Martha Pitt; was married to Annie Mae Pitts; lived on Vance Street; and worked as a cook. Elsie Pitt was informant.

World War I Service Cards 1917-1919, http://www.ancestry.com.

Sunday funerals.

Wilson Daily Times, 4 May 1935.

Presumably, the “secular organizations” holding funeral parades and services on Sunday were fraternal groups, masonic orders, and social clubs.

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