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.
Two brief blurbs in August 1892 announce an Odd Fellows convention in Wilson. Samuel H. Vick delivered a welcome address, and the keynote address was held at Wilson’s Opera House. Delegates arrived in town on special excursion trains run for the event.
Wilson Mirror, 3 August 1892.
Circa 1908, William McCowan and Samuel H. Vick operated a grocery store at 540 East Nash Street, on the first floor of the Odd Fellows building.
Detail, 1908 Sanborn fire insurance map of Wilson, N.C.
Per the 1908 city directory, the company employed at least one clerk, Elmore Stokes.
Home Supply Company was a short-lived venture between two unlikely partners. Neither McCowan, a brickmason, nor Vick, who had broad entrepreneurial interests, had known experience in the grocery business.
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In the 1870 census of Wilson, Wilson County: washerwoman Anna McGown, 35, and children William, 16, Emma, 15, Bettie, 10, Margaret, 8, Charles, 6, and Samuel, 2.
In the 1880 census of Wilson, Wilson County: brickmason William McCowan, 27; wife Louiza, 25; and daughter Annice, 6.
In the 1900 census of Wilson, Wilson County: bricklayer William McCowan, 47; wife Louise, 39; and boarder Calvin Murray, 14.
In the 1908 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: McCowan Wm pres Home Supply Co (Inc) h Church nr Pender
In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: Bill McCowan, 56; wife Louisiana, 45; and lodger Annie Williams, 38.
In the 1922 and 1925 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: McCowan William (c) brklyer h 513 Church
In the 1928 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: McCowan William (c, Louisa) brklyer h 513 Church
In the 1930 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: McCowan J William (c; Louisa) brklyer h 513 Church
William McCowan died 21 February 1940 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was 86 years old; was born in Wilson County; lived at 513 Church Street; was the widower of Lou McCowan; worked as a bricklayer; and was buried in Wilson, N.C. [If he, like Vick, were an Odd Fellow, he is likely buried in that cemetery. Otherwise, Vick Cemetery or the newly opened Rest Haven.]
Wilson Daily Times, 12 June 1936.
Wilson Daily Times, 11 June 1949.
In 1896, Samuel H. Vick delivered the keynote address at the laying of the cornerstone for Shiloh Baptist Church in Scotland Neck, Halifax County, North Carolina. The church, which still meets, was built “under the auspices” of Scotland Neck’s Little Kehukee Lodge No. 3492, Grand United Order of Odd Fellows, established four years earlier.
The Commonwealth (Scotland Neck, N.C.), 27 August 1896.
Billy Foster also turned up this buried grave marker:
Though badly damaged, the white marble marker etched with Odd Fellows triple links appears to be inscribed DANIEL VICK and was likely originally placed at the foot of the grave of Samuel H. Vick‘s father Daniel Vick or his eldest son, Daniel L. Vick.
Photo courtesy of Billy Foster, April 2023.
Wilson Daily Times, 27 February 1948.
Like many prominent men in early 20th century East Wilson, Lee A. Moore was a member of both the Masonic and Odd Fellows lodges. His obituary indicates that he was to be “buried with Masonic honors in the Masonic cemetery.” However, Odd Fellows Hannibal Lodge 1552 submitted a notice to members to meet at its lodge hall for Moore’s funeral and noted that “the lodge will charge at the grave.”
Wilson Daily Times, 28 February 1948.
Wilson Daily Times, 21 March 1936.
Who were “the colored painters of Wilson” during this period?
I’ve been able to identify James Ashley Whitfield, David Dupree, Butler E. Jones, Alexander Obery, and Samuel Swinney as painters active in the 1930s. (Commercial painter Ramon Martinez was in Wilson by 1940, but probably had not yet arrived in 1936.)
We have seen here that Wilson’s Hannibal Lodge #1552 was not the only Odd Fellows lodge in Wilson County.
The three links engraved on the headstones of Gray Williams and Henderson Parker in William Chapel cemetery suggest an Odd Fellows lodge in Taylor township in far northwest Wilson County.
On 27 February 1900, the trustees of the Colored Odd Fellows paid Caswell F. and Eliza J. Finch $12.50 for a one-acre lot in Taylors township on the east side of the Wilson and Nash Road adjacent to the colored school lot. The deed was recorded on 10 March 1900 in Wilson County Register of Deeds in Deed Book 54, page 314. The Wilson and Nash Road was today’s N.C. Highway 58, and “the colored school lot” is probably a reference to Farmers Colored School, which was located just north of modern-day Silver Lake.
Gray Williams Oct 3 1882 Jul 12 1925 Lula Williams Born 1878 Jan 21 1923 Gone But Not Forgotten
Henderson Parker July 5, 1878 Sept 6, 1919
Photos by Lisa Y. Henderson, April 2022.
Deed book 68, page 311, Wilson County Register of Deeds Office.
On 2 January 1905, Orren and Hancy Best sold Caesar Moses and James Watson, trustees of Zion Hall No. 5952, Grand United Order of Odd Fellows, a 48 by 48-foot lot at the rear of their property “near the corporate limits of the Town of Wilson.” Orren and Hancy Best lived at the heart of Grabneck, and Zion Hall was one of at least eight African-American Odd Fellows lodges active in Wilson County in the early 20th century.