grave marker

Lane Street Project: paying respects.

I’m back in Wilson. My first stop is always Rest Haven to pay respects to my father. From there, Vick Cemetery is literally just around the corner.

I placed flowers on the grave of the Unknown Ancestor and made a prayer of thanks.

I turned to get back in my car and nearly stepped on this bit of marble.

It appeared to be a piece of the marble “box” that was once surrounded the Unknown Ancestor’s grave. I placed it inside the orange cones guarding the site.

There was also this a few feet away. It’s hard to see in this low-contrast image, but it’s comprised of shards of granite imbedded in concrete and is a little over a foot long. It appears to be a section of grave border, or maybe even a headstone base. I’ll alert the City in the morning.

Whew. This GPR survey can’t happen soon enough.

Photos by Lisa Y. Henderson, March 2026.

The grave of Henry Ruffin (ca. 1864-1928).

Henry Ruffin‘s headstone, topped with a Masonic emblem, marks his grave in the former Elm City Colored Cemetery, now Heritage Cemetery.

In the 1870 census of Springfield township, Nash County, N.C.: farm laborer George Ruffin, 50; wife Minerva, 35; and children Thomas, 10, Virginia, 4, and Henry, 2.

On 21 December 1887, Henry Ruffin, 21, of Wilson County, son of George and Mariney Ruffin, married Jane Tillery, 22, of Wilson County, daughter of Ben and Cherry Tillery, at four o’clock at Ben TIllery’s house in Gardners township, Wilson County.

In the 1900 census of Elm City, Toisnot township, Wilson County: on Pender Street, Henry Ruffin, 32, common laborer, and wife Ella Jane, 35, cook.

In the 1910 census of Toisnot township, Wilson County: on Wilson Road, farm laborer Henry Ruffin, 48, and wife Mahalley Jane, 39, cook.

In the 1920 census of Toisnot township, Wilson County: farmer Henry Ruffin, 52, and wife  Janie, 49.

Henry Ruffin died 26 July 1928 in Toisnot township, Wilson County. Per his death certificate, he was born 16 March 1964 in Johnston County, N.C., to George Ruffin and Mammie Ruffin; was married to Jane Ruffin; and was buried in Elm City.

Photo by Lisa Y. Henderson, February 2026.

In honor of Julia Bailey, “a tender mother and a faithful friend.”

My deepest gratitude to Randy Marshburn and Al Letchworth, who located and photographed the headstones of Julia Bailey and Andrew Terrell at the edge of Buckhorn Reservoir.

They recently returned to Bailey’s grave to reset the monument and place flowers in honor and remembrance.

Thank you!

Photo courtesy of R. Marshburn.

B.W.A. Historical Marker Series, no. 28: East Nash Street Monument Company.

In this series, which will post on occasional Wednesdays, I populate the landscape of Wilson County with imaginary “historical markers” commemorating people, places, and events significant to African-American history or culture.

We been here.

EAST NASH STREET MONUMENT COMPANY

Clarence B. Best began cutting marble and granite headstones in 1914 and in 1946 established his own monument company in his backyard at 1306 East Nash St. Known for his distinctive font, deep cuts, stylized plant motifs, and use of recycled material, thousands of Best’s headstones can be found in Wilson and Surrounding counties.

Wilson Daily Times, 13 October 1945.

 

Cemeteries, no. 26: the Alex and Gracy Shaw Williamson cemetery, revisited.

I met up with Britt Edwards last week to explore the Alex and Gracy Williamson cemetery more closely. Someone is taking good care of this graveyard, and I thank them for it.

Looking west toward the tobacco barn, which is still in pretty good shape. 

This enormous white oak surely is a witness tree, offering shade to the earliest enslaved people buried in this cemetery.

Britt standing outside the old fence line. The posts are eastern red cedar and are many decades old.

The tobacco barn.

Hanging poles inside the barn.

The old flue.

Isaac Renfrow’s grave marker.

Hand-hewn fieldstone head and foot markers.

A small child’s grave marker.

With a little help from Britt’s phone flashlight, we were able to decipher that this hand-cut and -engraved marker is for a child who was born in 1912 and died in 1913. The child’s surname was Williamson, and my best decipherment of his(?) first name is THOMAS. The child died just a year before death certificates were required in Wilson County, and I have not been able to identify him with certainty.

Carved wooden grave marker.

I don’t know how I missed this tiny cedar grave marker on earlier visits. It is weathered and encrusted with lichen, but quite solid. There are no visible engravings. How old is this marker?

Photos by Lisa Y. Henderson, October 2025.

First notes from Mississippi.

Obviously, I am terrible at taking breaks.

I’m in Columbus, Mississippi, this morning, about to head home. I came to search for traces of Wyatt Moye and Robert S. Adams, slavetraders who funneled enslaved people from eastern North Carolina, including what is now Wilson County, to the notorious slave markets at Aberdeen, Mississippi.

I spent Juneteenth copying deeds at Chancery Court; talking settlement of Mississippi, the internal slave trade, and convict leasing with a local brother looking at property records for his church; poring over old news columns at the public library; and dodging mad thunderstorms.

It’s hard, heavy stuff, but the warmth of the folks I’ve encountered have countered the weight. I’ll share some photos today and gradually write up what I’ve found.

Aberdeen is an old town by Mississippi standards and was a powerhouse in the antebellum era. From an outsider’s perspective, it doesn’t lean heavily into magnolias and Big House tropes though, even though it’s got plenty of both.

Tina Robbins at the Visitor’s Bureau provided a wonderful welcome to town and lots of helpful material, including an African-American history driving tour.

Paradise Alley was back of the main street, and the block in which Black folk once gathered for shopping and entertainment among their own. 

Slavetrading was good money. This was Robert S. Adams’ house in Aberdeen. 

The Tombigbee at sunset, Columbus.

I would pay good money for these kind of clearly delineated property records. Props to Monroe County.

Or these.

Both the Choctaw and Chickasaw have ties to this area. Waterways still flow with indigenous names — Tombigbee, Luxapallila, Buttahatchee, Boguegaba, Boguefala, Mattubby, Tubbalubba, Tallabinnela. And deed books reflect the transfers of property from Native people after the Chickasaw Cession of 1832.

Wyatt Moye’s house in Aberdeen. He later moved on to Louisiana to expand his human trafficking activity.

The Masonic Temple.

Home of Bukka White, and maybe Howling Wolf and Albert King.

Y’all know I love a vernacular headstone artist. This was the most remarkable marker of several in Monroe County’s Mount Hebron Missionary Baptist Church cemetery. The stone reads: Nubin White Jr. born Oct. 25 1935 Died Sept. 4 1980 He Drove The School Bus For Ten Years In Aberdeen He Work At Antional Cushion Spring Co.

Row Q.

Apropos of Nina Hardy’s crazy quilt, ten year-old posts from my genealogy blog, http://www.scuffalong.com:

29 October 2014

Less than an hour after we got from the WCGS meeting last night, I received an email from president Joan Howell. I’d mentioned to her that I was trying to locate an unmarked grave at Rest Haven, she’d offered to check her records, and there it was: Nina F. Hardy, Section 3, Lot 20, Q in the street, Space 4.

This is how the morning went:

  • My father and I drove over to Rest Haven, but quickly realized that there was no way to determine where A’nt Nina’s grave was just by looking.
  • We got back in the car and crossed town to Maplewood Cemetery, where the City of Wilson Cemetery Commission is headquartered. The manager provided a chart and a print-out and a good suggestion. “Walk about halfway up Q,” she said. “Then call me and tell me what headstones you see.” [Sidenote: Q was once a track running through Sections 3 and 4 of the cemetery, like P and R to either side of it. Years ago, Q and the other odd-lettered rows were closed off and converted to burial space. The designation “Q in the street” means that A’nt Nina’s grave lies under what was once a pathway.]
  • Back to Rest Haven. A few minutes and a call later, we had the general location of A’nt Nina’s grave between those of Rev. Calvin Harris Boykin and Annie Thompson. I snapped a shot or two, though there is nothing much to see. [Cemetery employees can pinpoint graves, but none were available at the time.]
  • No time like the present, so we headed to our cousin L.H.’s house. His family owns a vault business that does a sideline in gravestones. I ordered a simple flat granite marker to be inscribed with A’nt Nina’s name, birth and death dates; my dad wrote a check (I’d left mine in Georgia, and L.H. doesn’t truck with credit cards); and it was done. I kissed L.H.’s new grandson, and he promised to send me a photo when the marker is installed. [L.H. remembers A’nt Nina. I don’t know why that surprised me. When they arrived in Wilson from Wayne County, L.H.’s grandfather, Jesse “Jack” Henderson, and Nina both lived with Jesse and Sarah Henderson Jacobs on Elba Street.]

My father standing at the approximate location of Nina Hardy’s grave this morning. Rest Haven cemetery, Wilson, North Carolina.

13 November 2014

A couple of weeks ago, I blogged about looking for my cousin Nina Frances Faison Hardy‘s unmarked grave and wanting to honor her by placing a stone. Today, I got a text from my cousin and an email from my mother with photos. My cousins’ business, Eastern Carolina Vault Company, installed the marker today and, after 45 years, A’nt Nina’s final resting place is no longer lost.

Lane Street Project: mystery markers.

Died Apr. 2, 192[3?]. May the Resurrection Find Thee On the Bosom of Thy God.

Two mysteries: (1) the broken concrete slab is missing the section that names the deceased, and the slab is lying atop (2) a square marble base whose large obelisk marker is entirely missing. The base sits several yards from Henry Tart‘s monument in Odd Fellows Cemetery, and the obelisk would have been similar to his and Wiley Oates‘. It may have been the marker visible in the background of a photograph of Irma Vick‘s funeral.

Did the concrete marker commemorate Aaron Washington? Per his death certificate, this 57 year-old Wayne County native died 2 April 1923 and was buried in Wilson by C.H. Darden & Sons. This generic place designation could mean Vick, Odd Fellows, or Rountree Cemeteries. 

Hoping we’ll find more clues in Season 4 of the Lane Street Project Clean-up Workdays to the identities of the men or women whose graves these headstones marked. Please join us.

Photo by Lisa Y. Henderson, December 2023.

Lane Street Project: Have the Graves of Your Loved Ones Been Marked?

Wilson Daily Times, 6 October 1945.

How many Vick Cemetery families ordered their loved ones’ grave markers from African-American stone cutter Clarence B. Best?

How many Best-made headstones did the City of Wilson destroy?

The resting place of Hattie Maryland Wright.

Hattie Maryland Wright‘s headstone gleaming in a patch of sunlight in Sharpsburg Cemetery. Though tilted, it is nearly as pristine as it was when it placed and was so lovely I wanted it to have its own post.

She is not dead but sleeping. We trust our loss will be her gain.

Hattie Maryland Wright (1872-1930).

——

In the 1880 census of Rocky Mount township, Edgecombe County, North Carolina: farmer John Maryland, 58; wife Melvel, 40; and children Haywood, 17, Schofield, 16 (who was deaf), Walter, 10, Mary, 9, John, 7, Hattie, 6, Primus, 4, and Jonas, 2.

On 11 September 1895, Turner Ward, 21, of Nash County, son of Mack and Rhoda Ward, married Hattie Maryland, 19, of Nash County, daughter of John and Penelope Maryland, at John Maryland in Coopers township, Nash County.

In the 1900 census of Rocky Mounty, Edgecombe County: day laborer Turner Ward, 25; wife Hattie, 25; children James H., 3, Minnie P., 2, and Ernest, 6 months; and niece Emma Maryland, 7.

On 4 September 1908, George Wright, 35, of Nash County, married Hattie Ward, 40, of Nash County, in Rocky Mount township, Nash County.

In the 1910 census of Toisnot township: on Elm City and Tarbor0 Road, farmer George Wright, 35; wife Hattie, 35; daughter Delia, 2; wife’s children Jessie, 18, James, 12, and El Gray, 6; and boarder Mamie Brant, 30.

In the 1920 census of Toisnot township, Wilson County: on Wilson Rocky Mount Road, farmer George Wright, 45; wife Hattie, 45; and children Elvira, 17, Estella, 11, Georgeanna, 9, and Samuel, 6. Next door: James Wright, 22, and wife Maggie, 18; Jordan Armstrong, 24, farmer, and Cella, 23; and boarder Charley Ford, 22, farmer.

Photo courtesy of Ancestry.com user marj11249.