grocery

Historic Black Business Series, no. 2: Annie V.C. Hunt’s grocery.

The 500 block of East Nash Street is justly remembered as the 20th century epicenter of Wilson’s African-American-owned businesses. However, in the late 1800s and early 1900s, Black entrepreneurs and tradespeople also operated across the tracks. As Wilson’s downtown experiences a resurgence, let’s rediscover and celebrate these pioneering men and women.

Check in each Sunday for the latest in the Historic Black Business Series.

Annie V. Collins Hunt was one of the earliest documented Black businesswomen in Wilson. By 1897 she had opened a grocery store on Goldsboro Street, most likely in the 100 block south of Nash Street.

The Gazette (Raleigh, N.C.), 19 June 1897.

Hunt did not stint in outfitting her shop. In August 1897, she placed an order with an Ohio company for a sixty-dollar safe with her name painted on its side.

This detail from the 1897 Sanborn fire insurance map of Wilson shows two groceries in the block of South Goldsboro just below Nash Street. Either might have been A.V.C. Hunt’s business.

The following spring, Hunt placed an ad in The Great Sunny South, a newspaper published in neighboring Greene County. “Go to Mrs. A.V.C. Hunt WILSON, N.C.,” it exhorted. “The first colored merchant to open a cheap grocery store uptown. She will sell you a pound box of baking powder, worth 10c, for 5 cents. Tobacco at 25 cents per pound. Soap at 3 1/2 cents per cake, ginger snaps at 5 cents per pound, coffee from 10 cts to 20 cts per pound, sugar from 4 1/2 to 5 1/2 cts per pound and many other things too numerous to mention. All good as cheap as can be bought. Call and examine her goods before buying elsewhere. All goods delivered in the city. Be convinced by calling to see Mrs. A.V.C. HUNT. Dealer in a first-class and reliable line of heavy and fancy groceries, Wilson, N.C., on Goldsboro street, next door to A. Katz’ market.”

The Great Sunny South (Snow Hill, N.C.), 29 April 1898.

Unfortunately, Annie Hunt’s mercantile success uptown was brief. Tragedy struck in 1899. First, her grocery was destroyed by fire — a crime her husband James Hunt was accused, and acquitted, of committing. Then, James Hunt was murdered, shot down in the street by the man who owned the grocery store building. Annie V.C. Hunt never recovered and died impoverished in 1903.

Photo by Lisa Y. Henderson, December 2023.

Isaac W. Lee’s reach.

County lines did not define the communities to which people belonged. Residents of Wilson County’s Stantonsburg, Black Creek, and Cross Roads townships often had close family, social, and business ties across the line in Wayne County, and the town of Wilson was a common destination for many living in northern Wayne.

Isaac W. Lee spent his entire life in and around the town of Fremont in north-central Wayne County. A man with multiple talents and an expansive business sense, Lee simultaneously worked as a tailor and a grocer before starting an undertaking business.

Lee was born about 1888 in northern Wayne County. In the 1900 census of Fremont, Nahunta township, Wayne County: farmer Isa J. Lee, 41, and children Hend, 18, Adie, 17, Pearly, 16, and Isac W., 13.

In the 1910 census of Fremont, Nahunta township, Wayne County: Isaac Lee, 23, and Amos Daniel, 20, partners in a pressing club and tailoring business.

On 2 April 1913, Isaac W. Lee, 25, married Eva Aldridge, 20, daughter of George and Dora Aldridge, in Fremont, Wayne County. [Eva’s brother Prince A. Aldridge lived in Wilson from the 1920s until his death in 1953.]

In 1917, Isaac William Lee registered for the World War I draft in Wayne County. Per his registration card, he was born 14 April 1887 in Fremont; lived in Fremont; worked as a “merchants tailor” for Best and Cobb in Fremont; was married; and had a physical disability.

In the 1910s, Lee kept accounts on sheets of letterhead that touted both his businesses.

Lee’s business card. J.L Taylor & Co. was a large custom clothier. 

In the 1920 census of Fremont, Nahunta township, Wayne County: presser Isaac Lee, 33, and wife Eva, 29.

By the 1920s, Lee’s letterhead had dropped reference to his grocery store.

In the 1930 census of Fremont, Nahunta township, Wayne County: on Goldsboro Street, in a house owned and valued at $1500, grocery store day laborer Isaac W. Lee, 42, widower.

This undated letterhead features a photograph of the building housing his businesses. A quick Google Maps search shows the building still stands at 110 South Goldsboro Street, Fremont. 

Lee appears to have begun offering funeral services in the 1930s. He posted the notice below, for a burial in Fremont’s all-Black cemetery, in the Wilson Daily Times.

Wilson Daily Times, 17 April 1939.

In the 1940 census of Fremont, Nahunta township, Wayne County: funeral director Isaac W. Lee, 49, and nephew John T. Jones, 23, presser in dry cleaning business.

I.W. Lee was not one of the principal funeral homes serving Wilson County families, but many opted for his care, including:

Detail of death certificate of Charlie Edwards, died 20 January 1940, Wilson, buried in Rountree [probably Vick] Cemetery.

Detail of death certificate of John Davis, died 28 April 1942, Wilson, buried in Rountree [probably Vick] Cemetery.

Detail of death certificate of Warren Rountree, died 24 February 1943, Wilson, buried in Rountree [probably Vick] Cemetery.

Detail of death certificate of Cornelius Dew, died 30 July 1944, Cross Roads township, Wilson County, buried in a rural cemetery.

In the 1950 census of Fremont, Nahunta township, Wayne County: Isaac W. Lee, 63, manager of retail store-funeral home, and son Jesse T., 14, sales clerk at retail store. They lived on “Goldsboro St. 1st Blk S of Main” in “apt over I.W. Lee store.”

I.W. Lee’s building today, Google Street View.

Isaac William Lee died 10 October 1970 at his home in Fremont, Wayne County. Per his death certificate, he was born 14 April 1889 to Isaac Lee and Katie Randolph; was a widower; worked as a “funeral director and merchant (general store)”; and was buried in Fremont Cemetery by Darden Memorial Funeral Home of Wilson. Jesse Thomas Lee, 608 North Reid Street, Wilson, was informant.

Though Lee’s funeral service was held at Fremont First Baptist, ministers from Wilson’s Calvary Presbyterian Church officiated.

Wilson Daily Times, 12 October 1970.

I.W. Lee Account Book and related documents courtesy of J. Robert Boykin III.

Soft drink bottling company in East Wilson.

Wilson Daily Times, 13 January 1948.

Wilson Bottling Company stood at the corner of East Nash and South Vick Streets in a building originally occupied by a grocery. This stretch of East Nash Street was a small commercial district featuring several groceries and the Elks Club’s lodge building.

Here’s the area in the 1930 Sanborn map, before the Elks Club was built:

In 1930, the businesses were:

  • at 909, Wade H. Humphrey Grocery
  • at 911, vacant
  • at 913, barber Oscar Williams
  • at 915, vacant
  • at 917, vacant
  • at 1000, Babe Pridgen Grocery
  • at 1001 [921], Edward Nicholson Grocery
  • at 1004A, vacant
  • at 1005, Marcellus Forbes Grocery
  • at 1006, Moses Parker Grocery

In the 1947 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory:

  • at 909, vacant
  • at 911, Farm & Home Curb Market
  • at 913, Mattie G. Hines beer shop
  • at 915 and 917, Gill’s Grocery
  • at 1000, Wilson Bottling Company
  • at 1001 [921], Elks Home, Marshall Lodge #297
  • at 1004A, vacant
  • at 1005, Forbes Grocery
  • at 1006, Forbes Grocery storage

Another view of Cockrell’s Grocery.

Wilson Daily Times, 16 August 1946.

We read here of Cockrell’s Grocery, which stood at the corner of Green and Pettigrew Streets one block east of the railroad and served a largely African-American clientele. Above, a clearer view of the photograph accompanying an article about the store, with William White, at center, and Billy Strayhorn, at far right.

604 North Carroll Street.

The one hundred-fifty-fifth in a series of posts highlighting buildings in East Wilson Historic District, a national historic district located in Wilson, North Carolina. As originally approved, the district encompasses 858 contributing buildings and two contributing structures in a historically African-American section of Wilson. (A significant number have since been lost.) The district was developed between about 1890 to 1940 and includes notable examples of Queen Anne, Bungalow/American Craftsman, and Shotgun-style architecture. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.

As described in the nomination form for the East Wilson Historic District, this building is: “ca. 1913; one story; L-plan cottage with turned-post porch.” [Note: per tax records, the house was built in 1925. It does not appear on the 1922 Sanborn fire insurance map.] The 1950 Wilson city directory reveals the original house number was 516.

In the 1928 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Graham David (c; Golda) h 516 N Carroll; also Graham Theola (c) 516 N Carroll

In the 1930 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Taylor Green (c) h 516 N Carroll; also, Taylor Green jr (c) h 516 N Carroll

In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 516 Carroll Street, high school janitor Green Taylor, 57; wife Rebecca, 54; stepdaughters Lillie, 26, Wauline, 18, and Julia, 11; and son Robert Taylor, 19.

In the 1941 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Edwards Julia (c) cook Rosa R Lupe h 516 N Carroll

In the 1947 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Edwards Julia (c) gro h 516 N Carroll h do [home ditto]

Wilson Daily Times, 8 July 1976.

Julia Edwards died 3 December 1989 in Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was born 14 February 1904 in Wilson County to John Henry Edwards Sr. and Nealie Farmer; was never married; had a fifth grade education; and operated a restaurant. Informant was Annie Edwards, Stantonsburg.

Photo by Lisa Y. Henderson, April 2022.

513 East Green Street.

The one hundred-fifty-second in a series of posts highlighting buildings in East Wilson Historic District, a national historic district located in Wilson, North Carolina. As originally approved, the district encompasses 858 contributing buildings and two contributing structures in a historically African-American section of Wilson. (A significant number have since been lost.) The district was developed between about 1890 to 1940 and includes notable examples of Queen Anne, Bungalow/American Craftsman, and Shotgun-style architecture. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.

Perhaps the oldest commercial structure in the District, the facade of the grocery’s parapet is spitting bricks out onto the sidewalk.

As described in the nomination form for the East Wilson Historic District, this building is: “ca. 1908; 1 story; Mercer’s Grocery; brick, parapet-front grocery; one of the major groceries in the district.”

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513 East Green Street was originally numbered 518. Like all of the large grocery stores in East Wilson, none of its owners were African-American. 

Jesse J. Amerson is the first known owner, commuting from his home on West Green  Street nine blocks to the store.

Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory (1908).

Four years later, the city directory showed Samuel D. Moody as the owner. Moody lived at 301 Pender, just beyond the Vance Street boundary between Black and white sections of Pender. 

Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory (1912).

Moody sold wood from a lot on the Green Street side of the grocery. Detail from Sanborn fire insurance map of Wilson, N.C., 1913. 

Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory (1916).

Circa 1921, Larry Giles Boyette and Bernon S. Holdford took over the grocery and operated it together for most of the decade.

Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory (1922).

Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory (1925).

Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory (1928).

The 1930 city directory shows that Boyette operated the store solo and had renamed it with his middle name, Giles. 

 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory (1930).

However, this 1932 ad reverts to Boyette & Holford. [What curious exhortations — “Stop Hoarding!” “Put Your Slacker Dollars to Work.”]

Wilson Daily Times, 21 March 1932.

In the summer of 1940, Giles advertised Onslow County pork products. (I have not been able to determine if there was something special about ham and bacon from the Jacksonville area.) As we’ll see below, this iteration of Giles likely had a different owner than the earlier. 

Wilson Daily Times, 20 August 1940.

In 1947, W.R. Lang and A.R. Lafferty filed a notice of dissolution of their partnership, which had operated Giles Grocery at 513 East Green.

Wilson Daily Times, 16 August 1947.

Per the 1950 city directory, the store continued to operate under the name Giles Grocery. In the 1957 directory, it was named Jim Mercer’s Grocery and remained known as Mercer’s for the next three decades.

In the mid-1980s, Harrell’s Grocery added 513 East Green to its small stable of corner groceries.

Wilson Daily Times, 21 January 1986.

However, the store was once again known as Mercer’s in the late 1980s and remained so until at least 2001.

Photo by Lisa Y. Henderson, December 2022.

718 East Green Street.

The one hundred thirty-sixth in a series of posts highlighting buildings in East Wilson Historic District, a national historic district located in Wilson, North Carolina. As originally approved, the district encompasses 858 contributing buildings and two contributing structures in a historically African-American section of Wilson. (A significant number have since been lost.) The district was developed between about 1890 to 1940 and includes notable examples of Queen Anne, Bungalow/American Craftsman, and Shotgun-style architecture. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.

718 East Green Street, formerly numbered 649, is now an empty lot. Any buildings on the lot were demolished prior to the survey of the East Wilson Historic District. In the early 20th century, however, it was the site of a small Black-owned grocery, one of the earliest in East Wilson. City directories reveal the store’s existence, under an ever-changing series of proprietors, as early as 1908 and as late as the 1940s.

John H. Miller and John H. Lewis are the earliest identified grocers at the location in 1908.

Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory, 1908.

Four years later, the city directory shows Jacob C. Speight as the owner. He lived two houses down Green Street.

Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory, 1912.

Detail of page, Sanborn fire insurance map of Wilson, N.C., 1913.

By 1916, Selly Rogers was the operator of this grocery, as well as another on Stantonsburg Road (now Pender Street South).

Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory, 1916.

By 1922, several houses had been built around the store, and its number had changed from 649 to 718.

Detail of page, Sanborn fire insurance map of Wilson, N.C., 1922.

Grant J. Foster is listed as the owner in 1925, but within a few years he was operating a grocery on Viola Street.

Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory, 1925.

The ownership of the grocery during the 1930s is not yet known. By 1941, Green Street Grocery and Market had a white owner, however, John M. Coley.

Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory, 1941.

Sometime during or after World War II, the building at 718 ceased use as a grocery and became a residence, perhaps as a result of intense post-war housing shortages. By 1947, it was the home of photographer John H. Baker and his wife Rosalee.

Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory, 1947.

Black businesses, 1913, no. 1: 600 block of East Nash Street.

Cross-referencing the 1912 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory and the 1913 Sanborn fire insurance map of Wilson reveals the specific locations of Black-owned businesses just after the turn of the century. Above, the intersection of East Nash Street and Stantonsburg Road (now Pender Street.)

The most well-known is Charles H. Darden & Son‘s cast-iron double-storefront at 611-613 East Nash. 

Wiley Oates and Cain Artis operated a grocery in the large brick building occupying the entire tip of the intersection of Nash and Stantonsburg.

Across the street from Oates & Artis, white grocer David C. Braswell had a small wooden store. A third grocery faced Braswell’s on the other side of Nash, but I have not identified its operator.

1000 East Nash Street.

The one-hundred-twenty-sixth in a series of posts highlighting buildings in East Wilson Historic District, a national historic district located in Wilson, North Carolina. As originally approved, the district encompassed 858 contributing buildings and two contributing structures in a historically African-American section of Wilson. (A significant number have since been lost.) The district was developed between about 1890 to 1940 and includes notable examples of Queen Anne, Bungalow/American Craftsman, and Shotgun-style architecture. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.

1922 Sanborn fire insurance map, showing a grocery store at 1000 East Nash

As described in the nomination form for the East Wilson Historic District, this building is: “ca. 1922; 1 story; Progressive Primitive Baptist Church; brick-veneered former grocery and bottling plant; parapet front with spire added.” 

In the 1928 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Higson Bros (B H and V H) gros 1000 E Nash [The Higsons — owners Booth H. and Velborn H., clerk William B, and his wife Sidney S. —  lived at their shop. Like all who operated businesses at 1000 East Nash, the Higsons were white.]

In the 1930 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Pridgen Babe D (Mattie) gro 1000 E Nash and 513 Stantonsburg h 506 Pender

In the 1941 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Pilot Beverage Co (Roger J Crawley Andrew C Byrd) 1000 E Nash

In the 1947 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Wilson Bottling Co Moffett L Carson Mgr, Bottlers of Nesbitt’s California Orange 1000 E Nash tel 2408

Ad, 1947 city directory.

In the 1950 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Wilson Bottling Co Moffett L Carson Mgr, Bottlers of Nesbitt’s California Orange 1000 E Nash tel 2408

In its 30 July 1953 edition, the Wilson Daily Times announced the opening of a new grocery business, Super Duper, at 1000 East Nash. Thus, the building returned to its original use.

Wilson Daily Times, 31 May 1956.

In the 1963 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Super Duper Market No 1 (Lerby Bryant Odell C Tant) gros 1000 E Nash

These food stamp credit tokens for Super Duper No. 1 date from the 1970s. For an interesting history of this currency, see this 2015 CoinWeek digital article.

In 1978, the owners of the building advertised it for rent in the Daily Times.

Per mentions in the Wilson Daily Times, from 1982 to 1988 and possibly longer, Goodwill Progressive Primitive Baptist Church operated from 1000 East Nash Street.

Per mentions in the Wilson Daily Times, from 1995 to 1999 and possibly longer, Brotherhood of Deliverance Pentecostal Church operated from 1000 East Nash Street.

The building has been demolished.

1000 East Nash Street now, per Google Street View.

Map of the J.C. Palmer estate.

The settlement of Joseph C. Palmer‘s estate in 1924 required a survey and subdivision of the property he owned on South Lodge and Banks Streets. A large lot containing Palmer’s Lodge Street home and grocery store, as well as a smaller four-room house, was divided into six lots. Around the corner on Banks, he owned another lot with a ten-room apartment house.

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These blocks were surveyed just two years earlier for an update to the Sanborn fire insurance maps. The Sanborn map’s scale appears to be slightly off, but it’s easy to find Palmer’s grocery at 700 South Lodge and home at 702 South Lodge, as well as the smaller house at 408 East Banks. There was also a narrow house at 410 East Banks that apparently was demolished prior to 1924.

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On the other hand, the ten-room apartment building had not been built yet, and its lot is shown empty.

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The site today. The blocks below South Lodge Street were cleared for a public housing project, Whitfield Homes, in the 1960s.

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——

Joe Palmer, 20, married Ella Moore, 21, on 4 December 1879 at Saint Timothy’s Church.

In the 1880 census of Wilson, Wilson County: Joseph Palmer, 20, works on farm; wife Ella, 21; daughters Pearl, 9, and Mattie, 6; and mother Mariah Moore, 60, cook. [These were Ella Palmer’s daughters and mother.]

In the 1900 census of Wilson, Wilson County: South Carolina-born Joseph Palmer, 42, carpenter; wife Estel, 41, confectioner; and son Joseph C., Jr., 9.

In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on Lodge Street, house carpenter Joe Palmer, 50, and wife Ella, 49.

In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 710 Lodge Street, grocery store salesman Joe Palmer, 60, and wife Ella, 61, a general merchant.

Ella Palmer died 21 September 1921 in Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was 59 years old; lived at 702 Lodge; and born in Hyde County, North Carolina, to Mariah Moore. J.C. Palmer was informant.

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Hill’s Wilson, N.C., City Directory (1922).

Joseph C. Palmer died 12 December 1923 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was a native of Columbia, South Carolina; lived at 702 South Lodge; was a widower; and worked as a store proprietor. Mrs. Mattie E. Moore was informant.

On 14 January 1924, Camillus L. Darden (with his father Charles H. Darden as surety) applied for and received at Wilson County Superior Court letters of administration to handle J.C. Palmer’s estate, which he valued at $8000.

Plat book 2, page 14, Register of Deeds Office, Wilson; aerial view courtesy of Google Maps.