Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 15 September 1934.
Sara Vick and Bessie Parker Hargrave visited with Annie M. Vick in September 1934. Hargrove, the wife of former Wilson physician Dr. Frank S. Hargrave, was the cousin of Annie Vick’s husband, Samuel H. Vick. Who was Sara Vick?
I am ambivalent about using artificial intelligence to restore photographs. Or, more specifically, I’m concerned about manipulated photographs supplanting original images and further blurring the line between reality and misinformation. However, the allure of AI-enhanced images is strong, as I often contend with blurry, poorly lit photographs in unnatural sepia or black-and-white tones. Photographs whose condition sometimes exacerbates the distance between us and our ancestors.
I have been experimenting with ChatGPT lately, feeding it queries and images to be restored and colorized. The results are somewhat haphazard, with many images weird and off-putting. Other times, the images are breathtakingly sharp and … alive. Black Wide-Awake exists to resurrect forgotten lives, and I believe these images are valuable to help us connect with the men and women we read about in these posts. From time to time, I’ll share the better ones here, clearly marked as AI-generated. Let me know what you think about them.
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Dr. Frank S. Hargrave (1881-1942), physician and hospital founder, New Jersey state assemblyman.
The Afro-American (Baltimore, Md.), 25 September 1926.
Samuel H. Vick, his daughter Doris Vick, and Vick’s cousin (whom he informally adopted) Bessie Parker Hargrave drove from North Carolina “North” (probably to New Jersey) with Presbyterian minister and educator Clarence Dillard and Eliza Bass, whom I have not identified further.
The New Jersey State Republican Committee commissioned E.H. McGhee of Trenton to create a hand-lettered resolution in tribute to Dr. Frank S. Hargrave upon his death on 11 March 1942.
Below, detail of one of the illustrated letters, bright with faux gilt, that decorated each page.
Many thanks to Vicki Cowan for sharing this beautiful document.
Dr. Frank S. Hargrave and his wife, Bessie Parker Hargrave, who was a Wilson native, late in his life.
Photo courtesy of Vicki Cowan. Thank you!
On 22 February 1914, the Wilmington Morning Star published this detailed account of the establishment of the Wilson Hospital and Tubercular Hospital, which eventually became Mercy Hospital. Originally envisioned with a farm, countryside cottages, and a nurses’ home, only the administrative building was built. Nonetheless, Dr. Frank S. Hargrave‘s vision was “remarkable” indeed, and the hospital served the community for 50 years. (I was born there, in fact, just before it closed.)
[Sidenote: Hospital co-founder J.D. Reid was principal of the Colored Graded School and advisory board member Charles L. Coon was school superintendent. That Samuel H. Vick broke with them just four years later to side with teachers and parents in the 1918 school boycott is all the more astonishing.]
Dr. Frank S. Hargrave, Samuel H. Vick, and J.D. Reid filed for incorporation of Wilson Hospital and Tubercular Home was in 1912. The facility opened a year later.
Thank you to V. Cowan for sharing this treasure!
Wilson Daily Times, 20 March 1942.
The week after Dr. Frank S. Hargrave died, the New Jersey State Legislature passed resolutions “extolling his record in civics, the medical profession and as a leader of the Negro race.”
Unidentified newspaper.
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On 19 September 1907, F.S. Hargrave, 33, of Wilson, son of Henry and Laura Hargrave, married Bessie Parker, 20, of Wilson, in Wilson. Presbyterian minister Charles E. Tucker performed the ceremony at Calvary Presbyterian Church in the presence of J.D. Reid, Fred M. Davis, and Lena N. Harris.
Parker was a cousin of Samuel H. Vick and appears in his household in the 1900 census of Wilson.
Courtesy of V. Cowan. Thank you!
