Hines

A&T alumni form electrical service company.

Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 13 August 1938.

Though Arnold Walker and Carl Hines were full-time high school teachers, and V.A. Burgess appears to have left Wilson before 1940, Walker Electric was in business at least eleven years.

Wilson Daily Times, 22 April 1946.

Wilson Daily Times, 8 October 1948.

In March 1949, Walker Electric filed letters of incorporation with the State of North Carolina. A.G. Walker, his wife Doris Vick Walker, and Sallie Steverson were stockholders.

Wilson Daily Times, 17 March 1949.

On 21 May 1949, the Journal and Guide ran another feature on the company in which we learn that Walker employed nine salesmen and electricians and had two trucks covering service routes.

Several months later, the company auctioned off a Westinghouse refrigerator in order to satisfy a laborer’s lien, i.e. a claim against the company’s property for unpaid wages.

Wilson Daily Times, 30 August 1949.

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  • A.G. Walker — Arnold G. Walker. In 1940, Arnold George Walker registered for the World War II draft in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born 22 February 1907 in Columbus, Georgia; lived at 622 East Green Street, Wilson; his contact was mother Della Walker, Talledega, Alabama; and he was employed by the City Board of Education in Wilson.
  • Doris Vick Walker
  • Carl Hines
  • V.A. Burgess

The last will and testament of Bernicia J. Hines.

Bernicia J. Hines executed her last will and testament on 19 February 1945. In it, she created a trust for the benefit of her  children William Lee, Ossie May, James Clee, Lestus Ray, Paul Douglas, Bernicie Viola, and John Edward Hines, most of whom were minors, and appointed her neighbor Clarence B. Best trustee. C.E. Artis and James Watson signed as witnesses.

In an undated document that probably was submitted in 1946, Clarence B. Best filed a final account for Hines’ estate. He reported receipts from selling personal items, including a sewing machine, bedroom suit, and wash pot; collecting rent on a house on Viola Street; and cash and bonds.

Disbursements included paying for a cemetery lot (in Rest Haven), opening the grave, clothing for Hines’ children, court fees and other estate-related expenses, funeral services by Columbus E. Artis, a tombstone from Joyner Memorial Company, loan repayments, a bill from Dr. Boisey O. Barnes, a screen door, and a water “spicket.”

Bernicia Hines’ youngest child, John, turned 21 on 23 July 1957, after which the trust expired, and Best made a final distribution dividing $2115.07 among her seven children.

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On 28 December 1922, Ashley Hines, 21, of Wilson, son of Turner and Bettie Hines, married Bernicia Smith, 21, of Toisnot township, daughter of Mahala S. Barnes. A.M.E. Zion minister John A. Barnes performed the ceremony at the bride’s house in Toisnot in the presence of Clarence Best, James Hagans, and Eddie Dew.

In the 1930 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: farm laborer Ashley Hines, 24; wife Beanice, 25; and children William, 6, Ossie M., 5, James C., 2, and Lester, newborn.

In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 1314 Nash Street, cook Ernest Barnes, 28; wife Lucile, 29; mother Mahala, 73; sister Bernice Hines, 35, divorced, tobacco stemmer, and her children William, 16, Ossie May, 14, James Clee, 12, Lester, 11, Paul D., 7, Bernice, 5, and John Eddie, 3.

In 1942, William Lee Hines registered for the World War II draft in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born 20 October 1923 in Wilson; lived at 1205 Carolina Street; his contact was Bernica Hines, same address; and he worked for T.A. Loving Company at Cherry Point, N.C.

On 28 February 1949, James Clee Hines, 21, son of Ashley Hines and Bernice Smith Hines, married Beulah Joyner, 26, in Wilson.

On 14 April 1950, William Lee Hines, 21, of Wilson, son of Ashley and Bernice Barnes Hines, married Annie Reynolds, of Elm City, daughter of William Reynolds and Effie Priest, in Toisnot township, Wilson County.

John Hines died 18 May 1964 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Per his death certificate, he was born 24 July 1936 in Wilson, N.C., to Ashley Hines and Bernice Smith; was married to Loretta Hines; and worked as a floor waxer.

Property Settlement Records, 1942-1960, Wilson, North Carolina, United States Records, http://www.familysearch.org.

The final account of the estate of Della Hines Barnes.

Dr. Boisey O. Barnes was administrator of his mother Della Hines Barnes‘ estate.

Like her sons William Hines and Walter S. Hines, Della Hines Barnes owned multiple tenant houses in Wilson, and monthly rents from and sales of those properties made up the estate’s receipts from January 1936 to June 1937.

A few hundred dollars in disbursements went to repairs and upkeep of Barnes’ properties — water bills, paint, plumbing, electrical, insurance, lumbers, carpenters. The estate paid $100 to Cobb Marble Works for the lovely marker that still stands at Odd Fellows Cemetery’s highest point (and inspired Lane Street Project’s logo) and $100 for “balance on funeral expenses,” which probably went to C.H. Darden & Son. Finally, Della Hines Barnes’ five heirs — sons William and Walter Hines and Boisey and Dave Barnes and granddaughter Charmaine T. White — equally shared a little over $4000 cash. Equivalent to about $90,000 in 2024 money, Barnes’ estate represented a remarkable accumulation of wealth by a woman born into slavery.

Della Hines Barnes’ headstone in Odd Fellows Cemetery.

Wilson County, North Carolina, Property Settlement Records 1932-1937, http://www.familysearch.org; photo by Lisa Y. Henderson, May 2023.

Allen A. Hines of Temperance Hall (and Toisnot.)

We’ve met Frank M. Hines, the young Edgecombe County register of deeds who attended Lincoln University with Samuel H. Vick and other young lions of Wilson. Hines’ hometown is listed in Lincoln’s 1882-83 catalog as Toisnot, i.e. Elm City. Similarly, Shaw University’s combined 1878-82 catalog includes A.A. Hines of Toisnot as a student in its Classical Department.

A.A. Hines, in fact, was Frank M. Hines’ elder brother (and both were sisters to Susan Hines Pyatt.) As they claimed a Wilson County residence, we claim them.

In the 1870 census of Cokey township, Edgecombe County: domestic servant Hannah Hines, 42, and children Harriet, 21, Susan, 17, Sarah, 11, Jerry, 13, Frank, 7, and Allen, 20, farmer.

On 26 May 1872, Allen Hines married Amanda Baker in Edgecombe County.

However, Amanda Baker Hines remarried in 1878 in Edgecombe County. Curiously, her and her husband’s household two years later included her former husband. In the 1880 census of Lower Town Creek township, Edgecombe County: Elbert Mordecai, 28; wife Amanda, 25; children Lewis, 7, Katherine, 5, and George, 1; and Allen Hines, 24 laborer. [Louis and Catherine were Allen Hines’ children.]

In 1883, a newspaper brief lists Allen Hines as a Edgecombe County grand juror. In the 19 August 1886 edition of the Greensboro North State, reporting on Edgecombe County’s Republican convention. A.A. Hines is named as a member of the committee on credentials (with W. Lee Person), and Frank M. Hines was nominated as county register of deeds. Jarrett Staton was appointed delegate to the judicial convention.

Allen Hines’ brother Frank died in 1889. His estate consisted of a small lot in Rocky Mount, and his heirs were Sallie Norris (wife of Ed Norris), Susan Pyatt (wife of Booker Pyatt), Harriet Barnes (wife of Demus Barnes), John Hines, and Louis and Catherine Hines, the children of Allen Hines, deceased. Allen Hines’ slender estate file contains a single sheet — his brother John’s 1892 application for guardianship for his niece and nephew, whose estate was valued at $175. (Their mother, stepfather, and half-siblings migrated to East Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, in the late 1890s.)