Chatham Observer (Pittsboro, N.C.), 4 November 1903.

Five years after North Carolina Mutual and Provident Association‘s founding in Durham, James E. Shepard and Samuel H. Vick were among the incorporators of Carolina Mutual Life Insurance. (Shepherd would found North Carolina Central University six years after this.)

The company’s letterhead reveals Shepard and Vick’s titles and Carolina Mutual’s other officers: President William G. Pearson of Durham; Secretary-Treasurer J.A. Dodson of Durham; Auditor Henry E. Hagans of Goldsboro, and Medical Director Dr. Charles H. Shepard of Durham. Shepard, Pearson, and Dodson were founders of Durham’s Mechanic and Farmers Bank, and central figures in the establishment of Durham’s Black Wall Street.

Lenoir [County, North Carolina] Court Records 1907=1908, http://www.familysearch.org.