Cleveland (Oh.) Gazette, 29 March 1924.
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$1,285,000 was a staggering net worth in 1924. Greensboro was the city in which Daniel C. Suggs lived, but was not his hometown. He was a native of Wilson and owned considerable property there, too. Though I question the accuracy of the valuation of Suggs’ property, he was unquestionably a wealthy man in the lead-up to the Great Depression.
Wilson Daily Times, 20 November 1948.
Greensboro Record, 23 January 1917.
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With Samuel H. Vick, Daniel C. Suggs was one of the first generation of Wilson County freedmen to attend college. A Lincoln University graduate, he was not only a college president, but a lay leader in the A.M.E. Zion church and a wealthy real estate developer.
Daniel C. Suggs’ family was the Suggs of Suggs Street. His “valuable holdings elsewhere in the state” included considerable property in Wilson south of present-day Hines Street.
Arizona Daily Star, 31 July 1984.
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In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 419 Hines Street, Lewis Townsend, 62; wife Henrietta, 60; daughter Alzie, 22; and daughter Geneva Brown, 24; son-in-law George Brown, 26; and grandchildren Ester, George Jr., and Martha.
In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 508 South Spring, pressing club operator George Porter, 34, divorced; Jeneva Brown, 30, divorced, housekeeping servant, and her children Brown, 15, Esther, 13, Martha, 12, and Olive, 9; and George M. Porter, 4.
George Brown died 1 October 1947 at Mercy Hospital, Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was 53 years old; was born in Edgecombe County to Sam and Martha Brown; was married; lived at 911 Robeson Street; worked as an auto mechanic; and was buried in Rountree cemetery. Informant was Mrs. Esther Goodwin, 408 East Hines Street.
In June 1955, the Goodwin family flew from Frankfurt, Germany, to New York after Capt. Felix Goodwin completed a tour of duty.
New York, Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957, database on-line, http://www.ancestry.com.
New York Age, 28 July 1910.
“Earnest Moore who recently came here from Livingston college returned to his home at Wilson, N.C., on last Friday; a sudden illness of his mother was the cause.”
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In the 1900 census of Wilson, Wilson County: merchant Lee Moore, 36, wife Louisa, 32, and son Ernest, 12.
In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on Nash Street, life insurance agent Lee Moore, 40; wife Mary, 36; and son Earnest, 19.
In 1927-28, his senior year at Livingstone College, Joseph S. Jackson Jr. was a member of the newly established Lambda Psi chapter of Omega Psi Phi fraternity and editor-in-chief of the yearbook, the Maple Leaf. Jackson’s photo is at the widest part of the curve of the omega, on the right.
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In the 1900 census of Cross Creek township, Cumberland County: on Grove Street, grocer Frank Williston, 65; wife Henrietta, 60; children Henrietta, 23, James, 20, and Oliver, 18; grandchildren Hattie, 13, and Edwin Perry, 15; and boarders Mary, 28, and James Pearce, 44.
The 15 November 1902 issue of the Wilmington Messenger announced that F.O. Williston had been granted a license by the state board of pharmacy.
Dr. Frank Oliver Williston married Doane Battle, daughter of Charles and Leah Hargrove Battle, in Wilson on 17 December 1905.
In the 1910 census of Salisbury, Rowan County: at 926 Horah Street, Frank O. Williston, 28, drugstore pharmacist; wife Doane B., 23, teacher; and daughter Leah H.E., 3.
On 22 March 1913, the Salisbury Evening Post published a report that a “Salisbury negro, Dr. F.O. Williston, is seeking the appointment as minister of the United States to Liberia ….” “Provided a colored man is to be named,” Williston had the endorsement of Navy Secretary Josephus Daniel, formerly of Wilson, and other leading state North Carolina Democrats, as well as the National Colored Democratic League. The article noted that Williston was recently returned from the inauguration of Woodrow Wilson in Washington, D.C., where he had been received in the West Wing by the president himself. Both Williston and David Bryant, another African-American who accompanied him, had been as children servants of Wilson’s father when the family lived in Wilmington, North Carolina. Williston, 32, was a native of Cumberland County; a graduate of “the A.&M. college” in Greensboro and Shaw University in Raleigh; was a chemistry professor at Livingstone; and operated a pharmacy in Salisbury.
Four days later, Williston’s hometown newspaper, the Fayetteville Weekly Observer, ran a piece on Williston’s bid for the Consul General position, noting that “Dr. Williston is born and bred in Fayetteville, and is well known and esteemed here. He is of a prominent family of colored people, being the youngest son of the late Frank P. Williston and the brother of J.T. Williston, druggist and F.D. Williston, grocer and farmer.” Pointedly, the article further noted that the “statement that Dr. Williston was a servant of President Wilson’s father, the Presbyterian minister, when he lived in Wilmington, is incorrect.”
Greensboro Daily News, 29 April 1916.
The following year, Williston offered to raise a regiment of African-American troops to aid the war effort.
Salisbury Evening Post, 22 March 1917.
Frank Oliver Williston registered for the World War I draft in Salisbury in 1918. Per his registration card, he was born 22 May 1881; resided at 409 South Caldwell Street, Salisbury; worked as a janitor in the U.S. Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C.; and his nearest relative was Mrs. Doane B. Williston. He was described as having dark gray eyes and dark brown hair, of medium height and stout.
In the 1920 census of Salisbury, Rowan County: at 419 South Caldwell, Frank O. Williston, 38, wife Doane, 33, and daughters Henrietta, 13, Inez, 8, and Dorothy, 6.
In the 1930 census of Washington, D.C.: at 1110 Fairmont Street, owned and valued at $11,000, drugstore pharmacist Frank O. Williston, 49; wife Doane, 41; daughters Inez, 18, and Fan, 16; and roomer Weldon Phillips,, 38, a contractor for a private company.
1110 Fairmont Street N.E., Washington, D.C.
Baltimore Afro-American, 3 October 1936.
In the 1940 census of Washington, D.C.: at 1222 Jackson Street, owned and valued at $4000, Frank O. Williston, 58; wife Doane B., 54, file clerk at F.H.A. [this appears to be an erroneous entry meant for her husband]; and daughter Dorthy F., 26.
1222 Jackson Street, N.E., Washington, D.C.
In 1942, Frank Oliver Williston registered for the World War II draft in Washington, D.C. Per his registration card, he was born 22 May 1881 in Fayetteville, North Carolina; resided at 1222 Jackson; worked for the U.S. government in the Federal Housing Administration; and his contact was Mrs. Doane Williston.
Excerpts from African Americans and the New Deal, http://www.fdrlibraryvirtualtour.org/graphics/05-20/5-20-NewDeal_confront_pdf.pdf.
From the 1927 Ell Cee, the yearbook of Livingstone College, Salisbury, North Carolina:
From the 1928 Maple Leaf (as the yearbook was called the following year):
More on Joseph Sylvester Jackson Jr. here.
(By the way, the Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions was an organization founded in 1886 that sought to recruit college and university students in the United States for missionary service abroad. (Or, presumably, among Negroes.))
From the 1928 Maple Leaf, the yearbook of Livingstone College in Salisbury, North Carolina, junior William Bayard Davis, Sigma man and N.A.A.C.P. member:
In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: Fred M. Davis, 42, Baptist church minister; wife Dianah, 42; children Eva M., 16, Bertha, 15, Fred, 11, Ruth, 13, Addie L., 8, and William B., 5; and mother Jud., 60.
In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: Fred M. Davis, 50, church preacher; [second] wife Minnie, 39; children Fred Jr., 20, Berthia, 22, school teacher; Addie, 18, and William B., 16; and mother Judie, 76.
On 12 May 1934, in Danville, Virginia, William Bayard Davis of Greensboro, North Carolina, son of F.M. Davis and Dinah Dunson, married Hazel Marie Ingram of Greensboro, North Carolina, daughter of H.M. Ingram and Cynthia Rainy.
In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 621 East Green Street, Rev. Fred M. Davis, 73, minister; wife Minnie J., 59; [son-in-law] Dr. G.K. Butterfield, 35, dentist; [daughter] Addie L. Butterfield, 34; son William B. Davis, 32, high school teacher; daughter-in-law Hazel M. Davis, 30, teacher; grandson William B. Davis, 4 months; and son Fred M. Davis, 40, home interior decorator.
In 1940, William Bayard Davis registered for the World War II draft in Halifax County, North Carolina. Per his registration card, he was born 15 November 1904 in Wilson; resided in Weldon, Halifax County; worked as a principal for the Weldon Graded School District; and his contact was his father, Rev. Fred Mashion Davis, 621 East Green Street, Wilson.
William B. Davis died 30 October 1955.
