Well into the twentieth century, children faced harrowing odds against reaching adulthood. Disease, accidents, violence bore them away in sorrowful numbers. In the 1910s, 17% of American children died before age 5, a figure that was higher for Southern and African-American children. Few children in Wilson County were buried in marked graves. In town, original burials were in Oaklawn or the Masonic cemetery. The Oaklawn graves were exhumed and moved to Rest Haven in the 1940s, and headstones, if they ever existed, have been lost over time.

By allowing us to call their names again, this series of posts memorializes the lives of children who died in the first twenty years in which Wilson County maintained death records. May they rest in peace.

Typhoid fever

• On 4 August 1913, John Hicks, 14, of 137 Pender Street, Wilson, son of Olover and Catherin Hicks, of typhoid fever.
• On 31 July 1914, Eva Ellis, 7, of Saratoga township, daughter of Burt Ellis and Nancy Hall, died of typhoid fever, with exhaustion as a contributing factor. She had been born in Greene County and was buried on the W.R. Bynum farm by United Furniture Company of Stantonsburg.
• On 24 October 1924, Lillie Farmer, 9, died of typhoid fever.
• On 17 July 1917, Neally Williams, 16, of Wilson township, daughter of Isaac Williams and Frances Kates, died of typhoid fever. She had been born in Nash County and worked as a cook.
• On 29 July 1917, Easter Wright, 17, of Wilson, a tobacco factory laborer and daughter of William Wright and Annie Weeks, died of typhoid fever. Dr. William A. Mitchner was attending physician.
• On 11 August 1917, Aurther Barnes, 11, of Wilson, common laborer, son of W.S. Barnes and Emma Mincy, died of typhoid fever. Batts & Spell were undertakers.
• On 26 May 1918, Willie Graves, 4, of Saratoga township, son of Charlie Venston and Mattie Graves, died of typhoid fever. He was buried in Greene County.
• On 7 August 1918, Annie Beatrice Lucas, 9, of 525 South Lodge Street, Wilson, “school girl,” daughter of Frank E. Lucas and Iver Johnson, died of typhoid fever, which she had contracted in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. She was buried in “Wilson cemetery.”
• On 18 August 1918, Augustus Deans, 8, of Lucama, son of Lizzie Hines, died of typhoid. Edith Hines was informant, and he was buried in Dawson graveyard.
• On 6 October 1920, Lillie May Taylor, 10, of 153 East Street, Wilson, daughter of Joseph Taylor of Edgecombe County and Martha Ellis of Wilson County, died of typhoid fever.
• On 3 October 1923, Bunn Farmer, about 13, of Taylors township, son of Arch Strickland and Etta Farmer, died of typhoid fever.

Measles

• On 6 April 1911, Floyd Bynum, 2, of 501 Gay Street, Wilson, son of Cooper Bynum and Annie Woodard, both of Edgecombe County, died of measles. A.D. McGowan was undertaker. [Andrew D. McGowan was white, but his undertaking and furniture business, Quinn McGowan Company, regularly performed burials of African-Americans.]
• On 28 April 1913, Marshall Lee Tally, 5, of 110 Pender Street, Wilson, daughter of Rev. M.A. Tally, died of measles. Dr. Frank S. Hargrave was attending physician and informant. She was buried in Raleigh, N.C.

Meningitis

• On 9 June 1910, Albert Smith, 4, of 411 Pine Street, Wilson, son of Ed Smith and Sallie Louis, both of Virginia, died of meningitis following typhoid fever.
• On 24 January 1911, Willie Junius Dewey, 6, of 619 East Vance Street, Wilson, son of Thomas Dewey of Chatham County and Callie Smith of Harnett County, died of spinal meningitis “paralysis of respiratory muscle.” He was buried in Dunn, N.C.
• On 24 January 1914, Lillian Holland, 15, school girl, of Goldsboro Street, Wilson, died of meningitis.She was born in Cumberland County to Ben Holland and Charity [last name not given]. Charity Parker of Wilson was informant.
• On 20 February 1916, Annie Bell Waddell, 6, of Wilson, daughter of Eli Waddell of Virginia and Annis Holland of North Carolina, died of “meningitis, cerebral.” James L. Kearns of Wilson was informant.

Malaria

• On 12 May 1913, Lucy Woodard, 1, of 136 Suggs Street, Wilson, daughter of Willie Woodard and Lucy Harris, died of malarial fever,
• On 19 July 1914, Henry Taylor, 6, of Wilson, son of King H. Taylor and Lula Hines, died of malarial fever. Informant was Henry Hines.
• On 8 July 1924, Eunice Reid, 5, of Gardners township, daughter of Gray Reid of Edgecombe County and Mary Hagans of Wilson County, died of pernicious malaria.

Other

• On 28 June 1910, Rodney G. Green, 4 months, of 624 Viola Street, Wilson, son of J.W. Green of Pitt County and Bertha Wells of Wilson County, died of hereditary syphilis.
• On 5 August 1915, Amy Marshall, 2, of Wilson township, daughter of Coley Marshall and Calonia Campbell, died of “laryngeal diphtheria, treated by neighbors for asthma.” Informant was Ruben Campbell.
• On 21 May 1917, Earnestine Ford, 5 months, of Wilson township, daughter of Curtis Ford of Dillon, S.C., and Mamie Battle of Wayne County, died. “This child had what they call ‘white thrash’ and developed into ‘yellow thrash.'” Informant was Curtis Ford, 605 East Green Street, Wilson.
• On 15 February 1920, Beatrice Mincey, 16, of Wilson, son of John Mincey and Olivia Rand, died of “supposed tetanus.”
• On 6 June 1921, Mattie Jane Ward, 3, of Stantonsburg, daughter of Frank Ward of Greene County and Pearl Winstead of Wilson County, died of infantile paralysis.
• On 2 July 1923, Ethel Grey Barnes, 10, school girl, of Wilson, daughter of W.I. Barnes and Madie Taylor, died of infantile paralysis. She was buried by Thomas Yelverton Company, a white funeral business.
• On 16 December 1924, A.J. Barnes, 11, of Spring Hill township, son of J.C. Barnes and Spicy Jane Atkinson, died of “septicemia mixed beginning from tubercular arthritis in right foot.” The boy worked in farming.
• On 25 December 1925, Leonard Swinson, 10, of Greene County, son of Jim Swinson and Holland Woodard of Greene County, died at Wilson Colored Hospital of “tetanus following injury to hand by cap pistol.” He was buried in Green County by Artis & Flanagan.
• On 2 January 1926, Walter Darden, 9, of Walstonburg, son of Walter Darden and Mamie Farmer of Greene County, died of “tetanus (cap pistol wound)” at the colored hospital in Wilson. [“Toy-pistol tetanus” was very much a thing in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.] He was buried in Greene County by C.H. Darden & Son.