Marlow

Lane Street Project: season 4, workday 1.

I pulled up at Odd Fellows a couple of minutes late; I had not anticipated the line at Wilson Doughnuts.

Senior Force members Castonoble Hooks and Briggs Sherwood were unpacking Briggs’ trunk while chatting with our photographer Chris Facey and two newcomers, John Kirk and Thomas Ramirez, who arrived bearing boxes of Bojangles biscuits. Shortly after, Barton College professor Lydia Walker and Raven Farmer, a LSP season-one original, pulled up. Rev. H. Maurice Barnes stopped through on his way to another engagement, and then again in time to pray over the work done and yet to do.

Today there were just these few at Odd Fellows. And we were enough. Whether nine or ninety, however many show up always will be enough.

We tackled the short ditch between Odd Fellows and Rountree, which has been choked with dog fennel and wisteria and privet and cherry saplings. It appears in early aerials of the land, but its purpose isn’t clear. However, given the high bank on which the front edge of Rountree Cemetery sits, however, it seems likely that it was cut as a passageway for wagons to gain access into the cemetery.

Just beyond where Cass Hooks is walking above, the ground slopes up gently to grade level. With the right equipment — a little Bobcat? — we could carefully scrape this out, but I’m getting ahead of ourselves.

The wild overgrowth along the first couple of feet at the top of the bank has been chopped. I thought at first that maybe Wilson Energy was cleaning up around the base of the power pole it rammed into Rountree Cemetery in 1997, but no — the pole is just as enwreathed in gnarly wisteria as ever.

Still there is evidence that someone fairly recently did some rough chopping of some of the larger saplings just behind the pole — and it wasn’t LSP. None of the brush was cleared out, it was simply pushed over — including this log on top of the pile of Ellis headstones I photographed during my initial solo foray into Rountree in December 2019.

We gently pulled the fallen sapling off the pile and cleared vines from ten year-old Buster Ellis‘ headstone.

The Ellis headstones, almost all shattered or snapped, are evidence of some earlier clean-up — or cleanout — conducted with little regard for the memory or graves of those whose graves they mark.

For now, we leave them as they are.

Nearby, Daniel Marlow‘s handsome headstone marks his 1910 burial. The vines are relentless; we cut them back.

We hope, with the blessing of Rountree Missionary Baptist Church, to do more in Rountree Cemetery this season.

Photos by Lisa Y. Henderson, December 2023. 

Lane Street Project: Gray Pender, Louvenia Pender, and Lottie Marlow.

Tuesday’s clean-up netted two and a half intact additional gravestones — Gray Pender and his daughter Louvenia Pender and Lottie Marlow, whose name was hidden on the enshrouded side of the marker she shares with her husband Daniel Marlow. Gray and Louvenia Pender’s headstone were nearly buried under vines and leaf mulch within a few feet of one another. A large base (without a headstone) nearby suggests additional graves in what appears to be a Pender family plot. In addition, about 25 feet east, we found a small concrete marker carved with the initials B.E. along one edge.

  • Gray Pender and Louvenia Pender

Gray Pender born Feb 15 1861 died Aug 22 1928 Beloved father farewell

Louvenia dau of Gray & Katie Pender born Dec. 23, 1885 died July 4, 1908

We first met Gray Pender in 1877, when his grandfather Abram Farmer petitioned for guardianship after the death of Gray’s parents.

In the 1870 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: Rich’d Pender, 28, farm laborer; wife Sarah, 25; and sons Gray, 9, and George, 1.

In the 1880 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: on Pettigrew Street, farmer Abram Farmer, 63; wife Rhoda, 45; step-children Charlotte, 16, Kenneth, 15, Fannie, 11, and Martha, 10; and grandchildren Gray Pender, 17, Gray Farmer, 19; and Thad, 13, and John Armstrong, 10.

In the 1900 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: Gray Pender, 37, farmer; wife Katie, 36; and children Richard [Richmond], 16, Louvenia, 13, Caroline, 10, Wilson, 6, Floyd, 4, and Jonah, 11 months.

Louvenia Pender died in 1908, prior to the issuance of death certificates in Wilson County.

In the 1910 census to Wilson township, Wilson County: farmer Gray Pender, 47; wife Lillie, 35; and Eliza, 18 months, and Aniky, 4 months.

In the 1910 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: laundress Katy Pender, 47, and children Richmond, 26, grocery store delivery man, Carrie, 18, Willie, 16, Floyd, 14, and Joseph, 10. [Apparently, Gray Pender and Katie Pender were permanently separated or divorced.]

Catie Pender died 16 December 1910 in Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was 48 years old; was born in Wilson County to George and Carolina Woodard; worked washing and ironing; and was married. (Her cause of death: laryngitis and “change of life.”)

In the 1920 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: Grey Pender, 58; wife Lily, 44; and children Elijah, 11, Annie, 10, Herman, 8, Rosetta, 9, Furney, 6, Dennis, 4, and Victoria, 2.

Grey Pender died 22 August 1928 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was 67 years old; was born in Wilson County to Richmond and Sarah Pender; was married to Lillie Pender; and was a tenant farmer for Mrs. Mattie Williams.

  • Lottie Marlow

Lottie wife of Daniel Marlow born Oct 11 1874 died Feb 6 1916

D.J. Marlow, 28, of Wilson, married Lottie Battle, 23, of Wilson, daughter of Turner and Effie Battle, on 2 February 1898 at Mrs. F.A. Battle‘s. A.M.E. Zion minister H.H. Bingham performed the ceremony in the presence of W.A. Roberts, Charles H. Darden, and Linc[?] Mills.

In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: Dan G. Marlow, 40; wife Lottie, 35; and Hattie May, 6.

Lottie Marlow died 6 February 1916 in Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was 41 years old; was born Edgecombe County to Turner Battle and Effie Parker; was a widow; and was a factory hand. Effie Battle was informant.

  • B.E.

Photos by Lisa Y. Henderson, December 2020.