News and Observer, 21 October 1910.
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- Wiley Peyton
In the 1910 census of Dry Wells township, Nash County, N.C.: lodgers Wiley Peyton, 28, lumber laborer, and wife Nettie, 30, in the household of Theodore Williams.
- Nettie Moore Peyton
mental illness
The death of John Dancy.
Wilson Daily Times, 18 November 1921.
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In the 1920 census of Cross Roads township, Wilson County: farmer Alonzo Sanders, 37; wife Evelyn E., 32; son Isaah, 7; and brother-in-law John Dancy, 22, farm laborer.
John Dancy died 18 November 1921 in Wilson County Jail, Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was “about 50” [sic] and was a tenant farmer. Darden & Son buried him in “Wilson, N.C.,” which probably meant Vick Cemetery.
The death of Etna Woodard Daniel.
Wilson Daily Times, 8 April 1916.
A brief article reporting the mysterious death of Etna Daniel is chock-full of detail, not all of it accurate. Ben Woodard was a well-known root doctor in Wilson County. Daniel was his step-daughter though, not his daughter. By 1916, wealthy agribusinessman Graham Woodard lived in his town, but his farm was on or near ancestral Woodard land in the White Oak Swamp area. “Darden’s shop” was Charles H. Darden‘s undertaking business.
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In the 1870 census of Black Creek township, Wilson County: farm laborer Benj’n Woodard, 32, wife Harriet, 31, and children Edna, 13, Frederick, 9, and Venah, 6.
On 17 August 1876, Harry Daniels, 27, married Etna Woodard, 20, at B. Woodard’s, Wilson County.
In the 1880 census of Black Creek township, Wilson County: Harry Daniel, 30, and wife Etna, 22.
In the 1900 census of Little Rock, Pulaski County, Arkansas: railroad laborer Harry Daniels, 50; wife Edna, 35; and boarder James Bynum, 21, grocery clerk. [Is this the same couple? If so, when did they, or just Etna, return to Wilson County?]
Per her death certificate, Eatna Daniel died 7 or 8 April 1916 in Wilson. She was 60 years old; was born in Wilson to Isaac Barnes and Harrett Aycock; “fell dead on country road — cause unknown”; and buried in Black Creek. Ben Woodard was informant. [Per the information Woodard supplied, Etna Daniel was not his daughter by his first wife, rather she was his step-daughter.]
Man experiencing mental health crisis fights police.
Wilson Daily Times, 29 May 1916.
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- Lawyer Bradley — in 1918, Lawyer Bradley registered for the World War I draft in Wayne County, North Carolina. Per his registration card, he was born in December 1883; lived in Goldsboro; and was a convict working on the Wayne County road force for the Wayne Wayne Highway Commission.
- Lynnhaven Hotel
- Brooks Cafe — in 1916, Dennis Brooks was proprietor of this eating house at 522 East Nash.
Boy tries to derail trains.
Wilson Daily Times, 11 May 1938.
In the 1940 census of Fork township, Wayne County, N.C.: at Eastern North Carolina Insane Asylum, Negro, James Edward Gerald, 9. [He was not the youngest inmate. Mixed among the hundreds housed at the hospital were children as young as 5.]
Mary Sims jailed for house fires.
Wilson Daily Times, 2 December 1935.
I have no further information about Mary Sims. There were few treatments for mental illness in the 1930s, and even fewer effective ones. Given the danger her alleged actions posed, it is possible that she was sent to the Eastern North Carolina Insane Asylum in Goldsboro (later known as Cherry Hospital), the state’s only psychiatric facility for African-Americans.
Clipping courtesy of J. Robert Boykin III.
The death of Annie Cole.
Wilson Daily Times, 24 June 1913.
Mental illness was often criminalized in the early twentieth century and, Eastern North Carolina Insane Asylum notwithstanding, treatment options were few.
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In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: house servant Annie Cole, 25, and lodger Lue Merritt, 30, odd jobs laborer, shared a household.
Poor Jim.
Wilson Mirror, 2 October 1889.
- Jim Thomas
Crazy negro.
Wilson News, 24 August 1899.
- Philip Falkner — in the 1880 census of Toisnot township, Wilson County: farm laborer Philip Falkland, 25, and wife Jane, 19.
- Peter Cherry
Like most negroes, she was full of superstition.
In 1891, Rev. Owen L.W. Smith‘s sister, Millie Smith Sutton, shot and killed his wife Lucy Smith at point-blank range, believing that Lucy had poisoned her son.
Wilson Advance, 9 July 1891.
On 5 November, the Advance reported that Smith had been found “mentally deranged” at the time she killed Smith and was committed to the insane asylum in Goldsboro.
The Wilson Mirror offered more on 11 November:
This tragedy had sequels.
Six years later, Sutton’s walking companion, Nettie Vick Jones, was stabbed to death on the street by her husband, A. Wilson Jones.
Ten years later, on 22 November 1901, the Times reported that Sutton had been released from the hospital and had returned to Wilson and, with Carrie Pettiford, had threatened the life of her brother’s newest wife, Adora Oden Smith. (In the 1900 census, Carrie was a boarder in the Smiths’ home.) Both were arrested.