News and Observer, 25 August 1928.
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Mincey
Red Hots win in Tarboro.
Lane Street Project: Chief Mincey’s hydrant renewed.
The fire hydrant grave marker of Chief Ben Mincey was badly peeling and rusting.
A benefactor who wishes to remain anonymous recently gave it a good cleaning and a fresh coat of high-quality paint in appropriate colors. Thank you!
(If you don’t think we’ve made much progress at Odd Fellows Cemetery, see the photo I took of the hydrant in December 2020.)
Photos courtesy of Lisa Y. Henderson, February and May 2023.
Madison Mincey loses a red bicycle.
Wilson Daily Times, 25 June 1932.
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In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 411 Wiggins Street, city pipe fitter Benj. Mency, 38; wife Mattie, 37, tobacco factory worker; and children Benjamin J., 11, Mildred, 7, Maddison, 5, and John, 3 months.
In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 656 Wiggins Street, valued at $800, town of Wilson plumber Benjamin Mincy, 48; wife Mattie, 49; and children Benjamin Jr., 23, Briggs Hotel cook; Madison B., 16; Mildred, 17; and John H., 11; and roomer Andrew P. Sugg, 59.
On 13 October 1935, Madison Mincey, 25, of Wilson, married Lalla Rook Barnes, 25, in Wilson. Missionary Baptist minister Charles T. Jones performed the ceremony in the presence of Frank Davis, Frank Barnes, and Anna Barnes.
In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: hospital orderly Madison Mincey, 25; wife Lalla Rook, 22; and children Elizabeth E. and Robert E., 3; Johnny M., 1; and Luther, 5 months.
In the 1950 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 803 East Green Street, Elois Parker, 29, widow; her sons William T., 11, Jessie, 6, and Ralph, 3; brother-in-law Madison Mincey, 36 collect garbage at city garbage department; nieces and nephews Elizabeth, 13, Luther, 10, Mildred, 9, Madison, 8, and Fredrick Mincey, 6; mother Mary Barnes, 71, widow; and cousin Hallie Ward, 27, private servant.
Madison Mincey died 12 October 2001 in Wilson.
Lane Street Project: the Mincey family plot.
With donations from readers like you, we were able recently to engage Foster Stone and Cemetery Care to clean and reset markers in the Mincey family plot at Odd Fellows cemetery.
We’ve seen the nearly buried white marble headstones of Prince Mincey and Oscar Mincey, standing a few feet from Benjamin Mincey‘s fire hydrant. Prince Mincey was Ben Mincey’s father, and Oscar, his brother.
Marble headstones are both heavy and fragile, and Foster uses site-built equipment to safely lift them.
Voilà!
The style of Oscar Mincey’s headstone suggests that it was placed shortly after his death in 1906. Prince Mincey’s engraving, however, appears to be machine-cut, suggesting manufacture and placement well after he died in 1902.
Though their grave markers have not yet been found, it seems likely that Prince Mincey’s wife Susan Mincey and Ben Mincey’s wife Mattie Barnes Mincey are buried in the family plot as well.
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In the 1900 census of Wilson town, Wilson township, Wilson County: farmer Prince Mensey, 60; wife Susan, 52; children Ben, 19, Emma, 19, and Oscar, 12; and niece Rosetta Mensey, 7.
Photos courtesy of Billy Foster.
Funeral plans for Benjamin Mincey.
Wilson Daily Times, 21 July 1950.
The plans for famed fireman Benjamin Mincey‘s funeral reveal the breadth of his involvement in civic and social organizations in East Wilson. (Mincey, of course, was buried in Odd Fellows, not Rountree, Cemetery.)
Colored firemen to hold 1934 convention.
Wilson Daily Times, 18 July 1934.
- Ben Mincey
- “the local negro company” — the famed Red Hot Hose Company.
Mincey’s bicycle stolen at gunpoint.
Wilson Daily Times, 18 July 1934.
Madison Mincey was also known as Ben Mincey Jr. and singlehandedly wrestled Odd Fellows Cemetery from the woods in the 1970s.
Lane Street Project: March 26 cleanup.
Notice of sale of Mincey property.
Wilson Daily Times, 14 March 1955.
Benjamin Mincey died in 1950. In the settlement of his estate, a commissioner advertised a lot on Wiggins Street that Mincey had purchased 17 February 1905. At the time of purchase, the lot bordered property owned by Charles Darden, Daniel Vick, Gilbert Stallings, and James T. Wiggins. It may have been the lot at 712 Wiggins upon which Mincey built the house he lived in when he died. Wiggins Street was obliterated with the construction of Carl B. Renfro Bridge and the extension of Hines Street in the early 1970s.