Mitchell

Ed Mitchell’s Barbeque keeps bringing flowers.

Ryan Mitchell got off a flight from Lagos to this news:

During a roadtrip to New Orleans in summer 2021, I stopped by to see my cousin Zella Palmer. The pandemic was still cutting up, so we sat on her porch and chatted, mostly about family, food, and history. At one point, Zella mentioned that she’d received an email feeling out her interest in co-writing a book about North Carolina barbecue. Specifically, about Ed Mitchell and his family. “Girl, call them,” I urged. “Mr. Mitchell is a legend — and my dad’s good buddy!”

The rest … well, is a James Beard nomination!!

(You don’t have a copy of Ed Mitchell’s Barbeque?? What you waiting for??)

Image courtesy of Ryan Mitchell.

County schools, no. 2: Mitchell School, no. 2.

We first visited Mitchell School here. Mitchell was not a Rosenwald School. Rather, it was built the county school board on land donated by James G. Mitchell, a prosperous African-American farmer who lived west of Elm City.

When I first photographed Mitchell School in 2020, it was crowded on every side by pine saplings and catbrier. I recently got word that the lot had been cleared of overgrowth, exposing the school and the motley collection of trailers that surround it. The school is in amazing condition given its age and disuse. Though one of the two entrances was open, I could not access the interior because of a collapsed stoop. The property is said to have a new owner, and I hope he or she is aware of the building’s legacy.

The school has a double entrance. The westernmost is boarded up. The easternmost, below, is open, but not easily accessible. Note the solid, standing-seam roof.

The interior, as far as I could peer in. It’s junk-filled, but dry. (I don’t think this was a “little red schoolhouse,” by the way. It appears that only the area within the entry alcove was painted.)

From the west, looking east.

Mitchell School was converted to a dwelling after its closure, but seems not to have been occupied for many years. A house trailer stands directly in front of the building at a distance of perhaps twenty feet.

The eastern elevation.

Photos by Lisa Y. Henderson, February 2024.

Winners of the rural garden contest.

Wilson Daily Times, 10 February 1950.

Even without a photo, we would have known Lizzie Atkinson and Martha Mitchell were African American because the Daily Times did not grant Black women the honorific “Mrs.”

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  • Lizzie Atkinson
  • Martha Mitchell — in the 1940 census of Toisnot township, Wilson County: farmer Kester Mitchell, 45; wife Martha, 44; and children Flora Lee, 23, Mamie, 21, Kester Jr., 20, Roy, 18, Christine, 16, Amanda Gray, 14, Purnell and Inell, 12, Cash, 10, and Mildred, 8.

The obituary of Edgar Mitchell.

Wilson Daily Times, 26 May 1950. 

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In the 1910 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: on Tillman’s Road, Allen Mitchell, 54; wife Eliza, 44; and children Frank, 20, James, 16, Junius, 13, Allen, 11, Floyd, 9, Earnest, 7, Pearlie, 5, Edgar, 3, and Madie, 2.

On 25 December 1925, Edgar Mitchell, 22, of Greene County, son of Allen and Eliza Mitchell, married Gertrude Joyner, 19, of Greene County, daughter of Walter and Clora Joyner, in Speights Bridge township, Greene County, North Carolina.

In the 1930 census of Speights Bridge township, Greene County: farmer Edgar L. Mitchell, 26; wife Gertrude, 25; and son Edgar, 3; boarders Thomas Wood, 23, and Edward McKinley, 21; and Ethel Pope, 20.

In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on New Bern Street, fertilizer plant laborer Edgar Mitchell, 31; wife Gertrude, 27, tobacco factory laborer; and son Edgar L., 13.

In 1940, Edgar Mitchell registered for the World War II draft in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born 15 October 1906 in Wilson; lived on Hadley Street, Wilson; his contact was wife Gertrude Joyner Mitchell; and he worked for Contentnea Fertilizer Company.

Edgar Mitchell died 24 May 1950 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was born 11 September 1905 in Wilson County to Allen Mitchell and Eliza Williams; was married; lived at 1009 Stantonsburg Street; worked as an oil mill laborer; and was buried in Rest Haven Cemetery. Pearl Barnes, 1013 Woodard Avenue, was informant.

Wilson Daily Times, 31 May 1950.

Recommended reading, no. 15: Ed Mitchell’s Barbeque.

On a quick escape to New Orleans during that first pandemic summer, I dropped by my cousin Zella Palmer’s for a little socially distanced catching up. Sitting on her front porch, she told me that she’d been contacted about writing a cookbook/memoir with Wilson barbecue pitmaster Ed Mitchell and his son Ryan. In a time of scarce good news, the alignment of family, friends, food, and folkways in this project felt especially serendipitous, and I urged her to do it. 

My copy of their collaboration, its recipes interwoven with piquant stories and lush photographs of the Mitchell family and East Wilson, arrived yesterday. Surely you’ve got yours, too. 

Ed Mitchell’s Barbeque.

In May 2019, Dr. Joseph H. Ward‘s granddaughter and great-granddaughter, both born and reared in the Midwest, came home to Wilson. Zella Palmer FaceTimed me as she and her mother Alice Roberts Palmer stood outside David G.W. Ward‘s house near Stantonsburg, the house in which Joseph Ward’s mother Mittie Ward and grandmother Sarah Ward toiled while enslaved. D.G.W. Ward was the father of at least three of Sarah Ward’s children, including Mittie. Joseph Ward’s father, Napoleon Hagans, who lived not far away in Wayne County, was my great-great-grandmother’s brother, and thus Cousin Alice and Zella are my people. I was so grateful to be able to share, even if remotely, the tangle of emotions the Palmers felt as they stood on ancestral ground. But who knew there was more to come for Zella in Wilson?

This week, Zella announced that the cookbook she wrote with Wilson’s own barbecue pitmaster extraordinaire Ed Mitchell and his son Ryan Mitchell is now available for pre-order on Amazon, with a publication date of June 2023! Zella is chair of Dillard University’s Ray Charles Program in African-American Material Culture in New Orleans and passionately committed to preserving Black foodways. Who better to capture the family stories and recipes of my father’s old friend Ed Mitchell? And who better than I to provide source material and to introduce the world to Black Wilson at the book’s opening?

My gratitude goes to Ed Mitchell, who has long stood in the gap for the preservation of eastern North Carolina food culture (and respect and recognition for its practitioners and purveyors); to Ryan Mitchell, whose True Made Foods embodies the spirit of sankofa; and to my cousin Zella Palmer, who drew me into this project and showed love and grace when I missed deadlines as I struggled to find words during my father’s illness.

“In his first cookbook, … Ed explores the tradition of whole-hog barbeque that has made him famous. It’s a method passed down through generations over the course of 125 years and hearkens back even further than that, to his ancestors who were plantation sharecroppers and, before that, enslaved. Ed is one of the few remaining pitmasters to keep this barbeque tradition alive, and in Ed Mitchell’s Barbeque, he will share his methods for the first time and fill in the unwritten chapters of the rich and complex history of North Carolina whole-hog barbeque.”

Y’all — get your orders in!

J.G. Mitchell, helping his colored people.

Wilson Daily Times, 27 March 1934.

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In the 1880 census of Taylor township, Wilson County: Wilson Sharp, 52; wife Cherry, 45; nephew Jerry Bynum, 6; and James Mitchel, 47; wife Rose, 33; and son James G., 11.

On 24 December 1889, James Mitchell and Amanda Edwards, both 20, applied for a marriage license in Nash County, North Carolina.

In the 1900 census of Toisnot township, Wilson County: farmer James G. Mitchell, 31; wife Armanda, 30; children Chestar, 9, Regenia, 8, Henretta, 6, William R., 4, and Dewry, 2; and widowed mother Rose Mitchell, 50.

Amanda Edwards Mitchell died between 1900 and 1910. In the 1910 census of Toisnot township, Wilson County: farmer James G. Mitchell, 38; mother Rosa, 58; and children Kester R., 14, Cynthia, 14, Robert L., 12, Jimmie D., 10, and Lelia B., 8.

Cinderilla Cotton died 27 December 1928 in Toisnot township, Wilson County. Per her death certificate, she was 35 years old; was born in Wilson County to James G. Mitchell of Wilson County and Armanda Edwards of Nash County; was married to Sidney Cotton; and was buried at William Chapel Church cemetery.

In the 1930 census of Toisnot township, Wilson County: on Elm City and Wilson Road, farmer James G. Mitchel, 61; wife Mamie I., 42; and children Mary M., 15, William F., 12, and Samuel B., 11.

In the 1940 census of Toisnot township, Wilson County: farm laborer William Mitchell, 23; wife Rosa, 20; father Grey, 65; and brother Samuel, 21.

In 1940, Samuel Bryant Mitchell registered for the World War II draft in Cumberland County, N.C. Per his registration card, he was born 15 September 1918 in Elm City, N.C.; his home address was Route 2, Elm City; his contact was father James Gary [Gray] Mitchell; and he was a resident student at Fayetteville State Teachers College

James Mitchell Jr. died 19 May 1953 in Elm City, Wilson County. Per his death certificate, he was born 14 May 1869 in Wilson to James Mitchell Sr. and Rosa Parker; was married; operated a farm; and was buried in William’s Chapel cemetery. Robert L. Mitchell was informant.

A tribute to Judge Mitchell.

Wilson Daily Times, 9 May 1944.

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On 22 February 1905, Judge Mitchell, 21, of Wilson, married Jane Simms, 22, of Wilson, daughter of Zanie Jordan, at B.S. Jordan‘s residence in Wilson. Missionary Baptist minister William Baker performed the ceremony.

In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: Judge Mitchell, 25; wife Jane, 24; and children Lillian, 8, and Raymond, 1.

In 1918, Judge Mitchell registered for the World War I draft in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born 12 November 1881; lived on 115 Manchester Street, Wilson; worked packing tobacco for Selby Anderson and H.G. Whitehead; and his nearest relative was Jane Mitchell.

In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: Judge Mitchell, 39, tobacco factory worker; wife Jane, 46; and son Wylie, 1.

In the 1928 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Mitchell Judge (c; Jane) porter h 116 Manchester

In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 116 Manchester, janitor Jerry [sic] Mitchell, 55; wife Jane, 40; and son Wiley, 12.

In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: public service laborer Judge Mitchell, 59; wife Jane, 50; and son Wiley, 22, tobacco factory laborer.

In 1940, Wiley Thomas Mitchell registered for the World War II draft in Wilson. Per his registration card, he was born 28 March 1919 in Wilson; lived at 301 South Vick Street; his contact was his father Judge Mitchell, same address; and he worked for C.H. Darden Funeral Home, Wilson.

Judge Mitchell died 3 May 1944 at his home at 312 South Vick Street, Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was 59 years old; was born in Nash County, N.C., to Wiley Mitchell and Bessie Taylor; was married to Jane Mitchell; and worked as a laborer. He was buried in Rountree cemetery.

Jane Mitchell died 24 January 1948 at the Wilson County Home. Per her death certificate, she was born 12 May 1881 in Wilson County to Jack Simms and Fannie Simms; was the widow of Judge Mitchell; and was buried in Rountree Cemetery.