North Carolina Mutual Insurance Company

Community Chest drive.

community chest

Wilson Daily Times, 10 November 1933. 

  • North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company
  • Community Chest
  • Rev. C.H. Richmond — C.H. Richmond was a Presbyterian minister.
  • C.S. Thomas — Charles S. Thomas (1878-1937), an insurance agent, was a native of Bennettsville, South Carolina.
  • Dr. W.A. Mitchner — William Arthur Mitchner.
  • William Hines
  • Levi Jones — Levi Hunter Jones.
  • John H. Clark — John Henry Clark.
  • Walter Hines — Walter Scott Hines.
  • Rev. B.F. Jordan — B.F. Jordan was a Missionary Baptist minister.
  • Dr. G.K. Butterfield — George Kenneth Butterfield.
  • Dr. Z.M. Johnson — Bertie County, North Carolina, native Zebulon Myer Johnson (1873-1934) was a chiropodist.
  • G.J. Faison
  • Loyd Thomas — Brickmason Lloyd Cheatam Thomas (1890-1968) was a native of Forest, Virginia.
  • Daniel Vick — Known as “Bud,” Daniel Leon (or Lionel) Vick (1898-1975) was a son of Samuel and Annie Washington Vick.
  • A.A. Lovette — Blacksmith Almus Ashton Lovette (1877-1938) was a native of Sylvania, Georgia.
  • James Crockett — James Crockett (1868-1935) was a native of Goldsboro, North Carolina. He was the brother of Georgia Crockett Aiken.
  • Andrew Townsend — Person County native Andrew Townsend (1881-1960) worked as a laborer.
  • Washington Wilkins — Washington Wilkins (1894-1958) was a plumber and laborer for the city. He was the son of Richmond and Patsy Armstrong Wilkins.
  • Rev. R.A. Horton
  • Golden Robinson — Golden Robinson (1897-1948) was the nephew of Alfred Robinson and a native of Wilmington, North Carolina.
  • James E. Stokes — Probably James Stokes (born circa 1895), who worked as a barber.
  • Ed Humphrey — James Edward Humphrey (1874-1936) was a carpenter.
  • Dr. B.O. Barnes — Boisey Otha Barnes.
  • N.A. Pierce — Nazareth Andrew Pierce.
  • S.H. Vick — Samuel Hines Vick.
  • C.E. Artis — Columbus Estelle Artis.
  • L.A. Moore — Lee Andrew Moore.
  • Rev. I.A. Moore
  • John M. Barnes — John Mack Barnes.
  • Prof. Edward Barnes — Edward Morrison Barnes.
  • Prof. Johnson
  • J.J. Langley — Jarrett Judge Langley (1878-1967) was a grocer.
  • O.N. Freeman — Oliver Nestus Freeman.
  • Wesley Rogers — John Wesley Rogers.
  • H.C. Brower
  • Clarence McCullers — Clarence McCullers (1885-1945) was a Johnston County, North Carolina, native.
  • George White — Either George Washington White (1877-1939), a city boiler operator, or George C. White (1901-1945), a cook and native of Franklin County, North Carolina.
  • Robert Haskins — Robert Douglas Haskins.
  • George Hagins — Possibly, George Hagans (1900-1978), a farmer.
  • Clarence Best — Clarence Benjamin Best.
  • Roderick Taylor
  • Wm. Barnes
  • John Battle — Probably John Parker Battle (1890-1945).
  • Prof. H.M. Fitts — Howard Monroe Fitts.
  • Rev. H.E. Edward
  • James Whitfield — James Ashley Whitfield.
  • E.W. Fisher — Virginia native Edwin W. Fisher (1873-??) was a district manager for North Carolina Mutual.
  • Dr. I.A. Shade — Isaac Albert Shade.
  • Rev. J.S. Jackson — Joseph Sylvester Jackson Sr. (1870-1942) was a Granville County, North Carolina, native.
  • Dr. J.F. Cowan — Physician Joseph Franklin Cowan (1901-1985) was a native of Abbeville, South Carolina.
  • Rev. Fred Davis — Fred Marshon Davis.
  • Levi Arrington — Levi V. Arrington (1887-1964), carpenter, was a native of Nash County, North Carolina.
  • J.H. Knight — James Henry Knight (1886-1951), was a grocery merchant.
  • Dr. S.H. Vick — is this a duplicate entry for Samuel H. Vick?
  • J.H. Cook
  • W.M. Bethel — Wilton Maxwell Bethel.
  • Ash Hines — Ashley Hines (1895-??) was a laborer.
  • A.J. McCoy — Probably Alfred McCoy (1874-1953), a laborer employed by the city of Wilson and a native of Edgecombe County.
  • A.N. Neil — Austin N. Neal.
  • Rev. Eddie Cox — Wayne County, North Carolina, native Eddie Harrison Cox was a Baptist minister.
  • Clinton Best — Bricklayer Clinton Bess (1885-??) was the son of Noah and Sarah Bess.
  • Edgar Diggs — Barber Edgar Hiram Diggs (1891-1970) was a Wayne County native.
  • Walter Whitted — Walter Craig Whitted.
  • C.L. Darden — Camillus Lewis Darden.

 

North Carolina Mutual.

This photograph was found at 208 North Pender Street shortly before the house was demolished. The house had been owned by the Clinton and Minnie Lockhart Bess family since the 1920s and was last occupied by their children Ruth Gladys Bess (1912-2003) and Rev. James Clinton Bess (1915-2002).

The photograph, which probably dates from shortly after the turn of the century, depicts four African-American men in suits and six women dressed in nurses’ caps and pinafores. The men at right are John Merrick (1859-1919) and Dr. Aaron M. Moore (1863-1923), who founded North Carolina Mutual and Provident Association (now North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company) in Durham in 1898.

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In John Merrick: A Biographical Sketch, published in 1920, R. McCants Andrews quoted a long-time North Carolina Mutual employee: “The second oldest agent in the service of the company is Mr. L.A. Moore, of Wilson, North Carolina, who is still in the employ of the company.”

Lee A. Moore lived on Pender Street, but not at 208, and it is not clear whether anyone in the Bess family worked for N.C. Mutual. Though the insurance company employed nurses, such as Henrietta R. Colvert, that provided home healthcare, none of the women above has been identified as someone with a direct connection to Wilson. Nor have the men at top left.

nc-mutual

Hill’s Wilson, N.C., Directory (1908-1908).

If you have information about this photograph, please leave a comment.

Many thanks to Edith Jones Garnett for sharing this image.