The Vick family plot was the nucleus of what is now Odd Fellows Cemetery. It contains five marked graves — Samuel H. Vick, his wife Annie Washington Vick, their daughters Irma and Viola Vick, and his parents Daniel and Fannie Blount Vick — but likely other family members.
With funds crowdsourced from Black Wide-Awake‘s readers, Foster Stone and Cemetery Care has been expertly cleaning, repairing as necessary, and resetting grave markers in Odd Fellows. The past few days, Billy Foster has worked his magic in the Vick family plot.
BEFORE
AFTER
The earliest of these markers belongs to little Viola Leroy Vick, who died in 1897 just before her third birthday.
It is a pretty little headstone, but oddly proportioned and badly in need of cleaning. When Billy Foster began to work on it, he discovered that the two-part base of the stone was completely buried — we’ve only been seeing the stele.
Foster dismantled the headstone.
When he cleaned it and reassembled it, an epitaph came into view on the pedestal:
A light from our household is gone
A voice we loved is stilled
A place is vacant in our hearts
Which never can be filled.
The plinth is also inscribed: Burns & Campbell, Petersburg, Virginia, a prolific firm known as much for its headstones as for constructing Confederate monuments.
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My deep thanks to M. Barnes, R. Breen, S. Brooks, V. Cowan, D. Dawson, D. Gouldin, J. Hackney, J. Hawthorne, B. Henderson, T. Lewis, B. Nevarez, and M. Wrenn for sponsoring headstone repairs. There is more restoration work to be done, and I hope others will donate to support our efforts.
Wilson’s Odd Fellows Cemetery is not the only one that fell on hard times. Nor is it the only one under the care of a dedicated group of volunteers. Winston-Salem, N.C.’s Odd Fellows Cemetery is much larger than Wilson’s, and F.O.C. is a much older organization founded under different circumstances than Lane Street Project. They are a model, though, for work we may seek to undertake in Wilson, and we congratulate them on winning the 2022 Minnette C. Duffy Landscape Preservation Award!
Yesterday, while working at Odd Fellows, Billy Foster of Foster Stone and Cemetery Care unearthed two more grave markers. One was blank, but the other was that of Jack Rountree, whose daughter Delzela Rountree is also buried at Odd Fellows. It is likely that his wife Lucille Rountree is there as well.
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In the 1870 census of Bushy Fork township, Person County, North Carolina: farm laborer Henry Rountree, 30; wife Margaret, 20; and son Jack, 6.
On 21 October 1891, Jack Rountree, 30, parents unnamed, and Lucy Bergeron, 20, of Falkland, of Elias and [illegible] Bergeron, were married in Pitt County, North Carolina.
In the 1900 census of Falkland township, Pitt County: farmer Jack Rountree, 49; wife Lucy, 27; and children Julius, 5, Daisy E., 2, and Cora, 2 months; sisters Marcela, 23, Cora, 24, and Ella Bargeron, 26; and boarder Jacob Worthan, 18.
In the 1910 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: on Saratoga Road, farmer Jack Rountree, 53; wife Lucy, 35; and children Junius, 15, Delzel, 12, Cora Lee, 10, John H., 7, James, 6, Mable, 4, and Gollie May, 1.
Daisy L. [sic] Roundtree died 5 August 1914 in Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was born in 1898 to Jack Roundtree and Lucy Body; was single; lived on Stantonsburg Street; and was buried in Wilson [Odd Fellows Cemetery].
In the 1916 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Rountree Jack (c) farmer h Stantonsburg rd extd
In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on Old Stantonsburg Road, farmer Jack Rountree, 57; wife Lucile, 47; son Julius, 24, daughter-in-law Lida, 23, sons John Henry, 17, and Jesse, 16, daughters Mabel, 14, and Ola May, 10, and married daughter Cora Farmer, 19. [Her husband Paul was working in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.]
In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on Mason Street, Loucile Roundtree, 52; husband John H., 67, yard gardener; and children Jessie D., 26, plasterer in public buildings; Mable, 22, dressmaking; John H., 27, cotton mill mechanic; Goldie J., 19; and Bertha, 14, “adopted daughter.”
Lucile Elizabeth Rountree died 14 May 1930 in Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was born 10 May 1875 in Pitt County to Elias Barden and Lettice Davis; was married to Jack Rountree; lived on Hadley Street; and was buried in Wilson [probably Odd Fellows Cemetery].
On 16 September 1931, Jack Rountree, 60, of Wilson, son of Henry Rountree and Margaret [maiden name not given], married Catherine Waddell, 50, of Rocky Mount, daughter of Charles and Mary Small, in Wilson. A.M.E. Zion minister B.P. Coward performed the ceremony in the presence of J.L. Cooke, Clara R. Cooke, and S.A. Coward.
In the 1940 census of Rocky Mount, Nash County, North Carolina: at 1812 South Church Street, yardman Jack Rountree, 78, and wife Katherine, 62.
In the 1950 census of Rocky Mount, Nash County: at 1812 South Church Street, John H. Rountree, 88, and wife Catherine, 77.
John Henry Rountree died 21 June 1953 at his home at 1812 South Church Street, Rocky Mount, Nash County. Per his death certificate, he was born 4 March 1887 in Person County, N.C., to Henry Rountree and Margaret [maiden name not stated]; worked as a retired janitor; and was buried in Rest Haven Cemetery, Wilson. [There is no marker in Rest Haven for John or Jack Rountree.]
Catherine Waddell Rountree died 1 September 1958 at her home at 1812 South Church Street, Rocky Mount. Per her death certificate, she was born 10 July 1888 in Greene County, N.C., to Charles Small and Mary Patrick; was the widow of Jack Rountree; and was buried in Unity Cemetery, Rocky Mount.
Want to help Lane Street Project, but you’re nowhere near Wilson? Adopt a headstone!
For the discounted rate of $50, Foster Stone and Cemetery Care will clean, stabilize, and reset a headstone in Odd Fellows or Rountree Cemeteries. Billy Foster has more than “20 years of experience honoring the memory of loved ones” and in just a few weeks has already transformed the appearance of Odd Fellows.
Newly cleaned and reset grave markers gleaming in the evening light. Photo courtesy of Billy Foster, Foster Stone and Cemetery Care.
These markers are among those available for sponsorship:
Hood S. Phillips
Hood S. Phillips was a barber. His wife Phillis Phillips was probably buried nearby, but we have not yet found her marker. Phillips’ marker will be cleaned and set upright, and the small collapsed area at the grave filled in.
Walter M. Foster
Walter M. Foster‘s beautiful white marble headstone has a splintered corner that needs repair. Foster worked as a fireman (one who tended the fire to run a boiler, heat a building, or power a steam engine) for Hackney Wagon Company.
Lula Dew Wooten
Lula Dew Wooten‘s headstone is perhaps my favorite in all of Odd Fellows. A simple rectangle with softly rounded shoulders and delicate engraving, the marker needs only cleaning and straightening. Wooten was a dressmaker, and her husband Simeon Wooten is likely buried nearby.
H.B. Taylor has not been identified. (He was not Rev. Halley B. Taylor, minister of Calvary Presbyterian Church for several years.) Taylor’s marker, which bears symbols of both the Masons and Odd Fellows, needs cleaning and straightening.
If you’re interested in sponsoring these or another marker, you can CashApp fifty dollars to $blackwideawake, Venmo to @lanestreetproject, or email me at lanestreetproject@gmail.com to arrange payment otherwise. Contributions less than $50 will be pooled — so no amount is too small!
Billy Foster of Foster Stone and Cemetery Care discovered a new headstone while repairing and resetting Lucinda White‘s broken marker yesterday. Buried in the soil about seven feet in front of her stone was her husband George Washington White‘s marker.
George White, 34, of Craven County, son of Louisa Dew, married Lucinda Parker, 20, of Craven County, on 27 December 1898 at Jackson Dew‘s residence in Wilson township, Wilson County. Alfred Dew applied for the license, and Baptist minister J.T. Deans performed the ceremony in the presence of James T. Alston, L.A. Allen, and Jackson Dew.
In the 1900 census of Wilson, Wilson County: George White, 25, day laborer fireman, and wife Lucinda, 23.
In the 1908 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: White George (c) fireman h 605 Wiggins
In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on Suggs Street, George White, 35, box factory laborer, and wife Lucindia, 30.
In the 1912 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: White Geo (c) fireman h 411 Wiggins
Lucinda White died 13 November 1915 in Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was born in 1883 in North Carolina to Henretta Richardson; was married; and was buried in Wilson. George White was informant.
In the 1916 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: White George (c) fireman h 409 Wiggins
In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 409 Stantonsburg Street, cotton mill fireman George White, 54, and wife Maggie, 29. [The Whites were next door to Ben Mincey and family, and the Whites’ burial plot is close to the Minceys’.]
In the 1925 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: White Geo (c) fireman h 648 Wiggins
In the 1928 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: White Geo W (c; Maggie) firemn Wilson Cotton Mills h 106 N Reid
In the 1930 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: White Geo W (c; Maggie) firemn Wilson Cotton Mills h 106 N Reid
George Washington White died 7 December 1939 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was 62 years old; was born in Wilson County; was married to Maggie White; lived at 916 Robeson Street; and worked as a stationary boiler fireman at Wilson Cotton Mills.
Charlie Thomas was a longtime employee of the Gold family of newspaper publishers. Though his family had a plot in Odd Fellows — his wife Sarah Best Thomas and son Louis Thomas were buried there — his obituary reports that he was buried in Rest Haven. His death certificate, on the other hand, lists Rountree Cemetery is his place of burial (which meant, of course, Odd Fellows Cemetery) and, in fact, there is a marker in Odd Fellows engraved with his name and the order’s triple links.
On a March morning, a 360° look at Odd Fellows Cemetery. The old gated entrance. The Tate and Dawson family plots. The Foster family plot. The wilderness of Rountree Cemetery. Straddling the tree line, the Vick family plot. Wiley Oates‘ obelisk. The densest remaining uncleared section. Ben Mincey‘s fire hydrant and the Mincey family plot. The work we’ve done in Seasons 1 and 2. Vick Cemetery in the distance. The power lines. The backs of the Barnes markers in their family plot. The street and the old gate.
