public notice

Notice of tax sales in Lucama and Elm City.

Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 5 November 1948.

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  • Edward Dew — in the 1950 census of Lucama, Cross Roads township, Wilson County: truck driver Edward N. Dew, 33; wife Omida, 31; and children Charlie, 14, John E., 11, Daniel L., 9, Jaicile, 7, Cora B., 5, and Hester, 3.
  • Mabel Ellis
  • William T. Armstrong — probably, in the 1940 census of Rocky Mount, Edgecombe County, N.C.: William T. Armstrong, 65, blacksmith helper in railroad shop; wife Lucy, 53; and daughter Mildred, 10.
  • Wiley Barnes
  • Willie Cooper Sr. — probably, in the 1940 census of Toisnot township, Wilson County: Willie Cooper, 49; wife Georgianna, 26; adopted daughter Nellie Moss, 14; and lodger George Saunders, 18.
  • Mary and Duffie Chisel — in the 1950 census of Elm City, Toisnot township, Wilson County: on Branch Street, Duffie Chisel, 46, lumber mill helper; wife Mary, 41; daughter Lossie Artis, 17.
  • Walter R. Lucas — in the 1940 census of Elm City, Toisnot township, Wilson County: widower Will Lucas, 67, clothes presser at Star Cleaners; son Walter, 50, clothes presser at Star Cleaners; and grandson Cleveland Anderson, 21, farm laborer.
  • Will Lucas — see above.

F.Y.I.: Rev. Dillard has not been silenced.

Wilson Daily Times, 12 May 1931.

I can only speculate about what happened at Wilson Chapel to prompt publication of this notice … but speculating I am.

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  • Rev. H.Y. Dillard — Henry Y. Dillard.

On 14 May 1917, Henry Dilliard, 21, of Wilson, married Susanna Parker, 18, of Wilson, in Wilson. A.M.E. Zion minister B.P. Coward performed the ceremony.

In 1917, Henry Dillard registered for the World War I draft in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born 2 October 1896 in Red Springs, N.C.; lived at 121 Manchester Street, Wilson; worked as a laborer at Farmers Oil Mill; and was married.

In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 207 Reid Street, oil mill laborer Henry Dillard, 24, and wife Sudie, 20.

On 29 May 1933, Henry Dillard, 36, of Ayden, son of Jake and Mary Dillard, married Bessie Brown, 28, of Ayden, daughter of Martha Cobb, in Greenville, Pitt County, N.C.

In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 719 Viola Street, tobacco factory cooper Henry Dillard, 42; wife Bessie, 36; and children Magdeline, 6, Maybelle, 5, Bessie M., 2, and Henry Jr., 1 month.

In the 1950 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 719 Viola, Henry Y. Dillard Sr., 53, meal cook and foreman at fertilizer plant; wife Bessie, 46; and children Maggie Line, 16, Mabel, 14, Bessie Mae, 12, Henry Jr., 10, and Robert Henry, 6.

Henry Younger Dillard died 23 February 1970 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was born 21 October 1896 to Jake Dillard; was married to Mildred Barnes Dillard; lived at 1501 Washington Street; and worked as a carpenter and minister.

  • Rev. E.M. Hill

Take notice: my wife and daughter left.

Wilson Daily Times, 11 August 1911.

This notice concerning a wife and daughter reads an awful lot like a runaway slave ad.

A Hannah Ellis is listed in the 1916 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory, at 624 Darden Alley. No other Ellis is listed at that address. I have not found a mother-daughter combination named Hannah and Ida Ellis, nor the name of the man who published this notice anonymously.

Important sale.

Tarborough Southerner, 2 December 1854.

Both Jonathan D. Rountree and William D. Thorne were merchants in Wilson. When Thorne failed to repay a large loan, Rountree forced the sale of, it appears, everything Thorne had, including “three young Negroes.” Day in, day out, the lives of enslaved people were upended by their owners’ bad decisions.

Levied on one negro girl, Barbara.

Tarboro’ Press, 13 July 1833.

By time this public notice was published, Levi Daniel had migrated to Harris County, Georgia, from the Black Creek area of what is now Wilson County. He left behind an enslaved woman, Barbara, with his kinswoman Judith Daniel. Other than it involved levying of property to satisfy a debt, the nature of the civil action is not clear, but Judith Daniel claimed ownership of both Barbara and 165 acres of land Levi Daniel also left behind.

I don’t know the outcome of the suit, but when Judith Daniel made out her will in 1837, she did not mention Barbara. Rather, to her daughter Sarah Barnes, she left “negro boy Amos“; to daughter Temperance Jordan, “negro woman Rhody“; and to daughter Eliza Bass, “negro girl Ginna.”