Rocky Mount NC

The obituary of Zannie Daniel Moore.

Wilson Daily Times, 8 May 1947.

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In the 1870 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: Amos Daniel, 44; wife Olive, 25; and children Willy, 14, and Zana, 12.

In the 1880 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on Pettigrew Street, Edward [Edmond] Moore, 23; wife Zana, 22; and daughter Mary, 3.

In the 1900 census of Rocky Mount, Nash County, North Carolina: on Thomas Street, Edmon Moore, 43, farmer; wife Zanie, 45; and children Mary, 22, Susa, 19, Edgar, 18, Wiley, 15, Matilda, 13, and Fred, 5.

In the 1910 census of Rocky Mount, Nash County, North Carolina: Edmond Moore, 55, farmer, and wife Zany, 50.

In the 1928 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Moore Edward (c; Zanie) lab h 904 Atlanta [Atlantic]

In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 904 Atlantic, Edward Moore, 70; wife Zannie, 60, laundress; and lodgers Blanch Guilford, 16, Julia Williams, 16, Ruth Donald, 17, private nurse, and Edner Donald, 15.

Zannie Moore died 6 May 1947 at Saint Agnes Hospital, Raleigh, North Carolina. Per her death certificate, she was 91 years old; was born in Wilson County to Amos Daniel and Ollie Jenkins; was the widow of Edmond Moore; worked as a farmer; and was buried in William Chapel church cemetery.

Lane Street Project: a visit to Rocky Mount’s Unity Cemetery.

My first look at Rocky Mount’s Unity Cemetery was jaw-dropping. This Edgecombe County burial ground, founded in 1901, is more than twice the size of Vick Cemetery (and about half the size of Rest Haven.) Large swathes of its territory have been cleared of undergrowth; the remaining pines and a few hardwoods stretch as far as can be seen. Most of the trees have diameters no wider than a dinner plate, and I’d guess are no more than 30 to 40 years old. 

Most of the graves are currently unmarked, but perhaps several hundred gravestones stand in place. Elias Cooper’s, above, is one of the oldest; he died in 1907. The headstones are generally marble or granite; I saw very few of rough concrete “homemade” variety. As seen below, Rocky Mount families knew of Wilson’s Clarence B. Best, and I saw a few examples of his work.

I also noticed this fieldstone marker.

I entered Section A of the cemetery from the dead end of East Highland Avenue. The ground there and in Section B was fairly level, but as I pushed into Sections D and E, I was startled to find deep corrugations across the woodland floor — hundreds of graves that have subsided a foot or more. 

The dips in the shadows of tree trunks in the photos below reveal sunken graves.

I imagine Vick, Odd Fellows and Rountree Cemeteries might have looked something like this at stages of their existence, and I’m saddened by what we’ve lost.

Not all of Unity’s ground surface is clear, and in Section B I noticed wisteria, the scourge of Odd Fellows. You can see it curling to the left of this elaborate headstone, which was erected by a church congregation in honor of their pastor, Rev. John Henry Martin.)

Abel Powell, born enslaved, lived nearly a century in Rocky Mount.

The remains of a ornamental iron fence that once surrounded a family plot lean against a tree in Unity.

A prayer in memory of Unity Cemetery’s dead and for the wisdom and perseverance of those who work to protect them.

Photos by Lisa Y. Henderson, October 2023.

High school students research plantation’s enslaved.

I just happened across this brief 26 July 2022 news report. It’s not from Wilson County, but it’s close — and worthy of emulation.

Stonewall Manor.

Built on the banks of the Tar River in 1830, Stonewall Manor is an antebellum plantation house in the heart of Rocky Mount. In 2022, honors history students at Nash Central High School set out to document the people enslaved at Stonewall.

Here’s the 26 July 2022 report by ABC11 reporter Lucy Collins, “Nash Central High school students honor people who were enslaved at Stonewall Manor”:

“Nash Central High School AP US History Students honor and remember enslaved peoples at Stonewall Manor through a research project.

“Lead by their teacher, Renny Taylor, students went through public records and other archives to find the names of the slaves who worked on the property.

“‘We went through auction records, land deeds, wills last seen ads of slaves and just everything that we could to make sure that we didn’t forget anybody because our main goal here was just to honor and remember the forgotten,’ said Camryn Eley, one of the students who researched for the project.

“Students worked after school and weekends to work on this project, even acting as docents on the property.

“‘They did a great job. I think one of the things they found out is that when you’re doing this research, which I like to call the Easter egg hunt, you’re not always successful. We had people that went different places and didn’t find anything and then you would stumble across something and find one or two names… Just them having the perseverance to continue to find it and look for it,’ said Taylor, recalling his students’ research efforts.

“The next round of AP US History students at Nash Central High School will continue to add on to the project and the students who started the work are excited to see how they will build upon their research.

“‘I’m ready to see the final outcome and it continuing to be built on. I always think that one door opens and then everybody else can open other doors so I feel like it’s going to be a really good outcome. Especially from what we did in just a year and a half,’ said Makayla Pugh, another of Taylor’s students who worked on the project.

“The students’ work will be available for public viewing in September.”

At the completion of their project, Coach Taylor’s classes created a large display board naming those known to have been enslaved at Stonewall Manor, which has been installed onsite. Thank you, Coach Taylor and students, for calling the names of Stonewall Manor’s enslaved.

No grand brick plantation houses survive in Wilson County (if any were ever built), but antebellum houses whose owners built their wealth on the backs of African-Americans dot the countryside. Certainly enough to keep every AP History class in the county busy for a couple of years with projects like that undertaken at Nash Central.

[P.S. On a personal note, at the liquidation of Bennett Bunn’s estate in 1849, Kinchen Taylor purchased Green. My great-great-grandfather Green Taylor is listed in the 1856 inventory of the enslaved people held by Kinchen Taylor of far northern Nash County. Was he once held at Stonewall Manor?]

Photo courtesy of Stonewall Manor’s Facebook page.

Lane Street Project: Rocky Mount’s Unity Cemetery.

Let’s circle on back around to Rocky Mount.

This “Unity Cemetery Update,” which can be found at the city-hosted website,  www.unitycemeterync.com, issued from the City Manager’s office. It offers a model for progressive, responsive governance.

There’s a brief history and significance of the cemetery.

On the next page, which is oddly titled, we learn that Rocky Mount does not own Unity Cemetery. It is a private cemetery that may (or may not) be regarded under the law as abandoned. They estimate that it holds one thousand plots per each of its 18 acres. At present, descendants are responsible for maintenance of plots. (Thus, Unity is more like Odd Fellows and Rountree than Vick, which has always been a publicly owned space.)

The next slide details the City of Rocky Mount’s previous work to restore Unity.

Then, highlights of anticipated steps needed to clarify past and establish future ownership of the cemetery.

And a multi-part recommendation for actions to be carried out over the next several years. When the City of Wilson gets to point of creating a plan for Vick Cemetery — and I am speaking this into existence — Unity’s model could offer ideas worth exploring or emulating.

Obviously, Unity is in a very different position than Vick, which needs no title searches, hand thinning, or road repair, but I am awestruck by the difference generous funding could make for Wilson’s historic African-American cemetery.

Lane Street Project: well, now, look at Rocky Mount.

Wilson keeps taking L’s when it comes to preservation of historic African-American cemeteries. I’d thought the City could seize this opportunity to be a leader in honest, enlightened approaches of addressing uncomfortable historical truths, but that title has been won. I know Wilson gets a little sensitive about Rocky Mount, its progressive neighbor to the north, but facts is facts.

In the 13 February 2022 Rocky Mount Telegram (a time in which Wilson City Council was griping and wringing its hands about spending $30,000 for a GPR survey), “City launches website about Unity Cemetery project”:

“People wanting to know more about Unity Cemetery and the efforts to restore and preserve the historically Black burial ground off East Grand Avenue in the eastern part of the city now have a go-to online link.

“That link, www.unitycemeterync.com, provides the story of Unity Cemetery, with a timeline and with a collection of present-day snapshots of the location. That link also provides contact information for what is being called the Unity Cemetery Restoration and Preservation Project.

“Unity Cemetery was incorporated in 1901 and is 18 acres in size.

“As family members either died or moved away from the Rocky Mount area, the location began looking more like a forest than a burial ground, although there have been cleanup efforts in the more recent past.

“The condition of Unity Cemetery increasingly became an issue in 2020 when resident Samuel Battle kept bringing up the subject during the public input phase of City Council regular meetings.

“Resident Tarrick Pittman began organizing a group that made a community cleanup effort of Unity Cemetery a reality on Feb. 6, 2021.

“Battle and residents Steve Cederberg, Steve Pridgen and Pridgen’s wife, Tracy, also had key roles in the cleanup effort. Other cleanup days followed.

“On March 8, 2021, the City Council spent about an hour of a work session discussing Unity Cemetery and went on to approve the adoption of recommendations by then-City Manager Rochelle Small-Toney and her team.

“Those recommendations included budgeting municipal funds to restore and preserve the burial ground.

“Overall, the long-range municipal capital improvement program, which extends from 2022-26, has $1.45 million in spending programmed for Unity Cemetery. [One. Point. Four. Five. Million.]

“Additionally during an Aug. 9, 2021, City Council work session, former Councilwoman Lois Watkins, as a consultant to the municipality regarding Unity Cemetery, told the council the municipality had successfully obtained extensive numbers of burial records from what was Stokes Mortuary.

“Watkins told the council she and others thought such records maybe were burned, destroyed or lost.

“The new website includes pictures of the Unity Cemetery Restoration and Preservation Project staff.

“That staff is comprised of Watkins, as project manager, Nadia Orton, who is a historian/genealogist, and Hap Turner, who is a heritage researcher.”

Please take a look at this website, folks. Explore it. It is a thing of beauty in both form and substance. Created and maintained by a municipality. Clap your hands for Rocky Mount.

Look at this!

Read the press release:

Can you imagine? I can. But I don’t believe. Not in Wilson, where city leaders won’t even spring for a survey map.

How do we change the narrative for Vick Cemetery?

African-American scouts attend camp.

Wilson Daily Times, 10 August 1950.

Under the supervision of John E. Dixon and W.E. Jones, 14 boys from Wilson — Eddie Sauls, Herbert Cox, James Richardson, Jimmy L. Barnes, Joseph Speight, James Baines Jr., Rudolph Lane, John McNeil, Leroy Evans, Nesby Hilton, Joseph McNeil, Timothy Autry, Fred Woodard, and James Taylor — attended a Boy Scout camp in Rocky Mount in 1950.

 

Scouts solve a mystery.

Wilson Daily Times, 25 April 1933.

In this strange story, the family of a missing Rocky Mount man elicited the help of a local Boy Scout troop to find him. Having heard of an unidentified injured man lying in a Wilson hospital, the Lion Patrol, photo in hand, traveled to investigate. Physicians and undertakers (C.H. Darden and Sons, as it were) in Wilson confirmed deceased Junious “June” Mangum’s identity.

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Junious Mangum died 15 April 1933 at Mercy Hospital in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was 40 years old; was born in Rocky Mount, N.C., to William Mangum and Ida Parker; was single; lived at 723 South Main [Rocky Mount?]; was a laborer; and was buried in Wilson. HIs cause and place of death: “compound fracture of skull (parietal and occipital h[illegible]” “A.C.L.R.R. tracks near Elm City.”