In the lead-up to my February 8 talk at Wilson County Public Library, every day I’ll feature a post related to Wilson County’s Rosenwald schools. Here, extension agent Carter W. Foster invited farmers from the Rocky Branch, Williamson, and New Vester school districts in southwest Wilson County to attend a citizenship program.
Wilson Daily Times, 27 April 1950.
In an era in which few African-Americans qualified to register to vote, it is interesting to consider what “responsibilities and privileges as a good citizen” were being imparted.
In the lead-up to my February 8 talk at Wilson County Public Library, every day I’ll feature a post related to Wilson County’s Rosenwald schools. As seen here, the schools became the centers of rural communities. The Williamson Home Demonstration Club was comprised of women who lived in Williamson’s district. In this contribution to the Daily Times, the Club reported on members’ gardening, canning, and sewing work; their contribution to a fire fund for demonstration agent Jane Amos Boyd; a successful picnic with the clubs affiliated with Sims, New Vester, and Rocky Branch Schools; a baby shower; and the sick and shut-in.
Wilson Daily Times, 3 July 1945.
——
Lillie Powell
Ida M. Finch— in the 1940 census of Cross Roads township, Wilson County: farmer Eddie Finch, 30; wife Ida M., 28; and sons Joshua T., 7, and Willie G., 1.
Gladys Graham — in the 1940 census of Cross Roads township, Wilson County: farm laborer James Graham, 24; wife Gladys, 20; and daughter Mary F., 1.
I have a bottomless well of names to say and stories to tell about Wilson County, and I always look forward to Februarys at Wilson County Public Library. WCPL walks the talk of inclusion daily and on many paths, and I deeply appreciate their invitations to speak with my home folk about our community’s rich legacy.
Come out on Thursday, February 8, to learn about Wilson County’s Rosenwald schools. Funded by Sears Roebuck magnate Julius Rosenwald, these two- and three-teacher schools became the hubs of their communities and forever changed the lives of their students.
At my request, the State Historic Preservation Office of North Carolina, Division of Historical Resources, forwarded a copy of its file on Yelverton School. It’s a slim folder containing four pages: a Historic Property Survey Summary; N.C. Rosenwald School Search Form; and two print-outs from the Fisk University Rosenwald Fund Card File Database.
Yelverton School was built circa 1925 as a frame, side-gabled, two-teacher-type Rosenwald school. A front-gabled projecting wing was flanked by two recessed entries, and its windows were nine-over-nine and six-over-six sash.
The Fisk database print-outs contain two breath-taking photographs of Yelverton School, seemingly taken around the time the school was built. The first was taken straight-on, young pines standing in the background. The second shows the rear elevation.
An unidentified man approaches the school through what appears to be broomsedge.
Fisk’s Rosenwald database is undergoing digitalization; I look forward to closer examination of these images when available online.
One of only three official Rosenwald Schools still more-or-less standing in Wilson County, it was recently demolished.
I understand the building was in bad shape, but wish its owner had reached out beforehand to discuss features from its historic interior that might have been salvaged.
Wilson Colored High School (later Darden High School) observed a day honoring Julius Rosenwald, whose charitable foundation funded the school’s construction.
Alma Lucas — in the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 208 Jones Street, South Carolina-born drayman Henry Lucas, 35; wife Mamie, 35; and children James, 16, Leroy, 14, Milton, 12, Lucille, 10, Alma, 5, Margret, 6, and Charles, 2.
Alcestia Langley — in the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: grocery store merchant Jarrette J. Langley, 51; wife Mary, 49; and children Mary, 21, Esmond, 18, grocery store delivery boy, Ruttena, 16, Alcesta, 14, and Eunice, 8.
Mabel Williams –probably, in the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: James Williams, 55; wife Mary C., 58; and children William, 25, Mable, 16, Sarah J., 17, and James Jr., 18.
County Extension Agent Carter W. Foster published a reminder of the annual county-wide picnic for farm families, held in 1941 at Yelverton School in far southeastern Wilson County.
The nineteenth in a series of posts highlighting the schools that educated African-American children outside the town of Wilson in the first half of the twentieth century. The posts will be updated; additional information, including photographs, is welcome.
In 1926, state assistant agent for Negro schools William F. Credle prepared a report on Wilson County’s Rosenwald schools. It included this notation: “Stantonsburg: This is a three-teacher building building similar to the Saratoga [school] building. However, the building and grounds were in better condition. As in the other schools the chimneys should be provided with terra cotta thimbles and the equipment should be reconditioned and more seats should be provided. This building is provided with a stage which should be removed as it takes up a large part of classroom space in one of the classrooms and its location makes it necessary for the seats to face in the wrong direction. If a stage is permitted in any small building, it should be a removable affair to be used only for public exercises and at commencement time. The sanitary privies at this school were provided with pits and were in very good condition. There is evidence that the teachers at this school took a pride in their work and in the buildings.”
Location: A 1936 state road map of Wilson County shows Stantonsburg School on present-day N.C. Highway 58, just northeast of Stantonsburg. It appears that it is placed outside its actual location because the map is rather cluttered in the town proper. Stantonsburg Colored School stood on North Whitley Street, on the far east side of Stantonsburg.
The former site of Stantonsburg School in the block bounded by North Whitley Street and West Macon Avenue, Stantonsburg.
Per sale advertised for several weeks in the Wilson Daily Times in the fall of 1951: “STANTONSBURG COLORED SCHOOL in Stantonsburg Township, containing 2 acres more or less, and more particularly described as follows: BEGINNING on Whitley Street at a stake, thence South 62 [degrees] West 280 feet to a stake, thence North 28 [degrees] West 295 feet to a ditch, thence with the center of the ditch North 55 [degrees] 29′ East 281.7 feet to a stake, thence South 28 [degrees] East 327 feet to the beginning. Being the identical land described in a judgment recorded in Book 146, at page 343, in the office of the Register of Deeds of Wilson County.”
Known faculty: principal Arnold G. Walker.
Stantonsburg School as seen in a 1940 aerial photograph.
Wilson is not “a town about twelve miles from” Raleigh (it’s 46 miles), and there were two schools for African-American children in Wilson County called Barnes. One, Rosenwald-built, was on today’s Airport Road. The other was apparently adjacent to Barnes Church, just north of Stantonsburg on modern Old Stantonsburg Road. Both have been demolished. This post almost certainly refers to the Airport Road school.
The eighteenth in a series of posts highlighting the schools that educated African-American children outside the town of Wilson in the first half of the twentieth century. The posts will be updated; additional information, including photographs, is welcome.
Location: A 1936 state road map of Wilson County shows Yelverton School on present-day Aspen Grove Church Road near the Pitt County line.
Per notification of public sale in 1951: “YELVERTON COLORED SCHOOL in Saratoga Township, containing two acres, more or less, and more particularly described as follows: BEGINNING at a stake on the East side of Aspin Grove Road beside a white oak, runs thence South 55 1/2 [degrees] East 204 feet to a stake with a sourwood and 2 pine pointers, corners, runs thence 34 1/6 [degrees] West 420 feet to a stake, corners, runs thence North 55 1/2 [degrees] to a stake on the easterly side of said road, thence with said road to the beginning. Being the identical land described in a judgment recorded in Book 179, at page 155, in the Office of the Register of Deeds of Wilson County.”
Yelverton School was built in 1925-26 with $700.00 from the Rosenwald Fund, $2025.00 from Wilson County, and $50.00 from local families.
“This is good two-teacher school with cloak rooms and industrial room. It is properly located on a good site. I recommend that the following improvements be made:
“Put in at least 30 feet of blackboard to the room. This should be provided with a chalk rail.
“Put in terra cotta thimbles in all chimneys.
“Provide good stoves. Jacketed stoves are to be desired. We furnish blue prints for jackets and they can be made for about $20.00 a piece at an good tinner’s.
“Hooks for cloaks and shelves for lunch boxes should be provided in the cloak rooms.
“The seats now in the building should be reconditioned and a sufficient number of new ones provided to accommodate the enrollment. The old seats that are badly cut can be put in very good condition by planing off the rough tops and staining and varnishing.
“Finally the privies should be removed to the line of the school property. They should be provided with pits and the houses should be made fly proof.
“The patrons should be encouraged to clean off the lot so as to provide play ground for the children.”
The condition of Yelverton School has declined considerably in the 13 years since Plate 256, above, was published in the research report.
A bank of nine-over-nine windows.
One of the two classrooms. Note the stove and original five-panel door.
The rear of the school.
Known faculty: teachers Otto E. Sanders, Esther B. Logan, Merle S. Turner, Izetta Green, Louise Delorme, Dorothy Eleen Jones.
Plate 256 published in the Research Report; other photos by Lisa Y. Henderson, September 2020.
