I don’t talk a whole whole lot about Rountree Cemetery proper, but it is never out of mind. Here it is, near its boundary with Odd Fellows. That’s the City of Wilson’s power pole, punched in in 1997. What you see, festooned in wisteria, effectively belongs to the City by virtue of a “perpetual easement of right-of-way” it obtained the same year. Behind the pole is a pile of headstones.
Photo by Lisa Y. Henderson, May 2026.
Goldsboro News-Argus, 27 September 1950.
Though this obituary states Lillian Fields was buried in 1950 in “Rountree” Cemetery, her death certificate lists Hooks Grove Cemetery in Wayne County, which seems more likely as she lived all but a few years in Wayne County. (A reminder to always cross-check references.)
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In the 1940 census of Saratoga township, Wilson County: Ormond Fields, 50; wife Lillian, 38; daughter Eva M., 15; son George, 13; son-in-law Zebedee Coley, 32; daughter Henrietta, 22; and grandchildren Yvonne, 3, Vaillie D., 2, and Rudolph, 6 months.
Driving into Wilson with a grin on my face, and POW! — “A Wilson man has been charged after admitting to digging up a grave at Vick Cemetery….”
You can read the sorry details here.
I immediately called Castonoble Hooks and diverted to the cemetery. The alleged perpetrator unearthed a corner of a burial vault in a grave at the edge of the ditch, but it has been recovered, and the earth tamped back down. While we were there, Public Works pulled up to shovel dirt over the remnants of the marble markers dislodged back in December. I was too shaken to even question why, but will find out.
Y’all remember back in August 2023 when I requested information from the City concerning the placement of power poles in Vick and Rountree Cemeteries? Via Gabriel Du Sablon, an attorney in the office of City attorney James P. Cauley III, the City responded on 22 September 2023, and I call your attention to this declaration:
Funny, because look what I just found on the Wilson County Register of Deeds website — an easement deed, dated 4 August 1997, from trustees of Rountree Missionary Baptist Church to the City of Wilson. (And prepared by James P. Cauley III.)
Via this document, Rountree Church granted the City permission to “construct, install, inspect, operate, repair and maintain one or more lines and appurtenant facilities for the transmission of electricity …” on part of its land.
Including the right to install power poles (and alter or substitute them “from time to time ….”
The power pole in Rountree Cemetery, October 2025.
The easement began on Rountree’s western property line at the property line of Odd Fellows Cemetery, on the south side of Lane Street; ran the width of the property to a canal (Sandy Creek); then back 41 feet; then back across the cemetery; then back to the beginning, containing about .25 acre.
May I remind you that the entire southern portion of Rountree Cemetery comprises only one acre.
For reasons that I cannot imagine, Rountree Church ceded a quarter of the main part of its old cemetery to the City. Worse, the City of Wilson plotted a power line corridor that demanded it. In 1997.
Page 3 of the easement continues the rights and privileges granted to the City by the easement.
The church gained no parallel rights, but can convey the land and easement. Nowhere in the easement is there an acknowledgment that this land is a cemetery.
And then there’s this attached plat map. It’s a little hard to make out, so I’ll zoom in on the pertinent part below.
Deed Book 1636, page 377, Wilson County Register of Deeds.
So, turned sideways, with Martin Luther King Parkway offscreen to the right, what we have is Lane Street (now Bishop L.N. Forbes) in red. (Note the narrowing as it passes the cemeteries.) In blue, Sandy Creek, which was channelized late in the 19th century as best I can tell. Yellow marks the boundary between Rountree and Odd Fellows Cemeteries. (I’d always believed it to be at the ditch shown left of the boundary, but the ditch is wholly in Odd Fellows.) The two halves of Rountree Cemetery are clearly shown. The top half is where the backhoe was roving late last year. The shaded area is the City of Wilson’s utility easement.
I repeat. There’s no mention that the City was securing a utility easement in a cemetery.
But maybe the City didn’t know, right? Here’s the pole again.
In the foreground, perhaps twenty feet away, is a pile of broken headstones, mostly belonging to an Ellis family. Another ten or fifteen feet further, the double-sided headstone of Daniel and Lottie Marlow, who died in 1918 and 1916. In 1997, when this pole was installed, the area was clear of brushy undergrowth, and these markers would have been plainly visible.
There’s no parallel easement recorded for Vick Cemetery. By 1997, the City had already confessed to owning the property and had recently cleared it of overgrowth and headstones, perhaps for this very purpose. And no recorded easement for Odd Fellows, which does not have a pole, but is crossed by the same power lines. In fact, graves in Odd Fellows were damaged just a few years later by heavy machinery brought into the cemetery for a line repair.
The repair sleeve on the middle line above Odd Fellows Cemetery.
This is nasty work, folks.
Vick Cemetery’s not on the February 19 Agenda, but that doesn’t stop you from speaking out in the audience comment portion of Thursday’s city council meeting. The impassioned remarks of a few of Lane Street Project’s descendant community and allies snatched the attention of council and the Wilson Times last month. Two weeks later, after a rambunctious discussion, four council members stood ten toes down to restore the public broadcast of the citizens’ comments portion of council meetings. Your voice matters, and now it can be heard by folks who can’t physically attend meetings.
If you’re thinking about speaking tomorrow, here are a few questions you might ask:
I was going to add “why hasn’t the Vick Cemetery city project page been updated since 15 October 2025?,” but I double-checked and, lo and behold, there’s been activity. The original October 15 update has been modified slightly, and this has been added (in January? I’m pretty sure February, but I quibble):
Finally:
Meanwhile, on the other side of the street …
Here’s an aerial from Wilson County GIS Website. The clearcutting was done in the top third of Rountree Cemetery, outlined in blue.
Here’s a link to video showing the late winter daffodils in this part of Rountree cemetery.
And here’s a link to a post I wrote two years ago about graves on that side of the street.
Maybe there’s a nefarious plot. Maybe it’s simple maintenance. We don’t know. What we do know is that the City (or its contractor) is once again rolling roughshod over an African-American cemetery.
The “Wilson, N.C.” society column of the 25 June 1927 Norfolk Journal and Guide noted two recent funerals at which the deceased was buried in Rountree Cemetery by the short-lived undertaking firm, Artis and Freeman.
As noted here, though her gravestone has not yet been found, Mary Jane Tate is likely buried in the Noah Tate family plot in Odd Fellows cemetery. We see here how early the name “Rountree” was applied to all the cemeteries on this stretch of Bishop L.N. Forbes Street.
Mrs. Serenda Morgan was in fact Sarah Bullock Morgan, wife of Surrender Morgan. The Morgans were married just two months before she died.
On 12 April 1927, Surrender Morgan, 21, of Wilson, son of Calvin and Almeta Morgan, married Sarah Bullock, 18, of Wilson, daughter of Walter and Sarah E. Bullock. Free Will Baptist minister E.H. Cox performed the ceremony in the presence of Ernest Bullock, Grim Bynum, and Author Williams.
Sarah Morgan died 16 June 1927 in childbirth in Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was 19 years old; was born in Robeson County, N.C., to Walter Bullock Sr. and Emma Clark; was married to Surender Morgan; lived on Atlantic Street; and was buried in Rountree Cemetery.
Surrender Morgan died 19 October 1939 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was 27 years old; was born in Wilson to Calvin Morgan and Almeta Morgan (she of the State of “Missippa”); was the widower of Sarah Morgan; worked as a chauffeur; and was buried in Wilson, N.C. [Other records, including her own death certificate, report Almeta Bynum Morgan’s birthplace as Wilson County.]
Wilson Daily Times, 19 May 1961.
William Roberson‘s obituary is especially notable for its reference to “Old” Rountree Cemetery. By 1961, Rountree, Odd Fellows, and Vick Cemeteries were overgrown and seldom-used, and Rest Haven was firmly established as the public cemetery for African-Americans in Wilson.
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In the 1930 census of Taylor township, Wilson County: Hoyet Robinson, 72; wife Lenorah, 55; and son William, 19.
In the 1940 census of Taylor township, Wilson County: Hart Roberson, 81; wife Leandora, 64; and son William, 29, farm laborer.
In 1940, William Robinson registered for the World War II draft in Wilson County. Per his death certificate, he was born 7 March 1911 in Wilson County; lived at R.F.D. #1, Wilson; his contact was mother Lenoria Robinson; and he worked for Selby Brewer.
William Roberson died 15 May 1961 in Taylor township, Wilson County. Per his death certificate, he was born 7 March 1912 in Wilson County to Hart Roberson and Leonora Atkinson; was married to Esther Roberson; worked as a farmer; and was buried in Rountree Cemetery. Lizzie Knight was informant.
Tracking burials in Wilson’s African-American cemeteries is complicated by the imprecise names listed on death certificates as place of burial.
As a refresher, here’s a rough timeline of Black cemeteries operating in the city of Wilson in the 19th and 20th centuries:
Until about 30 years ago, Rountree, Odd Fellows, and Vick Cemeteries were locally known collectively as “Rountree Cemetery.” When the City of Wilson erected granite pillars at the entrance to its parking lot in the late 1990s, they were inaccurately engraved “Rountree-Vick Cemetery.” I was a few years into Black Wide-Awake before I completely understood that the three cemeteries are separate entities.
I’ve been building a database of known and likely burials in R/OF/V, based on death certificates, headstones, obituaries, and a few family stories. The death certificates detailed below show why the task is so complicated. Tentative assignments, if I can guess at all, are based on context clues like church membership, fraternal affiliation, locations of burials of close family members, and location of residence.
The Town of Wilson began requiring death certificates in 1909; the county not until 1914. Enforcement was irregular for the first few years after the mandate. Green Mercer’s death certificate cites his place of burial as “Wilson N.C. Colored Cemetery,” which, in 1910, could have been Oakdale or Masonic or Rountree or Odd Fellows, but was probably Oakdale.
Undertaker C.H. Darden most often broadly designated place of burial as “Wilson” or “Wilson, N.C.” Bruce Adams, who died in 1914, could have been buried in Oakdale, Rountree, Vick, or Masonic Cemeteries.
This unnamed infant, who died in 1918, was buried in “Wilson Cemetery,” which likely was the cemetery we now know as Vick.
Robert Hardy, who also died in 1918, was buried in “Roundtrees Church” cemetery. Taken at face value, he was buried in the cemetery owned by Rountree Missionary Baptist Church.
Wesley Barnes’ 1919 death certificate cites “Wilson Co[unty] NC.” Barnes was my great-grandmother’s brother. Though it’s possible he was buried in the county, Wes Barnes lived in town and probably was buried in Vick Cemetery.
His death certificate simply cites “Wilson, N.C.,” but Buster Ellis‘ headstone has been found with those of his grandmother and other family members in Rountree Cemetery.
Undertaker Columbus E. Artis of Artis & Flanagan generically marked Noah Tate as buried in Wilson, though he interred him in the Tate family plot in Odd Fellows Cemetery.
On the other hand, the headstone of James Edward Humphrey, engraved “Ed Humphrey,” whose death certificate also states “Wilson, N.C.,” stands in Odd Fellows Cemetery.
George Rountree’s death certificate bears the unusual designation “Rountree Potters field.” Presumably Vick, as a public cemetery, had a potter’s field, and that’s probably where Rountree was buried.
Bessie Baldwin’s death certificate says she was buried in Rest Haven, but her obituary says Rountree Cemetery. Her funeral was held at Rountree church. If she were a member, she likely was buried there.
Wilson Daily Times, 8 December 1944.
Dempsey Lassiter’s 1946 death certificate states that he was buried in Rountree Cemetery, as does his newspaper obituary. However, his headstone is standing in Odd Fellows Cemetery.
Burials attributed to “Rountree Cemetery” dropped off sharply after 1950.
Where, in fact, what Annie Teachey Coley buried? Rountree? Odd Fellows? Vick? The 1954 aerial view of the sites shows all were fairly open well into the decade
Carolyn Evans’ burial in 1960 was among the last in Rountree/Odd Fellows/Vick Cemeteries. The 1964 aerial view of the cemeteries shows clear abandonment.
In this series, which will post on occasional Wednesdays, I populate the landscape of Wilson County with imaginary “historical markers” commemorating people, places, and events significant to African-American history or culture.
We been here.
ROUNTREE CEMETERY
In 1897 and 1906, Rountree Missionary Baptist Church purchased two lots on either side of street to establish cemetery for church members. Cemetery name later applied to two adjoining African-American burial grounds. Burials ceased ca. 1950.