Samuel H. Vick

Sam Vick buys another lot on Goldsboro Street.

On 15 December 1904, for $2500, James F. and Rebecca J. Farmer sold Samuel H. Vick a lot on South Goldsboro Street in the thick of downtown. The parcel adjoined a lot Vick already owned, as well as the Wilson Hotel Company and Wiggins & Washington. J.F. Farmer had an office on the Wiggins & Washington lot known as the “brick Market House,” and this deed carried a proviso that the twelve-foot-wide alley between the lots would be kept open. (The wording of the deed is ambiguous. Did Farmer retain ownership or use of the office?)

Deed book 68, page 271, Wilson County Register of Deeds Office, Wilson.

Exactly where was this lot? 

This detail from the 1903 Sanborn fire insurance maps of Wilson shows most of the block bounded by South Goldsboro, Barnes, Spring [Douglas], and Nash Streets. The twelve-foot alley into the interior of the block from Barnes is marked (A). (B) is the brick market house. It’s impossible to tell which of the surrounding buildings belonged to Samuel H. Vick. Wilson Hotel Company owned the Briggs Hotel. The building was razed in 1955, and Rose’s Department Store was erected on the site. That building, now home to Wilson Arts Center, occupied a much larger footprint than the Briggs, stretching back to about the location of Farmer’s brick office.

Today, the interior of the block comprises mostly parking lots and the posterior of Wilson Arts Center. 

Photo by Lisa Y. Henderson, March 2025.

What was the Independent School building before it was the Independent School?

I was asked a question that stumped me during one of my talks last week. “What was the building that housed the Independent School before it was a school?”

I recalled vaguely that Samuel H. Vick had purchased the building from famed brick maker Silas Lucas Jr., but not much more. Maybe something about the Methodist Church?

I found a deed quickly. On 24 October 1904, S.H. Vick paid Silas and Charity Lucas $1650 for a lot on Vance Street adjacent to property Vick already owned, “it being the same lot on which is situate a nineteen room house.” 

Deed book 68, page 227, Wilson County Register of Deeds Office, Wilson, N.C.

In the 1913 Sanborn fire insurance maps of Wilson, the building is labeled “Tenements”:

I can’t find the reference that I seem to recall about the building’s original use and will need to do some additional deed digging to find Lucas’ purchase. (By the way: Lucas was renowned as a brick maker. Not only are his reclaimed original bricks still sought after for renovation projects, the name “Silas Lucas” is now generically used to describe any soft, pinkish brick.)

The guardianship of the Henderson children.

In 1907, Samuel H. Vick was named guardian of the children of Sandy D. Henderson‘s children Maty J. Henderson, Charles J. Henderson, and Mollie Henderson.

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On 27 May 1897, Sandy Henderson, 40, married Mary Jane Taylor, 40, in Wilson. Missionary Baptist minister Fred M. Davis performed the ceremony at the A.M.E. Zion church. S.A. Smith, Charles H. Darden, and Wyatt Studaway were witnesses.

In the 1900 census of Wilson, Wilson County: hack driver Sa[illegible] Henderson, 54; wife Mary J., 40, restaurant keeper; and children Buxton, 19, hotel waiter, Leonidas F., 13, tobacco stemmer, Charles J.A.W., 9, and Mattie M.J., 7. [R. Buxton and Leonidas F. Taylor were Mary Henderson’s children by a previous marriage.]

In the 1908 Wilson, N.C., city directory: Henderson Charles (c) lab h 547 E Nash

On 14 January 1909, Fate Barnes, 22, of Wilson, married Mattie Henderson, 17, of Wilson, daughter of Sandy and Florence Henderson, in Wilson. Baptist minister Fred M. Davis performed the ceremony at the residence of Henderson’s guardian James Somerville in the presence of Rear Thomas, Malvinnie Rosser, and Delphia Ellis.

In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on Viola Street, box factory laborer Fate Barnes, 23; wife Mattie, 19; brother Sam, 29, buggy factory laborer; sister-in-law Emma, 23, laundress; nephew William A., 4, and niece Annie, 5 months.

In 1917, Lafayette Barnes registered for the World War I draft in Wilson. Per his registration card, he was born 5 June 1887 in Elm City, N.C.; lived at 63[illegible] Nash Street; worked for C. Woodard as a drayman; and had a wife and child.

In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: Fate Barnes, 33, drayman at wholesaler; wife Mattie, 29; children Charles, 8, and Elane, 7 months; and Sarah Taylor, 53, widow.

Mattie Barnes died 25 June 1936 in Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was 44 years old; was born in Henderson, N.C., to Sandy Henderson of Henderson, N.C.; was married to Fate Barnes; lived at 717 East Green Street; and she was buried in Wilson [probably, Vick Cemetery.]

Wilson, North Carolina, Guardianship Records 1897-1905, http://www.familysearch.org. [Sidenote: Henderson is not a Wilson County name. African-American Hendersons in North Carolina generally have roots in one of three areas — Onslow County (like my family, which came to Wilson via Wayne County), Rowan County, and Vance County (like Sandy D. Henderson).]

Black Creek Odd Fellows Lodge.

As we first saw here, there were multiple G.U.O.O.F. lodges in Wilson County. Per Charles H. Brooks’ The Official History and Manual of the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows in America (1902), the Black Creek Lodge #3446 was established in 1891. This embosser, however, which belonged to Samuel H. Vick, is engraved: BLACK CREEK LODGE No. 3446, Instituted Feb. 12, 1892, G U O OF O F BLACK CREEK NC

Many thanks to V. Cowan for sharing!

The Vicks buy property in Raleigh.

Samuel and Annie M. Vick did not confine their real estate portfolio to Wilson. In January, the Vicks took out a three-year mortgage to purchase a roughly three-quarter acre lot on the north side of the intersection of Swain and Lenoir Streets on what was then the outskirts of Raleigh.

Wake [County, North Carolina] Deeds 1904-1905, http://www.familysearch.org.

Judgment against Collins & Vick.

Samuel H. Vick briefly partnered with J.C. [J.F.?] Collins to do business as Collins & Vick Livery Company. In early 1907, Ellis Carriage Works of Kinston, North Carolina, sued Collins & Vick when the firm failed to pay for buggies ordered in August and October 1906. In his defense, Vick asserted that he had left the partnership in July 1906, well before the orders were placed. He had notified people in Wilson of the dissolution by word of mouth, but admitted no official notice was published until January 1907. A justice of the peace found in Ellis Carriage’s favor and assessed a two hundred dollar judgment. Vick appealed.

The first order, dated 4 August 1906: “Ellis Carage Works Kinston NC Deare sir som time ago yours agent was Hears and we Romes[?] to Hantle a fue of your Buggys Now you can please shift 2 of your nice Buggys for sanple at once and we will sell as meney as we can for you Yours Respctly Collins and Vick Co” Though not dispositive of his responsibility for the debt, the well-educated Vick clearly did not write this letter, with its shaky penmanship and haphazard spelling. Unfortunately, I can find no trace of J.C. (or J.F.) Collins in Wilson.

Nor the second: “Wilson NC 10/17 1906 Mr Ellis Deare sir please send me 2 Buggy side spring one Red coller and one Black Coller Please send then like the las side spring you shipt me But not Red in tope I will sell a good meney for you please shipe at once Yours truly J.F. Collins and Vick”

Civil Action Papers, Wilson County Government Records 1907-1908, Wilson County, North Carolina Miscellaneous Records, http://www.familysearch.org.

Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company.

Chatham Observer (Pittsboro, N.C.), 4 November 1903.

Five years after North Carolina Mutual and Provident Association‘s founding in Durham, James E. Shepard and Samuel H. Vick were among the incorporators of Carolina Mutual Life Insurance. (Shepherd would found North Carolina Central University six years after this.)

The company’s letterhead reveals Shepard and Vick’s titles and Carolina Mutual’s other officers: President William G. Pearson of Durham; Secretary-Treasurer J.A. Dodson of Durham; Auditor Henry E. Hagans of Goldsboro, and Medical Director Dr. Charles H. Shepard of Durham. Shepard, Pearson, and Dodson were founders of Durham’s Mechanic and Farmers Bank, and central figures in the establishment of Durham’s Black Wall Street.

Lenoir [County, North Carolina] Court Records 1907=1908, http://www.familysearch.org.