school bus

School bus overturns near Rock Ridge.

Wilson Daily Times, 1 November 1943.

This accident likely involved one of the vehicles the County Commission purchased in 1941 to alleviate extreme overcrowding on rural school buses. 

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  • Williamson High School
  • Hilliard Ellis — in the 1930 census of Oldfields township, Wilson County: farmer Hilliard D. Ellis, 28; wife Ella, 23; and children Doereatha, 4, and Hilliard Jr., 1.
  • Harland Sessoms
  • Helen Willingham
  • Lessie Davis — probably, in the 1940 census of Oldfields township, Wilson County: farmer John Davis, 65; wife Willie, 54; and children William H., 24; Mattie L., 20; Jessie, 18; Lessie, 16; and Willie, 15.
  • Nora Farmer
  • Perlie Jane Jones
  • Mozzelle Hamilton — in the 1940 census of Oldfields township, Wilson County: farmer Jacob Hamilton, 53; wife Beulah, 51; and children Ethel, 15, Othel, 18, Lawrance, 13, Mozell, 11, and Hubert, 8.
  • Beatrice Wilkins — in the 1940 census of Oldfields township, Wilson County: farmer Clifton Wilkins, 42; wife Sardie, 42; and children William, 14, Beatrice, 11, John Jr., 9, and Jeff, 7; plus daughter Sally Ann Bagley, 19, widow, and her children Nellie May, 3, and James Jr., 1.

 

County Commission gives in, buys more buses for rural schools.

Wilson Daily Times, 10 March 1941.

In March 1941, after repeated complaints by “a delegation of negroes,” Wilson County Commissioners were forced to supply two additional school buses to alleviate severe overcrowding on the buses ferrying children to and from the county’s two Black high schools, Elm City and Williamson. A state school commission inspection disclosed that the two buses serving Elm City were carrying 280 children a day on a route that wove across the top half of the county. (Children were picked up in dangerously overcrowded shifts, which resulted in forces tardiness and absences for many.)

Clipping courtesy of J. Robert Boykin III.

Daniel Hill community bus.

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The Daniel Hill Educational Club

The D.H.E.C. was organized September 9, 1949, by Mrs. Mattie Randolph. Mrs. Randolph called together some of the parents who lived in the Daniel Hill Community and discussed with them the advantages of having transportation for the school children in the vicinity. The parents agreed with her, therefore organized a Daniel Hill Education Club. Three weeks later the organization had enough money to carry each child of the community to and from school each day, and by December the club was able to buy a small bus of its own. With the cooperation the members of the organization have given, and the help of other people, the Daniel Hill Educational Club now owns a bus large enough to seat 32 persons. Under the leadership of Mr. Moses Haskins, who is now president, the members of the D.H.E.C. are still working hard because they know that cooperation is the way to success.

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In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 404 Daniel Street, rented for $12/month, Less Haskins, 38, wife Annie, 39, and son Moses, 17. Annie worked as a laundress; Less and Moses as coopers at a tobacco factory.

On 17 September 1931, Moses Haskins, 21, of Wilson, and Minnie Woodard, 21, of Wilson, married in Goldsboro, Wayne County.

In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 403 Spruce Street, garage serviceman Moses Haskins, 27; wife Minnie, 31, laundress; children Doris, 14, and Gloria, 6; and mother Annie Haskins, 50. Next door, at 405 Spruce, Paul Randolph, 45, who worked in a garage, and wife Mattie, 39, a practical nurse and South Carolina native.

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Image from C.H. Darden High School yearbook, 1952.