signature

Rev. Phillips?

We’ve met Rev. Henry C. Phillips, who arrived in Wilson from Edgecombe County in the late 1880s. This 1868 letter was written to a Freedmen’s Bureau official by a Henry C. Phillips, “a teacher of the Colored Children in the Hookerton village” in Greene County.

Was this the same man? His signature in the letter is very different than it appears on numerous marriage licenses 20 to 30 years later, when it is bold and assured and even a bit flamboyant. In 1868, however, Phillips would have been just a few years out of slavery, with relatively few chances to practice his penmanship. As an ordained A.M.E. Zion minister, Phillips, however, had daily opportunities to strengthen and polish his handwriting.

 

Signatures, no. 7.

Signatures are often-overlooked scraps of information that yield not only obvious clues about literacy, but also subtleties like depth and quality of education and preferred names, spellings and pronunciations. They are also, in original documents, tangible traces of our forebears’ corporality — evidence that that they were once here.

This is the seventh in a series of posts featuring the signatures of men and women born before 1900, men and women who could not take even a basic education for granted.

  • Daniel Vick and Samuel H. Vick

Father and son. Both were born in slavery. Sam Vick probably retained no memory of it, but Daniel Vick was 20 or so years old, married, and with children before he was emancipated. As late as the 1880 census, he reported to the enumerator that he could neither read nor write. However, by time he cosigned the bond his son pledged when appointed guardian of the Henderson children in 1907, Daniel Vick could write his name. Though not as firm and fluid as that of the son he sent to Lincoln University, Daniel Vick’s signature was clear and complete — a perfect measure of the distance he had come in his long life.

Signatures, no. 6.

Signatures are often-overlooked scraps of information that yield not only obvious clues about literacy, but also subtleties like depth and quality of education and preferred names, spellings and pronunciations. They are also, in original documents, tangible traces of our forebears’ corporality — evidence that that they were once here.

This is the sixth in a series of posts featuring the signatures of men and women born before 1900, men and women who could not take even a basic education for granted.

Screen Shot 2018-09-29 at 9.08.36 PM.png

  • Sidney Wheeler (1877-1912), 1903, marriage license application for John T.M. Artis and Mattie Thomas

  • John T.M. Artis (1883-1967), 1918, World War I draft registration card

  • Henry Hoskins (1882-??), 1911, application for marriage license for Ed Hoskins and Lizzie Joyner

Signatures, no. 5.

Signatures are often-overlooked scraps of information that yield not only obvious clues about literacy, but also subtleties like depth and quality of education and preferred names, spellings and pronunciations. They are also, in original documents, tangible traces of our forebears’ corporality — evidence that that they were once here.

This is the fifth in a series of posts featuring the signatures of men and women born before 1900, men and women who could not take even a basic education for granted.

  • Alexander Barnes Joyner (1896-?), 1917, World War I draft registration card, Wilson; 1942, World War II draft registration card, New York, New York.

  • William M. King, 1912, the marriage license of Banks Blow and Mag Parker, Wilson.

Screen Shot 2018-09-16 at 2.07.56 PM.png

 

Signatures, no. 4.

Signatures are often-overlooked scraps of information that yield not only obvious clues about literacy, but also subtleties like depth and quality of education and preferred names, spellings and pronunciations. They are also, in original documents, tangible traces of our forebears’ corporality — evidence that that they were once here.

This is the fourth in a series of posts featuring the signatures of men and women born before 1900, men and women who could not take even a basic education for granted.

Screen Shot 2018-04-23 at 9.43.28 PM.png

Screen Shot 2018-04-24 at 5.47.52 PM.png

  • Lee A. Moore (1863-1948), top: 1898, inside leaf of book; bottom: 1905, Wilson County marriage license of Fannie McGowan and Henry Matt Daniel.

  • Braswell R. Winstead (ca. 1860-1926), 1892, Wilson County marriage license of James J. Wilson and Susie Harriss.

 

Signatures, no. 3.

Signatures are often-overlooked scraps of information that yield not only obvious clues about literacy, but also subtleties like depth and quality of education and preferred names, spellings and pronunciations. They are also, in original documents, tangible traces of our forebears’ corporality — evidence that that they were once here.

This is the third in a series of posts featuring the signatures of men and women born before 1900, men and women who could not take even a basic education for granted.

  • Levi H. Peacock (1856-), from the Wilson County marriage license of Peter Mercer and Caroline Applewhite.

Screen Shot 2018-04-18 at 9.38.08 PM.png

  • Charles Battle (ca. 1843-1910), from the Wilson County marriage license of Cain Artis and Margaret Barnes.

Screen Shot 2018-04-18 at 9.46.52 PM.png

  • Lucy Barnes Bynum (ca. 1882-??), 1911, from the letters of administration for the Wilson County estate of Amos Bynum.

  • Simeon A. Smith (1861-??), 1897, from the affidavit of witness to the will of Esther McGowan.

  • Nestus Bagley (1862-??) and Margaret Coleman Bagley (1866-1934), 1887, from the Wilson County estate file of Squire Coleman.

 

 

 

Signatures, no. 2.

Signatures are often-overlooked scraps of information that yield not only obvious clues about literacy, but also subtleties like depth and quality of education and preferred names, spellings and pronunciations. They are also, in original documents, tangible traces of our forebears’ corporality — evidence that that they were once here.

This is the second in a series of posts featuring the signatures of men and women born before 1900, men and women who could not take even a basic education for granted.

Screen Shot 2018-04-17 at 10.34.49 AM.png

  • Kernel Morris Jones (1851-??), 1877, from file of the estate of Milly Jones.

Screen Shot 2018-04-17 at 10.36.06 AM.png

Screen Shot 2018-04-17 at 10.43.21 AM.png

Screen Shot 2018-04-17 at 10.44.53 AM

  • Dr. William A. Mitchner (1882-1941), 1930, from the death certificate of Charles Barnes of Wilson.

Screen Shot 2018-04-17 at 10.14.48 AM.png

  • Undertaker Columbus E. Artis (1886-1973), 1930, from the death certificate of Fabie [Fereby] Artis of Wilson.

Screen Shot 2018-04-17 at 10.18.56 AM.png

  • Dr. Matthew S. Gilliam (1885-1932), 1930, from the death certificate of Fabie [Fereby] Artis of Wilson.

Screen Shot 2018-04-17 at 10.19.14 AM.png

Signatures, no. 1.

Signatures are often-overlooked scraps of information that yield not only obvious clues about literacy, but also subtleties like depth and quality of education and preferred names, spellings and pronunciations. They are also, in original documents, tangible traces of our forebears’ corporality — evidence that that they were once here.

This is the first in a series of posts featuring the signatures of men and women born before 1900, men and women who could not take even a basic education for granted. One grew to adulthood in slavery, the others were born in the two decades after Emancipation.

  • Sara Elizabeth Sherard Coley (1883-1926), 1926, from the application for letters of administration for the estate of her husband, Rufus Coley.

sara-e-coley-rufus-coley-estate

  • Bettie Boykin, 1899, from a deposition in the widow’s pension application file of Malinda Hinnant.

screen-shot-2017-01-05-at-3-58-43-pm

  • Spicey Jane Atkinson Barnes (ca. 1884-1925), 1899, from a deposition in the widow’s pension application file of Malinda Hinnant.

screen-shot-2017-01-05-at-3-56-34-pm

screen-shot-2017-01-05-at-11-08-06-pm

screen-shot-2017-01-05-at-11-07-05-pm

  • Dennis Brooks (ca. 1867-??), 1904, from a sworn statement in the coroner’s inquest re George Williford.

screen-shot-2017-01-05-at-11-07-43-pm

  • Mary Ann Hines Boddie Wilkins (ca. 1875-??), 1915, from the estate file of Reddin S. Wilkins.

004778517_00361-1

  • Ishmael Wilder (1836-1917), 1882, from the application for letters of administration for the estate of Spicy Adams.