social life

The Gazette visits Wilson.


Raleigh Gazette, 30 January 1897.

——

More news of Wilson, N.C.

img.jpeg

Pittsburgh Courier, 4 April 1936.

  • Elizabeth Darden James
  • Mr. and Mrs. George W. Ellis — on 28 September 1927, George W. Ellis, 52, of Wilson, married Mable Weaver, 26, of Wilson in Wilson. Missionary Baptist minister B.F. Jordan preformed the ceremony in the presence of James Whitfield, Robert Haskins and Rosa Arrington. George Ellis was a carpenter; Mable W. Ellis, a public nurse.
  • U.N.I.A. — Universal Negro Improvement Association, the black nationalist fraternal organization founded by Marcus Garvey, had an active chapter in Wilson in the 1920s.
  • Rev. and Mrs. I. Albert Moore — I. Albert Moore served very briefly as pastor of Saint John A.M.E. Zion Church. By late 1937, when the photo below ran, he was head of Jones Tabernacle A.M.E. Zion in Indianapolis.

Indianapolis Recorder, 4 December 1937.

  • Mrs. Ben F. Robbins — Vashti Smith Robbins. In the 1928 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Robbins Benj (c; Vashti) barber Reid Barber Shop r 313 Pender.
  • Carrie H. Hargraves — possibly, in the 1928 Hargrove John (c; Carrie) lab h 1212 Carolina
  • Christine Norwood — Norwood died 12 August 1944 at Mercy Hospital in Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was 45 years old; was born in Wilson to Richard Norwood and Ceceline Hill; and lived at 205 Pender Street. Hazel Covington of Durham, N.C. was informant.
  • Inza
  • Sarah Reid — probably Sarah Reid who died 22 March 1945 at 907 Washington Street, Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was 56 years old; was born in Wayne County to Zion Reid and Eliza Reid; was single; worked at Watson’s Tobacco Factory. Frederick Reid, 1009 Washington Street, was informant.
  • George Barnes — “Picture-Taking” George W. Barnes. Barnes died 13 April 1936 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was 65 years old; was married to Mary Barnes; was born in Wilson County to George A. Barnes and Annie Battle; lived at 803 East Green Street; and was a photographer.
  • Ruth Colest Jones — Ruth Jones died 20 March 1936 in Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was 28 years old; was born 10 January 1908 in Lake City, South Carolina, to David Cameron and Sarah Cameron; was married to Cornelious Jones; and she lived at 720 East Green Street. Bessie Laury was informant.
  • Rev. B.J. Jordan — Rev. Benjamin F. Jordan.

Cooke’s Wilson Notes, no. 1.

In 1940, Henderson J. Cooke wrote a regular column about Wilson social doings for Durham’s The Carolina Times. This week, Cooke focused much of his attention on the doings of Rev. Hattie L. Daniels and his own family.

1940.PNG

The Carolina Times, 24 March 1940.

  • Rev. Mrs. Hattie L. Daniels — in the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: Cleveland Daniel, 40, fireman at city plant; wife Hattie, 38, saleswoman at Steward Co.; and father-in-law Mack Owens, 60, farm laborer. All were born in Georgia.
  • Willis Owens Jr.
  • Mildred Blakney
  • Rev. Woods
  • R.A.G. Foster — Richard A.G. Foster.
  • Elinor Foster — Elenore Hasting Foster.
  • J.L. Cooke — Jerry L. Cooke.
  • Mrs. J.L. Cooke — Clara Godette Cooke.

Wilson news.

Screen Shot 2018-09-29 at 5.54.00 PM.png

New York Age, 16 September 1922.

  • The Wilson Church — I am not aware of any surviving issues of this newspaper.
  • Rev. Mebane — John A. Mebane. In the 1928 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Mebane  Jno A Rev (c; Rachel) Mt Siani [Sinai] Missionary Baptist Ch h 1008 Woodard av
  • Rev. A.H. George — Arthur H. George.
  • Ruth Whitehead Whaley — Ruth W. Whaley was a native of Goldsboro, North Carolina. Per Wikipedia, Whitehead Whaley (February 2, 1901–December 23, 1977) was the third African American woman admitted to practice law in New York in 1925 and the first in North Carolina in 1933. She was the first Black woman to graduate from Fordham University School of Law, where she graduated cum laude in 1924.
  • Mr. & Mrs. A.B. Bowser — Astor B. and Deloris Hawley Bowser.
  • Charles Knight

Wilson news.

NY_Age_9_9_1922_H_Colvert_visits_Atl_City

New York Age, 9 September 1922.

  • Mrs. Jasper Coley —  Laura (or Laurena) V. Coley, daughter of Isaac and Penny Coley, married Jasper Allison Coley on 6 June 1912 in Wayne County. A native of Pikeville, Wayne County, like her husband, Laura died 12 May 1923. She was a teacher. Jasper Coley was the son of Phillip R. and Annie Exum Coley. He is listed in Wilson city directories in the early 1920s as a carpenter, a plasterer and a bricklayer, and lived at 401 North Vick Street.
  • Mrs. William Hines — Ethel Cornwell Hines (1894-1983) was a South Carolina native.
  • Roberta Battle, Glace Battle, Georgia Burks and Henrietta Colvert
  • Mrs. B.P. Coward — Sarah Adelaide Brown Coward (1867-1946) was the wife of A.M.E. Zion minister Bryant Pugh Coward.
  • Mrs. Stattie Cannon — In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: Charles Cannon, 35, barber in a “white shop”; wife Statie, 34; and children Charles, 11, Ruth, 9, and Statie Benton, 13. In the 1922 Wilson city directory, Stattie Cannon is listed as a dressmaker and Charles Cannon as a carpenter; both resided at 724 East Green Street. In the 1940 census of Newark, Essex County, New Jersey: Charles Cannon, 44, mother Stattie Cannon, 65, brother-in-law Fred Langford, 29, and sister Ruth Langford, 33. All were born in North Carolina and described as “white.”
  • A.N. Darden — Arthur N. Darden (1889-1948) was a son of Charles H. and Dinah Scarborough Darden and worked in his father’s undertaking business.
  • John Clark
  • Mrs. C.L. Darden — Norma Duncan Darden (1895-1987), a native of Montgomery, Alabama, was married to Arthur Darden’s brother, Camillus L. Darden.
  • Rev. A.H. George
  • Mrs. S.L. Bowser — Burt Bowser, born in Halifax County, married Sarah Rountree, daughter of Peter and Lucinda Rountree, on 4 December 1888 in Wilson. Reddin S. Wilkins, A.J. Lindsay and James W. Parrington were witnesses to the ceremony. In the 1900 census, Burt L. Bowser is described as a bar tender and in 1910 as the conductor of a pool room. Sarah is described as a dressmaker. Burt Landers Bowser died in 1920; Sarah Bowser, in 1935.
  • John Spells — In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on Pender Street, carpenter John E. Spell, 50, wife Martha A., 39, and son John E., Jr., 16. (John’s death certificate lists his middle name as Stephen.) Martha A. Spell, a native of Guilford County, died in Wilson in 1966.
  • Wesley Rogers — Per the city directory, in 1922, John Wesley Rogers lived at 548 East Nash Street and worked as a porter at Oettinger’s department store. His wife,  a native of Johnston County, was Mary Elizabeth Thomas Rogers (1878-1950). Rogers was born in Durham County in 1870 and died in Wilson in 1951.
  • Deby Harper — Deborah Harper Swindell was the daughter of Argent Harper. She was briefly married to Louis Swindell.
  • Dr. DuBissette
  • Dr. and Mrs. J.B. Darden — Pharmacist James Benjamin Darden was a brother of Arthur and Camillus Darden. After a brief partnership with his brother John W. Darden, a doctor in Opelika, Alabama, he settled in Petersburg, Virginia.
  • Mrs. A.B. Bowser — Astor Burt Bowser, born 1896, was a son of Burt L. and Sarah L. Bowser, above. He married Deloris Harvey of Alamance County on 17 August 1921 in Wilson. Rev. B.P. Coward officiated. In the 1930 census, the couple and their children, Astor B., Jr., and Sarah, are listed in Chicago, Illinois. Astor worked as an artist in his own studio and Deloris as a saleslady in a millinery. Astor died in Hennepin County, Minnesota, in 1981.