Stantonsburg township

The Peacock-Applewhite-Yelverton house, again.

A sign hanging at the driveway entrance reads Maywood Manor, Est. 1850, and the large, four-columned portico plays into stereotypes of plantation Big House. In fact, per Stantonsburg Historical Society’s A History of Stantonsburg Circa 1780 to 1980 (1981), though slaveholder James Peacock built this house on the northwestern outskirts of Stantonsburg about 1860, the fancy entrance was not added until 1914. Here’s the house with its original exterior. (Also — “Maywood Manor”???)

Photo by Lisa Y. Henderson, March 2024.

Barnes Primitive Baptist Church, found.

Three years ago, I asked, “Where was Barnes Church?” Today, I have an answer.

Founded just after slavery, Barnes Church was one of the earliest African-American churches in Wilson County. Its simple double-doored, gable-front building is believed to have been erected shortly after the church’s establishment.

Barnes Church circa 1960s.

My father’s classmate L. Paul Sherrod Jr. asked me to explore the little spit of woods that I knew had once been the site of the church, but in which I’d not found any traces of the nineteenth-century building. My earlier looks had been in summer, though, when I could barely get a glimpse inside the woodline.

We entered via an old driveway over the ditch and immediately spotted this stack. I was puzzled at first, as this is obviously newer brick. A walk-around, however, revealed old brick piers, the corners of a building came into view, and this broken stack may have been a later addition that vented a wood stove. Curled trips of tin roofing lay rusting underfoot.

And then I spotted this. Barnes Church burned down after it was vacated. Here was a charred length of sill beam — with a four-inch, square-cut nail.

The nail. It was not hand-wrought, but cut from a sheet, as indicating by only two sides tapering. The head would have been added by hand. The earliest machine-cut nails of this type date to about 1840.

A brick from one of the piers. It is unmarked, but probably made locally.

This sill beam, from the north side of the building, is charred but unbroken.

A section still resting on a pier.

The pollen, y’all.

Paul and Barbara Sherrod, my guides. We’ve met Mr. Sherrod here and here and here.

It’s heard to visualize, but I’m standing in front the church’s site, perhaps seven feet from its front wall.

Barnes Primitive Baptist Church did not own its building or the land on which it stood. When the landowner refused to allow the congregation to upgrade the building, members of the Sherrod family donated land for a new church a few miles south, just across the Wayne County line on Watery Branch Road. The “new” church is now occupied by Now Faith Missionary Baptist Church.

George W. Stanton house.

George W. Stanton house, near Stantonsburg, built circa 1873 and demolished circa 2000.

George W. Stanton’s house was built during Reconstruction, and no enslaved people labored there. I am certain, however, that it was staffed with formerly enslaved people and their descendants.

Stanton, though a committed slaveholder, was one of a handful of Union loyalists in Wilson County during the Civil War. We have met him here and here, and we know that he enslaved Larry and (very briefly, before transferring them to his mother Gatsey Truitt Stanton) Harry, Violet, Eliza and her child, Ben, Dan, and Edy. I have not been able to identify the names of any others he held.

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In the 1860 census of Saratoga district, Wilson County: G.T. Stanton, 46, farmer, and children G.W. Stanton, 25, farmer, who claimed $3400 in real property and $4538 in personal property [which would have been mostly enslaved people], D.M., 12, and Celestia N., 10.

In the 1860 slave schedule of Saratoga district, Wilson County: G.W. Stanton claimed seven enslaved people, who lived in one house — men aged 72 and 36; a boy aged 8; a woman aged 38; and girls aged 14, 10, and 3. (These ages suggest a single, multigenerational family, but we cannot determine this definitively.)

Per the 1870 federal mortality schedule, Violet Stanton died in September 1869 of scrofula. She was 59 years old and a widow.

Perhaps, in the 1880 census of Sparta township, Edgecombe County: farmer Ben Stanton, 32; wife Leer, 25; and sons Gray, 9, and William, 5.

Luvennia Artis died 11 May 1924 in Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was 70 years old; was a widow; lived at 177 Narroway; was born in Wilson County to Haywood Moye and Eliza Stanton; and worked as a laundress. She was buried in Wilson [probably, Vick Cemetery.] Luvennia Artis perhaps was the child of Eliza noted above.

Photo courtesy of Wilson County Genealogical Society 2004 Calendar: The Families of the Stantonsburg & Saratoga Area.

Typical tenant farm house.

This early twentieth-century photo shows a typical tenant farm house with one or two rooms and a shed-roofed extension. Most African-American farmers in Wilson County were tenant farmers or sharecroppers and would have lived in a house similar to this one.

Photo courtesy of Stantonsburg Historical Society’s A History of Stantonsburg Circa 1780 to 1980 (1981).

Jonathan H. Applewhite.

Jonathan H. Applewhite (1832-1910) was a son of Henry and Orpha Pike Applewhite. The Applewhites were major landholders and slaveowners in the Stantonsburg area and have been featured here.

Jonathan H. Applewhite (1832-1910).

In 1860, the federal slave schedule disclosed that he laid claim to five enslaved people housed in three cabins — an 80 year-old woman, a 37 year-old woman, a 27 year-old man, a four year-old boy, and a two year-old girl. This group does not appear to constitute a single nuclear family.

1860 federal slave schedule of Saratoga township [which included Stantonsburg], Wilson County.

The photo below depicts Jonathan Applewhite’s home near Stantonsburg, circa 1900. I do not know if this is the house in which he lived before the Civil War.

Jonathan Applewhite residence, circa 1900.

Photos courtesy of Stantonsburg Historical Society’s A History of Stantonsburg Circa 1780 to 1980(1981).

Eleven year-old boy beaten by white men.

In November 1944, a mail carrier found an eleven year-old African-American boy crying in ditch. The child’s leg was broken, and he revealed that he had been chased and knocked by several drunken white men. The mail carrier took him to a white doctor in Stantonsburg, who recommended that he be taken to Mercy Hospital in Wilson.

I have not been able to find more about the incident.

Wilson Daily Times, 7 November 1944.

I suspect that “Rosette” Artis was actually Roselle Artis, a well-known African-American farmer in the Stantonsburg area. However, as best I can determine, Roselle and Rencie Bynum Artis did not have a son who was 11 years old in 1944. The closest was their son Milton R. Artis, who would have been 9 years old.

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In the 1940 census of Stantonsburg township, Wilson County: on Old Wilson Road, farmer Roselle Artis, 27; wife Rencie, 20; son Milton, 4; mother Frances, 60, widow; nephews Marion Jr., 10, and Thomas S., 9;  lodgers Jimmie D. Barnes, 21, and Miles Warren, 60.

The Stantonsburg Hawks.

Wilson was not the only county town to field an African-American semi-pro baseball team. From 1945 into the late 1970s, the Stantonsburg Hawks successfully traveled neighboring counties for play.

John Lee Woodard (1917-1995) was the team founder, and players throughout its history included his son Willie Woodard, Ernest Hall and son Ernest D. Hall, Frederick Brown, Johnnie Streeter, Roy Lee Pender, Marvin R. Artis, George Artis, Tommy Rogers, Nathaniel Green Jr., William Sutton, Henry Revelle, Carter Knight, Raymond Mackey, Marvin Sessoms, Levy Daniel Jr., Melvin Hodges, Cleveland Leach, Joseph Green, Julius Green, Theodore Ward, Douglas Artis, Melvin Artis Jr., George Atkinson, and Ronnie Diggs.

I am trying to identify the Hawks’ earliest players, teammates of John L. Woodard. Do you know of anyone who played baseball with them in the 1940s?

I recognize three men in this photo — Ernest D. Hall seated at front left; Willie Lee Woodard (son of John L. Woodard, front row with glove on ground); and George Artis, second in second row. Who do you see?

[Update: Marvin Sessoms is in the middle of the front row; Johnnie Streeter is at far right in that row; and Ernest Hall Jr. (father of Ernest D. Hall) is standing third from left.]

Thanks to Tiyatti Speight for bringing this team to my attention and for the copy of this wonderful photo. Thanks as well to all the people of Stantonsburg who helped identify the players!

County schools, no. 19.2: Stantonsburg School.

This “Stantonsburg Negro School History,” found in Stantonsburg Historical Society’s A History of Stantonsburg Circa 1780 to 1980 (1981), offers a detailed account of Stantonsburg Colored School‘s early history. 

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“The first reference to schooling for the Negro children in Stantonsburg Township is found in the County School Board Minutes of September 1887. ‘The colored children living on lands of William Applewhite, William Barnes, Uriah Amerson, W.J. Batts, Edwin Barnes and Frank Barnes be assigned to District Number 29.’ The location of this school is unknown at this time.

“Books and charts used by both the Negro and White schools in 1893 were published by the American Book Company.

“Very little is known about the early Negro school except there was a school for colored children in Stantonsburg prior to 1913 proven by the fact that the county Board of Education appointed H.E. Thompson, J.C. Stanton and C.L. Coon, a committee in the latter year with power to act relative to moving the colored school.

“In December of 1916, the county Board of Education voted to appropriate $75.00 to remodel the colored school. It was located just outside the city limits on Highway #58, approximately one-fourth mile from the corner of Highway #58 and Saratoga Road, on the Johnnie Page corn mill site; now the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Luther Holton.

“On March 3, 1919, the county School Board ‘agreed to sell to the colored Masonic Lodge of Stantonsburg the colored school house of that district for $900.00, provided that the colored people of said district raise $600.00 with which to erect a new colored school building.’ The county agreed to appropriate $250.00 for the new building. At the November 3rd meeting, the chairman and secretary were instructed to ‘make a deed for the Stantonsburg Colored School House and lot upon the payment of purchase money by Lodges of Masons and Knights of Gideon.’

“When the county board convened for the December 1st meeting, it was reported that the colored school house had burned since the last meeting and the following agreement was made:

“1. The Masonic and Gideon Lodges, colored of Stantonsburg, having paid $500.00 on the purchase of the colored school house it is ordered that $300.00 of the amount be returned to the two lodges.

“2. It was agreed that the county board will deed one-quarter acre of the colored school lot to these lodges for a site for a lodge building free of cost.

“After the fire in 1919, school was held in the St. Luke Free Will Baptist Church for the years 1920-1923.

“Land for the new school was acquired from R.M. Whitley. The building was completed in 1924 and is located on Macon Avenue. School was held in the four classrooms, wood framed building until it was closed down in 1951-52 and sold to Elijah Wood. The school was heated by wood and coal heaters.

…

“In 1951-52, the pupils were transferred to Speight’s School located between Stantonsburg and Saratoga, North Carolina.

…

“Very little is known about the very early teachers, except in 1916-17 we know that there were two teachers. Other records have been lost or misplaced.

“The following list of teachers and principals was found at the Wilson County Board of Education in Wilson. The earliest known teachers were: W.S. Ward, 1892-1896, District Number 29; E.L. Reide, 1894-1896; E.L. Reide and Clarissa Williams, 1898, District Number 10. [A list of teachers and principals from 1920s through 1952 follows; it will be the subject of another post.]”

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A few observations:

  • The boundaries of earliest rural school districts for African-American children were contiguous with large farms on which large numbers of Black families lived and worked as tenant farmers or farm laborers. This begs the question of where children who did not live on such farms went to school.
  • “Saratoga Road” is now NC Highway 222. I am unable to further pinpoint the location of this school from the info provided. (Does anyone recognize these landmarks: Johnnie Page’s corn mill or the Holton home?)
  • The paragraph about the land purchases involving the Masonic lodge and Knights of Gideon clarifies information set forth in a Rosenwald School report concerning Barnes School, which was located a few miles northwest of Stantonsburg, a bit north of present-day Speight Middle School. I have made notations on the post regarding that school.
  • Does anyone recall the name or location of the Prince Hall lodge in Stantonsburg?
  • The site most closely associated with this school was the Macon Street location purchased in 1924. 
  • I have not identified W.S. Ward, but E.L. Reide was Elijah L. Reid, the Wayne County-born veterinarian who practiced (and apparently taught) in Stantonsburg before relocating to Wilson. Clarissa Williams was also a Wayne County native and moved to Wilson to teach and, eventually, become principal of the Colored Graded School.

Railroad section crew in Stantonsburg.

A Norfolk-Southern railway section crew resting on a handcar, circa 1914-15, Stantonsburg. Foreman Ernest N. Richards (1885-1934) is at right and Hardy Ellis is at left with a pipe. The other men are unidentified.

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In the 1900 census of Stantonsburg township, Wilson County: farmer Riubin Ellis, 70; wife Clarky U., 57; children Kansas, 22, Allen, 16, Henrietta, 15, Gemima, 13, Cherry, 12, Hardy, 10, and Benjamin N., 9; and grandchildren Plumer, 16, and Henrietta, 5 months; and Jane Bynum, 66, widow.

In 1917, John Hardy Ellis registered for the World War I draft in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born 10 December 1895 in Wilson County; lived in Stantonsburg; was single; and worked  as a section hand for Norfolk & Southern Railroad Company.

J. Hardy Ellis’ signature on his draft registration card.

In the 1920 census of Stantonsburg township, Wilson County: washerwoman Louvenia Applewhite, 49, widow, and lodger Hardy Ellis, 30, railway laborer.

In the 1940 census of Stantonsburg township, Wilson County: on Railroad Street, railroad laborer Hardy Ellis, 54.

John Hardy Ellis died 18 March 1952 at his home at 911 Viola Street, Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was born 10 December 1886 in Wilson County to Rubin Ellis and Clark Ann Atkinson; was single; worked as a laborer; and was a World War I veteran. Mamie Sutton, 911 Viola, was informant.

Cherry Ann Ellis applied for a military headstone for her brother John H. Ellis on 7 April 1952. His application noted that he had served in the 304th Service Battalion.

Photo courtesy of Stantonsburg Historical Society’s A History of Stantonsburg Circa 1780 to 1980 (1981).