Wilson County Public Library’s local history room holds volumes of transcribed minutes of meetings of Wilson’s late nineteenth-century board of town commissioners. The fits and starts of the town’s initial efforts to establish a public cemetery for African-Americans can be found in these pages.
On 1 August 1892, “Chas. Battle and Danl. Vick were appointed a committee to see where and at what price they could buy a suitable piece of land for a Colored Cemetery and report at the next meeting of the Board.”
On 5 September 1892, “Chas. Battle and Danl. Vick, the committee on the Colored Cemetery made their report, recommending two places. It was moved and carried that a committee of three be appointed to examine the said places and recommend a purchase. D. Herring, W.T. Sanders and Dr. A. Anderson were appointed as said committee.”
Four months later, on 2 January 1893, “The Committee on the Colored Cemetery recommended the purchase of the Peacock land, to the extent of about six acres. It was moved and unanimously carried that the Committee be authorized to make the purchase.” This land was not purchased, and another year passed.
On 23 February 1894, “It was moved and carried that Dr. Anderson and E.N. Mercer be appointed a committee on the Colored Cemetery, with instructions to have the same completed as early as possible.”
Four months later, on 26 July 1894, yet another committee: “It was moved and carried that the Mayor appoint a Committee to look into the matter of securing a Cemetery for the Colored Citizens of the Town.”
A year later, on 28 June 1895: “The matter of a Colored Cemetery was discussed and on motion, the Mayor, Geo. Hackney, and P.B. Deans were appointed a committee to cooperate with a Committee on the part of the Colored people, to look after the purchase of a site for said Cemetery, with power to act.”
On 1 August 1895, “The Committee on the Colored Cemetery reported progress and was continued.”
Again, on 29 August 1895, “The Committee on the Colored Cemetery reported progress and it was continued.”
Finally, on 16 September 1895, “The Committee on the Colored Cemetery reported the purchase of a plot of land at a cost of $597.50. The action of the Committee was ratified and it was instructed to make all necessary arrangement for closing of the matter.” [G.W. and Easter Suggs sold John F. Bruton, mayor of the Town of Wilson, an irregularly shaped parcel of land adjoining the lands of Charles Battle, G.W. Suggs, and D.C. Suggs and others and measuring an astonishing 12.2 acres, as well as a strip of land to be “dedicated to the public use as an avenue, street, or road …” Deed book 39, page 132, Wilson County Register of Deeds Office. This is more than one-and-a-half times the size of Vick Cemetery. What happened to it?]
On 26 September 1895, “The matter of a fence around the Colored Cemetery was taken up and an offer for building a wire fence around the same was made by R.J. Taylor as follows: [blank] On motion, the offer was accepted. On motion, the attorney who prepared the deed for G.W. Suggs; the preparing of the deed being a part of the consideration, was allowed.”
On 29 November 1895, “On motion the Colored Cemetery was named Oakdale Cemetery.”
On 26 December 1895, “G.W. Suggs and others came before the Board to protest against an appointment of Keeper of Oakdale Cemetery, made at a previous meeting. On motion, the matter of opening the Street near Oakdale Cemetery was referred to the Street Commissioner and the Chief of Police.” [This, perhaps, was what we know as Cemetery Street.]
On 31 January 1896, “The Committee on the street at Oakdale Cemetery was continued.”
On 26 June 1897, the Town Ordinance was updated, effective 1 July 1897: “Ordinance VIII. CEMETERIES. Section 1 – That any person making an interment in the Town, other than in Maplewood or Oakdale Cemetery should be subject to a fine of Ten Dollars. Section 2 – That any person injuring or defacing the enclosures around Maplewood or Oakdale Cemetery or the tomb-stones or plucking the flowers or shrubbery therein or in any church yard, should be subject to a find of Five Dollars. Section 3 – That any person riding or driving a horse or vehicle within the cemeteries faster than a walk, should be subject to a fine of Two Dollars. Section 4 – That the use of the Avenues in the Cemeteries as a public thoroughfare is hereby prohibited under the penalty of Two Dollars for each offense. …”
On 30 November 1896, “W.T.H. Woodard was relected [sic] Keeper of Oakdale Cemetery without pay, he having the use of all vacant land in the same.” [Woodard was a Missionary Baptist minister. The keeper of Maplewood, by the way, was paid $20-25 per month.]
This detail from the 1904 topographical map of Wilson Quadrant shows the general area of Oakland Cemetery.
Less than 15 years later, the handwriting was on the wall for Oakland Cemetery:
Wilson Daily Times, 12 December 1911.
A little over a year later, the Town bought 7.84 acres from Samuel H. Vick for a new black cemetery — the one we now know as Vick.
