Taborn

The Taborn sisters help their mother.

In January 1894, Edward Mitchell, his wife Elma Taborn Mitchell, and her half-sister Stella Taborn completed a real estate transaction designed to “assist [Elma and Stella’s mother] Edmonia Taborn to meet the indebtedness incident to the death of her husband Lemon Taborn and further for the purpose of assisting her in the care of the infant children born unto the said Lemon Taborn….”

Deed book 35, page 426, Wilson County Register of Deeds, Wilson.

Lemon Taborn died intestate, and his property passed to his wife and children. By this deed, Elma and Stella transferred their interest in his one-quarter acre Tarboro Street property to Edmonia Taborn.

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On 18 July 1870, Lemon Tabourne, son of Hardy Taylor and Celey Tabourn, married Edmonia Barnes, daughter of Louisa Barnes, “in church” in Wilson. 

In the 1870 census, in the town of Wilson, Wilson County: barber Lemon Taber, 28; wife Edmina, 17; and daughter Stella [by a previous wife], 5; plus domestic servant Tillman Blount, 13, and Terry Noble, 18, barber. Edmonia reported that she was born in Virginia.

In the 1880 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on Tarboro Street, barber Lemon Taborn, 45; wife Edmonia, 26; and children Stella, 16, Elma, 7, Carrie, 5, Lucy, 3, and Joshua, 1.  

On 27 January 1888, Ed Mitchell married Elma Taborn in Halifax County, North Carolina. [Edward Mitchell was a barber in Lemon Taborn’s barbershop.]

On 26 February 1894, George Thomas, 29, of Wilmington, North Carolina, son of Richard and Eliza Thomas, married Estella Taborn, 27, of Wilson, daughter of Lemon Taborn, in Wilson. Hardy Tate applied for the license, and Presbyterian minister L.J. Melton performed the ceremony in the presence of Mattie Harris, W.M. Phillips, and L.A. Moore. 

Elma Taborn Mitchell apparently died before 1900.

In the 1900 census of Wilmington, New Hanover County, North Carolina: porter George W. Thomas, 33; wife Stella, 33; children Clarence, 3, and Mena, 1; and servant Grace Tate, 15.

In the 1910 census of Wilmington, New Hanover County, N.C.: railroad porter Geo. Thomas, 45; wife Stella, 45; and children Clarence, 15, Blommie, 12, Richard, 5, and Georgia, 3.

Stella Thomas died 26 January 1918 in Wilmington, New Hanover County, N.C. Per her death certificate, she was born 1865 to L. and Julie Taboron; was married to G.W. Thomas; lived at 611 North 8th Street, Wilmington; and was buried in Pine Forest Cemetery.

Edmonia Taborn secures a loan.

On 18 May 1897, widow Edmonia Barnes Taborn borrowed sixty dollars from John F. Bruton, mortgaging her home and lot on Tarboro Street to secure the loan. She repaid her debt timely, and the mortgage was cancelled. 

Deed book 45, page 1, Wilson County Register of Deeds, Wilson.

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On 18 July 1870, Lemon Tabourne, son of Hardy Taylor and Celey Tabourn, married Edmonia Barnes, daughter of Louisa Barnes, “in church” in Wilson. 

In the 1870 census, in the town of Wilson, Wilson County: barber Lemon Taber, 28; wife Edmina, 17; and daughter Stella (by an earlier relationship?), 5; plus domestic servant Tillman Blount, 13, and Terry Noble, 18, barber. Edmonia reported that she was born in Virginia.

In the 1880 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on Tarboro Street, barber Lemon Taborn, 45; wife Edmonia, 26; and children Stella, 16, Elma, 7, Carrie, 5, Lucy, 3, and Joshua, 1.  

On 19 July 1903, Frank Sears, 21, of Goldsboro, son of Hilary and Edney Sears, married Carrie Taborn, 18, of Wilson, daughter of Lemon and Edmonia Taborn, in Wilson. Presbyterian minister L.J. Melton performed the ceremony in the presence of David Pyatt, C.H. Bynum, and S.H. Vick.

On 1 June 1904, J.L. Tabron, 25, son of Lemon and Edmonia Tabron, married Pocahontas Scott, 20, daughter of Joseph and Anna B. Scott, in Goldsboro, Wayne County.

In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on Raleigh Road, widow Edmonia Tabron, 56, widow; son Astor, 23; daughter-in-law Nettie, 23; lodger Joseph Jordan, 33, bricklayer; and son Pat D. Tabron, 12, bootblack at barbershop.

On 16 May 1911, Thomas Henry Tabron, 21, of Wilson, son of Lemon and Edmonia Tabron, married Mattie Belle Smith, 19, of Fayetteville, daughter of William and Sarah Smith, in Fayetteville, Cumberland County, N.C. 

In the 1912 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Tabron Edmonia E (c) barber J A Tabron  h Daniel nr N S R R

In the 1916 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Tabron Edmonia (c) dom h 235 W Kenan

On 29 August 1917, Douglas Tabron, 21, of Wilson, son of Lem and Edmonia Tabron, married Bessie Ray, 18, of Fayetteville, daughter of Ned and Martha Ray, at Barney Brewington’s in Cross Creek township, Fayetteville, Cumberland County.

Astor Tabron died 1 October 1917 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was born 3 November 1883 in Wilson County to Lem Tabron of Wilson and Edmonia Barnes of Virginia; was married; and worked as a barber. Nettie Tabron was informant.

In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: barber Douglass Tabron, 27; wife Bessie, 28; daughter Dorris, 2; and mother Edmonia, 68, widow.

In the 1920 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Tabron Edmonia (c) dom h 113 Walnut

Edmonia Barnes Tabron died 13 July 1925 in Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was 55 years old; was born in Richmond, Virginia, to Louisa Barnes; was the widow of Lemon Tabron; lived at 305 South Street; and was buried in Rountree Cemetery. Douglas Tabron was informant.

Thomas Henry Tabron died 19 April 1932 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was 40 years old; was born in Wilson to Lemon Tabron of Nash County and Edmonia Tabron of Virginia; lived at 304 South Street; was married to Mattie Belle Tabron; worked as a barber; and was buried in Wilson [probably, Vick Cemetery.]

Historic Black Business Series, no. 12: Lemon Taborn’s barbershop.

The 500 block of East Nash Street is justly remembered as the 20th century epicenter of Wilson’s African-American-owned businesses. However, in the late 1800s and early 1900s, Black entrepreneurs and tradespeople also operated across the tracks. As Wilson’s downtown experiences a resurgence, let’s rediscover and celebrate these pioneering men and women.

Check in each Sunday for the latest in the Historic Black Business Series!

Lemon Taborn (later spelled Tabron) was born free about 1834 in Nash County, North Carolina, to Celia Taborn. He moved to the town of Wilson before 1860 and soon established a barbershop — the earliest known Black-owned business in Wilson.

E.B. Mayo noted Taborn’s shop into his 1872 map of Wilson on Tarboro Street just north of Vance Street. Taborn owned a large parcel of land in this block. (The house above was built after the family sold the lot.)

The Wilson Advance, 24 September 1880.

His barbershop also is drawn into the 1882 map of the city.

Taborn died in 1893, and his wife Edmonia Barnes Taborn and daughter Carrie Taborn continued his business until his sons Joshua, Jacob Astor, and Thomas Henry Taborn established Tabron Brothers Barbershop.

Photo by Lisa Y. Henderson, February 2024.

The popular (and peripatetic) Ed Mitchell.

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Wilson Mirror, 18 January 1888.

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Wilson Mirror, 7 May 1890.

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Wilson Mirror, 30 July 1890.

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Wilson Mirror, 25 February 1891.

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Wilson Mirror, 20 May 1891.

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Wilson Advance, 27 August 1891.

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Wilson Advance, 14 January 1892.

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Wilson Advance, 13 April 1893.

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Democratic Banner (Dunn, N.C.), 31 December 1902.

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Wilson Daily Times, 21 October 1910.

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In the 1880 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on Spring Street, washerwoman Susan Mitchell, 47, with children Lucy, 19, and Louiza, 15, both house servants, Eddy, 12, and Joseph, 9. On 18 October 1880, Lucy Mitchell, 19, married Mashal Powell, 18, at Susan Mitchell’s house. Witnesses were Small Blunt, Mary Blunt and Susan Mitchell.

On 27 January 1888, Ed Mitchell married Elma Taborn in Halifax County, North Carolina.

In the 1900 census of Wilson, Wilson County: widow Susiana Mitchel, 65, a “grannie,” and son Edd, 33, a barber. [A granny-woman was a midwife.]

In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: Susan Mitchell, 75, lived alone in a rented house on the N&S Railroad. In the 1910 census of Averasboro, Harnett County: on Wilmington & Magnolia Road, barber Edward Mitchell, 44, wife Allice M., 24, and daughter Loucile D., 6 months.

Edward Mitchell died 5 February 1918 in Dunn, Harnett County, North Carolina. Per his death certificate, he was born in Wilson to Ed and Susan Mitchell, was married, and worked as a barber. He was buried in Dunn.

In the 1920 census of Averasboro, Harnett County: at 311 Magnolia Avenue, widow Alice Mitchell, 33, with daughters Glydis, 10, and Doris, 9.

Edmonia and Carrie Taborn.

As noted here, free-born Lemon Taborn was a barber in the town of Wilson as early as 1860. A remembrance published in the Wilson Times in 1921 mentioned that Lemon’s first wife and child died around the time of the Civil War and were buried near Pender Street. I have not been able to discover their names.

WDT 12 30 1921 Taborn cemetery

Wilson Daily Times, 30 December 1921.

On 18 July 1870, Lemon Tabourne, son of Hardy Taylor and Celey Tabourn, married Edmonia Barnes, daughter of Louisa Barnes, “in church.” Minister C.C. Doelson performed the ceremony.

In the 1870 census, in the town of Wilson, Wilson County: barber Lemon Taber, 28; wife Edmina, 17; and daughter Stella (by his first wife?), 5; plus domestic servant Tillman Blount, 13, and Terry Noble, 18, barber. Edmonia reported that she was born in Virginia. In the 1880 census of Wilson, Wilson County, the family is listed in a household on Tarboro Street.

Together Lemon and Edmonia Tabourn had at least seven children: Elma (1873), Carrie (1875), Lucy (1877), Joshua (1878), Lila (1884), Jacob Astor (1886) and Thomas Henry (1890), and possibly an eighth, Douglass.

Though Lemon lived until 1893, he may have been ill and unable to work regularly for several years before. As early as 1889, local newspapers were taking note of the presence in his shop of his wife Edmonia and, especially, teenaged daughter Carrie.

Mirror 5 11 1889

Wilson Mirror, 11 May 1889.

Mirror 8 7 1889

Wilson Mirror, 7 August 1889.

The Mirror was positively smitten. In verbiage usually exclusively reserved for white women, Carrie was described as “lady-like,” “graceful,” and — incredibly — possessed of “strokes as soft as the noiseless fall of silverest moonbeams upon the placid bosom of an unruffled lake.”

mirror 9 24 1890

Wilson Mirror, 24 September 1890.

Mirror 2 25 1891

Wilson Mirror, 25 February 1891.

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Wilson Mirror, 20 May 1891.

Nirror 7 29 1891 Carrie Taborn to DC

Wilson Mirror, 29 July 1891.

Even the Advance boasted, though it’s not clear who the third woman was.

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Wilson Advance, 20 August 1891.

Perhaps to the dismay of the Mirror, on July 18, 1893, Carrie Taborn, 18, married Frank Sears, 21, of Wayne County, at the Presbyterian Church. David Wyatt, C.H. Bynum and S.H. Vick witnessed the ceremony. They settled in Goldsboro, where Sears was a barber, and Carrie apparently retired from the business.

Five months later, Lemon Taborn was dead. With her youngest child only 3 years old, Edmonia may have determined that she had better prospects in her hometown in Virginia. Before long though, she was back in Wilson, cutting hair for a former rival.

Mirror 8 8 1895

Wilson Mirror, 8 August 1895.

Edmonia resurrected the family business in short order, and, as they came of age, her sons Henry, Astor and Douglass (who may have been a grandson) took it over. [N.B.: This generation of the family adopted the spelling “Tabron.”]

WDT 3 3 1899

Wilson Daily Times, 3 March 1899.

Carrie Taborn Sears died 4 July 1903, apparently without children, and was buried in Goldsboro’s Elmwood cemetery.

Map of Wilson, 1872.

This is the first known map of Wilson, copied from a drawing made in 1872 by E.B. Mayo:

1872_map

The orientation is odd, as the bottom of the page is north. (Or, more strictly speaking, northeast.) There, encircled at the edge, is the only reference to any of the African-Americans who made up just over a quarter of the town’s population in the early 1870s. It’s Lemon Taborn‘s barbershop.

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Here, roughly outlined, is that area of downtown Wilson today:

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Spring Street is now Douglas and Nash Street extends across the tracks (replacing “the Plank Road,”) but otherwise street names remain the same. There are, of course, no marl holes or wells or trees in the middle of roads. The railroad in the 1872 map is not angled enough; despite appearances, it does not parallel downtown streets. Today, Lemon Taborn’s location at Tarboro just past Vance Street is close to today’s Wesley Shelter, Wilson County’s domestic violence and sexual assault agency.

The obituary of Lemon Taborn, a good barber and most exemplary man.

The_Wilson_Mirror_11_15_1893_Lemon_Tabron_obit

Wilson Mirror, 15 November 1893.

Died.

Lemon Tabon, the barber so well known to all our people as a good barber and most exemplary man — quiet and orderly in his conduct, was attacked with paralysis on Tuesday Oct. 31, and died at his home in Wilson on the night of the 12th of November leaving as good name as that of any one white or black who has lived amongst us. He began his career at Wilson several years before the war, went as servant to Capt. J[acob] S. Barnes and remained in the 4th regiment till the close of the war — returning resumed his business as barber.

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Lemon Taborn (later spelled Tabron) was born free about 1834 in Nash County, North Carolina, to Celia Taborn. He moved to the town of Wilson before 1860.

Wilson_Advance_9_24_1880_L_Tabourne

The Wilson Advance, 24 September 1880.