Tarboro NC

A tribute to Henrietta Foster Mebane.

Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 1 July 1950.

Add the highly-accomplished Henrietta Foster Mebane to the top of the list of early twentieth-century Black registered nurses in Wilson.

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In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: Walter Foster, 34, fireman at wagon factory; wife Nettie, 39; and children Henry E., 8, and Walter A., 5; plus boarder Arthur Broady, 22, laborer.

In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 707 Vance Street, Walter Foster, 46, fireman at wagon company; wife Rosa, 34; children Heneretta, 18, Carl, 6, and Naomi, 4; and sister-in-law Etta Parker, 32, a school teacher.

In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 308 North Hadley Street, Mary Shaw, 49, servant; adopted daughter Grace V. Shaw, 4; and lodger Henretta Foster, 28, trained nurse at hospital.

Walter Mebane was born and died 6 August 1931 in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. Per his death certificate, he was the son of John A. Mebane of Rocky Mount and Henrietta Foster of Wilson and was buried in Nash County, N.C.

In the 1940 census of Tarboro, Edgecombe County, N.C.: church minister John A. Mebane, 54; wife Henrietta, 38, registered nurse; and children William A., 6, and Florence, 5.

Grace Mebane died 7 February 1940 in Tarboro, Edgecombe County, N.C. Per her death certificate, she was born 11 April 1926 in Petersburg, Virginia, to John Mebane of Bertie County, N.C., and Henrietta Foster of Wilson County, and was buried in Wilson [probably in her grandparents’ plot in Odd Fellows Cemetery.]

In the 1950 census of Tarboro, Edgecombe County, N.C.: painter John A. Mebane, 64; wife Heneretta A., 48; public health nurse; and daughter Florence Y., 14.

Henrietta Alline Foster Mebane died 2 June 1950 at her home at 504 Bradley Avenue, Tarboro. Per her death certificate, she was born 24 August 1901 to Walter Foster and Nettie Young; was married to John A. Mebane; worked as a nurse; and was buried in Roundtree Cemetery “near Wilson, N.C.” [Henrietta Mebane’s grave likely lay near those of her parents near the old gates into Rountree. Her remains were later removed to Rest Haven Cemetery, where she was reinterred alongside her husband.]

Henrietta Alline Foster Mebane (1901-1950).

Photo courtesy of Ancestry.com user mebane714.

A detour to Tarboro’s Saint Paul’s cemetery.

On an earlier research trip over to the Edgecombe County Courthouse in Tarboro, I happened upon Saint Luke Episcopal’s small cemetery on the edge of town. Today, I was more deliberate in my search for a cemetery that, until fairly recently, contained rare wooden grave markers:

After a little backing and forthing along West Wilson Street, I found Saint Paul A.M.E. Zion’s cemetery. (It is not adjacent to the church, which was destroyed in flooding in 1999 and rebuilt up the road.) Not to put too fine a point on it, the cemetery is in terrible shape. Though I know of no direct links to Wilson County for anyone buried there, y’all know how I feel about these spaces, and I stepped out to look around and pay respects.

The cemetery was founded in 1892. I did not find any wooden markers, but a number of fine century-plus year-old headstones still stand, including a beautiful marker for Odd Fellow P.L. Baskerville (the detail in that broken rose!); one for Louise Cherry Cheatham, first wife of United States Congressman Henry P. Cheatham; Viola Smith’s pristine anchor-and-ivy; and a fantastically engraved cement Hall family marker.

Add Saint Paul’s to the list of critically endangered historic African-American cemeteries in eastern North Carolina. If anyone is aware of efforts to reclaim it, please let me know.

Preston (or Presley) Lewis Baskerville was a Republican party stalwart, who, like Samuel H. Vick, enjoyed Congressman George H. White‘s patronage. His work as a painter and decorator earned him a feature in A.B. Caldwell’s History of the American Negro and His Institutions, North Carolina Edition (1921). (Alongside Wilsonians like Vick, Dr. William A. Mitchner, Rev. A.L.E. Weeks, D.C. Suggs, and others.)

That stylized tree? Fern? In cement. My mind is unceasingly blown by the artistry of hand-cut/curved/poured grave markers.

Viola Smith’s headstone is a fine example of this style.

Yuccas, traditional plant grave markers.

Photo of wooden marker courtesy of Knight and Auld, African American Heritage Guide: Tarboro, Rocky Mount, Edgecombe County (2013); other photos by Lisa Y. Henderson, December 2023.

The final resting place of Rev. John Perry and family.

I’ve written here of Rev. John W. Perry, the Episcopal rector who served both Tarboro’s Saint Luke and Wilson’s Saint Mark’s for more than a decade beginning in 1889. 

I was headed out of Tarboro back toward Wilson yesterday when a sign at the edge of a somewhat shabby cemetery caught my eye — it was Saint Luke’s graveyard. The cemetery was established in the 1890s and likely contains many more graves than its headstones would indicate. Rev. Perry, his wife Mary Pettipher Perry, and several of their children are among the burials. 

The Perry family plot lies in the shadow of this impressive light gray granite marker. 

Rev. John W. Perry 1850-1918 He served St. Luke’s Parish for 37 years with honor to his Maker and himself.

Mary Eliza Pettipher Wife of Rev. J.W. Perry 1854-1929 Our lives were enriched because she lived among us.

Photos by Lisa Y. Henderson, March 2023.