Town of Elm City

Elm City news.

NY_Age_7_12_1930_Elm_City_news

New York Age, 12 July 1930.

  • Bedford Severage – Bedford Savage Lucas was born about 1907 to Frank Savage and Serena Woodard. She married Elias Lucas on 6 July 1930 in Wilson and died 25 July 1965 in Wilson.
  • Elias Lucas – Elias Joseph Lucas was born in Elm City in 1908 to Haywood and Cora Williams Lucas.
  • Alice Hunter — in the 1930 census of Elm City town, Toisnot township, Wilson County: Eliza Pinkney, 34, and sister Alice Hunter, 40. Alice Hunter died 20 April 1960 in Elm City. Her death certificate lists her parents as Hilliard Hunter and Mary Jane Pitt, and Eliza Pinkney was the informant. Hilliard Hunter and Mary Jane Pitt married 11 April 1878 in Toisnot township. Per estate records, Hunter died about 1893.
  • Eliza Pinkney – Eliza Pinkney, wife of Jim Pinkney and daughter of Hilliard Hunter and Mary Jones, died 10 July 1969 in Wilson.
  • Mary Hunter – Mary Whitehead Hunter, born 1886 in Nash County to Benjamin and Frances Whitehead, was the wife of Alice and Eliza’s brother Willie Hunter. She died 1 July 1930 in Wilson.
  • Katie Wynn – in the 1930 census of Elm City town, Toisnot township, Wilson County: railroad shifter Jessie Winn, 38; wife Katie, 37; and children Ralph, 16; George, 14; Charlie, 9; Jennie M., 7; Marie, 6; Herbert, 4; Katie, 2; and Edward Winn, 1. Katie Davis Wynn was born 30 May 1901 in Edgecombe County to John and Mary Williams Davis. She did 13 June 1963 in Elm City. Jessie Wynn died in 1946.
  • Genevieve Ward — Genevieve Ward was born in 1912 to Peter James Ward and Vallie Hockaday Ward. In the 1920 census of Toisnot township, Wilson County: railroad laborer Peter Ward, 35; wife Vallie, 28; and children V. Jennie V., 7; James, 6; and Eliza Ward, 3 months. Peter Ward, son of Jim and Phyliss Winstead Ward , died 17 October 1938 in Elm City.
  • Mamie Clyde Ricks Dantly –Mamie Clyde Ricks was born in 1909. At the time of the 1930 census, she had not yet joined her husband Aaron Dantley, who is shown living in a rooming house in Washington DC and working as a hotel waiter. Instead, she is listed as a 20 year-old in Elm City town, Toisnot township, with Ed Ricks, 52; Nannie, 50; Ruth, 16; and Eugene, 10 months.

MC Dantley

  • Mary Gaston — in the 1930 census of Elm City town, Toisnot township: Dewey Gaston, 30, barber; wife Mary, 20; and children Doris L., 5, and Victor H., 3. Next door in one direction: barbershop proprietor George Gaston, 72, and daughter Ada, a teacher, 43. In the other: John Gaston, 48, brickmason; wife Nannie, 41; daughters Pricilla, 21, and Minnie, 18; plus mother-in-law Mary Barnes, 62. Dewey Gaston, 23, son of George and Priscilla Gaston, married Mary B. Howard, 24, daughter of Mary E. Darden, on 8 March 1923 in Tarboro, Edgecombe County. Witnesses were Mancie Gaston and Fannie F. Ricks of Elm City. Dewey Milton Gaston, born 11 November 1899 in Elm City, died 16 February 1948. His father George died 30 May 1934.
  • Charles and Clarence Nicholson — Charles B. Nicholson and Clarence Everard Nicholson were born 24 December 1914 in Elm City to Thomas Harrison Nicholson (originally of Halifax County) and Clara Williams Nicholson. [Which golf course could African Americans play on in Wilson in 1930?]

Highway project along Elm City-Town Creek Road.

Elm City plat

I am fairly certain that this plat lies in east Elm City at or near the Highway 301 interchange, but I do not know the exact location.

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First Missionary Baptist Church of Elm City is an African-American congregation dating back to 1875.

Willie Jake Harris (1916-1974) was the son of Will and Neely Bynum Harris. His wife Annie Mae Harris was born about 1921.

Mary Bynum, born about 1897, married Marcellus Lawrence in 1915 in Wilson County.

Johnnie Hagans (1904-1993) was the son of Biscoe and Vesta Mae Joyner Hagans. He married Carrie Battle in 1926 in Wilson County.

Walter Clyde Whitehead (1909-1969) was a white businessman and school board member in Elm City.

Plat Book 4, page 135, Wilson County Register of Deeds.

Elm City’s Negro community, pt. 1.

Cecil Lloyd Spellman was a professor of rural education at Florida A&M in Tallahassee and former Wilson County Negro agricultural extension agent. In 1947, he published “Elm City, A Negro Community in Action,” a monograph intended to employ sociology to “interpret the Negro in his actual day to day activities and interrelationships with members of his own and other races.” This is an excerpt.

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In searching the records, one finds no mention of early Negroes in this area, however, by contacting some of the older living residents, the following information dealing with pioneer Negro residents has been obtained.** All the following people are now dead unless the fact is otherwise indicated.

J.H. Bellamy and his wife Cherry were among the first Negroes to move into the Sharpsburg vicinity. Bellamy was a preacher and a teacher. He did some good work in the general section in both these capacities. Together these two acquired a small tract of farm land. This was held up in his preaching and teaching as an example of what Negroes generally should do in order to succeed in life.

Sam Rice, a minister, was another of the early settlers in this area. No mention was made of the fact that he had a wife. He also bought farm land.

Thomas Dawes came early to this section and bought farm land. Dawes was an ex-slave. He came into the section from South Carolina. We are told that Thomas and his twin sister, Sarah (Bunn) were sold as slaves when they were about twelve years hold. It is not clear whether they were freed by the Emancipation Proclamation, or achieved their freedom in some other manner.

Henry Bunn and his wife Sarah (sister of Thomas Dawes) came into the section from South Carolina. Sarah was an ex-slave. She and her twin brother Thomas Dawes were sold into slavery when they were about twelve years old. Sarah became a midwife, and was in constant demand for her service by both white and colored people during the late years of her life.

Dawson Armstrong was a very conspicuous early character of the area. He was known as the root doctor. Many fancy tales are told about him and his roots and herbs. He was well liked and no doubt his root medicine did some good because of the confidence which so many of the people had in him. Of course, there were always fanciful tales about some of his doings as he moved about in field and forest in search of the right roots, herbs and barks for the concoctions which he brewed.

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In the 1900 census of Sharpsburg township, Edgecombe County: farmer James H. Bellamy, 42, wife Cherrie, 34, and children Clara, 18, Jacob, 8, Cora, 6, and Rena, 1.

Dawson Armstrong died 24 May 1911 in Rocky Mount, Edgecombe County. Per his death certificate, he was at least 45 years old, was born in Wilson County to Abram and Priscilla Barnes Armstrong, was single, and engaged in general labor. Mattie Bryant was informant.

**This is odd. African-Americans came to the Toisnot area with the earliest white settlers pushing down from southern Virginia. They were the pioneers, not people who moved in after the Civil War. Spellman named black county extension agent Carter W. Foster as his source.