Town of Sims

Sallie Coleman Bynum remembers.

Wilson Daily Times, 24 February 1994.

What a testimony!

——

  • Sallie Coleman Bynum

In the 1910 census of Oldfields township, Wilson County: Henry Coleman, 38, farmer; wife Mary J., 28; and children Stella, 13, Willie, 8, Josiah, 7, William, 5, Mattie J., 4, and Sallie, 2.

In the 1920 census of Oldfields township, Wilson County: on Old Wilson and Raleigh Road, farmer Henry Coleman, 50; wife Mary Jane, 40; and children Stella, 22, Willie, 19, Joesire, 17, William H., 16, Mattie J., 13, Sallie, 12, Bell, 10, Stephen, 8, Wiley, 7, and Eva, 1.

In the 1930 census of Oldfields township, Wilson County: farmer Henery D. Coleman, 58; wife Mary J., 52; children Bill, 18, Stephen, 17, Willey, 15, Mattie, 22, Sallie, 20, Eva, 13, Guyes E., 9, Gurtice, 5; and grandson Ollie L., 10 months.

Sallie Coleman Bynum died 6 December 1994 in Wilson.

Lamm’s School stood on Lamm Road just north of present-day U.S. 64. The school was built in 1923 as Wilson County consolidated one- and two-room schools for white children into modern masonry buildings. The building was recently demolished to make way for a Chick Fil A.

  • Sugar Hill — An African-American neighborhood just west of Sims’ town limits.

Images of Historic Wilson County N.C., Images of North Carolina, lib.digitalnc.org.

County schools, no. 21: Sims School.

The twenty-first in a series of posts highlighting the schools that educated African-American children outside the town of Wilson in the first half of the twentieth century. The posts will be updated; additional information, including photographs, is welcome.

Sims School

Sims School is listed in “Survey File Materials Received from Volunteer Surveyors of Rosenwald Schools Since September 2002.” 

Location: Down a dirt path behind Flat Rock Church of Christ Disciples and a mobile home, Flat Rock Church Road, Sims.

Per Research Report: Tools for Assessing the Significance and Integrity of North Carolina’s Rosenwald Schools and Comprehensive Investigation of Rosenwald Schools In Edgecombe, Halifax, Johnston, Nash, Wayne and Wilson Counties (2007),

Per sale advertised for several weeks in the Wilson Daily Times in the fall of 1951: “SIMS COLORED SCHOOL in Oldfields Township, near the Town of Sims, and being Lots Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, in Block H as shown by map or plat recorded in Book 78, at page 125, Wilson County Registry, containing 1 5/8 acres more or less. Also the lot excepted from the deed from the Board of Education of Wilson County to Ruben Peele dated 14 March, 1929 and of Record in Book 179 at Page 478, Wilson County Registry. See deeds recorded in Book 179, at pages 513 and 514, Wilson County Registry.” 

On 19 November 1951, Grover L. Jones made the high bid of $800 at the auction of Sims School, but the Board Education determined the bid was inadequate. Jones raised his bid to $925, and he and his wife Allencia Jones took possession.

When Research Report was published, Sims School was one of two Rosenwald schools more-or-less standing in Wilson County, as shown in this photo from the report:

Since then, the school building has completely collapsed.

Known faculty: principal Howard M. Fitts; teachers Alice M. Shaw, Vivian M. Speight.

Photos by Lisa Y. Henderson, March 2025.