Daniel, a tall, handsome, dark-skinned man, left William Barnes’ plantation near Oak Grove [Saratoga] on the night of 20 September 1834. Eleven months later, Barnes began running ads in the Tarboro Press, offering a $50 reward for Daniel’s capture. Despite specific details about Daniel’s physique, his mother and siblings (from whom he had been separated when sold by Asahel Farmer), and even his father (a blacksmith who worked nearly independently in Nash County), Daniel was still on the lam in May 1936 when this ad ran, and as late as April 1837, when the Press re-printed it.
Tarboro’ Press, 7 May 1836.
Four years later, Abner Tison, another Saratoga-area planter, offered a reward for a Daniel whose physical description closely matched the Daniel above. He’d been missing a year. Though the ages are off, this Daniel had some notable scars, and was said to have been raised in Pitt County, this is surely the same knock-kneed man, bound and determined to take his freedom.
On 17 September 1873, Jordan Sauls married Serena Fort in Wayne County.
In the 1880 census of Saulston township, Wayne County: farmer Jordan Sauls, 27; wife Serena, 33; and children Elizabeth, 13, Ichabod, 10, and James Fort, 7; Emma, 6, Dortch, 5, and Isabel, 9 months; and Loumiser Sauls, 21, and [her?] children Oda, 5, and Anna, 1.
In the 1900 census of Saratoga township, Wilson County: farm laborer Jordan Sauls, 50, widower.
On 25 December 1906, Jordan Sauls, 52, of Wayne County, son of Charles and Smithy Sauls, marred Mary Davis, 39, of Wayne County, daughter of Ellis and Hester Fort, at Mary Davis’ in Nahunta, Wayne County.
In the 1910 census of Nahunta township, Wayne County: Jorden Sauls, 53; wife Mary, 45; children Hester, 19, Betsey, 17, Thomas, 15, George, 10, Eliza, 8, Pearly, 6, Ben, 4, Blossey, 9 months, and Ellis, 21; and grandchildren Emma, 4, and Rena Davis, 2.
In the 1920 census of Black Creek township, Wilson County: on Black Creek and Stantonsburg Road, farmer Jordan Sauls, 74; wife Mary, 47; and children Lina, 18, Ben, 15, Blossie, 19, and George, 5.
On 10 January 1925, John Tyson, 23, son of Red and Alberta Tyson, married Lizzie Sauls, 20, daughter of Jordan and Mary Sauls, in Wilson County.
On 21 September 1925, Herbert Tyson, 23, son of Ed and Mell T. Tyson, married Blossie Sauls, 16, daughter of Jordan and Mary Sauls, in Wilson County.
In January 1926, Benjamin Sauls, 20, son of Jordan and Mary Sauls, married Janetta Sutton, 18, daughter of John and Penna Sutton, in Wilson County.
In the 1930 census of Stantonsburg township, Wilson County: farm laborer Jerdan Sauls, 82; wife Mae, 65, farm laborer; daughter Lossie Tyson, 22, cook; and grandchildren Jerdan Jr., 3, and Zebedee Tyson, 1.
In the 1940 census of Saratoga township, Wilson County: John Tyson, 35, farm laborer; wife Lizzie, 38; father-in-law Jordan Sauls, 99; mother-in-law Mary Sauls, 78; and Frank Strickling, 9, “adopted.”
Lizzie Tyson died 19 July 1943 in Bullhead township, Greene County. Per her death certificate, she was born 5 May 1903 in Wayne County to Jurdan Sauls and Mary Davis and was married to John Tyson.
Blossie S. Powell died 2 June 1979 in Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was born 1 August 1909 in Wayne County to Jordan Sauls and Mary Fort; was a widow; and lived at 1200 East Nash Street.
A number of readers commented on my recent post about Bethlehem Primitive Baptist Association, particularly sharing memories of Rev. Wiley Barnes and Corner Line Primitive Baptist Church, one of three Wilson County churches in the association. Rev. Hubert Tyson identified the location of another, Travelers Rest Primitive Baptist Church, which stood next door to Saint Luke Freewill Baptist Church at the eastern end of Church Street in Stantonsburg.
Rev. Tyson’s grandmother Lillie Thompson Fox Bass was a devoted Primitive Baptist and, even after migrating to Delaware, returned to Stantonsburg every year to attend the annual Association gathering. Says Rev. Tyson, who accompanied her visits to Travelers Rest and Corner Line:
“Ma Lillie was faithful. I always went inside with her. Boy, did I have questions. At first I thought they were singing in a diverse dialect, so she gave one of her old hymn books so that I could sing along. At least five preachers preached each service. No piano, but they didn’t need it. Their tribal rhythm was in the house. Everyone drank out of the same water dipper. Everyone hugged as well as kissed in the mouth (while they still had snuff in their mouth.) While singing, they partnered off with in-sync hand-shaking to the rhythm, rocking the weak shacking of the floor’s foundation. It was similar to jumping on a holy trampoline. I enjoyed taking her there.”
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On 26 January 1919, Walter Fox, 21, of Greene County, son of Henry and Hattie Fox, married Lillie Thompson, 18, of Greene County, daughter of Will and Kitsey Thompson, in Lindell township, Greene County.
In the 1920 census of Bull Head township, Greene County, N.C.: Walter Fox, 22, wife Lillie, 20, and Mabell, 3 months.
In the 1930 census of Eureka township, Wayne County, N.C.: Walter Fox, 35; wife Lillie, 34; and children Rosa M., 11, Walter L., 9, Willie, 7, Jessie L., 5, Minnie, 2, and Walter Jr., 6 months.
In the 1940 census of Stantonsburg, Stantonsburg township, Wilson County: on Main Street, widow Lillie Fox, 40, domestic, and children Rosa Lee, 20, cook, Walter Henry, 18, Willie, 17, Minnie, 15, domestic, Jesse Lee, 13, and Alexander, 9; plus lodger Willie Bynum, 16.
Lillie Thompson Fox Bass died 25 June 1988 in Lincoln, Delaware.
Thank you, Rev. Hubert Tyson, for sharing these memories!
In the 1910 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: on Finch Mill Road, farmer Thomas W. Wilson, 42; wife Anna, 33; and children Winnie, 12, Vina, 10, Corina, 8, Hester, 6, Thomas, 4, and Georgianna, 2.
In the 1920 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: farmer Tom Wilson, 56; wife Leanna, 40; and children Sarah, 17, Ester, 15, Thomas, 14, Georgia, 11, Nancy, 9, Gola, 7, and Margie, 3; and sister Nance, 16.
Thomas Wilson Jr. died 20 May 1928 in Wilson township, Wilson County, “drowned, boat capsized.” Per his death certificate, he was 22 years old; single; a farmer; born in Wilson County to Thomas Wilson Sr. of Caswell County and Leanna Briggs of Pearson [Person] County; and buried in Rountree cemetery.
Babe Tyson
Leanda Tyson died 20 May 1928 in Wilson township, Wilson County, “drowned, boat capsized.” Per his death certificate, he was 18 years old; single; a farmer; born in Wayne County to Walter Tyson and Olive Parker; and buried in Rountree cemetery. Walter Tyson, Elm City, was informant.
Jarvis Lofton
Eddie Jarvis Lofton registered for the World War II draft in Wilson County in 1940. Per his registration card, he was born 1 May 1911 in Wayne County, N.C.; lived at 816 Mercer Street; his contact was mother Tynce Lofton, 902 West Broad Street; and he worked for Loftin Cafe, Tarboro Street, Wilson.
Thanks to J. Robert Boykin III for sharing this clipping.
In the 1920 census of Stantonsburg township, Wilson County: on Delaware Street, Thomas Tyson, 44, “croper” [cropper? he reported owning his farm]; wife Armeter, 26; and children Ardella, 8, Nancy, 6, Cylester, 3, and Matthew L., 5 months; plus boarders Oscar Isarell, 26, dry goods store laborer, and Lat Blount, 20, house carpenter.
In the 1930 census of Stantonsburg township, Wilson County: on Railroad Street, farmer Tom Tyson, 50; wife Ameta, 36; children Ardella, 18, Celesta, 13, Ethel L., 11, Hubert, 9, Larry L., 2, and Clementon, 1; and mother-in-law Ardella Barnes, 58.
On 31 October 1935, Celester Tyson, 18, of Wilson County, daughter of Thomas and Arnelia Tyson, married Moses Taylor, 21, of Wilson County, son of Albert and Annie Taylor, in Greenville, Pitt County, North Carolina.
In 1940, Matthew Lee Tyson registered for the World War II draft in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born 4 September 1919 in Stantonsburg; resided in Stantonsburg; his next-of-kin was sister Celester Tyson; and he worked for Civilian Conservation Corps in Chapel Hill, Orange County, North Carolina.
On 17 September 1948, in Norfolk, Virginia, Celester Tyson Taylor, 31, born in Stantonsburg, North Carolina, to Thomas Tyson and Armetia Barnes, married Andrew Edward Jackson, 31, born in Baltimore, Maryland, to John William Jackson and Susie Wyatt.
Celester T. Jackson died 3 June 1988 in Richmond, Virginia.
Martha Ann Tyson Dixon of DeValls Bluff, Arkansas, sat for an interview with a Federal Writers Project worker in the late 1930s. Dixon had spent her childhood enslaved near Saratoga, Wilson County, and she and her husband Luke D. Dixon had migrated west in the late 1880s. More than 50 years after Emancipation, she vividly described the hardships of life during and after slavery.
“I am eighty-one years old. I was born close to Saratoga, North Carolina. My mother died before I can recollect and my grandmother raised me. They said my father was a white man. They said Jim Beckton [Becton]. I don’t recollect him. My mother was named Mariah Tyson.
“I recollect how things was. My grandmother was Miss Nancy Tyson’s cook. She had one son named Mr. Seth Tyson. He run her farm. They et in the dining room, we et in the kitchen. Clothes and somethng to eat was scarce. I worked at whatever I was told to do. Grandma told me things to do and Miss Nancy told me what to do. I went to the field when I was pretty little. Once my uncle left the mule standing out in the field and went off to do something else. It come up a hard shower. I crawled under the mule. If I had been still it would have been all right but my hair stood up and tickled the mule’s stomach. The mule jumped and the plough hit me in my hip here at the side. It is a wonder I didn’t get killed.
“After the Civil War was times like now. Money scarce and prices high, and you had to start all over new. Pigs was hard to start, mules and horses was mighty scarce. Seed was scarce. Everything had to be started from the stump. Something to eat was mighty plain and scarce and one or two dresses a year had to do. Folks didn’t study about going so much.”
“I had to rake up leaves and fetch em to the barn to make beds for the little pigs in cold weather. The rake was made out of wood. It had hickory wood teeth and about a foot long. It was heavy. I put my leaves in a basket bout so high [three or four feet high.] I couldn’t tote it — I drug it. I had to get leaves in to do a long time and wait till the snow got off before I could get more. It seem like it snowed a lot. The pigs rooted the leaves all about in day and back up in the corners at night. It was ditched all around. It didn’t get very muddy. Rattle snakes was bad in the mountains. I used to tote water — one bucketful on my head and one bucketful in each hand. We used wooden buckets. It was a lot of fun to hunt guinea nests and turkey nests. When other little children come visiting that is what we would do. We didn’t set around and listen at the grown folks. We toted up rocks and then they made rows [terraces] and rock fences about the yard and garden. They looked so pretty. Some of them would be white, some gray, sometimes it would be mixed. They walled wells with rocks too. All we done or knowed was work. When we got tired there was places to set and rest. The men made plough stocks and hoe handles and worked at the blacksmith shop in snowy weather. I used to pick up literd [lightwood] knots and pile them in piles along the road so they could take them to the house to burn. They made a good light and kindling wood.
“They didn’t whoop Grandma but she whooped me a plenty.
“After the war some white folks would tell Grandma one thing and some others tell her something else. She kept me and”
“cooked right on. I didn’t know what freedom was. Seemed like most of them I knowed didn’t know what to do. Most of the slaves left the white folks where I was raised. It took a long time to ever get fixed. Some of them died, some went to the cities, some up North, some come to the country. I married and come to Fredonia, Arkansas in 1889. I had been married since I was a young girl. But as I was saying the slaves still hunting a better place and more freedom. Grandma learnt me to set down and be content. We have done better out here than we could done in North Carolina but I don’t believe in so much rambling.
“We come on the passenger train and paid our own way to Arkansas. It was a wild and sickly country and has changed. Not like living in the same country. I try to live like the white folks and Grandma raised me. I do like they done. I think is the reason we have saved and have good a living as we got. We do on as little as we can and save a little for the rainy day.”
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In the 1860 census of Saratoga township, Wilson County: farmer Nancy Scarborough, 47; Victoria, 10, Susan, 6, and Laurina Scarborough, 3; farm manager Seth Tyson, 23; and Julia, 18, Nancy, 17, Aaron, 15, and Abner Tyson, 13.
In the 1870 census of Saratoga township, Wilson County: Mary Tyson, 62, with Edith, 23, John, 21, Abraham, 16, and Martha Tyson, 11.
In the 1880 census of Lower Town Creek township, Edgecombe County: Martha Tyson, 20, was a cook in the household of white marchant/farmer Mark Atkinson.
Martha Tyson, 26, married Luke Dixon, 26, in Wilson County on 12 February 1885. Minister E.H. Ward performed the ceremony in the presence of Charles Batts, Tempey Cotton and Green Taylor.
In the 1910 census of Watensaw township, Prairie County, Arkansas: Luke Dixon, 49, saw filer at Bar factory, and wife Martha M., 52.
In the 1920 census of DeValls Bluff, Prairie County, Arkansas: on Cedar Street, farmer Luke Dixon, 58; wife Martha, 59; and cousins Margaret Tyson, 14, and Oleo McClarin, 9.
In the 1930 census of DeValls Bluff, Prairie County, Arkansas: on Cypress Street, owned and valued at $2000, Luke D. Dixon, 70, born in Virginia, and wife Martha, 70, born in North Carolina, with cousin Allen Reaves, 8.
In the 1940 census of DeValls Bluff, Prairie County, Arkansas: on Cypress Street, owned and valued at $2000, Luke Dixon, 84, born in Virginia, and wife Martha A., 84, born in North Carolina.
Federal Writers’ Project: Slave Narrative Project, Vol. 2, Arkansas, Part 2, Cannon-Evans, http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/mesn.022.
