Wilson Advance, 12 November 1891.
I posted here about the death of Mittie Strickland and the years-long search for her killer, Caesar Wooten. This account of the trial reveals a new detail — the jury included two African-American men, Ishmael Wilder and Daniel Vick.
Samuel H. Vick was administrator of his father Daniel Vick‘s estate and guardian of his deceased sister Nettie Vick Jones‘ children Samuel, Annie, and Nettie Jones. Vick filed this detailed account of receipts and expenditures from March 1908 through November 1909.
The estate’s $562 income consisted of monthly rent from tenant housing, a yearly rental payment for a farm, and a one-time death benefit payment of $100 by the Odd Fellows.
Vick paid out $82.50 for expenses related to his father’s final illness ($8 to Drs. Moore and Dickinson) and death ($45 for a coffin, $5 for a hearse, $12 for carriages), as well as a loan repayment to Wilson Building & Loan Association.
In December 1908, Vick also began to buy material, including lumber, windows, doors, moldings, porch posts, shingles, brick, etc., “for another house adjoining homestead.” Where? For whom? The precise location of Daniel Vick’s house has not been identified, but he owned acreage in the area of what is now Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway.
Another surprise: “Repairs Brick Store.” Vick had awnings installed, shelving built, a new room partitioned and plastered, and a new tin roof put on a store building at Nash Street and Stantonsburg Road. See below the detail from the 1908 Sanborn fire insurance map of Wilson showing that intersection. Was Daniel Vick’s store at (A) or (B), adjacent to Charles H. Darden‘s undertaking and blacksmith shops? What did he sell?
Sam Vick also made repairs and improvements to rental houses at “#11,” 504, and 509 Stantonsburg Road and at 520-526 Church Street.
Per the 1908 Sanborn fire insurance maps of Wilson, 520-522 and 524-526 Church Street were one-story wooden duplex dwellings with a front porch spanning the width of the building.
The largest expenditures were paid out for Daniel Vick’s heirs. Son William H. Vick, at this point a practicing pharmacist in New Jersey, received regular payments in 1908-1909 totaling $420, apparently his share of the estate. Youngest son James Oscar Vick received a one-time $25 disbursement.
Daniel Vick’s granddaughters Annie and Nettie Jones were boarding students at Mary Potter Academy in Oxford, North Carolina. Their expenses included carfare to and from Oxford; dress goods at Oettinger’s store in Wilson; payments to Elsie Knight for dressmaking; tuition and board; shoes, hosiery, hats, gloves, and handkerchiefs; and cash.
Account Records 1905-1910, Wilson County, N.C., Records, http://www.familysearch.org.
This large charcoal portrait is believed to depict Samuel H. Vick‘s mother, Fannie Blount Vick. She is buried in Odd Fellows Cemetery.
Thanks for sharing this beautiful image, Vicki Cowan!
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!
During its brief existence, Collins & Vick Livery Company sold buggies at this location (but perhaps in a predecessor building.)
Photo by Lisa Y. Henderson, December 2024.
Wilson Daily Times, 13 September 1918.
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In August 1925, the Pittsburgh Courier posted a long list of recent guests at Cape May, New Jersey’s Hotel Dale, which included:
Pittsburgh Courier, 15 August 1925.
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Image of postcard courtesy of Hope Gaines, “A Place to Stay,” Cape May magazine, June 2018.
The Morning Post (Raleigh, N.C.), 4 January 1902.
Samuel H. Vick‘s post office was located on the ground floor of the newly built Seabrook Hotel. We met Vick’s assistants Braswell R. Winstead and Levy H. Peacock here.
News and Observer (Raleigh, N.C.), 8 April 1902.
The 1903 Sanborn map of Wilson describes the Seabrook as a boarding house and shows the post office on the right side of the building’s ground floor. The site is now a parking lot.
Sanborn fire insurance map, page 4, Wilson, N.C., 1903.
On 22 February 1914, the Wilmington Morning Star published this detailed account of the establishment of the Wilson Hospital and Tubercular Hospital, which eventually became Mercy Hospital. Originally envisioned with a farm, countryside cottages, and a nurses’ home, only the administrative building was built. Nonetheless, Dr. Frank S. Hargrave‘s vision was “remarkable” indeed, and the hospital served the community for 50 years. (I was born there, in fact, just before it closed.)
[Sidenote: Hospital co-founder J.D. Reid was principal of the Colored Graded School and advisory board member Charles L. Coon was school superintendent. That Samuel H. Vick broke with them just four years later to side with teachers and parents in the 1918 school boycott is all the more astonishing.]
In January 1913, William Alston purchased Lot Number 9 of the Winona subdivision from Samuel and Annie Washington Vick for $1225.
Deed book 97, page 21, Wilson County Register of Deeds Office, Wilson.
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In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on Winona Road, farmer William Alston, 30, and wife Annie, 23. [Apparently, the Alstons were living on Mercer Street before they bought property from the Vicks.]
In the 1920 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Alston Wm (c; Anna) farmer h 1020 Mercer
In the 1922 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Alston Wm (c; Anna) farmer h Mercer nr Five Points
In the 1925 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Alston Wm (c) farmer h Mercer nr Mill Rd
In the 1930 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Alston Wm (c) farmer h 1025 Mercer
In 1913, Caroline Jones purchased Lot Number 12 of the Winona subdivision from Samuel and Annie Washington Vick. Winona, essentially, covered the 900 and 1000 blocks of present-day Mercer Street. As we learn below, Jones’ house was at 1009.
Deed book 97, page 20, Wilson County Register of Deeds Office, Wilson.
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In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 404 Mercer Street, Noel Jones, 50; wife Caroline, 51; and children Noel Jr., 21, Sarah, 18, Christine, 16, Elmer, 14, and Francis, 9.
In the 1925 Wilson, N.C., city directory: Jones Christine, laundress h 1009 Mercer
In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 1009 South Mercer Street, owned and valued at $15,000 [sic], farm helper Noel Jones, 60; wife Caroline, 60; children Sarah Hines, 29, and Christine, 26, and Frances Jones, 18; and granddaughter Mildred P. Jones, 7.
In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 1009 Mercer Street, widow Caroline Jones, 74, laundry worker, and daughter Sarah Jones, 38.
Sarah Hines died 22 September 1940 in Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was 36 years old and was born in Wilson County to Noel Jones and Caroline Bynum. Almira Jones Wilkins, Richmond, Virginia, was informant.
In 1942, Noel Jones Jr. registered for the World War II draft in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born 17 September 1899 in Wilson County; lived at 411 Bank Street, Wilson; his contact was Carolina Jones, 1009 Mercer Street, Wilson; and he worked for R.P. Watson Tobacco Company, South Street.
In the 1950 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 1009 Mercer Street, widow Caroline B. Jones, 82; daughter Christine Jones, 43; daughter Alma Wilkins, 40, widow, and her children Mildred, 24, and William Jr., 14.
Noel Anderson Jones died 30 June 1952 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was born 12 July 1879 in Wilson County to Noel and Sarah Jones; lived at 525 Church Street; was married; and worked as a laborer. He was buried at Jones Hill Cemetery. Informant was Carolina Jones, 1009 Mercer Street, Wilson.
Caroline Jones died 3 June 1957 at her home at 1009 Mercer Street, Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was born 1 January 1885 in Wilson County to Jack Bynum; was a widow; and was buried in Rest Haven. Amira Shelly, Rocky Mount, N.C., was informant.