Vick

Lane Street Project: then and now.

We have seen this photograph taken at the funeral of Irma Vick in 1921 in Odd Fellows Cemetery.

Below, as closely as I could estimate it, is an image shot from the same vantage point. Above, Wiley Oates‘ dome-top obelisk is visible above behind the man at left.  Below, it’s at rear left. The headstones of  Viola Vick and Daniel and Fannie Vick are hidden behind the mourners.

Above, a large white marble monument looms above a flat ledger stone or vault cover. Neither can be seen below. The large monument looks much like Henry Tart‘s pyramid-top obelisk, the largest known in Odd Fellows. Below, the top of Tart’s marker is barely visible as it sits on slightly lower ground than the Vick plot. However, Tart’s marker appears to be much further from Irma Vick’s than the marker above. (The lens in my iPhone camera has a wide-angle effect, so objects are closer than they appear below, but I don’t think this accounts for the difference.) Also, the monument above does not seem to show the square abacus (the “shelf” the pyramid rests on) atop the column of Tart’s monument. Also, there is no large ledger stone near Tart’s monument.

As we work to defoliate swaths of Odd Fellows Cemetery, we hope to unearth these and other hidden grave markers.

Photo by Lisa Y. Henderson, May 2023.

Lane Street Project: Daniel Vick.

Billy Foster also turned up this buried grave marker:

Though badly damaged, the white marble marker etched with Odd Fellows triple links appears to be inscribed DANIEL VICK and was likely originally placed at the foot of the grave of Samuel H. Vick‘s father Daniel Vick or his eldest son, Daniel L. Vick.

Photo courtesy of Billy Foster, April 2023.

Observations on the estate of Josiah Vick.

Josiah Vick died in Nash County circa 1846. This detail from an “acct. of sale & Hire of Negroes” prepared by Vick’s administrator Benjamin H. Blount shows that Joshua Barnes purchased several enslaved people — Simeon; Lettice, her children Hines and Madison; and Jane — from Vick’s estate.

The connections between large slaveowners in Nash, Edgecombe, and (later) Wilson Counties formed a dense web, with surprising echoes decades later among Wilson’s  African-American elite:

  • Josiah Vick was the owner of Daniel Vick.
  • B.H. Blount, administrator of Vick’s estate, enslaved Daniel’s future wife, Fannie Blount, her mother Violet Blount, her siblings, and children, including Samuel H. Vick, born in 1863.
  • Josiah Vick’s daughter Susan Margaret Vick married John Routh Mercer of  Temperance Hall in Edgecombe County. Mercer likely enslaved a child named Della and her mother Callie; Mercer is believed to have been Della’s biological father. Della Mercer Hines‘ first two sons were William Hines and Walter S. Hines, neighbors and business contemporaries of Samuel H. Vick. In 1894, Della Hines married David Barnes, who had been enslaved in childhood by Joshua Barnes. Dave and Della Barnes’ youngest son Boisey O. Barnes was a prominent physician in Wilson.
  • Daniel, Fannie, and Samuel Vick, and Della and Dave Barnes are buried in Odd Fellows Cemetery, which was established around what was originally the Vick family cemetery. Benjamin Mincey, famed leader of the all-Black Red Hot Hose and Reel volunteer firemen, is also buried in Odd Fellows. Madison Barnes, sold as a boy to Joshua Barnes, was Ben Mincey’s father-in-law and the namesake of Madison Ben Mincey, who worked for decades to keep the cemetery clear.

——

  • Simeon
  • Lettice and her sons Hines and Madison

On 9 September 1868, Madison Barnes, son of Ephraim Booses and Lettice Parker, married Mariah Strickland, daughter of Henry Strickland and Frances Strickland, at the Wilson County Courthouse.

In the 1870 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: Hines Barnes, 30, farm laborer.

Ben Mincey, 21, of Wilson, son of P. Mincey, and Mattie Barnes, 20, of Wilson, daughter of M. and Mariah Barnes, were married on 12 January 1904. Berry Williams applied for the license, and Baptist minister Fred M. Davis performed the ceremony in his home in the presence of Harry Mercer, W. Aken, and E.M. Davis.

On 6 June 1907, Madison Barnes, 50, son of Eaton Booze and Lettice Harper, married Caroline Stewart, 40, in Wilson. A.M.E. Zion minister N.D. King performed the ceremony in the presence of Charles Thomas, Alfred Dew, and Eugene Canady.

On 7 September 1908, Lula Barnes, 17, of Wilson, daughter of Madison Barnes and a deceased mother, married William Donnell, 22, of Stantonsburg, son of Hamp Donnell, at the bride’s residence.

On 24 December 1919, Madison Barnes, 64, applied for a license to marry Dollie Barnes, 54.

In the 1920 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: on Saratoga Road, farm laborer Madison Barnes, 70; wife Dollie Ann, 53; and granddaughter Annie V. Vick, 8.

Madison Barnes died 18 September 1934 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was 90 years old; was born in Nash County to unknown parents; was a widower; and had worked as a laborer. Lillie Mitchell was informant.

Wilson Daily Times, 22 September 1934.

Lillie Mitchell died 11 January 1936 in Wilson township. Per her death certificate, she was 42 years old; was born in Wilson to Madison Barnes and Mariah Barnes; was married to Henry Mitchell; and worked as a farmer.

Edward Barnes died 20 February 1945 in Wilson township. Per his death certificate, he was 49 years old; was born in Wilson County to Madison Barnes and Mariah Strickland; was married to Lula Barnes; was engaged in farming; and was buried din Roundtree cemetery.

Mattie Barnes Mincey died 9 February 1960 in Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was born 15 December 1886 in Wilson to Madison Barnes and Mariah [maiden name unknown]; was a widow; lived at 706 Wiggins Street; and was buried at Rountree Cemetery. [If she is buried with her husband and his family, Mattie Barnes Mincey is actually buried in Odd Fellows.]

  • Jane

Josiah Vick Estate File (1846), Nash County, North Carolina Estate Files 1663-1979, http://www.familysearch.org.

Statement of condition of G.U.O.O.F., Endowment Department of Wilson, 1903.

The Odd Fellows offered burial policies to members and their families, and state law required that yearly filing of statements of assets and liabilities, which were made public. Among other things, president W.W. Lawrence and secretary S.H. Vick reported the Endowment Department of Wilson had written 2357 hundred-dollar policies during the year.

News and Observer (Raleigh, N.C.), 1 June 1904.

  • W.W. Lawrence — I have not been able to identify Lawrence.
  • S.H. Vick — Samuel H. Vick.

Vick is land-poor.

Baltimore Afro-American, 9 May 1931.

We have seen that on a single day in 1935, during the depths of the Great Depression, Samuel and Annie Washington Vick lost nearly all their real property to, in essence, foreclosure. This article in the Baltimore Afro-American, which carries a faint whiff of schadenfreude, reveals some of the financial pressures that lead to the collapse of their economic empire.

The obituary of Fannie Blount Vick.

The Morning Post (Raleigh, N.C.), 2 January 1902.

The Morning Post (Raleigh, N.C.), 4 January 1902.

Though Daniel and Fannie Vick’s damaged headstone seems to indicate that Fannie Blount Vick died in the 1800s, in fact she lived until the very end of 1901.

——

The obituary of Robert E. Vick.

Wilson Daily Times, 13 September 2001.

Educator Robert Elliott Vick was the youngest son of Samuel H. and Annie Washington Vick.

——

In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: dealer in real estate Samuel Vick, 47; wife Annie, 38; and children Elma, 17, Daniel L., 13, Samuel E., 10, George, 7, Anna, 5, and Robert, 2.

In the 1928 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Vick Robt E (c) student h 622 E Green

In 1940, Robert Elliott Vick registered for the World War II draft in Essex County, New Jersey. Per his registration card, he was born 1 February 1908 in Wilson, North Carolina; he lived at 83 Kenilworth Place, Orange, Essex County, N.J. (and later 620 Queen Street, Wilmington, North Carolina; “wears glasses at all times;” and worked for Mr. O’Hara at Dugan Baking Company, Abingdon Avenue, Newark, Essex County, N.J.

In the 1950 census of Wilson, Wilson County: Annie M. Vick, 78, widow; sons Sam Jr., 43, beauty product salesman, and Robert, 40, principal of county school; son-in-law George A. Cowan, 34, agricultural teacher at Edgecombe County schools; sister Monte L., 31, home economics teacher at county school; and brother Samuel Washington, 82, retired postal clerk.

The apprenticeship of George Vick.

On 7 January 1870, a Wilson County Probate Court judge ordered 28 month-old George Vick bound as an apprentice to John D. Wells until he reached 21 years of age.

——

George Vick is not listed in John D. Wells’ household in the 1870 census of Toisnot township, Wilson County.

Possibly, in the 1880 federal mortality schedule of Toisnot township, Wilson County: George Vick, 11, black, died in November 1879 of typhoid fever.

United States Indenture and Manumission Records, 1780-1939, database at https://familysearch.org.