wagon factory

Where we worked: Hackney Wagon Company/Hackney Brothers.

Hackney Wagon Company (and related Hackney Brothers Company, and later iterations) manufactured thousands upon thousands of wagons, buggies, drays (and later truck bodies) during its 140+ year existence in Wilson. Hackney employed innumerable African-American men over its long existence, and this running list can capture only a fraction.

Illustration from an early twentieth-century catalog. Hackney Brothers Body Company Prints; Images of Historic Wilson, N.C.; Images of North Carolina, http://www.digitalnc.org.

  • Cleveland Adams, wheelwright, 1918
  • Charley R. and Carnel Barnes [twins?], laborers, 1917
  • Dock Barnes, laborer, 1917
  • Henry Barnes, laborer, 1917
  • John Allen Barnes Jr., laborer, 1918
  • John Allen Barnes Sr., laborer, 1918
  • John H. Barnes, laborer, 1918
  • Julius Barnes, laborer, 1930
  • Lemon Barnes, laborer, 1918
  • Renzo Barnes, blacksmith, 1918
  • Tobe Barnes, machine operator, 1918
  • Wade Barnes, laborer, 1920
  • Walter N. Barnes, laborer, 1917
  • William S. Barnes, laborer, 1918
  • Burrell B. Barron, mechanic, 1918
  • Ed Battle, painter, 1917
  • Frank B. Battle, laborer, 1918
  • William Batts, laborer, 1918
  • William A. Batts, laborer, 1918
  • Charlie H. Bell, laborer, 1918
  • Bennie Bethea, wagon factory laborer, 1920
  • Junius Best, mechanic, 1918
  • Charlie H. Boone, laborer, 1918
  • Albert L. Boswell, mechanic, 1918
  • Zeb A. Brewer, mechanic, 1918
  • Arthur Brodie, machine operator, 1918
  • Henry Bryant, laborer, 1917; 1920
  • Arthur Cobb, laborer, 1917
  • Howard Cousar, laborer, 1917
  • Lindsay Covington, mechanic in iron department, 1918
  • Will Covington, laborer, 1918
  • William Darring, laborer, 1917
  • Ross Dew, laborer, 1917
  • Robert Dickens, laborer, 1918
  • William O. Dixson, laborer, 1918
  • William Dudley, drayman for buggy factory, 1917
  • Benjamin Earl, 1918
  • Robert Ellis, machine operator, 1918
  • Windsor Ellis, laborer, 1918
  • George W. Farmer, machine operator, 1918
  • Jesse Farmer, blacksmith, 1917
  • Jesse Falkland, tire setter, 1917
  • Fred Faulkland, laborer, 1917
  • Joseph R. Falkland, wood worker, 1917
  • Will Faulkland, laborer, 1918
  • Walter Faulkland, laborer, 1918
  • Walter M. Foster, fireman, 1910
  • Bennie E. Fuller, “cleaning brick,” 1917
  • Denis Fox, laborer, 1917
  • Walter Garner, laborer, 1918
  • Earnest Gibbs, blacksmith, 1917
  • John G. Graham, laborer, 1917
  • Richard Green, laborer, 1918
  • Charlie I. Ham, laborer, 1918
  • Charlie Harris, laborer, 1917
  • Ed Herring, laborer, 1918
  • Allen Hines, laborer, 1918
  • Hardy Hinnant, laborer, 1917
  • Jona Hogan, laborer, 1918
  • William Howard, laborer, 1920

  • William J. Howell, laborer, 1930
  • Barney Huggins, wagon factory laborer, 1920
  • Will Hunter, laborer, 1918
  • Allen Jackson, fireman, 1917
  • Jesse James, wagon factory laborer, 1920
  • Amos Johnson, laborer, 1917
  • Charley Johnson, laborer, 1917
  • Walter A. Johnson, laborer, 1917
  • Willard Johnson, laborer, 1918
  • William V. Johnson, laborer, 1917
  • Sankey Jones, laborer, 1918
  • Colonel Joyner, wagon factory laborer, 1920
  • Thomas King, laborer, 1918
  • Lewis Knight, sawmill worker, killed in accident at sawmill, 1920
  • Jarrette J. Langley, blacksmith, 1918
  • Dempsey Lassiter, blacksmith, 1918
  • Jesse C. Lassiter, laborer, 1917
  • Ed Lucas, killed by falling timber, 1910
  • Alexander McCrae, laborer, 1918
  • William F. McDowell, laborer, 1918
  • William J. McLane, laborer, 1918
  • Minor McLaughlin, laborer, 1918
  • Arthur Moore, laborer, 1917
  • John L. Moore, “works on buggies,” 1918
  • Arch Morrison, laborer, 1918
  • Buck Parker, laborer, 1917
  • Jesse Parker, laborer, 1917
  • Samuel Perry, 1915-1945
  • Braxton Purdie, laborer, 1917
  • Dock Royall, buggy factory laborer, 1920; mechanic, 1938
  • Fraun Sharp, laborer, 1918
  • Ben Smith, fireman, 1918
  • Willie Smith, laborer, 1918
  • Joshua Speight, logging, 1918
  • James D. Stallings, blacksmith, 1918
  • Lucian Studaway, painter, injured in a fire, 1918
  • Willie Sutton, laborer, 1918
  • Henry Tate, laborer, 1918
  • Davis Taylor, laborer, 1917
  • James H. Tinsley, laborer, 1917
  • Dan Umphrey, laborer, 1918
  • Shelton Thompson, laborer, 1917
  • John Ward, drayman, 1918
  • Merriman E. Watkins, laborer, 1917
  • Robert Wilkins, laborer, 1918
  • Washington Wilkins, blacksmith, 1917
  • Arthur Williams, wood worker, 1917
  • Joseph Williams, wagon maker, 1917
  • Roston Williams, fireman, 1917
  • Walter Williams, laborer, 1917
  • Jesse Williamson, machine operator, 1918
  • Will Woodard, laborer, 1918
  • Simeon Wooten, mechanic, 1918

Lucas killed by falling lumber.

Ed Lucas was killed when falling timber struck his head while he worked. His employer W.D. Hackney was the informant for his death certificate, but knew little of Lucas, and the document notes: “Deceased was an unknown laborer at Wagon Factory.”

Update, 16 July 2022:

Evening Chronicle (Charlotte, N.C.), 2 May 1910.

Thanks to Carol Ten Hoopen for locating this article.