Washington

701 East Green Street, revisited.

George and Cora Miller Washington built their large house at 701 East Green around 1920. George Washington‘s sister Annie was married to Samuel H. Vick and lived catercorner from the Washingtons at 622 East Green.

Within a decade of Historic Register designation in 1988, East Green Street had lost many of its gems, including the Washingtons’ house. The house below was built on the lot.

Upper photo, N.80-11-895, N.88.2.515-517, 701 E. Green St., Cora Washington House, East Wilson Historic District, Wilson, Wilson County, Survey and National Register Branch, State Historic Preservation Office, Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, Division of Archives and Records, Raleigh. Lower photo taken by Lisa Y. Henderson, 2025.

James Robert Washington celebrates his fourth birthday.

Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 19 January 1929.

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The Vicks entertain.

The Colored American, 21 February 1903.

The headline, I think, should say “Mr. and Mrs. Vick Entertained at Wilson, North Carolina.” This charming social piece, submitted pseudonymously by “Juliet,” details a dinner party hosted by Samuel and Annie Washington Vick in 1903. (Where was their home at that time? The house we now know as the Vick residence was not yet built.)

Guests included Rev. Owen L.W. Smith, former minister to Liberia; Annie Vick’s brother Paul Washington; Mrs. M.E. Dortch; Po_a S[illegible]; and Julia A. Amee. Geneva Battle and Sarah Dortch assisted Annie Vick as hostesses. (Four years later, Sarah Dortch would marry Walter S. Hines.)

 

The death of John Jenkins (alias Thomas Washington).

Wilson Daily Times, 3 July 1931.

According to this news account, Minerva Barnes slashed her brother-in-law John Jenkins across the forearm because he had slapped her sister. However, the dead man’s death certificate reports his name as Thomas Washington. 

Minerva Barnes’ charges were eventually upgraded to manslaughter, but she was acquitted in February 1932.

Wilson Daily Times, 10 February 1932.

Clipping courtesy of J. Robert Boykin III.

Closing exercises of the Colored Graded School.

Wilson Mirror, 9 May 1888.

Twenty-five year-old Samuel H. Vick had been teacher and principal at the Colored Graded School since shortly after his graduation from Lincoln University. A year after this graduation, he was appointed by President William H. Harrison to his first stint as Wilson postmaster, a highly sought-after political patronage position. Vick hired his old friend Braswell R. Winstead, with whom he had attended high school and college and taught at the Graded School, as assistant postmaster. Teacher A. Wilson Jones was married to Vick’s sister Nettie Vick Jones — and murdered her in 1897. Annie Washington was about 18 years old when this article was published. She and Samuel Vick married almost exactly four years later.

Lane Street Project: Aaron Washington?

This broken concrete headstone is lying atop the square marble base of a grave marker that has gone completely missing. The legible part of the broken stone reads: DIED APR 2 192 and MAY THE RESURRECTION FIND THEE ON THE BOSOM OF THY GOD.

A search of Wilson County death certificates filed in the 1920s reveals this possible identification of the deceased. Aaron Washington died 2 April 1923 in Wilson. (The bottom curve of the last digit in the year, above, is consistent with a 3.) Per his death certificate, he was born 21 February 1866 in Freemont [Fremont, Wayne County], N.C., to Gray Washington and Julie Sharp; was married to Stella Washington; worked as a drayman; and lived on Waynewright [Wainwright] Street.

Aaron Washington’s mother Julia Sharpe Washington and son Alexander Washington died in 1913 and 1918, respectively. If the marker above is in fact Aaron’s, it is likely that his family members were buried near him.

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On 10 August 1889, Aaron Washington, 21, married Stella Simms, 18, in Wilson.

In the 1900 census of Wilson, Wilson County: drayman Aaron Washington, 30; wife Stella, 25; and children Samuel, 12, Clera, 9, Ora, 3, and Aaron, 1.

In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on Spruce Street, Aaron Washington, 46, drayman; wife Stella, 36, laundress; and children Clee, 17, cook, Ora, 12, cook, Grey A., 10, Hattie, 8, Alex, 6, Beatrice, 5, Lillie R., 2, and James W., 1.

In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on Wainwright Street, Aaron Washington, 55; wife Stella, 40; and children Ava, 20, Hattie, 14, Beatrice and Lila, 12, James, 9, Dazelle, 7, Mary, 6, and Elmon, 5.

Photo by Lisa Y. Henderson, January 2021.

The death of young Alex Washington.

Twelve year-old Alexander Washington died of appendicitis in March 1918, a not uncommon outcome in an era of clumsy surgery and few antibiotics. Compounding the sadness of his young death is the realization that he was already a full-time working man when he was struck down.

Washington’s death certificate notes that he was a servant in a boarding house and employed by Mrs. Lillie Barnes. Astonishingly, in 1916, when he was 11, he was listed as a butler in the Wilson city directory. I have not been able to identify with certainty Lillie Barnes or the boarding house. The inclusion of the honorific “Mrs.” implies that Lillie Barnes was white. However, there was only one Lillie Barnes listed in the 1912 and 1916 city directories, and she was “colored.” In 1916, Lillie Barnes was listed with no occupation and living at 612 East Nash Street. The 1913 Sanborn fire insurance map of Wilson reveals a small shotgun, or “endway,” house at this address, not a dwelling large enough to have been a boarding house requiring a full-time servant.

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In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on Spruce Street, Aaron Washington, 46, drayman; wife Stella, 36, laundress; and children Clee, 17, cook, Ora, 12, cook, Grey A., 10, Hattie, 8, Alex, 6, Beatrice, 5, Lillie R., 2, and James W., 1.

In the 1916 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Washington Alex (c) butler h Wainwright av nr S Reid. Also: Washington Aaron (c) drayman h Wainwright av nr S Reid; Washington Hattie (c) dom h Wainwright av nr S Reid; Washington Ora M (c) dom h Wainwright av nr S Reid.

[Note: The informant on Alexander Washington’s death certificate was his paternal grandmother, Judia [Julia] Washington. She correctly named Alex’s father, Aaron Washington, but when asked “maiden name of mother,” she gave her own maiden name — Judia Sharpe. It was a surprisingly common mistake. Alex Washington’s mother was Estella Simms Washington.]