Wilson township

Wilson township enslavers.

The 1860 slave schedule is the only known surviving, contemporaneous list of the men and women who enslaved black people in Wilson County. It is not a list of the enslaved themselves, as none are named in that census. Rather, the schedule described people by “color” (black or mulatto), sex, and age.

Organized by township, this series will set forth these enslavers, the number of people they held in 1860, and the ages of the youngest and oldest people held. Where possible, I will also name people known to be enslaved by each person. They may or may not correspond to the enslaved people described in the 1860 slave schedule. The paucity of such identifications is heartbreaking, and I continue to search.

Wilson district, which included the Town of Wilson and its immediate surrounds, was the southwestern end of Edgecombe County prior to 1855. The 1860 slave schedule lists 118 enslavers — far more than in any other township of Wilson County — the largest of whom were William Barnes, who held 79 people, and his brother Joshua Barnes, who held 67 people and controlled another 29 as a trustee for minor heirs.

B.H. [Benjamin H.] Bardin — 13, aged 1 to 30 years

B.H. Bardin, in trust — 8, aged 1 to 30 years

J.J. [Jesse J.] Bardin — 5, aged 7 to 60 years

Willie Daniel — 18, aged 6 months to 37 years

Albert Farmer — 2, aged 13 and 15 years

Westley Swift — 12, aged 1 to 37 years

W.G. Jordan — 13, ages 1 to 40 years

R.D. [Robert D.] Johnston — 8, ages 2 to 39 years

W.W. [Willie W.] Winstead — 1, age 15 years

B.B. Barnes — 2, ages 23 and 52 years

William M. Gay — 10, ages 8 to 60 years

William M. Gay, in trust — 11, ages 8 to 70 years

W.D. [Willie Daniel] Rountree — 5, ages 2 to 50 years

Moses Rountree — 4, ages 2 to 50 years

N.A.H. Godwin — 3, ages 10 to 30 years

Jesse D. Barnes — 6, ages 9 to 45 years

James D. Barnes — 35, ages 8 months to 56 years

William Murray — 1, age 50 years

S.M. [Spencer May] Warren — 1, age 31 years

Alfred J. Brown — 4, ages 2 to 26 years

E.G. [Edwin G.] Clark — 2, ages 11 and 13 years

Margaret H. Battle — 32, ages 1 to 68 years

Thomas C. Davis — 4, ages 4 months to 23 years

Edmund Moore — 23, age 6 months to 50 years

Lovet Peacock, in trust for one minor — 4, ages 3 to 28 years

Lovet Peacock — 2, ages 1 month and 30 years

John Hearn — 8, ages 7 to 38 years

William Hamlet — 1, age 30 years

Arthur D. Farmer — 5, ages 7 to 40 years

Sarah A. Stephens — 3, ages 12 to 66 years

Jane Hamlet — 2, ages 12 and 31 years (the younger described as “D[eaf] & D[umb]”)

Spencer Fountain — 1, age 11 years

A.C. Thomas — 1, age 14 years

Perry Barnes, in trust for one minor — 4, ages 18 to 60 years

Thomas D. Gay — 8, ages 1 to 28 years

Sallie Barnes — 2, ages 8 and 11 years

J.D. [Jonathan Dew] Rountree — 12, ages 4 months to 50 years

B[uckner D]. Stith — 1, age 38 years

Mary E. Ricks — 1, age 20 years

L.D. [Larry Dew] Farmer — 33, ages 2 months to 37 years

Elizabeth Farmer — 14, ages 9 months to 54 years

Jesse H. Adams — 31, ages 2 to 70 years

George Howard — 8, ages 6 to 39 years

Jacob S. Barnes — 20, ages 2 to 65 years

Jesse S. Barnes — 7, ages 4 months to 36 years

John Farmer — 21, ages 3 to 34 years + “left out on page,” 6 additional, ages 37 to 56 years

John Farmer, in trust for 6 heirs — 19, ages 8 to 63 years

George Barefoot — 10, ages 1 to 75 years

John S. Barnes — 1, age 7 years

Dempsey G. Barnes — 1, age 26 years

A.J. [Andrew Jackson] Barefoot — 15, ages 5 months to 60 years

Mary Barnes’ Sarah — age 100

James Tomlinson — 6, ages 3 to 30 years

John McGowns — 11, ages 2 months to 40 years

Ann Scarboro — 10, 6 months to 50 years

Benjamin Simms — 37, ages 3 months to 63 years

Larry Dew — 34, ages 3 months to 60 years

Joshua Barnes — 67, ages 8 months to 94 years

Thomas Jordan — 15, ages 9 months to 32 years

J.H. Martin — 1, age 21 years

Jacob Taylor — 6, ages 8 to 45 years

Julian Jordan — 4, ages 3 to 30 years

John Barnes — 8, ages 4 months to 27 years

William Tomlinson — 9, ages 2 to 54 years

Samuel Barnes — 3, ages 5 months to 24 years

Jonathan Bullock — 1, age 50 years

John W. Farmer — 10, ages 7 to 46 years

Ira G. Ellis — 8, ages 10 months to 32 years

Cornelius Jordan — 7, ages 2 to 50 years

John P. Clark — 5, ages 3 to 25 years

R.H. [Richard Hines] Blount — 27, ages 4 months to 80 years

R.H. Blount, in trust for 2 minor heirs — 2, ages 24 and 75 years

J.J. [Joseph J.] Lawrence — 2, ages 12 and 19 years

James Jordan — 4, ages 12 to 30 years

J.W. [James Watson] Davis — 2, both age 14 years

Martha Selby — 5, ages 3 to 45 years

Isaac Harris — 6, ages 1 to 26 years

John Dew — 27, ages 5 months to 39 years

Gray B. Sharp — 5, ages 14 to 52 years

Samuel Marshbourn — 18, ages 1 month to 65 years

Jonathan T. Dew — 7, ages 8 to 34 years

  • Edwin

David Dew — 7, ages 6 to 50 years

John Coleman — 2, ages 27 to 30 years

Patsey White — 8, ages 1 to 47 years

  • Stephen, Cherry, Luke, Thomas, Harriet, Fanny,

Isaac B. Farmer — 20, ages 6 months to 40 years

Nancy Farmer — 2, both age 50 years

Ephraim E. Cobb — 1, age 18

Isaac Farmer — 2, ages 45 and 50 years

Ceborn Farmer — 3, ages 9 to 55 years

Iredell Farmer — 1, age 20 years

Permelia Farmer — 1, age 55 years

Jesse B. Robbins — 5, ages 8 months to 38 years

Arthur Robbins — 10, ages 1 month to 60 years

John Thorn — 5, ages 2 to 25 years

S.B. Farmer — 14, ages 1 to 67 years

G.W. Ruffin — 22, ages 3 to 43 years

James Farmer — 1, age 94 years

Arthur B. Dew — 6, ages 3 months to 51 years

Lemon Ruffin — 21, ages 1 to 52 years

David Conner — 1, age 70 years

Elizabeth Amason — 4, ages 5 to 50 years

Calvin Rountree — 2, ages 1 and 36 years

Crissie Rountree — 1, age 8 years

  • Deley

Elizabeth Rountree — 6, ages 10 months to 61 years

James Rountree — 1, age 32 years

Charles Rountree — 8, ages 2 to 29 years

Margaret Rountree — 12, ages 1 to 37 years

Elisha Barnes — 1, age 23 years

James D. Barnes, in trust for 4 minor heirs — 5, ages 14 to 51 years

Charles F. Deems — 1, age 40 years

Jackson Brinkley — 2, ages 8 and 17 years

[no first name] Skinner — 1, age 25 years

Nathan T. Rountree — 3, ages 2 to 30 years

  • Patsey, Jane, Amos, George

John Harper — 3, ages 8 to 36 years

  • Jason, Lettice, Martha

O[swald]. Lipscomb — 9, ages 6 to 55 years

  • Stephen

Benjamin Bynum — 12, ages 1 to 41 years

Thomas Mollison — 3, ages 13 to 23 years

Walter Farmer — 13, ages 3 months to 55 years

A.S. [Alexander Spotswood] Cotton — 42, ages 1 to 70 years

Thomas Hadley — 39, ages 2 to 74 years

Calvin Parker — 13, ages 1 to 38 years

Jesse Fulghum — 9, ages 2 to 56 years

Alsey Stott — 2, ages 7 and 20 years

David Taylor — 5, ages 8 to 50 years

Thomas Johnston — 4, ages 11 to 56 years

Joshua Barnes, in trust for 2 minor heirs — 29, ages 2 months to 65 years

William Barnes Jr., in trust for 1 minor heir — 6, ages 9 to 38 years

 

County schools, no. 3: Lane School.

The third in a series of posts highlighting the schools that educated African-American children outside the town of Wilson in the first half of the twentieth century. The posts will be updated; additional information, including photographs, is welcome.

Lane School

Lane School was one of two known schools for African-American children outside town limits (but inside Wilson township) that were administered by town of Wilson’s public school system. The date of construction is not known, but white children attended school there until school consolidation circa 1920.

Location: In May 1942, an article in the Wilson Daily Times announced locations for sugar ration registration, including “Lane school, all colored people living within Wilson Township but east of Wilson.”

Seven years later, Wilson City Schools offered Lane Colored School for sale. The metes and bounds are somewhat difficult to decipher: “Beginning at a small water-oak on the North side of the public cart path leading from H.B. Lane’s to A.P. Moore’s (said pathway leading from Moyton and Stantonsburg roads) thence in a Northerly direction, at right angles to said public cart path, eighty yards to a stake, cornering, thence in a Westerly direction parallel with said public cart path sixty-one and one-fourth yards to a stake, cornering, thence in a Southern direction eighty yards to a stake in said public cart path, thence in an Easterly direction along with said public cart path sixty-one and one-fourths yards to the beginning.”

I’d thought “the cart path” was one that ran between what are now Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway and Stantonsburg Road. However, Will Corbett of Wilson County’s GIS Office steered me in the right direction by locating the general area in which H.B. Lane and A.P. Moore’s properties were adjacent or nearly so. This area is just above what is now Wedgewood Gold Club. (And about a mile due south of the neighborhood in which I grew up.)

A 1925 soil map indicates a church or school on one of a maze of dirt paths meandering between what are now Old Stantonsburg Road and N.C. Highway 58. This is likely Lane School. There are few houses in the area now, and except for a single road leading in from 58, the paths are gone.

A 1937 aerial map shows the land and its use more clearly. Most of the paths shown in 1925 had been plowed up by then, though some are visible through the trees. I have encircled a cluster of buildings that appears to approximate the location of Lane School.

Here, per Google Maps, is my best approximation of the area today. A section of Wedgewood’s golf course is visible at lower right:

Screen Shot 2020-05-29 at 3.44.17 PM

Wilson Daily Times, 10 September 1949.

Description: one-room school.

Known faculty: teachers Blanche Thomas, Clara R. Cooke.

——

Update, 14 June 2020: I found a photograph of Lane School in Charles L. Coon’s report The Public Schools of Wilson County, North Carolina: Ten Years 1913-14 to 1923-24!

My deepest thanks to Will Corbett.

Receipt for negro slaves.

Wilson Daily Times, 10 January 1950.

This brief article appeared in a edition of the Daily Times celebrating Wilson’s centennial. It possibly raises more questions than it sheds light:

  • Did this transaction take place in Wilson County? Burket Barnes and Jethro Aycock appear in Wayne County census records after Wilson County’s 1855 creation.
  • How many enslaved people did Barnes sell to Aycock? The $3400 sale price suggests several. (And why did the Daily Times see fit to omit their names in 1950?)
  • Does the last paragraph relate to the receipt?
  • “One of the negro slaves of the township”? I assume the township is Wilson township, and the reference is to formerly enslaved people.
  • Wiggins Mill was a grist mill on Contentnea Creek, and the modern dam and reservoir can be seen from U.S. 301 South.
  • Who was “Aunt Sylvia“? The 1940 census of Wilson County reveals only one African-American woman named Sylvia in Wilson township old enough to have been enslaved, and barely. Sylvia Jones‘ age was estimated as 75, which yields an 1865 birth year. However, Jones noted that she had lived in Edgecombe County just five years earlier, and in the 1930 census she was living in Toisnot township. And only 50 years old.

 

Grabneck.

From the 1979 National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination Form for the West Nash Street Historic District:

“Harry West Abbitt House, 1105 West Nash Street.

“One of the largest and most impressive examples of the Colonial Revival style in Wilson, this two-and-a-half story, five bay-by-five bay, double-pile brick residence was built for automobile dealer Harry West Abbitt (1881-1957). It was designed by Solon Balias Moore (1872-1930) and constructed by Robert and James E. Wilkins in 1926. Abbitt was a native of Virginia, came to Wilson ca 1915, and opened Wilson’s first Ford dealership. In addition to being one of the pioneer automobile dealers in Wilson, he was the builder of numerous rental commercial properties. This lot was purchased by Abbitt in October 1925 from Wilson Best, a black bricklayer who resided here. The Bests owned a significant portion of this area, then known as Grabneck, which was occupied by blacks at the turn of the century. The massive Abbitt House is sheltered beneath a gable roof and is flanked on each side elevation by twin interior end brick chimneys with slightly projecting exposed faces which have stone shoulders. The east facade features a slightly projecting formal entrance bay crowned by a front gable. This bay contains an entrance with sidelights and transom on the first story and a similar arrangement surrounding a six-over-six sash window on the second story. The front porch is carried by Tuscan columns and is echoed on the south by the glass enclosed sun porch and on the north by the porte cochere. The fenestration consists of six-over-six sash windows with brick soldier course lintels that have stone keystones and end voussoirs and stone sills. Completing the substantial Colonial Revival finish are dentiled boxed cornices with dentiled frieze which return on the central pediment and the end gables, the dentiled porch frieze, two front gable dormers which contain handsome arched windows, and a brick soldier course water table. Shed rooms which flank a screened porch occupy the rear elevation, which has a handsome second story latticed balustrade. Access to the interior was not permitted. At the rear of the house is an equally handsome two-story, two-car garage that echoes the finish of the house. It has a central peaked gable, returning boxed cornices at the side elevations, an exterior end chimney with stone shoulders, stone sills under the six-over-one sash windows, and brick soldier course lintels over the windows and car bays. Abbitt died in 1957 and his widow, Margaret (Dixon) Abbitt continues to occupy the house.”

——

In the 1910 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: on Nash Road, Wilson Best, 28, bricklayer; wife Ada, 30, laundress; and children Wilson Jr., 2, and Noah, 14 months.

The Bests’ close neighbors included members of their extended family, including Wilson Best’s father Noah Best and uncle Orren Best Their enumeration district, 114, was almost entirely African-American, with houses clustered just outside town limits on or near Nash Road, Raleigh Road, Finch’s Mill Road, Winona Road, and New Creek Road.

The Sanborn Fire Insurance Company did not map the Grabneck neighborhood until 1922, when city limits pushed further northwest.

Here is 1105 West Nash Street, a small one-story wooden dwelling. Abbitt razed it to build his manse.

Sanborn fire insurance map, 1922.

The 1908 and 1912 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory show clusters of Best families at Nash Street near Bynum Street and Best’s Lane near Nash — a dozen in 1912. By 1916, the number had dropped to nine, and by 1920 to eight. By the 1922 city directory, pressures on Grabneck — now seen as attractive real estate for Wilson’s prospering white middle class — had reduced the number of Bests to two, Wilson and Ada at 1105. Had landowners in the community been pressured to sell or other otherwise pushed out? When the Bests sold out in 1925, the makeover of West Nash Street was essentially complete. By 1930, Grabneck’s former residents had dispersed southwest to New Grabneck, southeast to Daniel Hill, or across town to East Wilson, and evidence of this facet of the African-American history of the city slipped into obscurity.

Modern map of Wilson per Bing.com, with Wilson Best’s land marked.

[Coda: on 10 January 1950, the Wilson Daily Times published a Centennial Anniversary edition to mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of Wilson. One article, “Citizen of 1949 Returns to Look at Modern Wilson,” reviewed city landmarks through the eyes of fictional time traveler Rountree Tomlinson Aycock Woodard Barnes, born in 1825. As he roamed neighborhoods north of downtown, Barnes remarked, “I haven’t enough time here to say that the trees on Nash Street are as pretty as they were in 1849. … There is no real Grabneck section now. Only pretty homes and grounds.”]

 

Mortality schedule, no. 4: Wilson township, 1870.

Each of the United States federal censuses from 1850 to 1880 included a mortality schedule enumerating  individuals who had died in the previous year previous. Each entry noted family number in the population schedule, name, age, sex, color, marital status, place of birth, month of death, occupation, and cause of death.

Here is the 1870 mortality schedule for part of Wilson township, Wilson County:

  • Farmer, James. Age 28, black, worked in iron foundry, died in February, consumption.

In the 1870 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: farm laborer Rosa Farmer, 35, and children Gray, 16, Turner, 17, Mary, 16, Thomas, 13, Daniel, 12, Leah, 10, Jefferson, 8, Louisa, 10 months, and Anna, 3, plus Arche Barnes, 73, cooper.

  • Rountree, Louisa. Age 18, black, died in February, consumption.
  • Rountree, Jesse. Age 3 months, mulatto, died in November, hooping cough.

In the 1870 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: Rebecca Rountree, 50, and children and grandchildren Henry, 20, butcher, John, 23, barber, Dempsy, 26, farm laborer, Charles, 15, Benjamin, 24, butcher, Mary, 30, domestic servant, Joseph, 9, Willie, 8, Lucy, 20, domestic servant, Worden, 2, and Charles, 1.

  • Taylor, Marcellus. Age 1, black, died in November, scrofula.

In the 1870 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: farm laborer Peter Taylor, 32; wife Classy, 37; and children Harred, 8, Haywood, 10, William, 5, and Susan, 8 months.

  • Blount, Mary. Age 30, mulatto, married, died in June, consumption.

In the 1870 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: farm laborer Calvin Blount, 35; farm laborer John Bantler, 23; and Dick, 12, Tillman, 10, Frank, 6, Wright, 7, and William Blount, 4.

  • Mitchell, Maggie. Age 6 months, black, died in July, inflammation stomach.

In the 1870 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: Eliza Mitchell, 26, and daughter Rebecca, 9.

  • Renfrow, [illegible].  Age 46, black, married, farm laborer, died in October, pneumonia.

In the 1870 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: Sarah Renfrow, 45, Isaac, 14, Rosa, 30, and Dennis, 4, plus Lewis Kelly, 23.

  • Milton, Lindsey. Age 48, black, married, farm laborer, died in May, heart [illegible].

In the 1870 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: domestic servant Eliza Milton, 41, and children John, 13, Robert, 12, and Francy, 8; Susan Benjamin, 2; and Mark Blount, 18.

  • Ruffin, infant. Age 1, black, died in October, unknown.

In the 1870 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: farm laborer Green Ruffin, 36; wife Tamer, 30; children Ora, 3, and Martha, 2; and Nicey Watson, 58.

  • Farmer, Luther. Age 19, black, died in February, farm laborer, pleurisy(?).

In the 1870 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: Washington Farmer, 43; wife Wady, 44; and children Edith, 14, Fortin, 13, Gimsey, 11, John W., 8, Nancy, 6, and Orgius, 6; and farm laborer Nelson Thomas, 21.

  • Bell, Adeline. Age 20, black, died in February, worked on farm, consumption.
  • Battle, Manerva. Age 30, mulatto, died in May, worked on farm, asciteas.

Ascites is the abnormal accumulation of fluid in the abdominal cavity. In the 1870 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: farm laborer Hardy Bell, 65; Lucinda, 48; and children Wilson, 17, Isabella, 13, and Ellen, 7; and Turner, 4, Julia, 10, William, 8, Lucinda, 6, Anna, 3, and infant Battle, 10 months.

  • Not known. Age 65, black, widowed, died in March, general debility.

Remarks: “The name of the person in column 2, line 19 could not be ascertained.”

  • Barnes, Caswell. Age 1, black, died in October, cholera infantum.

In the 1870 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: farm laborer Charles Barnes, 26, born in Maryland, and Jackson, 19, and Williams Barnes, 3.

  • Saunders, Jane. Age 4 months, black, died in October, pertussis.

In the 1870 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: farm laborer Guilbert Sanderson, 34; wife Mary, 36; and children Nash, 12, Timothy, 9, Henry, 8, and Margrett, 6.

  • Eatman, Judea Ann. Age 8 months, black, died in September, pertussis.
  • Eatman, Zora. Age 8 months, black, died in October, pertussis.

In the 1870 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: Cynthia Eastman, 40, and children Luke, 23, domestic servant, Turner, 21, Wady, 18, and David, 6.

  • Barnes, Vilet. Age 75, black, widowed, domestic servant, died in September, died from general debility.

In the 1870 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: blacksmith Mark Barnes, 56; wife Judea, 55; daughter Adeline, 19; and grandchildren Lara, 2, and Warren, 7; farm laborer Robert Rountree, 19; and invalid Sophia Barnes, 40.

  • Barnes Rachel. Age 1, black, died in March, epilepsy.

In the 1870 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: farm laborer Short Barnes, 35, wife Rosa, 21, and daughter Rena, 5.

  • Wilder, Caroline. Age 75, black, widowed, died in March, consumption.

In the 1870 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: farm laborer Charles Mathews, 68, and wife Sarah, 65; farm laborer Alfred Farmer, 26, wife Cilla, 23, and son Henry, 2; and Jane Noobly, 8.

Mortality schedule, no. 3: Wilson township, 1870.

Each of the United States federal censuses from 1850 to 1880 included a mortality schedule enumerating  individuals who had died in the previous year previous. Each entry noted family number in the population schedule, name, age, sex, color, marital status, place of birth, month of death, occupation, and cause of death.

Here is the 1870 mortality schedule for part of Wilson township, Wilson County (which does not include the town of Wilson and does not specify family numbers):

  • Hines, Charles. Age 1, black, died in June, cholera infant.
  • Locust, Infant. Age 1 day, black, died in February, asphyxia.
  • Mercer, Robert. Age 1 month, black, died in December. Hooping cough.
  • Thomas, Lucy. Age 25, black, domestic servant, died in April, consumption.
  • Blunt, Vilet. Age 70, mulatto; married; domestic servant; died in July; cancer.
  • Jordan, Mary. Age 26, mulatto, domestic servant; died in May; died from child birth.
  • Edwards, Marzillie. Age 3 months, black, died in December, intermittent fever.
  • Lassiter, Jesse. Age 6, mulatto, died in November, typhoid fever.

“Remarks: 366. Lassiter Jesse. Cause of death unknown; supposed to be typhoid fever from best information obtained.” Household #366: farm laborer Silas Lassiter, 47, and children Ophelia, 25, Mary, 20, Elizabeth, 16, Handy, 14, Penninah, 15, Silas W., 12, Milly, 8, and Jerusha, 4.

  • Powell, Nannie. Age 25, mulatto, farm laborer, died in September, bowel disease.
  • Edmundson, Shepard. Age 51, black, married, farm laborer, died in September, paralysis.
  • Due, Amanda. Age 4, black, died in October, “brain inflam. of.”
  • Horn, Mary. Age 30, black, married, died in April, child birth.
  • Due, Stella A. Age 6 months, black, died in July, cutting teeth.
  • Cook, Alex’dr. Age 3, black, died in August, ascites.
  • Cook, Infant. Age 1 month, black, died in April, epilepsy.
  • Cook, Infant. Age 1 month, black, died in April, epilepsy.

 

Daniel Best awaits the resurrection morn.

wa-7-25-1889

Wilson Advance, 25 July 1889.

In the 1870 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: farm laborer Daniel Best, 62; wife Jane, 50; and children Laura, 19, Nicy, 17, Noah, 16, Orange, 21, and Hancy, 21.

In the 1880 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: hireling Daniel Best, 72, and wife Jane, 55, living amid a cluster of household that included farmer Orren Best, 31, wife Hancy, 31, and children James, 9, Oscar, 6, George, 4, Frances, 2, and Hattie, 3 months; hireling Lewis Best, 53, wife Harriette, 50, and children Daniel, 23, Sarah, 12, John, 8, and Willie, 10; and brickmason Noah Best, 27, wife Sarah, 25, and sons William, 2, and Thomas, 4 months.

The Jim Baker family.

On 24 February 1984, subscribers to the Wilson Daily Times received a supplement with their regular papers. “Tracing Our Roots” was packed with old photos contributed by readers, including this one.

baker-family_stantonsburg-road_1914

“FARM FAMILY,” the caption read. “Mr. and Mrs. Jim Baker, their children and family dog posed outside their farmhouse on Old Stantonsburg Road in 1914. Baker was a farmer, and his descendants still live in Wilson County. The house is still standing.”

——

On 5 January 1905, James Baker, 24, of Wilson, son of Dossey and Ella Baker, married Mollie Cooper, 18, of Toisnot, daughter of Lucy Williams, at the office of Justice of the Peace J.W. Cox in Elm City.

In the 1910 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: on Stantonsburg Road, farmer James Baker, 30, wife Mollie, 24, and children Rena, 4, Moses, 2, and Roncey, 4 months.

When Jim Baker registered for the World War I draft on 12 September 1918, he reported his address as RFD 1, Wilson; his birthdate as 15 April 1879; his occupation as farmer and employer as Atlantic Christian College; and his nearest relative as wife Mollie Baker. He was of medium height and weight, with brown eyes and dark hair, and signed his name with an X.

In the 1920 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: on Nash Road, farmer James Baker, 40, wife Mollie, 33, and children Irena, 14, Moses, 12, Rony, 10, and Lossie, 7.

On 27 July 1940, James Baker died at Wilson’s Mercy Hospital. His death certificate states that he was 57 years old, married to Molly Baker, and lived at 812 East Green Street. Baker was buried at Rountree cemetery, and his daughter Irene Farmer was informant for the certificate.

Mollie Baker died 22 February 1964 and is buried in Rest Haven cemetery.

Hat tip to Will Robinson of Wilson County Public Library.

Cemeteries, no. 1: the Hilliard Ellis family.

Hilliard Ellis, born in slavery, was a successful farmer and landowner in Wilson township. He married Fereby Rountree circa 1848 and registered their 18-year cohabitation in Wilson County on 11 August 1866. As culled from census, marriage and death records, their children included: Louisa Ellis Rowe (1850-1924), Adeline Ellis Mitchell (circa 1853-??), Caroline “Carrie” Ellis Coleman Woodard (1854-1914); William Ellis (1856); George Ellis (1859-1941); Emma Ellis Bunn (1861-1937); Hilliard D. Ellis (1865-1924); Mary Anne Ellis(1866-??); Warren Ellis (1869-??); Phillis Ellis Barnes Hagans (1870-??); and Millie Ellis Smith Hunt (1874-??).

The Hilliard Ellis family cemetery is located just off Nash Street in the New Hope area, which is now within the extreme northwest limits of the city of Wilson. There are approximately 25 identifiable graves in the cemetery, including those of Ellis and his children Hilliard Ellis Jr., Carrie Coleman, Louisa Rowe, and Warren Ellis Jr.

IMG_8376

Hilliard I. Ellis, 6 Jan 1825-22 Sept 1900.

IMG_8382

Louisa Rowe, 1850-7 May 1924.

IMG_8384

Photos by Lisa Y. Henderson.