The TB.

My grandmother: Jay’s daddy had TB, and he just gave it to them. To my aunt and Jay. But he lived years and years and years after both of them died.

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Tuberculosis, once also called phthisis, is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria. Tuberculosis typically attacks the lungs, but can also affect other parts of the body. It is spread through the air when people with an active TB infection cough, sneeze, or otherwise transmit respiratory fluids through the air. The classic symptoms of active infection are a chronic cough with blood-tinged sputum, fever, night sweats, and weight loss (the latter giving rise to the old term “consumption.“) Tuberculosis has been present in humans since antiquity. Tuberculosis caused the most widespread public concern in the 19th and early 20th centuries as an endemic disease of the urban poor and was the leading cause of death in many cities in the early 1900s. By mid-century, the development of the antibiotic streptomycin made effective treatment and cure of TB a reality.

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In memory of members of my extended family who succumbed to this disease:

Annie Locust Artis, age 28. Wayne County NC, 19 April 1915.

Minnie Clyde Sauls, age 25. Snow Hill NC, 12 May 1915.

Frances Artis Newsome, age 21. Wayne County NC, 9 May 1916.

Appie Artis, age 37. Wilson County NC, 28 May 1916.

Cain Artis, age 66. Wilson County NC, 23 March 1917.

Nettie Barnes, age 22. Wilson NC, 9 May 1917.

Toltie Forbes, age 21. Greene County NC, 18 June 1917.

Jesse Swinson Jr., age 28. Goldsboro NC, 1 July 1917.

William Barnes, age 28. Wilson NC, 6 August 1917.

Harriet Artis Brown, age 44. Wayne County NC, 6 November 1918.

Pelia N. Artis, age 11. Wayne County NC, 24 July 1919.

Charlie Barnes, age ____. Asheville NC, 28 July 1919.

Walter Clinton Artis, age 23. Wayne County NC, 15 November 1921.

Jarod C. Miller, age 21. Rowan County NC, 4 December 1921.

Elethea McNeely Weaver, age 33. Statesville NC, 10 October 1922.

Johnnie Swinson, age 32. Goldsboro NC, 25 December 1922.

Estell Artis, age 15. Wayne County NC, 20 February 1924.

John Henderson, age 63. Goldsboro NC, 8 August 1924.

Warland Barnes, age 19. Wilson NC, 4 Dec 1926.

William Coley, age 61. Near Wilson NC, 26 January 1928.

Jerrell R. Barnes, age 19. Wilson NC, 14 May 1928.

Napoleon Artis, age 21. Wayne County NC, 9 September 1928.

Sadie Holt Farrar, age 35. Greensboro NC, 13 October 1929.

T. Alonzo Hart, age 63. Quewhiffle NC, 17 December 1929.

Alberta Artis, age 23. Near Eureka NC, 9 June 1931.

Blonnie Barnes Zachary, age 24. Wilson NC, 10 January 1932.

James A. Aldridge, age 42. Near Wilson NC, 3 July 1932.

Ora Artis, age 62. Wayne County NC, 8 August 1933.

Irving McNeely Weaver, age 22. Bayonne NJ, November 1933.

Malinda Applewhite Artis, age 40. Wilson County NC, 5 March 1936.

Joe Artis, age 62. Wayne County NC, 29 November 1939.

Viola Barnes, age 48. Wilson NC, 3 July 1943.

Liberty P. Artis, age 11. Stantonsburg NC, 10 July 1945.

Alphonso Artis, age 38. Goldsboro NC, 2 May 1946.

Paul Aldridge, age 34. Dudley NC, 8 June 1947.

Annie Marie Artis Sampson, age 27. Fremont NC, 12 June 1949.

Minnie Belle Artis, age 20. Stantonsburg NC, 4 April 1950.

Land, Maternal Kin, North Carolina, Other Documents

Where we lived: colored settlements.

Me: And where was the area that was called Wallacetown?

My grandmother: Mm-hmm. That was just out near where we lived. We lived out there. And then there was like a stream or a branch or something where you crossed that thing, that was called Rabbittown.

Me: Okay.

Grandma: We lived in Wallacetown.

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From the 1916 city directory of Statesville, North Carolina:

Popular Branch — a colored settlement southeast of Wallacetown [actually, it was “Poplar” Branch]

Rabbittown — a colored settlement southeast of Wallacetown

Wallacetown — a colored settlement southeast of the railway station

Rankinsville — a colored settlement to the right of the north end of Centre Street

DNA, Maternal Kin, Photographs

Strong genes, no. 2: that eyebrow.

My great-grandmother, my grandmother, my mother’s brother, and me.

Births Deaths Marriages, Land, North Carolina, Other Documents, Paternal Kin

The house and the lot on which they now live.

Buck Martin never married. At the end of his life, he and his bachelor brother Alfred lived together in the “home place,” perhaps the house they had grown up in, which Buck owned. Just down the road lived another unmarried brother, Dortch, and their widowed sister, Virginia “Jenny” Martin Herring.

A few months before his death, Buck drew up a will that insured that Alfred would keep a roof over his head and that, more importantly, his younger children and their mother, Sarah Barfield, would not be dispossessed of the house and acre of land upon which they lived. By its terms, the will provided that the Barfields could remain on the property for the duration of their lifetimes and those of their survivors, after which it would revert to his brothers or their heirs. In fact, they did not stay quite so long. Sarah Barfield died in 1942, and the property reverted to Buck’s brother Ira’s children. Lillie Barfield Holmes bought the house from them, but it later burned down.

[Sidenote: Buck Martin died 18 June 1928 of sarcoma of the right thigh. His brother Ira died of heart failure exactly ten days later.]

Births Deaths Marriages, Maternal Kin, Newspaper Articles, North Carolina, Oral History, Photographs

Remembering Grandma Carrie.

Me: In her pictures she always looked stern.

My mother: Grandma?

Me: Carrie.

Ma: Grandma Carrie? I know it. But she was funny. She was funny to me. She could say some of the, she could say some funny stuff. I know that’s where Mama gets it from. The little sayings.

Statesville Landmark, 20 December 1957.

My grandmother didn’t think much of Charles V. Taylor:

Course she met this guy and married him that she had known him when she was a child. Taylor. And went to New Jersey. She came back home, and Mama had high blood pressure, you know. But she kept, her doctors kept it in check. But he hadn’t let her go to the doctor for two times, and she had a stroke and died. Oooo. I could have killed that man. I was so mad with that man I didn’t know what to do. And when we went down there, Mama just got worse and worse. She went to the hospital, and they did everything they could at the hospital, and then they let her come home. And I went down there to see her one time, while she was at home, you know, and she couldn’t talk. She couldn’t talk, I mean. And she would try her best to tell me something. And I just cried and cried and cried and cried and cried. And I didn’t know what she was trying to tell me. So my sister lived not far from her. And she was a cafeteria manager, but she would come to see Mama between the meals. You know, in the morning breakfast and lunch, and then after dinner she’d come. She really did take care of Mama when she was living with that Thing. And she went to the hospital and stayed awhile, and he wouldn’t pay the hospital bill. And I took a note out at the bank, and Louise paid her doctor’s bill and everything, and when she died, he tried to make us pay all the burial expenses. And his brother came over there and told us, said, “Don’t you pay a penny. ‘Cause he’s got money, and he’s supposed to use it for that.” And said, “Don’t you do it. Don’t you give it to him.” And that man and the undertaker got together and planned all that stuff against us, you know. The three of us. It was terrible. And Mama had a lot of beautiful clothes, you know, because this man bought her things. And they were all in there looking at them. I said, “I don’t want a thing. I don’t want not one thing.” I think I got a coat. It was just like a spring coat. It was lined. And I think Louise insisted that I take it, but that was the only thing that I took.

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Remembering Caroline Martha Mary Fisher Valentine McNeely Colvert Taylor, who died 56 years ago today.

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Military, North Carolina, Other Documents, Paternal Kin

World War I draft registration cards: Aldridge, no. 1.

Three sons of John W. Aldridge and their first cousins, sons of George W. Aldridge:

George’s son Prince A. Aldridge appears on a list titled “Negroes Certified” (US Lists of Men Ordered to Report to Local Board for Military Duty 1917-1918, ancestry.com), but it is not clear whether he ever enlisted and served. He moved to Wilson NC after the war and worked as a plasterer and occasional tobacco factory worker. Prince died 15 May 1953.

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Prince’s brother Blanchard (“Blancher”) Aldridge was called up in July 1918 and ordered to Florida A&M’s Tallahassee, Florida campus. His gravestone indicates that he served in 78th Division, Provision Outpost, Machine Gun Training Center.

From his discharge papers: Blanchard Aldridge. #3022528. Priv, 78th Prov Co, 7th Prov Tr Gr MTDMGTC. Honorably discharged. Born in Goldsboro NC. Enlisted at 22 years of age. Occupation: Presser. Brown eyes, black hair, brown complexion. 5’8″. Camp Hannah GA, 6 Jan 1919. Enlisted 1 Jul 1918, Goldsboro NC. Not rated, marksmanship. No battles, no wounds, normal physical condition. Single. Excellent character. Entitled to travel pay from Camp Hannah GA to Goldsboro NC.

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Johnnie Aldridge was the only one of John Aldridge’s sons to remain a farmer in the Dudley area. He was newly married in 1917. I wish I knew the story of the broken skull. Johnnie died 13 April 1964.

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Though, as a medical student, he probably had fewer resources than his brothers John and Zebedee, Tom Aldridge claimed responsibility for the support of his widowed mother and unmarried sisters. He also asserted that his own health was poor. He had already begun to shave years off his age — he was born in 1886, in fact — but had not yet changed the spelling of his surname to “Aldrich.” Tom was enrolled at Meharry School of Medicine at the time he registered, and his obituary reports that he served in the Army Medical Corps in 1918. Tom died in Saint Louis MO in February 1968.

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Zebedee Aldridge, the oldest of John Aldridge’s sons, had been living in Virginia for nearly 20 years by time he registered. He was in his late 30s and was not called to serve. Zebedee died August 1958.

Births Deaths Marriages, North Carolina, Other Documents, Paternal Kin

Misinformation Monday, no. 1.

The first in a series of posts revealing the fallability of records, even “official” ones.

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The “true facts”: Caswell C. Henderson was born in 1865 in Sampson County, North Carolina, to Lewis Henderson and Margaret Balkcum Henderson.

Nonetheless, this is what the records say:

(1) Marriage license, issued 1893 in New York City: Caswell C. Henderson was born in New York NY to Lewis Henderson and an unknown mother.

(2) 1900 federal census: Caswell Henderson was born in New York to New York-born parents.

(3) Marriage license, issued 1907 in New York City: Caswell C. Henderson was born in New York City to Lewis Henderson and Margaret Balcum.

(4) 1910 federal census: Caswell C. Henderson was born in New York. His father was born in Virginia; his mother, in New York.

(5) 1920 federal census: Caswell C. Henderson was born in New York to New York-born parents.

(6) Death certificate, issued 1927 in New York City: Caswell Henderson was born in North Carolina to an unknown father born in North Carolina and an unknown mother born in an unknown state.

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Who was the source of this misinformation? Did Caswell claim to have been born in New York? Why?

Sidenote: Though Caswell’s middle initial, “C,” is almost always noted, I have never seen his middle name spelled out and have no idea what is it.

Vocation

Where we worked: laundresses, pressers and a bootblack.

Rachel Barnes Taylor, Wilson NC – laundress, 1900s-1927.

Sarah Henderson Jacobs Silver, Wilson NC – laundress, 1900s-1938.

Ella Mercer Barnes, Wilson NC – wife of Wesley Barnes; laundress, circa 1910.

Mary Mercer Barnes, Wilson NC – wife of Jesse Barnes; laundress, circa 1910.

Ida Colvert Stockton, Statesville NC – laundress, circa 1910.

Julia “Mollie” Henderson Hall Holt, Greensboro NC — washerwoman, circa 1910.

Agnes West Artis, Washington DC – wife of Adam T. Artis Jr.; laundress, circa 1910.

Lon W. Colvert, Statesville NC – owned and operated pressing & cleaning business, 1910s-1920s.

Bertha Taylor Reaves, Wilson NC – laundress, washerwoman, 1910s-1930s.

Selma E. Colvert, Statesville NC – laundress, 1910s.

Blanchard Aldridge, Fremont NC — pressing & cleaning, 1910s.

Hattie Mae Henderson Ricks, Wilson NC – laundress, 1920s-1930s.

Eliza Taylor Taylor, Wilson NC — laundress, circa 1920.

Greeman Taylor, Wilson NC – street bootblack, circa 1920.

Onie Miller, Salisbury NC — washing, circa 1930.

Daisy Barfield, Mount Olive NC — laundress, circa 1924.

Annie Artis Best, Wilson NC – laundress, circa 1930.

Sallie Wynn Manuel, Goldsboro NC — laundress, circa 1930.

Carrie McNeely Colvert, Statesville NC – laundress, 1930s.

Janie McNeely Taylor, Statesville NC – laundress, Statesville Steam Laundry, 1930s.

Frances McNeely, Statesville NC — laundress, Statesville Steam Laundry, 1930s.

Sarah McNeely Green, Statesville NC – laundress, Statesville Steam Laundry, circa 1930.

Sylvia Kornegay Smith, Goldsboro NC – wife of Johnnie Smith; laundress, circa 1930.

Madie Taylor Barnes, New York NY – presser, dress factory, 1930s-1940s.

Vera Barnes, New York NY – presser, dress factory, circa 1940.

Rachel Barnes Stevens, New York NY – presser, dress factory, circa 1940.

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The fifth in an occasional series exploring the ways in which my kinfolk made their livings in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

North Carolina, Paternal Kin, Photographs

Strong genes, no. 1.

Jack Henderson and Daniel Simmons, first cousins.

Jack (1893-1970) was the son of Loudie Henderson. Daniel (1895-1964) was the son of her sister Ann Elizabeth Henderson Simmons. Both were born and grew up in Dudley, Wayne County.

Enslaved People, Maternal Kin, North Carolina, Other Documents, Rights

Accept no pass unless …

Ring the Court House bell at 10 o’clock every night and at all other times when necessary to alarm the citizens.

Arrest all slaves absent from home after the bell rings and after the calaboose is finished lock them up till day light. Give them 15 lashes and inform the magistrate of their names and owners.

Accept no pass unless the place or places where the slave is permitted to go is written in the same and arrest the slave if found off a direct line or road from one place to another.

Arrest all slaves engaged in a disturbance either with or without a pass.

A pass allowing a slave to visit his wife is good for one month and then must be taken up and another given or he will be arrested.

Iredell County slave ordinances, undated. North Carolina State Archives.

Scuffalong: Genealogy.

Author Archives: Lisa Y. Henderson