The Daily Press (Newport News, Virginia), 2 September 1928.
Among his many civic responsibilities, John C. Allen Sr. served as treasurer of the Citizens Civic and Welfare League.
Category Archives: Newspaper Articles
Local legend.
Last month, the Wilson Times featured an article looking back at the legendary coaching career of my father, Rederick C. Henderson.
Photograph by Paul Durham, courtesy of Wilson Times.
Nurse Colvert graduates.
Charlotte Observer, 21 July 1915.
“Good Samaritan Hospital was the first private hospital in North Carolina built exclusively for the treatment of Charlotte’s black citizens, and is one of the oldest of its kind in the United States. Located in Charlotte’s Third Ward neighborhood between Mint and Graham streets, it was built in 1891 with funds raised by St. Peter’s Episcopal Church and its parishioners. … In 1903, a School of Nursing was established in the hospital to train black women, and graduated hundreds of young nurses over the next fifty years.”
My great-grandfather’s sister, Henrietta R. Colvert, began her nursing education at Saint Agnes Hospital in Raleigh, but finished closer to home at Good Samaritan.
[Sidenote: the hospital’s site now lies under Bank of America Stadium, home of the Carolina Panthers.]
In honor of Pat Painter.
I had a hunch, so I Googled for an obituary. Sure enough.
I wrote of Pat York Painter in February 2015. We had made chance acquaintance online when she commented on one of my blog posts on the basis of our mutual descent from Thomas and Rebecca Nicholson Nicholson. “If you’re ever in Iredell County,” she said, “I’ll show you around.” I made it a point. And on a gray and rainy winter afternoon, I rounded the hills and crossed the creeks of Eagle Mills township, ancestral home to my Colverts and Nicholsons and related Daltons, as Pat narrated. She spun a web of stories that introduced me to the lands on which Walker and Rebecca Parks Colvert and Harriet Nicholson lived and identified the enslavers of Josephine Dalton Colvert’s forebears.
“Mrs. Pat York Painter, 80, of Harmony, died Saturday, May 20, 2017 at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem. Born in Iredell County on December 4, 1936, she was a daughter of the late Richard Barnard and Mabel Arlene York Hayes.
“Pat was retired from the Iredell County EMS, where she was the first female Paramedic in Iredell County. She spearheaded the startup of the First Responder Program and was honored with a Lifetime Membership in the Iredell County Rescue Squad. She graduated from Harmony High School and dearly loved her horses, gardening, driving her tractor and being outdoors. She was a hardworking and determined person. She also helped maintain the old Liberty School House.
“Survivors include her children: Linda D. Bronson (Kevin), Susan D. Smyth (Rick), John Duchinski (Julie), Trish D. Velzy (Steve) and David L. Painter (Emily). Also surviving is her brother, Tony Barnard (Lisa) and grandchildren: Dylan Smyth, David A. Painter, Kinsley Jo Duchinski and Jayce Johnson and a special cousin, Joe Mullis.
“Services celebrating Pat’s life will be conducted at 3:00 P.M. Tuesday, May 23, 2017 at Macedonia United Methodist Church with Rev. Mack Warren officiating. Burial will follow in the church cemetery. The family will receive friends at the church from 1:00 to 3:00 prior to the service. Members of the Iredell County Emergency Services will serve as active and honorary pallbearers.
“Condolences may be sent online to the family to www.nicholsonfunerals.com. Memorials may be given in lieu of flowers to the North Iredell Rescue Squad, 1538 Tabor Rd., Harmony, N.C. 28634. Nicholson Funeral Home is entrusted with the arrangements.”
Many thanks, Pat Painter. Rest in peace.
He is just away.
A year after William T. Abrams Jr.’s death, his wife Mamie Aldridge Abrams and son James A. Abrams published a memorial notice in his honor:
The Palmetto Leader, 29 April 1939.
The class of ’52.
Sixty-five years later …
Wilson Daily Times, 29 May 1952.
When I was home earlier this month, my dad and I did a count. About one-third of his graduating class of 75 has lived to see this anniversary. The Class of 1952 included parents of several of my close childhood friends. Though none of us attended, we were blessed to grow up under the Darden umbrella.
Best wishes to the ’52 Trojans! May you celebrate many more!
Rest in peace, Christine H. Groover (1945-2017).
Marion Christine Henderson Groover passed away Friday, May 19, 2017, after a long illness. Chris was an extraordinary nurturer, both within the family and as pediatric nurse. The story of her adoption of her younger daughter captures much of what made Chris so special.
The Allens make the honor roll.
The Daily Press, 9 May 1911.
The Daily Press, 10 November 1912.
The Daily Press, 10 December 1939.
My great-uncle J. Maxwell Allen, great-aunt Marion Allen Lomans, and first cousin once removed J. Maxwell Allen Jr. excelled in their elementary school studies at John Marshall School in Newport News, Virginia. John Marshall opened in 1896.
Heinous charge.
Wilson Mirror, 6 November 1889.
Algie Vaughan’s stepdaughter was Sarah Ward, who was about 15 in 1889. Sarah’s mother Mittie Ward had two children before she married Vaughan in 1879, Sarah and Joseph H. Ward. This terrible incident may explain why Mittie reverted to her maiden name.
The D.D.G.C.
I finally ponied up for expanded access to Newspapers.com’s holdings and immediately tapped into a vein of articles about my Allen family in Newport News, Virginia. Expect a river of posts, starting with the earliest print references I have found to my great-grandfather John C. Allen Sr.
Richmond Planet, 7 March 1908.
Richmond Planet, 2 April 1910.
John Allen arrived in Newport News from Charles City County in 1899, an unlettered farm boy. Less than ten years later, he held high office in the Knights of Pythias of North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa, an African-American fraternal organization founded in Richmond in 1869 after a black man was denied membership by the Pythians’ Supreme Lodge.
These notices, published in Richmond’s black newspaper, signaled to the public the fraternal organization’s trustworthiness and largesse and undoubtedly attracted new members and expanded its influence.
Scuffalong: Genealogy. 