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

North Carolina death certificates: HENDERSON.

North Carolina did not require death certificates until 1914. The following abstracts relate to the first two generations of Hendersons whose deaths were recorded by law.

Spouse and children of Lewis Henderson (1836-1912), son of James Henderson and (Sallie?) Skipp:

Marguriet Henderson. Died 17 July 1915, Brogden, Wayne County of unknown causes. Black. Age 82. Born Sampson County to an unknown father and Margaret Bowkin. Informant, Lucian Henderson.

Lution Hinderson. Died 22 June 1934, Brogden, Wayne County, of cerebral hemorrhage. Colored. Married to Susan Hinderson. Age 75 years, 3 months. Farmer. Born Wayne County to Louis Hinderson of Wayne County and Maggie Hill of Sampson County. Informant, Jonnie Carter, Dudley. Buried in Dudley.

Sarah Jacobs Silver. Died 8 Jan 1938, Selma, Johnston County NC, of probable heart disease (“dead when seen.”) Age about 55 years old [actually, 62.] Born Wayne County NC to Lewis Henderson and Margaret Carter, both of Wayne County. Informant, Hattie Jacobs, 303 Elba Street, Wilson NC. C.E. Artis, undertaker. Buried in Wayne County NC on 12 Jan 1938.

Spouse and children of James Henry Henderson (1838-1920), son of James Henderson and (Sallie?) Skipp:

Amelia Brazzell. Died 26 Mar 1914, Goldsboro NC, uremic convulsions (contributing: operation for ryosalprism[?]). Age 37. Married. Born Wayne County NC to Jim Henderson (born Greene County) and Francis Henderson (born Greene County). Informant, E.L. Henderson, Goldsboro NC. Buried 27 Mar 1914, Jason NC.

James Henderson. Died 21 Jun 1920, Faison, Duplin County NC, 12:15 a.m., acute gastro-enteric colitis. Wife, Laura Henderson. Carpenter. Age 80. Born Onslow County NC to James Henderson and Sallie Henderson, both of NC. Buried 22 Jun 1920.

Lewis Henderson. Died 20 June 1932, cerebral tumor (non-malignant), Mount Olive, Wayne County NC. Colored. Married to Hattie Henderson. Age 46 “as near as known.” Born in NC to Jim Henderson and Francis Henderson, both of Wayne County. Buried 20 Jun 1932, Saint Luke. Informant, Hattie Henderson.

Ira Henderson. Died 22 Oct 1946, E. Hillsboro, Mount Olive NC, of bronchopneumonia (due to broncho asthma.) Colored. Married to Johnie Henderson. Carpenter. Born 3 Aug 1881, Wayne County NC to Jim Henderson and Francis Henderson, both of Wayne County NC. Informant, Mrs. Johnnie Henderson, Box 243, E. Hillsboro St., Mount Olive. Buried 25 Oct 1946, Mount Olive NC.

Elias Henderson. Died 14 Nov 1953, Wayne Memorial Hospital, Goldsboro NC, of uremia. Resided Miller’s Chapel section, Goldsboro NC. Negro. Married. Born 24 May 1888, Wayne County NC to Jim Henderson and Laura (last name unknown). Farmer. Informant, Jazelle Henderson, Goldsboro NC. Buried 17 Nov 1953, Lane’s, Wayne County NC.

Georgetta Elliott. Died 8 Sep 1972, LaGrange, Lenoir County NC, coronary occlusion. Negro. Widowed. Born 12 Aug 1894 to Jim Henry Henderson and Frances Sauls. Informant, Mackie B. Williams, 406 Forbes Street, LaGrange NC. Buried 10 Sep 1972, LaGrange cemetery, LaGrange NC.

Spouse and children of Alexander Henderson (1860-1916), son of James Henderson and Louisa Armwood Henderson:

Alexr Henderson. Died 13 June 1916, Goldsboro, Wayne County, of phthis pulmonalis. Colored. Married. Age 56. Born Wayne County to Stephen Henderson and unknown mother. Buried Elmwood cemetery. Informant, Mary Henderson.

Mary J. Henderson. Died 7 September 1926, Goldsboro, Wayne County, of strangulated umbilical hernia. Widow. Age 60. Born Simpson [sic] County to unknown parents. Buried Elmwood cemetery by James Guess. Informant, Will Henderson.

Theodore Henderson. Died 15 November 1936, Goldsboro, Wayne County, “from knife wounds.” Married to Bettie Henderson. Age 45. Common laborer. Born Duplin County to Elix Henderson and Mary Odom, both of Wayne County. Buried Elmwood cemetery by James Guess. Informant, Willie Henderson.

Will Henderson. Died 6 Dec 1959, 712 N. John Street, Goldsboro NC, of cerebral apoplexy. Negro. Married. Minister. Born 1 Dec 1878, to Alaxander Henderson and Mary Odom. Married to Susie B. Henderson. Informant, Margaret Brown, 826 N. Center, Goldsboro NC. Buried 9 Dec 1959, Lightner cemetery, Wayne County NC.

Spouse and children of John Henry Henderson (1861-1924), son of James Henderson and Louisa Armwood Henderson:

John Henderson. Died 8 August 1924, Goldsboro, Wayne County, of pulmonary tuberculosis. Colored. Married. Age 63. Farmer. Born Sampson County to James Henderson of Onslow County and [blank] Armwood of Sampson County. Buried Dudley NC. Informant, Sarrah Henderson.

Sarah Henderson. Died 12 June 1930, Dudley, Wayne County, “cause not known — sudden supposed to be acute indigestion.” Widowed. Colored. Age 62. Daughter of Bryant and Bettie Simmons. Buried in Dudley by James Guess. Informant, Henry Henderson.

Henry Henderson. Died 19 Oct 1942, en route to hospital in Goldsboro NC, “found dead in car, supposed heart attack.” Born 23 May 1901, Dudley NC, to John Henderson and Sarah Simmons. Laborer. Informant, Lenora Henderson. Buried Congregational Church cemetery, Wayne County NC.

Spouse and children of Nancy Henderson Smith Diggs (1865-1944), daughter of James Henderson and Louisa Armwood Henderson:

Willie Smith. Died 29 Jul 1912, nephritis, Goldsboro NC. Born 9 Aug 1900, Goldsboro NC, to I.R. Smith and Nancy Henderson, both born in Mount Olive NC. Informant, C[?].M. Smith, 100 Smith Street, Goldsboro NC. Buried 3 Jul 1912, Elmwood cemetery, Goldsboro NC.

Isham Smith. Died 12 May 1914, 10:20 p.m., State Hospital, Fork township, Wayne County NC, of cerebral hemorrhage. Age 56. Undertaker. Educational attainments: “Read & write.” Parents unknown. Married. Buried in Goldsboro, NC. Informant, W.W. Faison, M.D., Goldsboro NC.

Ernest Smith. Died 5 Oct 1918, 7:00 p.m., Goldsboro NC, of lobar pneumonia (influenza). Colored. Married. Barber. Born 11 July 1888 to Isham Smith and Nancy Henerson [sic]. Informant, Nancy Smith, 100 Smith Street. Buried 8 Oct 1918, Elwood cemetery, Goldsboro NC, by James Guess, undertaker.

Nancy Smith. Died 11 Dec 1944, 4:30 a.m., fracture of pelvis (“fell off bed”), 309 Smith Street, Goldsboro NC. Born 7 Feb 1890, Mount Olive NC to Jim and Eliza Henderson. Widowed. Informant, Mrs. E. Hall, 309 Smith Street, Goldsboro NC. Buried 17 Dec 1944, Elmwood cemetery, Goldsboro NC, by James Guess [her son-in-law.]

Annie Guess. Died 8 Aug 1953, Goldsboro NC, of coronary insufficiency and aortic insufficiency. Colored. Married. Born 11 Sep 1890, Goldsboro NC, to Issam Smith and Nancy Henderson. Informant, James Guess Sr., Goldsboro NC. Buried 11 Aug 1953, Elmwood cemetery, Goldsboro NC, by James Guess, undertaker.

Births Deaths Marriages, North Carolina, Paternal Kin

Battle? Barnes?

Rachel Taylor was born about 1863 in Wilson County, most likely between the town of Wilson and what is now Elm City. Records consistently name her mother as Cherry Battle, or Barnes, but a single entry renders her father’s identity is more ambiguous.

In 1866, Willis Barnes and Cherry Battle legalized their relationship by registering their cohabitation in Wilson County. They informed the registrar that they had been married six years. In the first post-Civil War census of 1870, Rachel Barnes is the oldest child, at 6, in their household. Three younger children follow: West, Jesse and Ned.

However, in the 1880 census, the family appears as: Willis Barnes, wife Cherey, stepdaughter Rachel Battle, children Wesley, Jesse, Ned, Eddie, and Mary Barnes, niece Ellen Battle, and son Willey Barnes. “Stepdaughter”? Rachel appears to have been born after her parents’ marriage in 1860, and this is the only reference I have found that assigns her the surname “Battle.” She married in 1882 as “Rachel Barnes” and is listed as Rachel Barnes on several records related to her children. When she died in 1925, a month after suffering a stroke, her son named Willis Barnes as her father. Was the 1880 censustaker merely mistaken? Misinformed?

DNA, Free People of Color, North Carolina, Paternal Kin, Photographs

DNAnigma, no. 7: Locus, Eatmon, et al.

Martin John Locus (1843-1926) and Delphia Taylor Locus (1850-1923). Martin was the son of Martin Locus and Eliza Brantley Locus of southeastern Nash and later western Wilson County. Delphia was the daughter of Dempsey Taylor and Eliza Pace Taylor of northern Nash County.

——

I knew Locuses (and Lucases, their later variant) growing up. There were a few who actually lived in Wilson, but most were from the western part of the county and Nash County. There is no tradition of Locus ancestry in my family history, and nothing I’ve documented suggests it. However, DNA testing has revealed too many matches with descendants of the Locuses (and related families, like Brantley and Eatman) to ignore. So far:

R.B.W. is my father’s estimated 2nd-4th cousin. They match on chromosomes 5, 18, 20, 21 and 22, and she lists Blackwell, Eatman, Hawkins and Lucas among her surnames.
M.F. is my father’s estimated 3rd to 5th cousin. She lists Locus/Lucas, Eatman, Brantley and Howard among her surnames.
E.F. is author of Free in a Slave Society:The Locus/Lucas Family of Virginia and North Carolina, Tri-Racial, Black-Identified, over 250 Years of History, a compendium of research notes, charts and photographs chronicling one of the largest free colored families in the antebellum United States. He notes that the Locus/Lucases intermarried with several free colored families, including Deans, Wiggins, Pulley, Taylor, Wells, Blackwell, Colston, Richardson, Brantley, Howard, High, Williams, Hagans, Evans, Tayborne, Eatman, Vaughn, Strickland, Jones, Pridgen and Allen. E.F. matches my father on a tiny stretch of chromosome 19 (which I did not inherit); 23andme estimates that they are 3rd to distant cousins.
T.W.is my estimated 4th-6th cousin per Ancestry DNA. Her father was born in Wilson County and is descended from Locus/Lucases and Evanses (another free family of color).
T.J. is an adoptee whose birth mother is believed to be a Jones and Locus. She is an estimated 3rd to distant cousin to my father.

What’s the link? I know it’s on my father’s side. Common sense tells me that the most likely connections are:

Leasy Hagans. Leasy Hagans appears in a Nash County census and may have originally lived north and west of where she settled in Wayne. It is not clear whether Hagans is her maiden or married name. Nor is the father of her children known. Was she, or he, a Locus? An Eatman? A Brantley?
Tony Eatman. Willis Barnes‘ death certificate lists his parents as Tony Eatman and Annie Eatmon. Tony was born free about 1795 and is listed as a farmer in the household of white Theophilus Eatman in the 1850 census of Nash County. (He also is listed as the groom’s father on the marriage license of Jack Williamson and Hester Williamson in 1868.) One potential problem with Tony as my Locus link, though, was explained here. If Willis Barnes were Rachel Taylor’s stepfather, I am not descended from Tony Eatman at all.
Green or Fereby Taylor. Delphia Taylor Locus was the daughter of Eliza Pace and Dempsey Taylor, a free man of color born circa 1820 in northern Nash County. His relationship to another Dempsey Taylor in the area is assumed, but has not been proven. One white Dempsey (there were several) was the son of Reuben Taylor and the brother of Kinchen Taylor, Green and Fereby’s owner. There is no tradition of white ancestry among the Taylors, but their Y-DNA haplogroup appears to be J2b1, which is European. Was Green — or Fereby, for that matter — descended from Kinchen Taylor or one of his relatives?

Photo courtesy of Europe Ahmad Farmer.

Births Deaths Marriages, North Carolina, Other Documents

Aunt Jane and the alligator.

While perusing the November 2001 issue of Trees, the publication of the Wilson County Genealogical Society, I ran across a previously unnoticed article about Jane Sauls and her daughters and their encounter with an alligator on their farm near Stantonsburg. (“Unnoticed” in that I’d read it years ago, but not appreciated what I was reading.) Jane was a first cousin to my great-great-great-grandfather, Adam T. Artis (1831-1919).

Jane Lane Sauls was born circa 1842 in Greene County NC. She died on 16 Dec 1928 in Stantonsburg township, Wilson County, North Carolina. She was one of several children of Sylvania Artis, a free woman of color, and her husband Guy Lane, an enslaved man, but is not found in the 1850 or 1860 censuses.

In the 1870 census of Nahunta township, Wayne County, farm laborer John Sauls, 35, wife Jane, 27, and children Mary, 3, and Silvany, 1, are listed with Trecinda Barnes, 20, Jane Barnes, 7, and Edwin Barnes, 1. No marriage record for Jane and John has been located, and their relationship to the Barneses is unknown.

The 1880 census of Nahunta township, Wayne County, shows farmer John Sauls, 45, wife Jane, 36, daughters Mary, 12, Silvany, 9, Anner, 7, and Lucy, 6, plus Jane’s sister Fanny Lane, 14. (Sister? Really? I’d bet niece.)

On 30 Nov 1894, J.W. Coley applied for a marriage license for Morrison Artis of Wayne County, 50, colored, son of Guy Coley and Sylvania Coley, both dead, and Jane Farrior of Wayne County, 35, colored, of unnamed parents, both dead. (This is the only instance of Coley as a surname for Guy.) The ceremony was performed by D.F. Ormond, Justice of the Peace, on 6 Dec 1894 at John Sauls’ house.in Nahunta township, before B.W. Best, John Sauls, and J. Reid. Morrison Artis was Jane Lane Sauls’ brother. Some of the siblings adopted their mother’s surname, Artis; others used their father’s, Lane.

The 1900 census of Nahunta township, Wayne County, shows John Sauls, wife Jane, daughters Mary and Sylvania Sauls, and “grandchildren” Louvenia (Apr 1883), Henry (Oct 1885) and John Lane (Oct 1886). In fact, these children were probably the children of Jane’s brother Alford Lane.

The 1910 census of Nahunta township, Wayne County, shows John Sauls, 76, wife Jane, 56, Mary, 38, Sylvany, 36, Anna, 33, and Snobe, 10, plus niece Louvenia Lane, 23, and boarder Freeman Swinson,14. Anna reported that she was divorced; Snobe was her son. John B. Sauls, alias Snow B. Nobles, died in 1925. His father was Columbus Nobles. Freeman Swinson was the son of Jane’s sister Mariah Artis Swinson.

The 1920 census of Nahunta township, Wayne County NC shows Anna Sauls, 45, widowed, sharing a household with her sisters Sylvania, 46, and Mary, 49, widowed mother Jane, 76, and cousin Levenia Sauls, 28.

Jane Lane Sauls died 16 Dec 1928 in Stantonsburg township, Wilson County, of paralysis due to hypertension and cerebral hemorrhage. Her death certificate reported that she was born in 1842 in Greene County NC to Guy Lane and Sylvania Artis, both of Greene County, and she was the widow of John Sauls. She was buried 17 Dec 1928, Union Grove cemetery, Wayne County, by C.E. Artis, Wilson NC. (C.E., son of Adam Artis, was her cousin.) The informant was Anna Sauls, Rt. 6 Box 94, Stantonsburg.

Anna Sauls died 20 Dec 1950 in Stantonsburg township, Wayne County, of cerebral hemorrhage. Her death certificate reports that she was a widow and was born 1 Jan 1878 in Wayne County to John Sauls and Jane Lane. She was buried 23 Dec 1950, Union Grove cemetery, Wayne County NC. The informant was Louvenia Sauls, R#2 Box 300, Stantonsburg NC.

Sylvania Sauls died 23 Oct 1957 in Stantonsburg township, Wilson County, of cerebral hemorrhage. Her death certificate reports that she was about 87 years old and was born in Wayne County NC to John Sauls and Jane Lane. She was buried 28 Oct 1957 in Union Grove cemetery. The informant was Louvenia Sauls.

Mary Sauls died 29 Dec 1960 in Fremont township, Wayne County, of cerebral hemorrhage. [Did all these women really die of strokes, or was that a default diagnosis?] Her death certificate reports that she was born 3 Sep 1861 in Wayne County to Johnnie Sauls and Jane Lane. Mary was buried 3 Jan 1961, Union Grove cemetery, Wayne County. The informant was Anna Ray, Rt. 2 Box 143, Fremont NC.

Enslaved People, Letters, North Carolina, Paternal Kin

Some of that set.

“Dear Lisa,” he wrote. “I read with interest your letter of October 31….”

I was new at research and utterly clueless about where to start looking for information about slave forebears when I reached out to the late, great Hugh B. Johnston, Wilson County’s pre-eminent historian and genealogist. I was thrilled to receive his prompt reply. The letter was brief, but encouraging, and though I’d hoped for a complete and annotated report that left no end loose, I was confident that a breakthrough loomed just around the bend.

Unfortunately, here I am, nearly 27 years later, with the same fundamental questions burning:

Was Rachel Barnes the daughter of Willis Barnes, or his step-daughter as the 1880 census indicates? If the latter, who was her father?
Did Willis Barnes belong to Joshua Barnes?
Was Toney Eatman, a free man of color from Nash County, Willis’ father? Was Annie Barnes Eatman his mother?
Was Cherry Battle‘s first name actually Charity?
Did she belong to Amos J. Battle?

Births Deaths Marriages, Maternal Kin, North Carolina, Photographs, Vocation

Mercy me.

The hospital was on East Green Street, right around the corner from Jackson Chapel and Saint John AMEZ and Calvary Presbyterian. That last Sunday in June, two days after her first delivery, my mother lay perspiring in an iron bed, smiling uncomfortably as she accepted congratulations from church ladies making their post-service rounds. (The first reports went out: the Hendersons had a jowly yellow girl with a slick cap of black hair, a “Chink” baby, as one later indelicately put it.) She was desperate to be discharged, but had to wait for an all-clear from the pediatrician. It was not as if he were right down the ward. Dr. Pope was white, and as his black patients were forbidden to come to him, making his rounds meant driving across the tracks to them, laid up in sweltering Mercy Hospital. He arrived Sunday evening, turned me this way and that, pronounced himself satisfied, and granted us a release for the next morning. A few months later, when federal law mandated that Wilson’s new hospital open as an integrated facility, Mercy closed.

Founded in 1913 as the Wilson Hospital and Tubercular Home, Mercy was one of a handful early African-American hospitals in North Carolina and the only one in the northeast quadrant of the state. Though it struggled financially throughout its 50 years of operation, the hospital provided critical care to thousands who otherwise lacked access to treatment. A small cadre of black nurses assisted the attendant physician. One was Henrietta Colvert, shown below at far left, my great-grandfather’s sister. Henrietta was born in 1893 in Statesville, Iredell County, and received training at Saint Agnes School of Nursing in Raleigh. How she came to Wilson is unknown. This photograph suggests that she cared for Mercy’s patients in its earliest days. (The man seated in the middle is Dr. Frank S. Hargrave, a founder of the hospital, and he left for New Jersey in the early 1920s.) My father’s mother recalled that Henrietta also worked as a visiting nurse for Metropolitan Insurance Company in the 1930s and attended her children for two weeks after they were born. My great-great-aunt was still at Mercy in the 1940s, but had left Wilson by time my mother married my father and moved there in 1961, and my family had long lost contact with her when she died in 1980 in Roanoke, Virginia.

Photograph of Mercy Hospital taken in June 2013 by Lisa Y. Henderson. Photo of Mercy’s staff courtesy of the Freeman Round House Museum, Wilson NC.

Scuffalong: Genealogy.

Tag Archives: Wilson County