History

How It's Unfolded

In a not unlike frontier setting, the area was not going anywhere very fast, when all of a sudden, some gleaming railroad tracks were laid smack through the center of it and it was not long before the puff, puff and clickity clack of a train engine was moving through at a speed few native had ever before witnessed.

After only a few years of the trains moving along the Wilmington-Weldon Railroad, the longest rail line in the world at the time, residents of the area started talking town. After all, the train stopped at little Toisnot Junction Station, and little Hickory Grove was just a skip away. Joshua Barnes was leader of the group and he pushed and pushed for a town. There was method in this effort. Since 1790, residents of the area, mostly farm owners, had been calling for the creation of a county so they would not have to wagon so far to a courthouse. Their biggest problem was they didn't have a town to serve as a county seat.

When the State Assembly finally answered their pleading in January 1849, the Town of Wilson was born by joining together the villages of Toisnot Junction and Hickory Grove and as we are prone to say today, "the rest is history".

How big was Wilson which was named to honor General Louis D. Wilson of Edgecombe County, a Mexican War hero? The population was only a handful, but the State Assembly ordained the town's boundaries to stretch on quarter mile in every direction from B. and N. Wood's Confectionary Shop, wherever that was. But, Barnes Street was to become the real center of town in the early years, later to be overtaken by Nash Street, the present main drag.

The State Assembly named five Commissioners to run the town. They were General Joshua Barnes, Jonathan D. Rountree, John W. Farmer, James D. Barnes, and Arthur Farmer.

The Town Commissioners elected Joshua Barnes as the first Mayor and then they began to scurry around to find volunteers to serve in key posts. Dr. Barron C. Watson agreed to serve as the first Magistrate of Police. William Tomlinson was named the Town Constable, and William B. Daniel and Joseph Kenyon patrolled the streets to keep law and order until the Wilson Police Department could be formed five years later. Yes, there were streets, well, really paths to begin with. Charles Kenyon was named Overseer of Streets presaging the Street Department which was to come into being later.

Law and order and paths on which people could move were about the only real needs in the beginning. Otherwise, the initial citizens were virtually self-sufficient. Each household had a cow for milk and butter, a horse for conveyance, hog pens and chicken pens for sustenance along with a garden. They slopped the hogs with food wastes from the dinner table and used cow, chicken, and horse waste to fertilize the gardens. Each family had a well for water. That was the beginning for Wilson.

Because Wilson was now in existence, the proponents for a county had full ammunition. They won their fight in the Assembly in 1855, only six short years after Wilson was incorporated as a town.

Mayors

Joshua Barnes, our first Mayor served for only one year as did many of our early Mayors. Barnes went on to become a state legislator and an Army General in the Civil War. His final home is situated at the intersection of Corbett Avenue and London Church Road just outside the City. Wilson has had 10 mayors serving terms of five years or more including our present Mayor, Bruce Rose. Our longest serving Mayor has been Ralph El Ramey who served for 13 years.

Wilson has had a total of 46 Mayors serve its citizens during its 150 years. An extensive search was made to find photographs of all of them, but several have not been found. Those not found are Dr. Barron C. Watson - 1850, William B. Myers - 1853, William M Gay - 1854, Alexander S. Cotton - 1855, Germain Bernard - 1856, James D. Barnes - 1857, B B. Barnes - 1860, J. W. Lancaster - 1862 & 1864, Jennings Piggott - 1868, John J. Lutz - 1869 & 1871, Arthur Barnes - 1870, James T. Wiggins - 1899, and William W. Briggs - 1909. The available pictures of the Mayors are displayed on the third floor of City Hall, just outside of the Council Chambers and Mayor's office.

Wilson's Mayors have been chosen in a number of ways over the 150 year period. At first they were selected by the Town Board after the citizens had chosen the members of the Town Board. The Mayor was a voting member of the Town Board. Later, Mayors were chosen by election. During another period, the Town Commissioners elected the Mayor. In later years, Wilson has gone back to the Mayor being elected at large by the citizens while members of the City Council are elected by voters in their districts.

Council-Manager Form of Government

In 1932, the Board of Aldermen, as the Town Board was called then, began to study the Council - Manager Form of government. In 1933, the Board committed the municipality to this form of government and began to seek the community's first City Manager. The Board would now establish policy and the City Manager would employ and manage the people necessary to carry out that policy. W. M. Wiggins was employed at Wilson's first City Manager. Wilson has had only seven during the 66 years the Council-Manager form of government has been in place here. Then current city manager is Grant Goings.

Some Very Uncommon Citizens

Over its 150 year history, Wilson has really had thousands of outstanding citizens to succeed in their chosen walks of life, to serve the community, and to be good citizens. All could not be depicted in this report. So, a dozen were selected as examples in a salute to the hundreds and hundreds more who deserve to be recognized.

  • Alpheus Branch came from Halifax County to form a new business here. In the process, he founded Branch Banking and Trust Company which became one of the top five banks in the state and now one of the majors in the Southeastern United States.
  • P.L. Woodard, a small village merchant in Black Creek, came to Wilson before the turn of the twentieth century and started a store that has lived on as one of the oldest mercantile businesses in Wilson. It is still a landmark where rural people touch base when they come to Wilson.
  • J. T. Barnes was a real entrepreneur. He and his offspring were founders of many businesses here starting with a soft drink bottler. Sam Vick became a business success in Wilson during a time when it was very very difficult for African Americans to make a success in business.
  • W. T. Clark helped to build the Tobacco Industry in Wilson as well as lots of other things. He ran a tobacco company, he was a major contributor to his church, a good community leader.
  • Charles Darden, formed the first African American Funeral Parlor in the state. He knew and was respected by virtually everyone in the community. He left his name on community landmarks.
  • Elizabeth Swindell wasn't a crusader in the now successful women's movement. She was just a success in what was then acknowledgedly "a man's world". As a newspaper publisher, she was known mostly for her dawn to midnight grind it out effort.
  • Dr. G. K. Butterfield, a Dentist, opened the envelope that made it possible for members of the minority community in Wilson to move into the leadership mainstream. He was the first African American elected to the City Council. As a result, he was a champion citizen.
  • Willis Napoleon Hackney came to Wilson in 1857 from his native Nash County to engage in the coach and carriage making business. His family had been in the coach business in England for 300 years before and created the famed Hackney Bros. Body Company.
  • Charles L. Coon brought to Wilson and Wilson County, just after World War I, a modern school system with new buildings and thorough academics all around. He created one of the early rural public school bus systems and got children out of the rain and mud on the way to school.
  • Dr. Frank Hargrave came to Wilson to practice medicine and was the lead founder of Mercy Hospital, the first hospital for blacks in the east.
  • Jim Hunt, Jr. is the only one on this list living. He practiced law in Wilson only a short time, but he went from here to a political career that made him North Carolina's longest serving Governor, the nation's number one voice for public education, and brought to this community and county many rewards from his career.

Important Dates to Remember

  • 1845 Wilmington-Weldon Railroad Completed
  • 1849 January 29 - Wilson was formed by State Assembly from Toisnot Junction and Hickory Grove
  • 1849 Joshua Barnes was elected first mayor
  • 1853 Wilson Police Department came into being
  • 1858 The Wilson Fire Department was formed
  • 1893 Wilson's first water plant was built
  • 1895 Wilson's first electric poser plant began operation
  • 1900 Wilson's population was 3,525
  • 1912 Wilson's first gas plant began operation
  • 1929 Wilson's first city park, Gold Park, was opened
  • 1933 Board of Alderman adopted Council-Manager form of government
  • 1945 Wilson Municipal Airport was converted from Military Training Facility
  • 1950 Wilson's population was 23, 010
  • 1956 Children's theatre began operation in the Recreation Department
  • 1967 Wilson's city bus service began
  • 1972 Wilson was named an All-America City
  • 1999 Buckhorn Reservoir was enlarged
  • 2003 Wilson again named an All-America City