More tales of North Carolina's 19th-century African American legislators
Part 4: More members of the Reconstruction-era General Assembly
Earlier this year, I began introducing readers to a handful of African American legislators elected to the North Carolina General Assembly during the nineteenth century, among more than 125 black state legislators, all Republicans, who held office between 1868 and 1900.
This week, I continue my occasional series on North Carolina’s black public servants during the period, many of whom I have written about in previous articles for the North Carolina Historical Review and in other publications. Today’s post explores the lives of more of the legislators who served in the sessions of the General Assembly chosen during the last years of Reconstruction, between 1870 and 1877:
Daniel R. Johnson (1845-1918), of Warrenton, served two terms in the N.C. House of Representatives from Warren County as a Republican, elected in 1876 and 1880. Johnson was born in 1845, the son of William Johnson and Rosetta Jones, who was probably enslaved. Little is known about his early life or education. He became a shoemaker.
After the Civil War ended, Johnson became active in the Warren County Republican Party. In 1876, he was selected by Warren Republicans as one of their nominees for seats in the N. C. House of Representatives, and was elected later that year. In the 1876-1877 session of the General Assembly, he served on the House Military Affairs Committee. He did not seek reelection to the legislature.
In 1869, he married Charity Perry Johnson of Franklin County. They had at least 15 children, of whom 10 lived to adulthood, including Willie, Aggie, Sam, and Davy, according to the 1880 census. According to family records, three more children were born in the 1880s.
Around 1890, the Johnson family moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where two more sons were reportedly born.
Johnson is reported to have died in Philadelphia before 1900, when his wife was listed as a widow in that year’s census. She was last listed, in the 1930 census, as residing with her son, William. Their places of interment are unknown, but presumably in the Philadelphia area.
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George H. King (1836?–1899?), of Warrenton, served two terms in the N.C. House of Representatives from Warren County as a Republican, elected in 1872 and 1880. King was born in Warren County in 1836/1837, the son of Chavis King and Marie Cook. Little else is known about his early life or education. He was literate, and became a shoemaker.
After the Civil War ended, King became active in the Warren County Republican Party. In 1872, he was selected by Warren Republicans as one of their nominees for seats in the N. C. House of Representatives, and elected later that year. He served in the 1872-1874 session of the General Assembly. He did not seek reelection in 1874.
In 1880, he was renominated by Warren Republicans for the same seat and elected later that year. In the 1881 session of the General Assembly, he served on the House Committees on Immigration; Public Printing; and Cities and Towns.
In 1870, King owned $300 in property, according to that year's census.
He was married to Margaret Williams King. In the 1880 census, they were listed as having six children: sons Robert, Willis, Greene, and Isaac, and two daughters, Georgina and Josephine, who married Armstead Lewis Alston in 1897.
King’s death date and place of interment are unknown. He is presumed to have died in Warren County sometime before 1900.
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Alfred Lloyd (1835?-1901?), of Topsail Sound, served three terms in the N.C. House: two from New Hanover County as a Republican, elected in 1872 and 1874; one from (newly created) Pender County as a Republican, elected in 1876. Lloyd was born in 1835/1837 in Onslow County, probably to an enslaved mother. Little is known of his early life or education. He became a carpenter.
By 1865, he had moved to New Hanover County, where he became active in the new Republican Party after the end of the Civil War, and served as a justice of the peace (six years), as registrar, and as judge of elections. He was appointed as a magistrate in New Hanover County in 1871, and then as a justice of the peace in 1873.
In 1872, he was selected by New Hanover Republicans as one of their nominees for the county’s seats in the N. C. House of Representatives, and was elected later that year. He served in the 1872-1874 session of the General Assembly,
During the 1874 session, he was one of 10 black legislators who joined two white Republicans to sign a formal protest against the earlier expulsion of newly-seated Republican House member J. Williams Thorne of Warren County, on grounds of allegedly not believing in God. Earlier, he had been among 28 Republican legislators (11 of them black) to vote against expelling Thorne.
After being reelected in 1874, he served on the House Claims Committee in the 1874-1875 session of the General Assembly. After the creation of Pender County by the General Assembly in 1875, Lloyd was nominated by Pender Republicans in 1876 for the county's legislative seat, and elected later that year. He then served in the 1876-1877 session of the General Assembly.
Lloyd was married at least twice: first to Rosana Nixon, and then to Mildred Ann Johnson of Hertford County, on December 25, 1866; they were still married as of the 1880 census, when no children were recorded in their household. In the 1900 census, the last to list Lloyd as residing in Pender County, he was described as being widowed.
He reportedly helped build a church at Harrisons Creek in Pender County.
Lloyd’s death date and place of interment are unknown. He is presumed to have died in Pender County sometime after 1900.
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William H. Moore (1837?-1918?), of Wilmington, served one term in the N. C. House of Representatives from New Hanover County as a Republican, elected in 1874, and one term in the Senate from the Twelfth District (New Hanover) as a Republican, elected in 1876. Moore was born around 1837 in New Hanover County; one report lists him as the son of an escaped slave, Thomas H. Jones, who later became a minister in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and Margaret Moore, an enslaved woman.
Moore became a barber, painter, printer, farmer, and liquor salesman, and is often described as a physician, sometimes specializing in “conjure” medicine [traditional practice based on using psychical and magical powers to cast spells and perform healing, among other actions].
After the end of the Civil War, Moore became active in the New Hanover County Republican Party. In 1867, he was hired as a speaker for the Republican Congressional Committee, and in 1869, as a detective by the Republican mayor of Wilmington. Thereafter Moore served the city as a constable, justice of the peace, registrar, and magistrate.
In early 1874, he was selected by New Hanover Republicans as one of their nominees for seats in the N. C. House of Representatives, along with fellow African Americans Henry Brewington and Alfred Lloyd; all were elected later that year. In the 1874-1875 session of the General Assembly, Moore was appointed to the House Committee on Propositions and Grievances.
During the 1874 session, Moore, Lloyd, and Brewington were among 10 black legislators who joined two white Republicans to sign a formal protest against the earlier expulsion of newly-seated Republican House member J. Williams Thorne of Warren County, on grounds of allegedly not believing in God. Moore was one of 28 Republican legislators (11 of them black) to vote against expelling Thorne.
In 1876, New Hanover Republicans nominated Moore for the Twelfth District seat in the N. C. Senate. He was elected later that year, and served in the 1876-1877 session of the General Assembly. He did not seek reelection, although he later maintained a residence in Raleigh, where other black legislators lived during the 1885 session of the General Assembly.
He was a member of St. Luke’s AME Zion Church, Wilmington, where he reportedly served as church organist.
By 1880, Moore was married to Susan Moore, who may have been from Richmond, Virginia. No children were reported in their household in the 1880 U.S. census, and he was listed as a widower in the U.S. census of 1910. After her death, he may have married a second time, to Emmaline White, in 1915.
Moore is reported to have died in Wilmington on April 17, 1918. His place of interment is not known.
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Wilson Willis Morgan (1825?-1892), of Raleigh, served one term in the N.C. House of Representatives as a Republican from Wake County, elected in 1870. Morgan was born free in North Carolina, either in 1825 or 1827. Little is known about his early life or education, except that he became a blacksmith and later, a minister.
After the end of the Civil War, he became active in the Wake County Republican Party. According to the 1870 U.S. census, he owned $1,000 in real estate, much of it in the Oberlin community, and $600 in personal property. In 1870, Wake County Republicans selected Morgan as one of their nominees for seats in the N. C. House of Representatives, alongside another African American nominee, Stewart Ellison, and two white Republicans.
All were elected later that year, and served in the 1870-1872 session of the General Assembly. Morgan and Ellison were then among 17 black legislators who signed the “Address to the Colored People of North Carolina” protesting the impeachment of Gov. William W. Holden, dated December 19, 1870, and published in the Raleigh Sentinel on December 30, 1870.
Morgan did not seek reelection to the General Assembly in 1872, nor does he appear to have held another public office afterward. Wilson Temple United Methodist Church, believed to be the oldest church in the Oberlin community, was given its first name, Wilson Chapel, in honor of Morgan, who donated the land for the church and parsonage at about that time, and may have served as its pastor.
Wilson Temple United Methodist Church, Raleigh, N.C., ca. 1875. Photo courtesy Wilson Temple Church website
Morgan appears to have been married twice. According to the 1850 census, his wife’s name was Susan Simpson, whom he was recorded elsewhere as marrying in November 1849. He and his wife shared their household with her mother, Nancy Simpson, and younger sister Elizabeth.
Susan Morgan appears to have died before June 1854, when her husband then married her sister, Elizabeth. They had at least six children: sons Fletcher, James, Alexander, and Amos, and daughters Virginia and Pauline, according to the 1870 U.S. census.
By 1880, the Morgan family—now including a son-in-law and two grandsons—had moved to Morehead Township in Guilford County, where Morgan served as a preacher, according to that year’s census.
Morgan died on September 16, 1892, and is buried in Oberlin Cemetery in Raleigh.
Next time: Part 5: More Reconstruction-era members of the General Assembly