More tales of North Carolina's 19th-century African American legislators
Part 5: Last of the Reconstruction-era General Assembly members
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 concludes a look at the lives of the many legislators who served in the sessions of the General Assembly chosen during the last years of Reconstruction, from 1870 until 1877:
Henry Brewington (1839?–1905), of Wilmington, served one term in the N.C. House of Representatives from New Hanover County, elected as a Republican in 1874. He was born in North Carolina about 1839/1840, status unknown, listed in later records as son of Ben McHoy (McCoy) and Edith Brewington. Little is known about his early life or education; he was a laborer.
After the end of the Civil War, he became active in the New Hanover Republican Party, demonstrating a keen interest in public education, by serving on the school committee for Federal Point Township after 1870. He served as a Wilmington city alderman in the 1870s, and also as a magistrate. According to the 1870 U.S. census, he owned no property.
In 1874, New Hanover Republicans selected Brewington as one of their nominees for the county’s seats in the N.C. House of Representatives, and he was elected later that year. In the 1874-1875 session of the General Assembly, he was appointed to the House Committee on Finance.
During the 1874 session, he joined eight other black legislators in protesting the enactment of the so-called “Amnesty Bill” passed by the House in November 1874. He was also one of 10 black legislators—joining two other 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 leaving the legislature, he became a watchman at Wrightsville Beach, near Wilmington, during the 1890s.
He was first married to Margaret (Maggie) Brewington, by whom he had at least one daughter, Lena, born in 1883. In December 1890, after Margaret's death, he was married to Elizabeth (Lizzie) Buchanan, aged 22, and they had one daughter: Gertrude Brewington Graham, born in 1895.
Brewington died in Wilmington on December 3, 1905, and is buried in Pine Forest Cemetery in Wilmington.
* * * * * * *
William Henry Crews (1843–1911?), of Oxford, served three terms in the N.C. House of Representatives from Granville County as a Republican, elected in 1874, 1876, and 1892. Born to an enslaved mother in Granville County on October 11, 1843, Crews recalled later that he was raised by a white woman, and was unaware that he was a slave until he was 12 years old. Educated privately by his owner, he briefly attended common, or public, schools in Oxford after the War. A farmer, he reportedly became a schoolteacher; his son may also have been a state legislator.
After the end of the Civil War, Crews became active in the Granville County Republican Party. Crews served as a justice of the peace in 1873, as chairman of the county G.O.P. executive committee, and as a constable (1880). He was again appointed as justice of the peace in 1878.
In 1874, Granville Republicans selected him as one of their nominees for seats in the N.C. House of Representatives. Elected later that year, he served on the House Claims committee, as well as the House Branch of the Joint Committee on Insurance, in the 1874-1875 session of the General Assembly.
During the 1874 session, he joined eight other black legislators in protesting the enactment of the so-called “Amnesty Bill” passed by the House in November 1874. He was also one of 10 black legislators who joined two other white Republicans to sign a formal protest against the earlier expulsion of newly-seated Republican House member J. Williams Thorne of Warren County in February 1875, on grounds of allegedly not believing in God. He was one of 28 Republican legislators (11 of them black) to vote against expelling Thorne.
Crews was reelected to that seat in 1876, serving in the 1876-1877 session of the General Assembly. He did not seek reelection in 1878.
Nearly two decades later, however, he was renominated by Granville Republicans for his old post, and was elected in 1892 “over the Democrats by 145 and over the People’s Party by 472,” according to his biographical sketch in the 1893 session’s official manual. In the 1893 session, he was appointed to the House Committees on Education and Insane Asylums.
Between terms in the legislature, he served as deputy sheriff, constable, ranger, school committee member, street commissioner. A devout churchgoer, he served for 16 years as treasurer of the Missionary Baptist Church of Oxford; auditor, for the Shiloh Association, and for 22 years as a deacon.
Around 1901, the Crews family moved to Washington, D.C., where he was listed as a clerk or laborer for the U.S. Bureau of Pensions in 1910.
He was married on March 20, 1870, to Sarah E. Taylor; they had nine children, six of whom were still living in 1910, according to that year’s U.S. census.
Crews’ death date and place of interment are unknown. He is presumed to have died sometime after 1911 in Washington, D.C.
* * * * * *
Augustus Robbins (1842-1928), of Windsor, served two terms in the N.C. House of Representatives from Bertie County as a Republican, elected in 1878; and seated on March 27, 1881, after contesting his defeat in 1880. Of Chowanoke Indian extraction, Augustus Robbins was born March 1, 1842, in Gates County, the younger son of John Robbins and Polly Laine, and brother of Parker D. Robbins.
As young men, Parker and Augustus joined the Union field staff in the 2nd U.S. Colored Cavalry in 1864, during the Civil War. After the War ended, Augustus was discharged and moved to Windsor, where he ran a liquor store. He also became active in the Bertie County Republican Party, and was a co-founder of Windsor’s St. Elmo Missionary Baptist Church.
In 1878, Bertie Republicans selected Robbins as their nominee for a seat in the N.C. House of Representatives. Elected later that year, he served in the 1878-1879 session of the General Assembly. Initially defeated for reelection in 1880, he was then seated in the House after the seat was declared vacant in March 1881. In the 1881 session of the General Assembly, he served on the House Committee on Internal Improvements and on the House branch of the joint Committee on Library.
In 1870, he was listed, in error, as one of 17 black legislators signing 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. (His older brother Parker was actually serving in the legislature at that time, and almost certainly signed the address instead.)
After leaving the legislature in the spring of 1881, Augustus was elected as a vice president of the 1881 State Convention of African Office Seekers. Eight years later, he was appointed U.S. postmaster of Windsor on June 14, 1889, during the administration of President Benjamin Harrison, and served until April 30, 1891.
He and his wife, Leah B. Robbins, who were married in the late 1860s, had at least two sons, John A. and William Robbins, according to the 1870 U. S. census. He was listed as a grocer, with $400 in real estate and $350 in personal property. John Robbins later graduated from the Leonard School of Medicine at Raleigh's Shaw University.
Augustus Robbins was a co-founder of St. Elmo Missionary Baptist Church, Windsor, N.C. Photo courtesy St. Elmo Church
Augustus Robbins died in Windsor on July 10, 1928, and is buried in the graveyard at St. Elmo Baptist Church, the church he helped to found, along with his widow and their son.
* * * * * * *
Henry Clay Rogers (1841?-1901?), of Oxford, served one term in the N.C. House of Representatives as a Republican from Granville County, elected in 1876. Rogers was born in 1841/1842, the son of George Rogers and an unnamed mother. Little is known about his early life. Presumably first educated after the Civil War in the Granville County common schools, he attended Shaw University intermittently between 1875 and 1882, and later became a schoolteacher.
After the end of the Civil War, he became active in the Granville County Republican Party, which selected him as a nominee for one of the county's seats in the N.C. House of Representatives. Elected later that year, he served in the 1876-1877 session of the General Assembly, but did not seek reelection in 1878.
After leaving the legislature, however, he remained active in the Republican party. In April 1884, he was a Granville County delegate to the state G.O.P. convention, held in Raleigh.
In the 1880 U.S. census, Rogers and his wife, Sarah, lived in the household of his father, and had two children. In the 1900 census of Granville County, Henry was now listed as a farmer, with eight children still living, including Stella, Luther, John, Melissa, Henry W., Virginia, and George Rogers.
Rogers’ death date and place of interment are unknown. He is presumed to have died in Granville County sometime after 1901.
* * * * * *
Henry Hall Simmons (1834-1904), of New Bern, served one term in the N.C. House of Representatives from Craven County as a Republican, elected in 1876. Simmons was born in October 1834 in Craven County, probably to an enslaved mother. Little is known of his early life and education. His occupations were carpenter and cooper.
After the end of the Civil War, Simmons became active in the Craven County Republican Party. Craven Republicans selected him as a nominee for the N.C. House of Representatives in 1876, and he was elected later that year. He served in the 1876-1877 session of the General Assembly.
Simmons unsuccessfully sought reelection to the General Assembly in 1880. After that defeat, he remained active in local politics, serving twice on the New Bern town council, in 1888 and again in 1889-1890. He was a charter member of New Bern’s King Solomon Lodge No. 1, Ancient and Free Accepted Masons.
He was married at least twice. His first wife was Emily Simmons, by whom he had four children: sons Hugh, Edward, Henry, and daughter Mary E., according to the 1880 census. After her death, he married Emeline Banks in 1891.
Simmons died on July 20, 1904, in New Bern. According to his obituary in the New Berne Daily Journal, his funeral was held two days later at St. Peter’s A.M.E. Zion Church, with full Masonic honors. His place of interment is not known.
* * * * * * *
George B. Willis (1824-1900), of New Bern, served one term in the N.C. House of Representatives from Craven County as a Republican, elected in 1870. Willis was born in Craven County in about 1824. Little is known of his early life or education. By trade, he was a cooper.
After the end of the Civil War, Willis became active in the Craven County Republican Party. He was a founding member of the New Bern educational board, formed in 1867, and was elected as town alderman in New Bern in 1869. He was also among the incorporators of the New Bern Co-operative Land and Building Association, chartered by the N.C. General Assembly in 1869.
In 1870, Craven Republicans selected him as one of their nominees for the county’s seats in the N.C. House of Representatives. Elected later that year, he served in the 1870-1872 sessions of the General Assembly. He did not seek reelection in 1872.
After leaving the legislature, he became a member of the board of trustees for New Bern’s black graded school, formed in 1883. He was a founding member of the King Solomon Lodge No. 1, Ancient and Free Accepted Masons, which was renamed in his honor after his death.
Willis was married three times. He and his first wife, Sarah J. Willis, whom he married in 1866, had at least six children: sons John B., George H., Alex, and Darrell, and daughters Susannah and Julia, according to the 1870 census. After her death, he married Ann Rue of New York City, the widow of A.M.E. minister George A. Rue, in December 1882. After her death, he was married again by 1892 to Jennie Willis, according to the 1900 census, which was taken June 11, 1900.
Willis died in New Bern later in June 1900. His place of interment is not known.
Next time: Life in the Foreign Service: Bandar Seri Begawan, once home of the world’s richest man