More tales of North Carolina's 19th-century African American legislators
Part 1: General Assembly members in 1879-1880
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 legislators who served in the sessions of the General Assembly chosen after the end of Reconstruction, beginning in 1879:
Isaac Alston (1825?-1919). of Warrenton, served two terms in the N. C. Senate as a Republican from the 19th District (Warren County), elected in 1878 and 1890. Alston was born, apparently free, on September 15, 1825 (or as late as 1830) to Lizzie Alston in Warren County; his father is listed in family records as Isaac Evans-West, but in other documents as Isaac Alston. Little is known of his early life or education. He was a house carpenter, farmer, and minister.
After studying for the ministry, he was licensed to preach in 1868, then was ordained as a Baptist minister in 1871. Alston helped build a church in his community, and served for seven years as president of Shiloh Association, becoming moderator of the Ministerial board.
Isaac Alston served in N.C. General Assembly sessions of 1879-1880, 1891. Public domain photo
After the Civil War ended, Alston also became active in the new Warren County Republican Party. In 1870, he owned real estate valued at $500 and $300 in personal property, according to that year's U.S. census.
In 1878, he was selected by Warren County Republicans as their nominee for the 19th District of the N.C. Senate. Elected later that year, he served in the 1879-1880 session of the General Assembly, but did not seek reelection in 1880. In 1890, Warren Republicans once again selected him as their Senate nominee, and he was elected to the 1891 session of the General Assembly.
During the 1891 session, Senator Alston introduced SB12, a bill which would have established a black land-grant college in North Carolina, but it was promptly denied. A similar bill, sponsored by a white Democrat, was introduced later in the same session, and passed easily. It established the school now known as N.C. A&T State University in Greensboro.
After that session, Alston retired from public office.
He was married twice. On December 26, 1854, he married Fannie Faulkner Alston (1835-1910). They had at least six children: John, Alexander, Mary, Isaac, Fanny, and David. After her death in 1910, he appears to have married Mary E. Alston, who was later listed as his widow.
Isaac Alston died on June 4, 1919, and is buried at Spring Green Missionary Baptist Church cemetery in Warrenton, next to his first wife and two of their children.
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Clinton Wesley Battle (1849–1927), of Battleboro, served two terms in the N.C. House of Representatives from Edgecombe County as a Republican, elected in 1878 and 1880. Battle was born on September 27, 1849, in Swift Creek Township, Edgecombe County, status unknown, a son of William Battle and an unnamed mother. Little else is known of his early education or life; he became a farmer and a trained schoolteacher.
The Shaw University catalogue for 1874-1875 first lists him as a student in that school’s preparatory department; in the 1878-1882 catalogue, Battle appears as a student in the normal department (teacher training). After being educated at Shaw University, he returned to Edgecombe County, where he became active in Republican politics. In the 1870 census, he was listed as a manual laborer, residing in the home of Bunn Battle, a relative; in the 1880 census, he is described as a farmer and head of household. After serving for two years as trustee of Swift Creek Township, he was elected in 1876 as an Edgecombe County commissioner.
In 1878, county Republicans selected him as one of their nominees for seats in the N.C. House of Representatives. He won that seat by a majority of 3,300 votes, serving thereafter on the House Committees on Propositions and Grievances and Counties, Towns, and Townships during the 1879-1880 session of the General Assembly. Reelected to his seat in 1880, he served on the House Committees on Corporations and Propositions and Grievances in the 1881 session of the General Assembly.
After leaving the legislature, Battle may have become a schoolteacher in Edgecombe County. By 1894, he was living and working in Washington, D.C. After Republicans returned to power nationally in 1897, he was appointed U.S. postmaster by the McKinley administration at Battleboro, now in Nash County. In 1899, however, he was removed from office and later convicted of fraud and embezzlement. Battle then served for a year in the Wake County jail.
He was married on April 6, 1876, to Siddie Ann Bryant of Edgecombe, a schoolteacher also educated at Shaw University. The censuses of 1880 and 1900 show they had as many as six children: Alice, Clinton L., Ida, Mary, Emma, and Alfred. She apparently died before 1900, when the U.S. census lists him as a widower.
After his release from jail, Battle moved back to Washington. In the U.S. census of 1910, he was recorded as living there with four of his children and working as a porter; in 1920, he was listed as living with daughter Emma Battle Shepard and her husband in Washington.
Battle died in Washington, D.C., on May 15, 1927. His place of interment was listed in his Washington Evening Star obituary as Rocky Mount, N.C., probably in that city’s Unity Cemetery, where dozens of the Battle family members are buried.
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Franklin David Dancy (1849-1907), of Tarboro, served one term in the N.C. Senate from 5th District (Edgecombe County), elected in 1878. Dancy was born to an enslaved mother, Eliza, in November 1849, owned by Lafayette Dancy, prominent Edgecombe planter. He had at least two siblings, sister Ella, and brother John Campbell Dancy. By trade, he was a blacksmith.
Some have speculated that he escaped slavery to enter the Union Army soldier during the Civil War. In fact, a Union soldier named Frank Dancy, aged 22, from North Carolina, is listed on the roster of the U.S. Colored Heavy Artillery in 1865; as Dancy was not yet 16 years old when the War ended, it was almost certainly another, older Frank Dancy who served.
After the end of the Civil War, Dancy became active in Republican Party politics in Edgecombe County, elected as a county commissioner in 1876, and serving for two years. In 1878, county Republicans selected him as their nominee for the 5th District seat in the N. C. Senate. He served one term in the 1879-1880 session of the General Assembly, but did not seek reelection.
After leaving the legislature, he also served as town commissioner in Tarboro. In 1881, Dancy was chosen as mayor of Tarboro by the Edgecombe County commission. In 1896, he was appointed as a justice of the peace in Tarboro.
According to the 1900 census, his wife's name was Anna E. Clark; they were reportedly married in 1879, but listed no children. According to one record, he may have had at least one son, William F. Dancy, born in 1874 from a previous relationship.
Dancy reportedly died in Tarboro in late 1907, when his estate was advertised as being in probate by December 21 of that year. His place of interment is not known.
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Willis D. Pettipher (1844-1919?), of New Bern, served one term in N.C. House of Representatives from Craven County as a Republican, elected in 1878. Pettipher was born of free parents, Francis and Lucretia Pettipher, in Craven County, outside New Bern, on May 17, 1844, and was educated in New Bern. Little else is known of his early life. He became a farmer.
Pettipher became active in the Craven County Republican Party after the Civil War. In 1868, he was one of five black citizens appointed as justices of the peace in New Bern. During the 1870s, he was elected as a Craven county commissioner for two years and as a school committeeman two years, and served as a deputy sheriff for seven years. He served as either a magistrate or justice of the peace for at least eight years.
In 1878, Craven Republicans selected him as one of their nominees for seats in the N.C. House of Representatives. He was elected later that year, and served in the 1879-1880 session of the General Assembly. He did not seek reelection.
He was married to Agnes Reed Pettipher in Beaufort, N.C., on March 28, 1878, and according to his biographical sketch in the 1879 General Assembly Sketchbook, they had twin children “eight days old ... at this writing” (son Willy, daughter Mary/Mamie).
The same sketch noted that Pettipher “has been right successful in his financial managements, for today he pays tax on about $3,000 worth of property.” In the 1910 census for Craven County, he was still listed as a farmer.
Pettipher’s death date and place of interment are unknown. He is presumed to have died in New Bern sometime between 1910 and 1920, when his wife was listed as widowed in the U.S. census; she died in New Bern in 1939.
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William Henry Waddell (1847–1902), of Wilmington, served three consecutive terms in the N.C. House of Representatives as a Republican from New Hanover County. elected in 1878, 1880, and 1882. Waddell was born on May 14, 1847, in New Hanover County near Wilmington, perhaps to free farmer William Waddell and wife Mary, listed in the 1850 U.S. census. He apparently had no formal schooling but received a “very fair family education,” according to his biographical listing in the 1879 General Assembly Sketchbook.
According to family records, his mother may have been of native American lineage, and his father was possibly British. One later record indicates he may have inherited a farm called Riverdale, left to him by Adam and Catherine Bloodworth, reportedly his maternal grandparents.
After the Civil War, he became active in the New Hanover County Republican Party. He worked for a time as a janitor (rank of Captain) at Wilmington City Hall during the 1870s.
In 1878, New Hanover Republicans selected him as one of their nominees for seats in the N.C. House of Representatives. Elected later that year, he served in the 1879-1800 session of the General Assembly. After his first reelection in 1880, Waddell then served on the House Committees on Immigration; Private Bills; and State Debt in the 1881 session of the General Assembly,
In 1882, he was reelected by a margin of victory of 1,100 votes. In the 1883 session of the General Assembly, he served on the House Committees on Schools and Insane Asylum. He did not seek reelection in 1884. In a subsequent bid, in 1888, he was defeated as an independent Republican candidate for the House of Representatives.
His local offices included membership on the New Hanover School Commission until November 1898, including a term as chairman, and Superintendent of City Improvements for Wilmington for one year.
Waddell apparently remained a lifelong bachelor. In 1900, his last listing in the U.S. census described him as single, living with the family of his brother, John Waddell, in New Hanover's Masonboro Township.
Waddell died on August 9, 1903, aged 56, in Wilmington. His funeral with Masonic honors was held at Christ’s Congregational Church, according to his obituary in the Wilmington Morning Star, which described him only as “a well-known colored citizen.” His place of interment is not certain, but he may be interred in Wilmington’s Pine Forest Cemetery.
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Dred Wimberly (1849?-1937) of Tarboro, served two terms in the N.C. House of Representatives from Edgecombe County as a Republican, elected in 1878 and 1886; and served one term in the N.C. Senate from 5th District (Edgecombe County), elected in 1888. Wimberly was born to enslaved parents Allen and Della Wimberly, on March 15, 1849 (or 1848), at Walnut Plantation in Edgecombe County, owned by the James S. Battle family. He became a carpenter, and later attended Tarboro schools.
After the Civil War, Wimberly chose to remain on the Battle family plantation for a time, and long remained a friend and supporter of Dr. Kemp Plummer Battle, later president of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He soon became active in the Edgecombe County Republican Party, and in the 1870s, first became a member of the county’s School Committee.
Dred Wimberly, N.C. General Assembly member between 1879 and 1889. Public domain photo
In 1878, Edgecombe Republicans selected him as one of their nominees for the county's seats in the N.C. House of Representatives. Elected that year by a majority of almost 2,000 votes, he served on the House Committees on Immigration and Salaries and Fees during the 1879-1880 session of the General Assembly. He did not seek reelection in 1880, but remained active in local politics, reportedly serving on the Tarboro town council during the 1880s.
In 1886, Edgecombe Republicans again selected him to run for a county seat in the House. After his election, he served during the 1887 session of the General Assembly on the House Committees on Penal Institutions and Salaries and Fees. In 1888, he was nominated for the 5th District seat in the N.C. Senate, and elected later that year, serving in the 1889 session of the General Assembly, his final public office.
In 1900, as an alternate delegate from the Second Congressional District, he attended the G.O.P. national convention in Philadelphia which renominated William McKinley as U.S. president and nominated Theodore Roosevelt as vice president. Wimberly may also have been named in 1896 as an alternate delegate to the national convention from the same district, but did not attend that convention in Saint Louis, Missouri.
After 1900, he moved for two years to Washington, D.C., where he worked as a custodian in the U.S. House of Representatives, before returning to live in North Carolina. He was a member of the Primitive Baptist Church of Edgecombe County, which he served as a deacon.
He recalled his life and career in a lengthy 1935 interview with the Raleigh News & Observer ("If He Didn't Cast Historic Vote, It was Because It Wasn't Needed," February 18, 1835).
Wimberly married his first wife, Kisiah Wimberly, on October 7, 1869. After her death, he married Ella Bertha Jenkins in 1891. He reportedly had a total of 18 children, nine by each wife, including Kemp, Dred Jr., Luther, Jim, Della, Lucy, Annie, John, and Allen Wimberly.
Wimberly died on June 16, 1937, in Rocky Mount, where he is buried in Unity Cemetery. His widow Ella, who died in 1945, and four of his children are also buried there.
Next time: Part 2: Members of the 1881 General Assembly session