DAWKINS, PINCKNEY WILLIAM “P.W.”

P.W. Dawkins was born on 3 March 1862, in Newberry, SC, to his father Catline Dawkins and mother Precalla Domeck.¹Geer Cemetery (800 Colonial St, Durham, NC), P. W. Dawkins headstone, photographed by Nicholas Levy, 6 Nov 2020.

P. W. Dawkins death certificate: “North Carolina Deaths, 1906-1930,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-D1P9-JR7?cc=1609799&wc=MJWY-PTL%3A1042618602 : 3 May 2019), 004217936 > image 2411 of 3194; State Department of Archives and History, Raleigh.

Newberry: Fentress Lorenzo Dawkins WWI draft registration: Ancestry.com. U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005. https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/16193576:6482?tid=161786526&pid=182107876191&queryId=2d8a007ee6bd4992832e9549b4e7b407&_phsrc=Are203&_phstart=successSource. Original data: United States, Selective Service System. World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration. M1509, 4,582 rolls. Imaged from Family History Library microfilm. At the time of his death on 17 October 1913, Dawkins resided in Durham, NC, where he served as principal of West End School, with his wife Emma Jennie Dawkins.²Death date: P. W. Dawkins headstone.

Occupation: P. W. Dawkins death certificate.

Spouse: Essell Mayo Dunlap (daughter) death certificate. Ancestry.com. North Carolina, U.S., Death Certificates, 1909-1976 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/1121/images/S123_632-1343?pId=600754156. Original data: North Carolina State Board of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics. North Carolina Death Certificates. Microfilm S.123. Rolls 19-242, 280, 313-682, 1040-1297. North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh, North Carolina. He was survived by her and their five children, Pinckney W. Dawkins, Jr., Estelle Dawkins, Fentress Lorenzo Dawkins, Allie/Alley/Alexander/Elbert Dawkins, Wilder F. Dawkins, as well as his brother and sisters.³“Prof. Dawkins Dead,” Durham Morning Herald-Sun (Durham, North Carolina), 19 Oct 1913, p. 3. https://www.newspapers.com/image/787327308/.

Children’s names: 1910 Federal Census: Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/7884/images/4449370_01088?pId=152562020: accessed 15 Apr 2022.) Original data: Thirteenth Census of the United States, 1910 (NARA microfilm publication T624, 1,178 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C. For details on the contents of the film numbers, visit the following NARA web page: NARA.

Dawkins began teaching in about 1880, and taught for three years in Georgia before receiving admission to Hampton University in Hampton, VA.⁴P. W. Dawkins, “Work Among a People,” Southern Workman 29, no. 7 (1 Jul 1900): 397, https://virginiachronicle.com/?a=d&d=SWM19000701&e=01-01-1900-31-12-1900–en-20-SWM-1–txt-txIN-%e2%80%9cWork+Among+a+People%e2%80%9d——-: p. 5: accessed 15 Apr 2022. The school is a historically Black university that was originally founded in 1868 after the American Civil War to provide education to freedmen.⁵“History,” Hampton University website. https://www.hamptonu.edu/about/history.cfm: accessed 17 Apr 2022.

Immediately following his graduation in May 1886, Dawkins began teaching in South Carolina, then in Salem, NJ. It is likely that Dawkins met his wife Emma while at Hampton University, as she is listed as an ex-student, and that they married soon after Dawkins’ graduation.⁶Twenty-two years’ work of the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute at Hampton, Virginia (Hampton : Normal School Press, 1893), 242. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uiug.30112037738793. The Dawkins’ first son, Pinckney William Jr., was born in 1890 in New Jersey.⁷1900 Federal Census: Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/7602/images/4117826_00509?pId=57133162: accessed 15 Apr 2022. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1900. T623, 1854 rolls. Their next three children, Estelle, Fentress, and Alexander, were born during the family’s first stay in Durham.⁸1900 Federal Census. A final son, Wilder, would be born in 1903.⁹Wilder Dawkins death certificate: “North Carolina Deaths, 1931-1994,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C95R-F9MN-R?cc=1584959 : 30 June 2015), > image 1 of 1; State Department of Archives and History, Raleigh.

While in Durham, Dawkins was a highly esteemed member of Black society, most notably shown in 1898 when he was one of the six Black men present to create the North Carolina Mutual and Provident Association.¹⁰Robert Samuel Smith, Race, Labor, and Civil Rights: Griggs Versus Duke Power and the Struggle for Equal Employment Opportunity (Baton Rouge, LSU Press, 2008), 44. https://books.google.com/books?id=UKMrGZGtpWAC&pg=PA44&lpg=PA44&dq=pinckney+dawkins+durham+teacher&source=bl&ots=U53uC2WfwQ&sig=ACfU3U3XC75rG-mtbTt8ByQ3orkA9Bp4ZQ&hl=en&ppis=_e&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiSyMGaq7noAhXLmOAKHVCfAs0Q6AEwCnoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=pinckney%20dawkins%20durham%20teacher&f=false The North Carolina Mutual Fund, as it would be renamed, became one of the most influential African-American businesses in the United States under the leadership of John C. Merrick. The founding of this business marked significant progress for the Black community in Durham.¹¹“North Carolina Mutual Life,” North Carolina History Project website. https://northcarolinahistory.org/encyclopedia/north-carolina-mutual-life/: accessed 17 Apr 2022.

In 1899 the family moved to High Point, NC, so that Dawkins could become president of the Armstrong League Association chapter at High Point Normal and Industrial School. This organization consisted of graduates of Hampton and Tuskegee who worked in different North Carolina schools that were focused on education.¹²“Armstrong League Association,” Southern Workman 28 no. 3 (1 Mar 1899): 103, https://virginiachronicle.com/?a=d&d=SWM18990301&e=01-01-1900-31-12-1900—20–1–txt-txIN——–: accessed 15 Apr 2022.

Though it was still comparatively early in his career, Dawkins remarked on his frequent moves at a 1900 Hampton Anniversary celebration. “I have managed somehow to keep a record of what I have been doing in order to keep up with myself. Since graduating I have taught in three states, one year in the first, four years in the second, and nine years in the third, passed fifteen examinations, taught in six counties, held two summer schools for teachers, organized one Sunday school and one stock company, taught one thousand and twenty-three different children in in 21,016 recitations.”¹³Dawkins, “Work Among a People,” 398.

Later in the same speech, he commented on his teaching principles. “[S]ince a teacher’s work does not stop in the schoolroom nor end with the child, I have not stopped there. I have been trying to show my people that there is an honest and better living in the sod they tread, purer air and better sunshine in real life, greater happiness and independence in owning the soil and driving their own plows than in chasing the flitty, changeable, sham life we so often see.”

In 1901 Dawkins and his family left Durham so that he could take charge of the industrial and agricultural departments at the Penn School in St. Helena Island, SC.¹⁴“Significance of the Hampton Conference,” Southern Workman 31 no. 8 (1 Aug 1902): 421, https://virginiachronicle.com/?a=d&d=SWM19020801.1.9&e=01-01-1900-31-12-1900—20–1–txt-txIN——–: accessed 17 Apr 2022. The Penn School was founded in 1862 by Laura Towne and Ellen Murray, two white women who dedicated their lives to bringing education to the people there and uplifting their lives. St. Helena Island was home to many African-Americans, many of whom at the founding date had come directly from Africa and whose community greatly outnumbered the white population, primarily former plantation owners, and it was an area greatly neglected by other developmental initiatives.¹⁵“Penn Center (Saint Helena Island, South Carolina), Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penn_Center_(Saint_Helena_Island,_South_Carolina) : accessed 17 Apr 2022.  There, a fellow Hampton graduate, W.G. Stephens, built the Dawkins family home, his first work at Penn after his appointment as teacher of carpentry.¹⁶“Personal Notes,” Southern Workman 30 no. 9 (1 Sep 1901): 515, https://virginiachronicle.com/?a=d&d=SWM19010901.1.47&e=01-01-1900-31-12-1900—20–1–txt-txIN——–: accessed 17 Apr 2022.

In his time at Penn, Dawkins extolled agricultural self-sufficiency, his popular saying being “don’t eat all you raise, but raise all you eat.”¹⁷M. Alice Person, “A Farmer’s Conference on St. Helena,” Southern Workman 34 no. 3 (1 Mar 1905): 190, https://virginiachronicle.com/?a=d&d=SWM19050301.1.64&e=01-01-1900-31-12-1900—20–1–txt-txIN——–: accessed 17 Apr 2022. He took great pride in his work, always striving to uplift other Black men and women and aiming for respect between races. Dawkins also taught important lessons in sanitary issues in relation to the prevention of disease, such as whitewashing houses, draining the land, and digging wells.¹⁸“Significance of the Hampton Conference,” 421. In 1903, Dawkins contributed an article entitled “Agricultural Vignettes: On St. Helena” to his alma mater’s publication.¹⁹P. W. Dawkins, “Agricultural Vignettes: On St. Helena,” Southern Workman 32 no. 2 (1 Feb 1903): 115–116, https://virginiachronicle.com/?a=d&d=SWM19030201.1.53&e=01-01-1900-31-12-1900—20–1–txt-txIN——–: accessed 17 Apr 2022. He collaborated with colleagues at farmers’ conferences and clubs, as well as other general campaigns and conferences in the South, a true leader in the field as acknowledged by his status as a notable Hampton alumnus and other leadership positions. His wife Emma also taught community classes in subjects such as cooking and sewing.²⁰“Mr. and Mrs. Dawkins and baby Wilder” (Image P-3615/0056la) in the Penn School Papers #3615, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. https://finding-aids.lib.unc.edu/03615/: accessed 17 Apr 2022.

In 1906 Dawkins left Penn School to work at Kittrell College.²¹“The Penn School and the Farmers’ Conference,” Southern Workman 36 no. 1 (1 Jan 1907): 59, https://virginiachronicle.com/?a=d&d=SWM19070101.1.65&e=01-01-1900-31-12-1900—20–1–txt-txIN——–: accessed 17 Apr 2022. By 1909 he was principal of the West End Graded School in Durham.²²Durham, N.C. Directory 1909-1910 (Durham, N.C.: Hill Directory Company, 1909-1910) p. 12, Dawkins surname; digital image, “North Carolina City Directories,” DigitalNC (https://lib.digitalnc.org/record/25158 : accessed 17 Apr 2022. The school was the second school constructed for the education of African-American children in Durham and was built in 1901 on Ferrell Street. The location today is directly across the street from Duke University’s Smith Warehouse building near East Campus. One student, Pauli Murray, described the school as “a rickety old wooden built building with the paint peeling….When there was a wind in a storm, you could just hear the wind blowing through….West End was up on a sort of clay, barren ground. There was no lawn whatsoever.” The school was demolished in the 1930s.²³“West End Graded School,” Open Duham, updated 29 Jul 2020. https://opendurham.org/buildings/west-end-graded-school.

Three years after returning to Durham, Dawkins passed away in 1913 from a sudden onset of “acute indigestion.” The funeral was held at St. Joseph A. M. E. church, of which he was a member, and the Knights of Pythias had charge of his body. His obituary was featured in the Durham Morning Herald, and The Southern Workman noted his death, stating that “Mr. Dawkins was a man of influence, with a fine record of service to his people.”²⁴“Deaths,” Southern Workman 42 no. 11 (1 Nov 1913): 638, https://virginiachronicle.com/?a=d&d=SWM19131101.1.64&e=01-01-1900-31-12-1900—20–1–txt-txIN——–: accessed 17 Apr 2022. He was also extremely successful financially—earlier that year, the same journal noted that he “owns his own home, six other houses, and eight vacant lots. He has property valued at $7000.”²⁵“What are Negroes Doing in Durham,” Southern Workman 42 no. 7 (1 Jul 1913): 393, https://virginiachronicle.com/?a=d&d=SWM19130701.1.27&e=01-01-1900-31-12-1900—20–1–txt-txIN——–: accessed 17 Apr 2022.

Dawkins’ wife Emma died in Durham on 13 October 1930.²⁶Emma Dawkins death certificate: “North Carolina Deaths, 1906-1930,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-D1H3-LQY?cc=1609799&wc=MJWY-829%3A1042624401 : 3 May 2019), 004219870 > image 1065 of 2403; State Department of Archives and History, Raleigh. For more information about her, see her life story.

P. W. Dawkins Jr. and his wife, Irma, ended up in Knoxville TN, where he followed his father’s career path as a schoolteacher. He died on 8 December 1955.²⁷P. W. Dawkins Jr. death certificate: Ancestry.com. Tennessee, U.S., Death Records, 1908-1965 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2376/images/40059_b086810-13455?pId=1427343. Original data: Tennessee Death Records, 1908-1965. Nashville, Tennessee: Tennessee State Library and Archives. Tennessee City Death Records Nashville, Knoxville, Chattanooga, Memphis 1848-1907. Nashville, Tennessee: Tennessee State Library and Archives.

His sister Essel lived until 1971. Like her father and older brother, she was a teacher, working at the Durham County School.²⁸Essell Dunlap death certificate: Ancestry.com. North Carolina, U.S., Death Certificates, 1909-1976 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/1121/images/S123_632-1343?pId=600754156. Original data: North Carolina State Board of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics. North Carolina Death Certificates. Microfilm S.123. Rolls 19-242, 280, 313-682, 1040-1297. North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh, North Carolina. She married Richard Dunlap on 24 August 1919.²⁹Marriage: Ancestry.com. North Carolina, U.S., Marriage Records, 1741-2011 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/60548/images/42091_331660-03367?pId=1795485. Original data: North Carolina County Registers of Deeds. Microfilm. Record Group 048. North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh, NC.

Her brother Fentress Lorenzo, also a teacher, married a woman named Eleanor and died in Philadelphia on 5 January 1966. His death is somewhat mysterious—he died of a brain injury after a fall, “circumstances uncertain.”³⁰Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, U.S., Death Certificates, 1906-1968 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/5164/images/48221_1421012671_0037-02474?pId=14884868: accessed 17 Apr 2022. Original data: Pennsylvania (State). Death certificates, 1906–1968. Series 11.90 (1,905 cartons). Records of the Pennsylvania Department of Health, Record Group 11. Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

Elbert lived in Durham with his mother at 402 Umstead and stayed on in the house after her death, working as a cabinet maker.³¹Cabinet maker: Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2002. https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/67271922:6224: accessed 24 Apr 2022. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1930. T626, 2,667 rolls. All of his siblings were listed as sharing the house with him and Emma at one time or another from the nineteen-teens to the thirties.³²Various Durham City Directories from 1915 to 1939. He married Gladys Aoneld of Holly Springs on 22 December 1933.³³Ancestry.com. North Carolina, U.S., Marriage Records, 1741-2011 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015. https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/6284898:60548: accessed 24 Apr 2022. Original data: North Carolina County Registers of Deeds. Microfilm. Record Group 048. North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh, NC. In keeping with the family tradition, Gladys taught at the East End School in Durham.³⁴Hill’s Durham (Durham County, N.C.) City Directory 1947 (Durham, N.C.: Hill Directory Company, 1947) p. 128, Dawkins surname; digital image, “North Carolina City Directories,” DigitalNC (https://lib.digitalnc.org/record/25132 : accessed 24 Apr 2022). Elbert died on 28 July 1976.³⁵North Carolina, U.S., Death Indexes, 1908-2004; https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/5710549:8908.

The youngest of the brothers, Wilder, was also a teacher, before being admitted to the State Hospital in Goldsboro in 1925 with what would currently be called schizophrenia. His cause of death, in March of 1934, was “exhaustion from mania.”³⁶Wilder Dawkins death certificate.

Much of what is known of P. W. Dawkins’ life dedicated to education comes from the publication The Southern Workman and Hampton School Record, published by the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute. This journal mentions Dawkins dozens of times between 1899 and 1907. The July 1907 opening notes describe the magazine as “devoted to the interests of undeveloped races. It contains direct reports from the heart of Negro and Indian populations…as well as information in regard to the school’s graduates and ex-students who have who have, since 1868, taught more than 250,000 children in 18 states in the South and West.”³⁷Indicia, Southern Workman 36 no. 7 (1 Jul 1907): 3, https://virginiachronicle.com/?a=d&d=SWM19070701.1.3&e=01-01-1900-31-12-1900—20–1–txt-txIN——–: accessed 17 Apr 2022. Dawkins was both a profound influence and a generous contributor.

BORN: 3 Mar 1862.³⁹P. W. Dawkins headstone.

DIED: 17 Oct 1913.⁴⁰P. W. Dawkins headstone.

BIRTH PLACE: Newberry, SC.⁴¹Fentress Lorenzo WWI draft registration.

DEATH PLACE: Durham, NC.⁴²P. W. Dawkins death certificate.

SPOUSE: Emma Jennie Fentress.⁴³Middle name: “Mr. and Mrs. Dawkins and baby Wilder.”

Maiden name: Essell Dunlap death certificate.

PARENTS: Catline Dawkins and Precalla Domeck.⁴⁴P. W. Dawkins death certificate.

CHILDREN: P. W., Jr. (Sep 1891–8 Dec 1955)⁴⁵P. W. Dawkins, Jr., death certificate: Ancestry.com. Tennessee, U.S., Death Records, 1908-1965 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2376/images/40059_b086810-13455?pId=1427343. Original data: Tennessee Death Records, 1908-1965. Nashville, Tennessee: Tennessee State Library and Archives. Tennessee City Death Records Nashville, Knoxville, Chattanooga, Memphis 1848-1907. Nashville, Tennessee: Tennessee State Library and Archives.
Estelle/Essel M. (Nov 1893?–23 Nov 1971)⁴⁶Essell Dunlap death certificate. Death certificate shows date of birth of 30 Nov 1902. But 1900 Federal Census shows Estelle already age 6. 1910 Federal Census proves Estelle and Essel (now 16) are the same person.
Fentress Lorenzo (2 Sep 1896–5 Jan 1966)⁴⁷Fentress Lorenzo death certificate.
Alexander/Elbert/Allie Moore (14 Sep 1898–28 Jul 1976).⁴⁸North Carolina, U.S., Death Indexes, 1908-2004; https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/5710549:8908
Wilder F. (1903–25 Mar 1934).⁴⁹Birth: 1910 Federal Census.

Death: Wilder Dawkins death certificate.

OTHER FAMILY: N/A

FAMILY BURIED IN GEER CEMETERY: By marriage to Susan Richardson—P.W.’s son married Susan’s daughter. Wife Emma J. Dawkins is listed as buried in Geer on findagrave.com, no photo evidence found.

OCCUPATION: School principal.⁵⁰“Prof. Dawkins Dead.”

CHURCH: St. Joseph’s AME.⁵¹“Prof. Dawkins Dead.”

AFFILIATIONS: Knights of Pythias.⁵²“Prof. Dawkins Dead.”

ADDRESS: 322 Umstead.⁵³P. W. Dawkins death certificate.

MILITARY SERVICE: N/A