Two prominent residents of Portsmouth, Virginia — Israel C. Norcom and Jeffrey T. Wilson — contributed documentation to at least one veteran’s pension application. When a community leader vouched for a claimant, the researcher would do well to look into that person’s life story. Exploring the connection between the claimant and the witness has the potential to deliver interesting and useful material that would otherwise be missed.
Photograph used with permission of the African American Historical Society of Portsmouth (AAHSP).
“Israel C. Norcom, served as principal of Chestnut Street Colored School, a school established by the Peabody Fund, from 1884 to 1916. Norcom came to Portsmouth as a highly qualified and young teacher and administrator, the product of Andover Preparatory School, Yale University, and Harvard University. He was responsible for establishing an academic curriculum at Chestnut School and was a much-beloved principal. Three years after his death at the age of 60, a new high school for black students was named in his honor.”
— Cassandra Newby-Alexander and Mae Breckenridge-Haywood, and the African American Historical Society of Portsmouth. Portsmouth, Virginia Black America Series. Charleston: Arcadia, 2003, page 21.
“[Israel C. Norcom] attended Emanuel AME Church which is still located in Portsmouth, Virginia on North Street. Norcom served as a secretary of the Trustee Board for many years until failing health brought about his resignation … secretary of the Tidewater Building and Loan Association, and he was one of the founders of the Southern Aid Insurance Company. He belonged to a Masonic lodge, the Acme Club of Norfolk, as well as several other civic and fraternal organizations.”
— Mae Breckenridge-Haywood and Dinah Walters. Inscriptions in Triumph: Tombstone Inscriptions from the African American Cemeteries of Mt. Calvary, Mt. Olive, Fisher’s Hill and Potter’s Field, Portsmouth, Virginia. Portsmouth: 1st Book Library, 2002, page 251
“Jeffrey T. Wilson was born in Portsmouth, Virginia, in 1843. There is uncertainty about the ownership of his mother at the time of his birth and conflicting accounts, but Wilson appears to have been owned by the Charles A. Grice family, who he lived with beginning in 1853. Prior to then, he was living with his mother and stepfather (Moses Taylor?). According to his obituary, he learned to read and write in secret. Based on his diary, he was the body servant of A[lexander]. P. Grice, likely the son of his owner, who served with Company A, Cohoon’s Battalion, Virginia Infantry, at least during a part of 1862. In 1866, after being freed, Wilson enlisted and went to Europe with the U.S. Navy. When he returned home, he lived in the house he inherited from his mother. Wilson worked at the Portsmouth Navy Yard, as a laborer, and as a bailiff for the Federal Court at Norfolk. In his later years, from 1924 until his death in 1929, he wrote a column called “Colored Notes” for The Portsmouth Star. The column included social news, Wilson’s political views, and issues of race relations–all themes that occur throughout his diaries. Wilson was active in the Emmanuel AME Church in Portsmouth, where he taught Sunday school. In June of 1929, Wilson was hit by a car. He died at his ( son’s home, two months later, on August 25, 1929.”
— “Biography,” Jeffrey T. Wilson Diaries, 1913, 1928 (MS 2011-015), Special Collections, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University ( https://digitalsc.lib.vt.edu/exhibits/show/wilsondiary/biography ) accessed February 3, 2019
There’s a lengthy feature story/obituary at “Jeffrey T. Wilson’s Obituary As Published in The Portsmouth Star”
( http://www.racetimeplace.com/497Projects/2003students/carlos/JTWObit.htm ) accessed February 3, 2019
1st U.S. Colored Cavalry 