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The Dulin Family Mystery
By Linda Barnette
One of the most interesting stories I’ve encountered in my People, Not Property research is that of the Dulin family in Davie County.
Phillip Nathaniel Dulin was a wealthy plantation owner in eastern Davie County. After his parents died, Philip went to Mississippi (no reason given). While there he married Harriet Esther Brown on Jan. 13, 1861. They returned to Davie and had 5 children together. After Philip died on May 24, 1874, Harriet married John Asbury Davis, an attorney and a justice of the peace from Davidson County.
What is interesting here is that Harriet’s mother, Edna Brown, who is also buried in the old Dulin Family cemetery, had the following inscription on her tombstone: “Edna Brown, ex-slave and house servant to the ‘Davis family.” She was born in 1818 in Tennessee and died here in 1889. She had 3 daughters: Harriet Esther Brown Dulin Davis, Sarah Paine “Sallie” Brown Bloodsworth, and Helen Susanna Brown.
When I checked her information on Find a Grave, the writer said that her grandson-in-law- Col. Jacob Stewart, was sworn in as the executor of her hesitate on 8/14/1889 and listed Harriet Davis and Sallie Bloodworth as her heirs.
I personally remember Col. Stewart, who lived in a big white house where the North Main Street Church of Christ stands now. He often walked up the street to town and was a visible and well-known person. His daughter was a teacher at Mocksville Elementary School when I was a student there in the early 1950s. Naturally, I was curious about the truth or fiction of Edna Brown’s tombstone.
As it turns out, Col. Stewart was married to Madeline Dulin, daughter of Philip and Harriette Dulin. They had 8 children, the youngest of whom was the teacher I mentioned above.
The next step was Ancestry, where I checked her records. She was listed as free in the 1850 and the 1860 censuses in Mississippi, no race given. However, her race was listed as white in the 1870 and 1880 censuses. At that time she lived with her daughter Sallie in Tallahatchie, Mississippi.
The Dulin Cemetery is essentially lost to time. Six people are listed as buried there, including Edna, but no grave photos exist. The Edna Brown mystery is also lost to time.

A Battle Cry
By E. Bishop
Our very own North Carolina hero, born in Kittrell (near Raleigh) in 1918, Charity Adams was the first Black woman to be commissioned into the Women’s Army Corp (WAC) leading the first and only unit of color in WAC to be stationed in Europe. She was the highest ranking black woman officer during WWII earning a well-deserved rise to Lieutenant Colonel in December 1945. After arriving back home in February 1946 to no fanfare, she continued her fight against segregation in the Army and helped give opportunities for African American women in the military. She died Jan. 13, 2002 at age 83. A 2024 American war drama filmed, written and directed by Tyler Perry titled Six Triple Eight is based on the true story of the unsung heroes led by Adams.
The WAC was created during WWII; 150,000 women served in this branch during the war in noncombat roles. Their jobs ranged from switchboard operators to mechanics, bakers, etc. Initially, the Army was slow to keep pace with progress of accepting black servicewomen. But, with civil rights groups pressing the War Department to give the same opportunities to these women as they did their white counterparts, things started to change.
A total of 855 Black, Caribbean and Mexican descent women volunteered to serve their country in any role assigned to them. This specific group of women became battle ready despite being given support roles. The SixTripleEighth Central Postal Directory Battalion was established but only after many of the Army’s attempts had failed in getting a huge backlog of mail delivered to the service men and women and to their families back home.
Due to the three year backlog of mail and packages, families at home, not knowing where their loved ones were, began complaining to the government. The psychological impact of not receiving mail from loved ones created low morale on the battlefields as well. With the intervention of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune, things began to take shape and move forward even though the higher-ups in the military with their racist’s attitudes hoped to see the 6888 fail.
This group of women took on an impossible task. Despite the discrimination and agonizing conditions they were forced to work under, they were determined. Their motto was “No mail, low morale” so their focus was on getting mail to soldiers and raising their morale. A system was developed and put in place, working in three shifts, ensuring 24 hour processing of mail. They were able to process about 65,000 pieces of mail per shift and cleared the backlog in three months instead of the anticipated six month time frame given to them.
As a retired postal delivery person, I cannot fully grasp the enormity of problems these women went through to determine where each piece of mail should go. There were no zip codes then, many of the soldiers probably had shifting locations for mail delivery, many letters were probably addressed with nicknames or hard to read and the list could go on.
But, despite all of this, these women sorted over 17 million pieces of mail ahead of schedule.
The documentary/movie SixTripleEight is based on historian Kevin M. Hymel’s article “Fighting a Two-Front War” published in February 2019 issue of WWII History Magazine. Well worth watching.