The Historic Method Community has been featured twice in the Wake Genealogy Watch, Vol 5.4 - Summer 2022 and in this blog . That article was written by WCGS member, Linda Hames, about her favorite preservation project. I recently found this additional document online that outlines the Method Community, its history, landmarks and arguments for further preservation work. The document features many relevent maps in an attempt to plot the footprint of the community when no original map document exists.  Personal narratives of Bertha  Maye Edwards, a granddaughter of Jesse Mason who grew up in Method are also included and capture the essence of the place in a way maps and documents just can not.  Those interested in early Freedmen's villlages in Wake County and the history of the Method Community will want to reveiw this document.  Residential Development in the Village of Method:  A Brief Historic Context for Landmark Designation   of Individual Properties , R...

This is a guest post from WCGS member and recording secretary, Linda Hames. This post originaly was published in the Wake Genealogy Watch newsletter, v5.4, Summer 2022. “ The history of Method became a fascination for me in May, 2019, and I still have a long list of places and events yet to be explored.”   - Linda Hames Historic Method Community and Oak Grove Cemetery - Then and Now In 1865, virtually all of what is now Wake County was made up of farms or plantations, depending on the definitions used.   Before the war, in 1860, North Carolina had 331,159 persons who were “owned” by other persons.   Most of them were farm workers.   In 1865, they were freed, and they soon began to form Freeman’s Villages.   Those who could afford to do so, moved into the city where the population grew rapidly.  In the Raleigh 1870 census, out of a population of 7,790, there were 4,094 Blacks (53%). Maps and other records show us the location of at least 13 new Blac...