Napoleon Hagans house.
by Lisa Y. Henderson
Napoleon Hagans (1840-1896) built this house near the south bank of Aycock Swamp, near Fremont in northern Wayne County, between 1870 and 1885. “The house, a single-pile center-hall-plan dwelling, has retained much of its charming original hip-roofed front porch, now supported by replacement square columns. Windows are surmounted by moulded peaked arch surrounds. … One original single-shouldered exterior end chimney was plastered; the other was replaced by a concrete-block flue. …” A stone monument marking the graves of Napoleon and his wife Apsilla Ward Hagans stands in a cornfield about one hundred yards west of the house.
Detail from J. Daniel Pezzoni and Penne Smith, Glimpses of Wayne County, North Carolina: An Architectural History (1998).
Photo by Lisa Y. Henderson, December 2010.
Fourth Generation Inclusive 
[…] Napoleon Hagans, a wealthy and worthy colored citizen, died Monday night. He will be greatly missed by the entire community. […]
There is a portion of the house that was moved away and It sits
in the woods on the opposite side of the road
I always assumed that was a purpose-built barn! Thank you. Napoleon’s great-grandson, the last of his direct male descendants, passed unexpectedly a year ago this month. I had so hoped to be able to show him this house.