# Short Bio: In 1890, [[Thomas Weston]] was appointed by the Town Council to a bi-racial cemetery committee charged with locating and establishing an African American cemetery. The bi-racial Committee's efforts paid off when the first of three city owned African American cemeteries was established in 1892. Along with his friend and business partner Peter Darden (elected Rocky Mount’s first Black Council person in 1897) , Thomas Weston served as deacon and trustee of the St James Baptist Church, and by 1895 both men were also trustees and stockholders in the Colored Odd Fellows in Rocky Mount. The Odd Fellows Hall served as Rocky Mount’s African American community center during the 1890’s boom period, hosting singers, entertainers, and prominent speakers who drew large biracial audiences. These men also purchased the Odom Livery Stable, located on Tarboro Street,167' 6" southeast of Washington Street, for $5,500, and established a tobacco transport business. This was Rocky Mount’s first co-operative African American business venture. Thomas Weston also purchased 347 NE Main Street from [[John H. Logan]] in 1896 and soon after built the homeplace he and his wife Lucinda shared until their deaths in 1931. His homeplace lot was the first of several lots he would own and develop in this vitally important, east side of the tracks "Tobacco Town" neighborhood—developed in 1892 by the [[Rocky Mount Improvement and Manufacturing Company]], [[John H. Logan]], Trustee.