Here is a closer look at a photograph published in the Wilson Daily Times in February 1989. Ben Mincey Jr. is shown standing at the grave of his father, Benjamin Mincey, renowned as a chief of the Red Hot Hose Company, an all-Black volunteer fire company. Fittingly, Mincey Sr.’s gravemarker is a fire hydrant.
Tragically, that grave is in Odd Fellows cemetery, and today the hydrant is strangled by wisteria vines.
Marker of the grave of Benjamin Mincey (ca. 1881-1950).
The “local negro fire company” was, of course, the Red Hots.
——
On 20 November 1887, John W. Jefferson, 36, of Wilson County, son of Jack Jefferson, married Lizzie D. Dotson (or Doster) at “the rectory at St. Timothys church.” Episcopal priest B.S. Bronson performed the ceremony.
In the 1900 census of Wilson, Wilson County: day laborer John Jefferson, 52, widower.
In the 1908 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Jeffreys John V (c) lab h 708 S Spring
In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 360 Spring Street, odd jobs laborer John Jeffries, 60, and wife Maggie, 30.
In the 1916 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Jefferson John (c) lab h 708 S Spring
In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 607 Spring, house carper John Jefferson, 68, and wife Maggie, 31.
In the 1920 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Jefferson John (c) lab h 607 S Spring
In the 1922 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Jefferson John (c) carp h 521 Spring
In the 1925 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Jeffreys Jno W (c) carp h 521 Spring
In the 1928 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Jeffries John W (c) carp h 521 Spring
John Wesley Jeffrey died 27 June 1938 at Mercy Hospital in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was born 9 May 1849 in Harnett County, N.C.; lived at 307 Spruce Street, Wilson; was divorced from Maggie Wilson; and was a laborer.
Ben Mincey and the Red Hot Hose Company hosted a barbecue for hundreds of (white) Wilson firemen, policemen, city officials and employees, and businessmen.
The North Carolinian (Raleigh NC), 28 August 1902.
Wilson Daily Times, 7 March 1911.
Wilson Daily Times, 10 December 1918.
Wilson Daily Times, 19 August 1921.
——
Edmund Poole (1846-?) was living in Wilson by 1882, when he married Adeline Gay. He worked as a teamster.
Greene County native Benjamin Mincey (1879-1950) was the son of Prince and Susan Mincey. The family moved to Wilson when Ben was young, and he married Mattie Barnes there in 1904. When not fighting fires, he worked as a laborer for the city.
