Red Hot Hose Company

Volunteer fire department?

How have I missed this? On the 1930 Sanborn fire insurance map of Wilson, tucked behind a duplex at 504 A & B Stantonsburg [now Pender] Street, a small wooden building is marked “Volunteer Fire Dep’t (Colored) 300′ 2 1/2″ hose.”

This was not Ben Mincey‘s backyard. He lived at 712 [formerly 651] Wiggins Street, just visible at the top of the image. Mincey’s brother Jack Mincey, a tobacco factory worker, lived next door at 500 Stantonsburg, but rented his house. The duplex at 504 was also a rental property.

So who maintained this building? It does not appear in the 1922 Sanborn map. Where there others scattered about the East Side? I’ll keep looking for answers.

Whereas.

To mark Wilson’s 175th birthday on January 29, 2024, the City’s Facebook page featured posts about the Mayor’s birthday proclamation; the Wilmington & Weldon Railroad; Wilson Energy; Wilson Fire/Rescue Services; Greenlight; and Buckhorn Reservoir. As with its Martin Luther King Jr. Day announcement — which was all about closures, said nothing about the man himself, and closed with a cheery “if you have the day off, take advantage of this long weekend and enjoy your well-deserved break!” — the City missed opportunities for inclusion in its write-ups about its honorees. At a minimum — especially during Black History Month — Ben Mincey and the Red Hots should have gotten a nod in the FRS post.

Let’s look a little closer at the proclamation though.  The “whereas” is accurate, but I can’t see Wyatt Moye’s name without thinking of his other legacy, one that resonates in the blood of African-Americans from Wilson County to Louisiana.

So:

WHEREAS, Wyatt Moye was a slave trader who moved surplus enslaved people in coffles from North Carolina to the deepest South, and

WHEREAS, his business, which ripped men and women from their families and communities forever, made the incorporator of the Town of Wilson wildly wealthy.

There. Fixed it.

The obituary of William J. Howell, fireman.

Wilson Daily Times, 10 November 1939.

William J. Howell was an early member of the Red Hot Hose Company, Wilson’s African-American volunteer fire department.

——

In the 1922 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Howell Wm J lab 525 Stemmery 

In the 1925 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Howell Wm J lab 525 Stemmery 

On 8 March 1929, W.J. Howell, 58, married Henrietta King, 50, in Wilson. Baptist minister B.F. Jordan performed the ceremony in the presence of George W. Coppedge, Eva M. Hines, and Willie Faulkland.

In the 1930 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Howell Wm J lab Hackney Wagon Co 106 W Gold

William J. Howell died 8 November 1939 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was 67 years old; was born in Cumberland County, N.C., to Rachel Barnes; was married to Henrietta Howell; worked as a laborer; and lived at 517 Church Street.

W.C.P.L. presents “Wilson County’s African American Firefighters 1893-1965.”

I cannot say enough in praise of Wilson County Public Library and its incredible cadre of dedicated librarians. WCPL offers an incredible array of services and steadfastly walks the walk of inclusion, holding space for the stories of all of us.

This month, local history librarian Tammy Medlin produced an information-packed segment on the histories of our favorite Red Hot Hose Company and the East Nash Volunteer Fire Department.

Please support your local library — here’s how. 

A new reel house for the Red Hots.

Wilson Advance, 19 January 1899.

Robert L. Wyatt Sr., a well-to-do tinsmith and town commissioner, died in 1893, but his adult children remained in his house on Spring Street. I do not know the exact location of the Red Hots’ new reel house, but the reference to proximity to the stemmeries suggests that it was west of Nash Street toward South Street. (With the burgeoning tobacco trade, this area would soon become heavily industrial, but in the 1890s it was home to several large houses.) However, neither the 1897 nor 1903 Sanborn fire insurance map reveals anything that looks like a reel house.

The newly opened Kinsey Female Seminary was at Whitehead and Lee Streets at what was then the northwestern edge of residential settlement in Wilson.

Colored firemen seek a racing reel.

A regular meeting of the Board of Commissioners of the Town of Wilson was held in the Mayor’s office, August 1, 1900.

…

The Colored Hose Reel Company made an application for a racing Reel and for an appropriation to assist them in attending the Colored Firemen Association.

It was moved and carried that the Town purchase a racing Reel for its Fire Departments and lend it to the Companies and pay one half of their expense to the Firemen Association.

——

Minutes of City Council, Wilson, North Carolina, transcribed in bound volumes shelved at Wilson County Public Library, Wilson.