volunteer fireman

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.

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. 

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.

One hand reel.

The first page of the 1913 Sanborn fire insurance map contains a paragraph detailing the city’s fire protection. West of the tracks the fire department utilized horse-drawn equipment, including a steam fire engine, a hook and ladder truck with extension ladders, and 2500 feet of hose. East of the tracks, in “Colored Section” covering roughly sections 11, 12, most of 13, 22, and 23, there was one hand reel with 300 feet of hose — operated by the famous Red Hots.

The colored firemen issue an invitation to feast.

Wilson Daily Times, 30 December 1925.

The Red Hot fire company issued an invitation to Wilson’s leaders to celebrate the New Year. Those who received offers to partake in a barbecue supper included City Fire Department Chief A.L. Lancaster; Herring’s Drug Store proprietor Needham B. Herring and pharmacist Doane Herring; R.J. Grantham, vice-president of Wilson Trust Company and superintendent of the City Water, Light & Gas Department; Roscoe Briggs, president of Citizens Bank, W.W. Simms Company, and Wilson Cotton Mill Company, and vice-president of Wilson Home & Loan Association; R.C. Welfare, president of Welfare Auto Company; clerk of City Police Theo Hinnant; clerk of City Police Court Glaucus Hinnant; Wilson Daily Times editor John D. Gold; and Silas R. Lucas, mayor and City Police Court judge.

Curiously, the invitation noted that “the colored fireman have been 28 years in service helping protect the property of the people of Wilson.” However, as contemporary news articles attest, Black volunteer firefighters were working in Wilson as early as 1887 and were known as the Red Hots as early as 1896.

Red Hots attend convention in Greenville.

Wilson Daily Times, 17 August 1932.

  • Ben Mincey
  • George Coppedge
  • Louis Thomas
  • Ned Barnes
  • Will Farmer
  • Ambrose Floyd
  • Henry Sauls
  • W.T. Howell
  • Herman Adkins
  • Dave McPhail
  • Allison Holden
  • Ernest Bril
  • Thomas Daniels
  • Herbert Dixon — in the 1928 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., Dixon Herbert (c; Lenora) gro 704 Robeson h 415 Stantonsburg 
  • Charles Barnes
  • Grady Wood
  • John Hargett — in the 1928 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., Hargett John A (c) student 515 Spring
  • Paul Camber
  • Brel Dunn
  • Madison Mincey — Ben Mincey’s son.

Clipping courtesy of J. Robert Boykin III.