Firefighters Collection
Beaufort: Beaufort Second Fire Company
BEAUFORT, NC
Left top image: Documents show Beaufort, NC as having black firefighters as early as 1908 with 20 members manning a hand engine and a hose reel.
Left middle image: Sanborn Fire Insurance maps from December 1913 list Beaufort's second fire company as colored and housed next to Town Hall at 305 Broad Street, with 20 volunteers.
Left bottom image: Sanborn Fire Insurance map from 1924.
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Charlotte: Neptune Company Part 1
CHARLOTTE, NC - #1
Top left: Colonel Charles Samuel Lafayette Alexander Taylor
Photo donated by James Richardson, Col. Taylor's charge at an early age.
Top and bottom right: Hand engine of Neptune later restored by Newbury Mass. Photos courtesy of Doug Hickin, Charlotte, NC Fire Department.
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Durham Firefighters: Excelsior Hook and Ladder Company
Excelsior Hook and Ladder Company in 1892. Durham’s first all-Black volunteer fire department.
The company began in 1881 and disbanded in 1909 with the introduction of a paid fire department.
@IrememberOurHistory®
It wasn’t until 1969 that white and Black firefighters in Durham would work side by side.
East Spencer: Colored Fire Company
EAST SPENCER, NC
East Spencer is a young town compared to most cities in North Carolina. The modern counter part would be called a bed room community.
East Spencer is where it is because of Spencer. Spencer sprung up almost over night as a result of the Southern Railroad Shops being built here. It all began just prior to 1900.
Enfield: Enfield Colored Fire Company Part 1
Top image: Some of the delegates to the 1961 convention on the North Carolina Volunteer Fireman's Association in Enfield, N.C.
Left bottom image: left to right front row-. Robert Coleman, Warrenton, Cleveland Anderson, Warrenton, L.R. Barnes., Greenville, Luther Tuck, Wake Forest, D. A. Willis, Oxford, on the right end James Plummer, Warrenton. Back Row left to right John Bizzel, Greenville, McCarroll Alston Warrenton, O.C. Smith, Wake forest, L.H. Hall, Salisbury.
Enfield: Enfield Colored Fire Company Part 2
Top left: Sanborn Map from 1909.
1912 - The Progress on August 23, 1912, noted that the Enfield Colored Fire Company returned home last night from the annual colored firemen's tournament in Oxford. They did not participate in any of the games, except the foot race, "because the full company could not attend." Issac Lowe took second place in the foot race.
Farmville: Volunteer Firefighters
Image: Sanborn map-September 1915
Volunteer, three hose companies with fifteen white and twelve "negro men." One hook and ladder company of four men. Three reels and 1500 feet two-and-a-half-inch hose. One hand-drawn hook and ladder truck. Fire alarm bell. Twenty-five double hydrants.
Fayetteville: Black fire fighters on parade
FAYETTEVILLE, NC
Top image: Black fire fighters on parade thought to be in Fayetteville.
Left image: Letter from Mr. C. R. Miller, president of the NC. Colored Volunteer Firemen's Assoc. to Mr. Wilbur Clark, chairman of the Fire Committee of Fayetteville, NC, seeking advice and information for a new set up of their volunteer group.
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