Combing through the 1915 Dallas city directory, I stumbled on the entry of:
Thomas, John (c) fireman, 3406 Greenwood
John Thomas of 3406 Greenwood Street was an African American firefighter in 1915. The (c) stood for ‘colored’ at the time. I thought it was interesting that there was a Black firefighter at the time, so I noted his information.
I didn’t have much hope of finding him in the census as John Thomas is an incredibly common name, but I did! He was living at the same address in 1920! His parents are listed as ‘unknown – us’*, born in 1885 Tennessee; currently married to Helen Thomas and they had two boarders living with them.
He might have worked at 2918 Greenwood, which was a company looking to hire a fireman with stationary boiler experience a few years prior. Many, many private businesses had their own firefighters on staff, not wanting to hedge their bets with a horse drawn carriage making it to the blaze in time.
A bit of Greenwood Street still exists in Dallas. John Thomas’ rental home location is now occupied by New Friends New Life , a charity that works with trafficked children. And where we made a donation this past holiday season! In short, just a few months ago, I visited the place where John Thomas lived for several years.
*Unknown – US means that he didn’t know where his parents were born, just that it was in the United States.
