Plummer Hook & Ladder Fire Museum

06/12/2024

Thank you to Jenny O'Meara for coordinating a tour of our museum today for a group of educators. We’re excited about the learning opportunities we’ll be able to offer to students once we are officially open.

05/26/2024

We were honored yesterday to have a family reunion group visit the museum and learn about some of the men who founded the Plummer Hook & Ladder Fire Company in 1868. Don Stith, the last fire chief of what became the Warrenton Fire Department and a board member of the museum nonprofit, led the tour and regaled the visitors with humorous stories and interesting tidbits.

10/31/2023

Retired journalist and weather buff William Minor, right, made a stop at the Plummer Hook & Ladder Fire Museum in Warrenton recently during his travels researching weather patterns and bits of local history. A former reporter for the Miami Herald and resident of Lancaster, Pa., Minor is traveling by bicycle and was hosted here by the Warrenton Rural Vol. Fire Department. He talked about the history of the Plummer Hook & Ladder Fire Co. with Warrenton Mayor Walter Gardner, left, and Warrenton Rural Fire Chief Karl Hehl. Gardner is also vice president of the museum board of directors and battalion chief with the Warrenton Rural fire department.

10/05/2023

We extend our deepest condolences to the family of Hermenia Salmon on her recent passing. Hermenia was a charter member of the Plummer Hook & Ladder Fire Museum Committee, board member of our 501(c)3, and descendant of the Plummer Hook & Ladder Company's first fire chief. She contributed greatly to the work of the museum committee and the community and will be greatly missed.

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07/22/2023

We were honored to have members of the Somerville-Thornton family reunion visit the museum on July 21 to take a look at our progress. Both museum volunteers and family members learned about Plummer Hook & Ladder firefighter relatives of the group, including Mansfield Thornton, longtime fire company secretary and elected Warren County Register of Deeds from 1879-1900.

02/05/2023

Thanks to Legeros Fire Line for sharing this great bit of history of our fire department!

09/09/2021

We extend our deepest condolences to the family of Sylvia Juanita Ransom Vanderpool-Fletcher on her passing. Sylvia was an original Plummer Hook & Ladder Fire Museum Committee member and the great-granddaughter of James "Jimmy" Ransom, builder of the Plummer Hook & Ladder Company's first fire apparatus and charter member of the fire company. She had a significant impact on the work of the committee and the Warren County community and will be greatly missed.

Sylvia Juanita Ransom Vanderpool-Fletcher, 81, died on Aug. 28. A private memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 18. Virtual attendance for the public is planned.

07/07/2021

Plummer Hook & Ladder Fire Museum

The first firefighting apparatus of the Plummer Hook & Ladder Company—an 1890s horse- or mule-drawn wooden wagon that carried equipment including buckets used to haul water to fires—returned home last

07/06/2021

07/01/2021

Hey Mike, thanks for the plug!

Hey Mike, what's the story on the Plummer Hook & Ladder Fire Museum in Warrenton? Hadn't heard of that one, is it new? Yes and no. Let's turn the clock back.

The first (and only) fire company in Warrenton, NC, was the Plummer Hook & Ladder Company. They were organized in 1868 by a group of black citizens. One of their earliest pieces of apparatus was a hand-pulled bucket and ladder wagon.

This was supplanted with a new model in the 1890s, and which was pulled by mule. They later operated a Howe combination chemical and hand engine, supplied by fire cisterns and wells. After hydrants were added, they brought hose to fires on hand reels and with their first motor apparatus.

The roster of motor trucks consisted of an 1917? Ford Model T hose truck, which perhaps also included a chemical tank and/or pumping engine. It was followed by a 1938 Ford/Oren pumper, a 1964? Ford/Bean pumper, and a 1982 American LaFrance pumper added in [year], ex-Austin, TX.[1]

The Plummer fire company operated for over 140 years, and closed shop in 2004. By that time, they were more simply known as the Warrenton Fire Department. They were the town-operated fire department, and had been from the beginning. In 2004, the town began contracting with the private Warrenton Rural Fire Department for municipal protection. And the members and equipment of WFD merged with WRFD.

The fire company was also the longest-operating black fire company in the state. And one of the rare all-black fire companies that served into and through the mid- and late-20th century. (Other "modern" black fire companies included the former Wake Forest FD #2 and the current Soul City FD.)

The Plummer Hook & Ladder Fire Museum organization was created in 2004, on a pledge by town to preserve the history of their long-serving fire department. And they've been slowly, steadily working to convert the former fire station at City Hall into a museum.

Still in town possession were the 1938 Ford/Oren pumper, along with a pair of hand hose reels. And sundry pieces of old hand equipment, records, and photos. The 1890s bucket-and-ladder wagon, however, was donated to the NC Museum of History in 1976, where it was once displayed, along with other artifacts. The 1982 American LaFrance pumper was recently returned to the museum, from WRFD.

As noted in the prior posting, on June 30, yesterday, members of the museum and others traveled to the N.C. Transportation Museum in Spencer, to retrieve and return the 1890s bucket-and-ladder wagon. They also stopped at the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh, to retrieve two ladders and a pike pole, that accompanied the thing. They plan to display the wagon in the fire museum by the end of the year.

Here are some Legeros pictures of the museum, which is not yet open to the public: https://legeros.smugmug.com/Fire-Photos/2021/2021-03-13-warrenton-fire-museum/

[1] The town's 1987 E-One platform, ex-Orange County, FL, was added in 2004, but delivered after WFD merged with WRFD. It was never operated by WFD, which is a correction from earlier citations of mine.

Sources:

Warrenton, NC - Plummer Hook & Ladder Museum
http://www.warrenton.nc.gov/page/museum_home

Early Black Firefighters of North Carolina
https://legeros.com/history/ebf/

Warrenton Fire Department History Notes
https://legeros.com/blog/warrenton-history-notes/

Also, search Legeros Fire Line on Facebook and Legeros Fire Blog for more related content

07/01/2021

Thanks to Mike Legeros for coming out to take pictures of our stop yesterday at the NC Museum of History!