Firefighter Roster

Well I have embarked on making a Roster of every Firefighter who has ever worked in the City of Roanoke. I have to say thanks to my predecessor Capt. Maurice Wiseman for putting most of it together before me. He hand wrote it and I am putting it into Excel format. He did a lot of work that some of you know of and a lot of you have no idea about. I am awed at the time he spent on the history of the department. We will always owe the preservation of our history to him. I only wish that I could have met him and shared in the stories that he took to his grave.

I currently have about 1100 names in the roster and I would assume that there will be about 3-4 thousand names when I am finished. It is interesting to see how many surnames are repeated, some are brothers, nephew, uncles, fathers, sons, and some aren't related at all. If you have a relative in the past let me know. I would love to include the link in ancestry. Some of the surnames I have seen that replicate are: Ferguson, Crouch, Duncan, Simmons, Poindexter, and Barker to name a few off the top of my head.

It is also interesting to see how many firefighters only stayed a couple of days or years. Many firefighters left and returned up to four times before staying for the long haul.

I will be able to fabricate a seniority list of all of the firefighters also.

This just gets more and more interesting as I go along.

Maybe someday I will be able to finish what I believe Capt. Wiseman set out to accomplish. And deliver to you a complete history of the Roanoke Fire Service. There are so many stories that need to be told, many that I am sure I haven't even heard before.

So on I go, I am currently on 1925 in the roster. I have entered most from 1975 on but I still need to fill the 50 year gap. Luckily Capt. Wiseman has most of that compiled for me. Oh and then I need to do pre 1900, which I have a lot of but will need to search to make sure not to leave anyone out.

Once I have finished the roster I will begin the history in part from what Capt. Wiseman left for us and fill in the blanks with whatever I can drum up.