Win, Place, or Short lived

Not the first

Our culture has taught us that first is something to want. First to finish is fastest, smartest, and best. To be the first person of color in a profession or an industry might be similar to being first across the finish line. To be the first of one’s ethnicity in an all-white arena is to be the first to have made it through, over, and around all the barriers constructed to keep people of color out. I won’t get into how overqualified that first has to be in order to attain that position, nor will I address the higher standard to which that first is held while in that position. I will note that as firsts are being stricken from the historical record, we can still celebrate and be inspired by the seconds.

Thanks to the work of Retired Judge Lajune Lange, we learned about Fire Station No. 24, where black firemen were stationed (segregated). John Cheatham was recognized as the first black fireman as well as the first to achieve the ranks of lieutenant and captain. The work of historian Sue Hunter Weir tells us that Cheatham’s final resting place is in Pioneers and Soldiers Cemetery.

The second black fireman hired to the Minneapolis Fire Department was Frank Shepard Harris. Harris was born in Minnesota in 1869 and and spent some of his early years in Rice County. Harris shows up in Minneapolis in 1890 at 21 as a driver for B.R. Bain grocers. He did this for a few years before moving to St. Paul where he worked as a porter for the Wagner Company. While in St. Paul, he married Jennie Wingold and got an instant family, as Jennie came with a 10-year-old daughter named Della. In 1900, Harris returned to Minneapolis with his new family and they found residence at 1914 E. 21st St. He continued to get work where he could find it, serving as a janitor and an elevator operator. In 1903, Harris was listed as fireman in the Minneapolis city directory.

A place to call home

From 1890 to 1903, Harris had taken 5 jobs and lived in three different places – four if you count the firehouse. He had been on his own since he was 13 years old. In trying to track his life through the census and directories, it was apparent that Harris was used to moving around. But when he got a family, something changed. Sure, he had a wife and daughter to provide for, but I speculate that it was the bond with his fellow fireman and mentor, John Cheatham that made him put down roots and buy a home.

Frank Harris had learned how to do the jobs Cheatham once had. He was not just the second black fireman in the the Minneapolis Fire Department, but the second black man to be promoted to lieutenant as well. His appointment came in 1908, and one year later, he moved his family to 4530 Hiawatha Ave, a stone’s throw away from Fire Station No. 24.

If you haven’t read the Designation Study for Fire Station 24, you can find it here.

Frank Harris remained with the fire department a year after his comrade John Cheatham retired in 1911. After 1912, Harris left the fire department and got on with life. He registered for the draft (but didn’t serve), got a job as an expert mechanic, and became a grandfather. His daughter, Della had a girl named Alexandria in 1920, and they all seemed to be weathering life’s storms together. But after his wife Jennie died in 1924, his situation looked less stable. Harris went back to being a porter, then a highway laborer. He remarried and had several residences and jobs after that.

Frank’s second wife, Maude also had children when he married her. She had three and perhaps Frank fathered one, giving them four together.

Life is Short

Frank Harris didn’t have many years left after he remarried. He died in 1942. His age is listed at 69, but if he were honest about his age, it should have been 72. It looks like he worked until he died and lied about his age so he could work. I  have noticed this trend in researching other African Americans, a number of them in my own family. Harris was never without work. He lived his entire life in Minnesota and perhaps didn’t even leave the city after he arrived in 1890 except to venture into St. Paul for a couple of years.

His life was interesting to me in that researching him made me wonder how isolated he must have felt. As a teenager, living in Rice County in 1885, he was one of 24 black people in the entire county. Many black people know what it’s like to be the only black person in the room. It’s tough, but you have your family to talk to when you go home. He didn’t have that. Maybe that was how he was able to strike out on his own and get after it, doing some atypical jobs for a black man in his day. I would like to think he gained respect in the work he did at a time in which it was difficult for people of color to garner respect. And he was able to do a job (or jobs) at a certain level of skill.

I would still like to know more about him. I’d like to know how he managed to save money to buy property. And how he supported all those kids! On paper, he seemed to make the most of the hand he was dealt. And he wasn’t even a first. Learning a little more about the second black fireman in Minneapolis, I’m certain that the 3rd – 5th men of Fire Station No. 24 were just as exceptional and I’m anxious to learn more about them as well.

Michele Pollard | Hennepin History Museum Archivist

Sources:

1885 Minnesota Census – racial population by County. KinSource. (n.d.). https://www.kinsource.com/MinnesotaCensus/Census1885/Race1885Census.htm

The Appeal (Saint Paul, Minnesota) · Sat, Oct 28, 1911 · Page 9 Downloaded April 8, 2025 https:// www.newspapers.com/78615116/

“Hennepin, Minnesota, United States records,” images, FamilySearch (https:// www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:9Q97-YSYS-1XV?view=index : Apr 8, 2025), image 232 of 910; Minnesota Historical Society (St. Paul, Minnesota). Image Group Number: 004520281

“Hennepin, Minnesota, United States records,” images, FamilySearch (https:// www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-89MT-W8LW?view=index : Apr 18, 2025), image 359 of 729; United States. National Archives and Records Administration. Image Group Number: 005454939

Minneapolis City Directory, (Minneapolis: Minneapolis Directory Company, 1890-1942), entry for Frank S. Harris. Hennepin History Museum

The Minneapolis Journal (Minneapolis, Minnesota) · Sun, Jul 14, 1907 · Page 5 Downloaded on Apr 8, 2025 https://www.newspapers.com/image/810482946/

“Minneapolis, Hennepin, Minnesota, United States records,” images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-818G-986Q?view=index : Apr 18, 2025), image 4759 of 6197; United States. National Archives and Records Administration, United States. National Archives and Records Administration. Atlanta Branch. Image Group Number: 005253060

“Minnesota, United States records,” images, FamilySearch (https:// www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GRHV-HHK?view=index : Apr 25, 2025), image 1113 of 1141; United States. National Archives and Records Administration. Image Group Number: 004951342

“Ward Township, Todd, Minnesota, United States records,” images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:9Q97-YSY3-ZVS?view=index : Apr 28, 2025), image 215 of 964; Minnesota Historical Society (St. Paul, Minnesota). Image Group Number: 004520280