by
Rachel Dworkin, Archivist
When
young John came to Elmira around 1840, he was being pursued by a man who was
both his owner and his father. He found
shelter in the hayloft of William Reid, livery stable owner and
abolitionist. It turned out John was
quite a hand with the horses so Reid not only offered him a job, but a new last
name to make him harder to track down.
John Reid’s original last name has since been lost to time, but the generations
of descendants born and raised here have done just fine with the borrowed one.
Unfortunately,
not all that much is known about John Reid’s life in Elmira. He worked as a hostler, someone who manages
horses, and raised a family on Dickinson Street. At the time Dickinson was at the heart of the
city’s African American community. It
was also home to a number of poor, white immigrant groups as well. John and his wife had a number of children
one of whom, James, continued to live in the area and work as a laborer.
Photographic pillowcase with picture of James Reid |
James
had a son, Thomas, who served in the Navy during World War I on the troop ship
USS Leviathan. After the war, he married
Vila Elcha and held a number of jobs in Elmira including clerk at the American
Bridge Company, Deputy Sheriff and delivery driver for Remington Rand. He was an active member of the Elmira branch
of the NAACP and served on the Mayor’s Commission on Human Relations.
Thomas
had four children; Jennie, Sarah, Thomas Jr. and Wilbur. Sarah eventually married and settled in
Corning, but her other siblings remained in Elmira. Jennie attended the Elmira Business College
and, during World War II, took the Civil Service exam to work as an elevator
operator at City Hall, one of the few jobs for which a black woman could apply
at the time. She also volunteered with
the Women’s Ambulance & Defense Corps where she learned first aid, among
other things. After the war, her job was
taken by a returning veteran so she put her medical skills to use, first as an
x-ray technician at Arnot Ogden Hospital and then later with the Visiting
Nurses’ Association.
Jenny Dunmyer and the WADC |
The
two brothers, Thomas Jr. and Wilbur, both helped to break down racial barriers
within the city. Although there had been
a black police officer on the force in the 1870s, none had been permitted to
apply since his retirement in 1888. In
1947, the local NAACP filed a petition to allow blacks to take the civil
service exams for the police and fire departments. In 1950, Thomas Reid Jr. became the first
African American to serve in the Elmira Fire Department. He worked there until his retirement in 1985
and took up inventing a series of skates and scooters in his spare time. Wilbur, meanwhile, joined the Elmira Police
Department in 1953. He left in 1959 to
pursue a career as a medical technician, but helped open the way for other
black officers.