138 years without a headstone, Jacksonville's first firefighter killed in action gets his due

On Dec. 16, 1885, volunteer firefighter Henry J. Bradley was killed when a blazing wall collapsed on him as he battled a fire that had consumed several blocks of Bay Street in downtown Jacksonville.

He was the city's first firefighter to die in the line of duty, but his sacrifice gave him no special status in death. Bradley, who was African American, was buried in an unmarked grave in the segregated Black section of the city's cemetery.

On Tuesday a headstone bearing his name was finally placed at the Old City Cemetery, where speakers gathered to honor him at the same time that crews were responding in large numbers to a fire at a lithium-ion battery manufacturing plant in Cecil Commerce Center.

JFRD brotherhood: Michael Freeland, a 'guardian' to his mom, among names added to Jacksonville firefighter memorial

The ultimate sacrifice: Jacksonville firefighters remember those killed in the line of duty

More Jacksonville news: As Duval School Board meets over bad teachers, is Superintendent Diana Greene's job safe?

Bradley's death was not inconsequential: It led Jacksonville's insurance companies and other organizations to urge for the formation of a professional, paid fire department for the growing city.

Less than a year later, the City Council created the Jacksonville Fire Department, hiring its first 20 paid firefighters.

Bradley's name is the first of 25 on a plaque at the department's Fallen Firefighter Memorial at Station No. 1 on Liberty Street.

The effort to honor him began when Capt. Chris McKeown, a member of the department's Pipes & Drums corps, and retired Capt. Nick Tyson determined to find the final resting place of each of those 25 men, with the motto: “Honor the man and the sacrifice.“

They learned that Bradley had been buried at Old City Cemetery, though his grave was unmarked and its location still unknown. They decided a monument with his name should be erected there off East Union Street. So they met with Hardage-Giddens Funeral Home, which offered to pay for the headstone, and Southern Monument Co., which created it.

Almost 138 years after his death, the marker was unveiled.

"It just goes to show," Chief Keith Powers said, "what a few people putting their heads together to work for the good of all can do when they make it a mission of theirs."

Department chaplain Percy Golden closed the event with a prayer for the firefighters who were dealing with the industrial fire on the Westside. "God we ask that you will keep them safe ... cover them now, let your grace be upon them as they put their lives on the line," he said.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville's first fallen firefighter finally gets headstone