Mose Humphrey

Mose Humphrey was a member of Fire Company 40 in New York City in the 19th century, and the
inspiration for the folk hero character "Mose the Fireboy".

The character of Mose first appeared on Broadway in Benjamin A. Baker's

A Glance at New York, in 1848.[1] Mose was featured in several stage
shows and penny novels in the mid-19th century. The character was most
identified with actor Frank Chanfrau.[2]

The Fireboy character was said to have a height of 8 ft (2.4 m) and hands
as big as Virginia hams, able to lift trolley cars over his head and rescue
babies inside a stovepipe hat, as his own beaver hat was two foot across the
brim. Certain stories recall Mose performing extraordinary deeds, such as
swimming the Hudson River with two strokes, or tearing up mulberry and
cherry trees to use as a bludgeon against the Plug Uglies, a gang that were
at odds with New York Firemen Co. 49.

The real Mose was a parishioner of St. Andrew's Church.[3]

Mose Humphrey, as played by
Notes Frank Chanfrau

1. Genzlinger, Neil (October 23, 2007). "New York's Good Old

Days Were Often Far From Nice" (https://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/23/theater/reviews/23glan.
html). New York Times. Retrieved 23 January 2018.
2. Wilmeth, Don B.; Bigsby, Christopher, eds. (1998). The Cambridge History of American
Theatre: Beginnings to 1870. Cambridge University Press. p. 460. ISBN 0-521-47204-0.
3. "Who Are Those Guys? Part 1: Lower Manhattan Statues" (https://forgotten-ny.com/2001/05/wh
o-are-those-guys-part-1-lower-manhattan-statues/). Forgotten New York. May 28, 2001.

Further reading
Osborne, Mary Pope (2002). New York's Bravest. New York: A. A. Knopf.
ISBN 9780375821967.
Rinear, David L. (May 1981). "F. S. Chanfrau's Mose: The Rise and Fall of an Urban Folk-
Hero". Theatre Journal. 33 (2): 199–212. doi:10.2307/3207303 (https://doi.org/10.2307%2F320
7303). JSTOR 3207303 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/3207303).

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This page was last edited on 11 January 2021, at 18:03 (UTC).

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