Although small in size, there’s a special place in Joplin, recognizing those who served their community and its residents, by fighting fires for the city’s first all-volunteer fire department.
According to research conducted by Joplin Fire Department Captain Mark Cox, in 1888, a city council resolution set aside a burial section for those who served as volunteer firefighters for Joplin’s first all-volunteer department. As a way of saying ‘thank you for your service and sacrifice’ to the city in which they lived, the volunteer fire crews were offered a burial plot in a dedicated section of Fairview Cemetery (Joplin’s first public cemetery, located at 13th Street and Maiden Lane) where this brotherhood of volunteer heroes could be laid to rest upon their passing. Cox says the burial plots were offered by the City of Joplin at no cost to the families of those deceased firefighters.