Mose Humphrey

Moses Humphrey and a woman called Lize driving through the 3rd New York avenue.

Mose(s) Humphrey was a printer at the New York Sun and member of Fire Company 40. A parishioner of St. Andrew's Church,^[1] he inspired an urban folklore character of Big Mose (Mose the Fireboy). He 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. The character of Mose first appeared on Broadway in Benjamin A. Baker's A Glance at New York, in 1848. Then 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]

Notes

1. ^ "Iowerman". Forgotten-NY.com. http://www.forgotten-ny.com/STREET%20SCENES/lowermanstats/lowermanstat.html. Retrieved 2007-05-16. 
2. ^ Welmeth and Bigsby 460.

Further reading

• Mary Pope Osborne. New York's Bravest.
• David L. Rinear. F. S. Chanfrau's Mose: The Rise and Fall of an Urban Folk-Hero. Theatre Journal, Vol. 33, No. 2 (May, 1981), pp. 199–212

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Name	Humphrey, Mose
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