# About William Walters ![[big bill.png|350]] William Walters was the last of the early African American Town Commissioners to win election for the Ward 5 seat in May 1901 - and re-elected for a second term in May of 1902. But following statewide disenfranchisement -and the amendment to Rocky Mount’s Charter by the white rule legislature in 1901- there would not be another African American to serve in that capacity for 60 years. In 1897 the Town of Rocky Mount purchased a hand-drawn hook and ladder wagon and Rocky Mount’s African American Volunteer Fire Department was born. William “Big Bill '' Walters was foreman of Rocky Mount’s Excelstor Hook And Ladder Company, consisting of 25 firemen, and they joined the North Carolina Colored Volunteer Firemen’s Association, competing each year in contests across the state. In 1902 Big Bill’s team was disqualified at Raleigh because of an accident but in 1904 they brought home first prize and the $20 purse. Mr. William Walters was born in Edgecombe County in May 1870, the son of Virgil (born 1827) and Charlotte (born 1828) Walters of Whitakers who were both South Carolina natives. William was married to Henrietta Jones (born 1872) of Nash County, daughter of Columbus and Martha Jones, on December 23, 1891, in Rocky Mount by a justice of the peace. In 1906 William and Henrietta bought [[William and Henrietta Walters House | 410 Atlantic Avenue]], a home built by the Rocky Mount Improvement and Manufacturing Company in 1892. Walters and his wife raised five children in the upper-class Cross Town neighborhood. For more than two decades, beginning in 1909, Walters held the prestigious position as Hotel Ricks’ porter. William died in Edgecombe County at age 66 on September 24, 1936, and is buried, along with his wife Henrietta, in Old Unity Cemetery. ![[ricks hotel.png]]