Fire Captain John B. Lucot

John B. Lucot was named after his French grandfather who came to the U.S. in the 1840s and settled in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The younger John was most likely born in Temperanceville, now the West End of Pittsburgh, since he was living there in 1870 at the age of two with his parents, Albert and Minnie.

John was first employed as an iron worker but, by the age of 23, he was appointed as a Pittsburgh fire fighter. A year later, he married a Minnie of his own, Philomena Stella Cain. Within 10 years, they had a household full of children: five girls.

But a few days before his youngest daughter's first birthday, on May 17, 1904, Minnie died of pneumonia. John most likely moved back in with his parents so they could help raise his girls because that's where he was in the 1910 census. In 1911, he married his second wife, my great-great aunt Frances Echement, at St. Mary of the Mount Church. They had three boys together: Albert John, Arthur Ambrose, and Richard J. Lucot.

In between his marriages, John B. Lucot was promoted to fire captain and assigned to Company No. 35 in the 40th Ward of Pittsburgh. It appears that he moved to at least one other fire company in the city after that, and then retired in 1933 after 41 years of service.

John and Frances are buried in St. Martin's Cemetery, along with their son Al:

St. Martin's Cemetery, West End section of Pittsburgh, Allegheny, Pennsylvania
(Photo taken by the author)

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