Joseph Winters
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Joseph "Indian Dick" Winters (1816– 1916) was an African-American abolitionist and inventor who patented a wagon-mounted fire escape in 1878. It is often falsely cited that Winters was the original inventor of the wagon mounted fire escape. Winters' version was patented 29 years after George Huttman and George Kornelio initially introduced the idea in 1849.[1]
He was born in Virginia to an African-American brickmaker and a Shawnee Indian mother. He later relocated to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania in 1830. During the time Winters lived in Chambersburg, he was active in the Underground Railroad.
