Fire! Ring the Bell

For over 100 years our Waterville predecessors used fire for all creature comforts-light, heat and cooking. Candles, oil lamps and eventually even gas lights to light their homes. The open hearth fireplace gave way to the more efficient wood or coal stove for cooking and heat. Not infrequently, however, controlled fire escaped to cause misery and destruction. When a dwelling or barn caught fire little could be done except throw buckets of water on the fire. This of course required a near-by source of water. A town or village might be able to muster enough neighbors to form a  bucket brigade to deliver more buckets of water faster. Large eastern cities had organized fire companies that would bring buckets, ladders and men to fight a fire for a fee or to subscribers only (fire insurance?).

Waterville, like all other communities, operated under this too often ineffective system. The Villagers in 1889 petitioned the village council to pass an ordinance to organize “a company to be called the Waterville Pail and Ladder Fire Company” and to buy a sufficient number of pails and ladders for their use. This petition, held in the files of the WHS Archives, was signed by 27 of Waterville’s best known citizens, The council apparently not only agreed with the petitioners but sought to do even better. We were, at this this time in history, well into the mechanical age. Water pumps of many kinds were available. Just a month after the petition was received, the village had an agreement (also in WHS file) for the purchase of a “piano style Fire Engine” manufactured by Rumsey and Co. of Seneca Falls, N.Y. This was a manually operated water pump mounted on a horse drawn wagon. Also include was a one axle hose cart with a reel to hold 250 feet of hose and 1000 feet of fire hose and couplings. Total cost quoted for all this was $1350. This was a huge sum for a small village and there seems to be a hole in the available records beyond the above. We would suppose that the village would have to create and sell bonds to buy expensive equipment. The photo with this article shows that eventually the above was purchased. The published history of the Waterville Fire Department by Lucile Conrad states an organization date of June 1902. We would speculate that something was done in 1889 to 1890 to answer the people’s petition. Pails and ladders were cheap and there is an undated list of 37 men who volunteered to serve as firemen. The records do show that in September 1892 the Village paid Asher Demuth $50 for a ladder wagon, $5 for eight ladders and $33.30 for 11 days and 1 hour of teaming. September 1895 they paid Charles Graf $9 in rent for keeping the fire wagon. October 1896 they paid William Snyder $2.00 for a fire alarm and 50 cents to A.J. Taylor to put up the alarm. These documents show that some kind of a fire company existed before 1902. The 1902 Fire Department was organized as a fire company as was the custom, with elected officers, a written constitution and by-laws (copy in WHS files) and regular monthly meetings. For those who want to know more, the Wakeman Archives has an extensive file on the history of the Waterville Fire Department.