USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Bridgeport > The story of Bridgeport > Part 15
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Phoenix Fire Company No. 4 was established in 1840 as was the Pequon- nock Fire Company of North Bridgeport. Five years later the Bridgeport Hose Company came into being.
Shortly before the year 1845 the creditors of the city threatened to levy up- on the fire apparatus of the city and to save the situa- tion, the whole department was sold by the city to the town of Bridgeport for $1,249.09 and leased from the town for $75 a year. It was afterwards bought back from the town on money which had been borrowed.
Up until the year 1847, the fire department had been composed wholly of volunteers. But in 1847 R. B. Lacey drafted a plan for reorganizing the de- partment, which plan was adopted and a board of
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engineers was constituted to have charge of the several companies. This system prevailed up to the time of a paid department in 1872.
WHAT EXTRAVAGANCE!
Following the reorganization in 1847, several new fire houses were built, all on an extremely economical basis. Witness the following: The council voted in 1854: "That $75 be appropriated for the building of a house for a hose company to be located on Cedar Street", and again, "that a hose company be estab- lished on Golden Hill and $75 be appropriated to build a house.
That same year, it was voted: "That the premium awarded to Hook and Ladder Company be not paid until the officers of said company equip themselves with fire caps." Two years earlier the motion had been passed "that every fireman shall provide himself with a good fire hat, and that no roll shall be accepted until the foreman has certified that every member of his company is equipped with a fire hat."
Now the "steamer" appears on the scene and we find that in January, 1864 the steam fire engine "D. H. Sterling No. 1" was purchased; in May, 1865 the "Steamer Proctor No. 2" arrived, and in August of the same year, the "Steamer Excelsior No. 5" came to town.
The paid fire department was inaugurated in October, 1872, displacing the volunteers. Charles A. Gerdenier was appointed chief engineer.
This same year a fire alarm telegraph system was installed in Bridgeport at a cost of $10,000. Forty- two call boxes were connected with this system. In 1917 there were 274 alarm boxes There are 365 alarm boxes today.
The fire prevention bureau, 268 Middle Street, was established July 1, 1917. Its function is the inspection of all buildings and the elimination of fire hazard conditions.
In 1903 the Gamewell telegraph system was installed. This was a "repeater" system, not the same as the Manual system now in effect.
Chief Thomas F. Burns heads the Bridgeport fire department today. The department employs 221 officers and men and includes eleven engine com' panies and five truck companies. The dates of the establishment of these companies are given below:
Chemical No. 1, at 268 Middle Street, established 1906; Engine Company No. 1, at 348 John Street,
established 1860; Engine Company No. 2, at 135 Clarence Street, established 1870 with a new house built 1927-28; Engine Company No. 3, at 167 Norman Street, established 1887; Engine Company No. 4, at 186 Madison Avenue, established 1888.
Engine Company No. 5, at 268 Middle Street, established 1876; Engine Company No. 6, at 1184 Barnum Avenue, established 1893, house built 1901; Engine Company No. 7, at 575 Bostwick Avenue,
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established 1902; Engine Company No. 8, at 566 Newfield Avenue, established 1907 but since closed; Engine Company No. 9, at 299 Maplewood Avenue, established 1908; Engine Company No. 10, at 268 Putnam Street, established 1913.
Engine Company No. 11, at 2666 Fairfield Avenue, established 1917; Engine Company No. 12, at 265 Beechmont Avenue, established 1917; also the Hillside voluntary fire company.
Truck Company No. 1, at 167 Norman Street, established 1887; Truck Company No. 2, at 268 Middle Street, established 1876; Truck Company No. 3, at 1184 Barnum Avenue, established 1901; Truck Company No. 4, at 2666 Fairfield Avenue, established 1917; and Truck Company No. 5, at 265 Beechmont Avenue, established 1917.
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WRECK OF THE FEDERAL EXPRESS
CHAPTER TWENTY
R UNNING at sixty miles an hour over a "cross- over" switch, where the rules called for a speed of not more than fifteen miles an hour, the "Federal Express", one of the New Haven's fastest trains, jumped the tracks and smashed down a twenty-foot embankment just east of the Fairfield Avenue viaduct at 3 :30 o'clock the morning of July 12, 1911. Twelve persons were killed in the wreck and 48 more or less seriously injured.
Of the seriously injured, at least eight were near death. In addition, there were 50 others, slightly injured. Most of the passengers were from southern New York State or from New England. The most remarkable thing about the disaster was the compara- tively small number of those killed instantly, for the inside of every car, except the last two Pullman cars, was practically wiped clean.
Crossing over the switch at 60 miles an hour has been ascribed as the only possible cause for the wreck. The engineer, Arthur M. Curtis, was killed in the crash.
A fish stock car of the United States Bureau of Fisheries was the first car behind the engine and its presence there constituted the reason for the switch- ing over of the fast express. The engineer had orders to drop the fish stock car at Bridgeport. The Fair- field Avenue viaduct is a little more than a mile from the Bridgeport station where the fish car was to have been left. When the train hurled itself on the switch at the fast rate at which it was traveling, it was more than the switch could bear, and the derailment fol- lowed.
The engine, tender, fish car, one baggage car, day car and four of the six pullman cars jumped the track, separated, and with the exception of the fourth pull- man, broke and crumpled up. Pieces of the engine could be found along the track for 100 feet, and the tender finally stopped 40 feet west of the engine. The baggage car and day car cleared the viaduct but turned over and smashed on the incline of the em- bankment beyond, and the first of the four pullmans landed on its roof halfway across the street under- neath the viaduct.
Inside the pullmans, with the exception of the last
two, the fittings and woodwork were torn and crushed into a jumbled mass. The day car and the baggage car were reduced to splinters and the engine was so torn apart that only the main body of the boiler and cab were left to distinguish it as part of a whole.
On the east side of the viaduct, the embankment was held and strengthened by a stone retaining wall in which the individual stone blocks measured about six feet in length by four in width and three in thick- ness.
CARRIES AWAY WALL
The terrible force of the plunging engine, once it had left the tracks, can be best appreciated from the fact that one of these big stones was cut clear of the retaining wall and carried through the air 20 feet. This stone was found in the remains of what had been the day car, about the middle of the car, a gaping hole in the front end proclaiming its entrance.
The St. Louis National League baseball team, con- sisting of 22 players under Roger Bresnahan, the manager, were in the last two pullmans, going from Philadelphia to Boston. They escaped uninjured, barring a few minor scratches and bruises from the shock of the sudden stop.
Thirty five doctors were at the scene of the acci- dent within a few minutes. Most of them came in their automobiles, the cars being turned into make- shift ambulances to carry the injured to the hospitals.
Meanwhile, an elderly but active woman, at whose very door the mass of wreckage was strewn, had taken hold of the situation and started relief work within a few minutes after the first roar of the wreck had subsided.
The James Horan home on Fairfield Avenue is fronted by a sweeping lawn which slopes down gently to the street over which the viaduct passes. Mrs. Horan saw the train leave the rails and plunge down the embankment.
"The mosquitoes had kept me half awake an hour before the wreck", said Mrs. Horan, "and when I heard the bell of the train coming I got up to look out of my window. The engine seemed to stagger as it
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reached the viaduct, then it plunged down the em- bankment this side of the viaduct and I surely thought it was coming straight at my house.
"There was a terrible roar, and a flying of sparks, and I ran to get something on and go outdoors. When I reached the lawn a few seconds afterward, the train was all off the track except the two sleepers, and the whole place seemed to be filled with broken cars. Then I heard people scream, and neighbors came running in, and we started to do what we could."
Details of the wreck escaped Mrs. Horan's notice
"There was a lot of screaming", said the sergeant, "and we could see people trying to get out of the cars, but apparently held in by masses of broken woodwork and car fittings that were jammed up around them. We all climbed up on the floors and sides of the over- turned cars, broke windows and chopped through the bottoms where we had to, and in some cases we had to shove ladders through to get into the cars."
FISH SCATTERED
Two of the most remarkable escapes in a wreck which was conspicuous for escapes, were those of the
TWELVE WERE KILLED
When the Federal Express jumped the tracks the morning of July 12, 1911, sections of the train rolled down to the front yard of the Horan home on Fairfield Avenue. (Photo, courtesy of Martin J. Ryan)
after that and she plunged into the work of caring for the unfortunate passengers who were thrown in- to her yard. Firemen, policemen, baseball players and uninjured passengers carried scores of injured and dying persons to the lawn and porches of the Horan home until the place resembled a field hospital. As fast as possible, the dead and the more seriously injured were taken away.
Sergeant Philip Blansfield who led the first police- men to the scene, declared that when he first saw the mass of wreckage, he believed everyone in the cars must have been killed outright. There was no fire, although there was a continuous snapping and sizz- ling from the electric wires which had snapped and were swinging against the steel viaduct. Power was quickly shut off, to avert fire.
two employes of the United States Bureau of Fish- eries, who were in the car which was right behind the engine.
H. L. Canfield and P. Oden, Jr., of the Fisheries Bureau, were sleeping in their burks when the train plunged over the embankment. They were the only attendants in the moving aquarium. One side of their car was wiped out as if it had been made of paper, and they were thrown violently against the roof of the car. Almost instantly the car was over on one side, with two or three gaping holes in its floor- ing. The two men dropped through the holes, liter- ally "thrown out" to comparative safety.
Several thousand fishes, mostly trout, were scat- tered around the wreckage of the government's stock car.
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·
RUESS , DENTON
C'EST LA GUERRE!
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
T HE young girl impatiently pushed her way through the throng of workers at the factory entrance, drawing her cheap little coat tighter about her, against the January coid. Siipping and sliding she raced for the trolley, not because she was late, but because running kept one's blood up. She could use a good warm wrap. But what can you do on $12.50 a week?
Two years later, another January and the year was 1917. The same ycung girl pushed her way through the factory jam. She didn't hurry. A new fur coat mocked the January winds. Her car was at the curb. And in her alligator pocketbook was a pay envelope containing just $65, her wages for a week's work as shell inspector in one of Bridgeport's great war munition plants.
What the World War did for this one worker, it
did for many others. Wages doubled and trebled overnight; thousands of mechanics and girl workers flocked to the city; sleeping quarters were at a premium; factories ran all day and all night; money was spent like water.
The World War brought millions in gold to Bridgeport. But it also brought sorrow, taking its ruthless toll of the city's young manhood. Approxi- mately 8,671 Bridgeporters marched away to war. There were 237 who never returned; seven officers, 224 enlisted men, one sailor, three marines, (one offi- cer and two enlisted men) and two nurses.
Bridgeport's honor roll is permanently engraved on the marble tablet erected on the city hall green. There are 212 names on this tablet. Curiously enough two of those listed as dead, are very much alive.
They are Ludwig Bohman of Melville Avenue, a
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post office employe, married, with one son; and Daniel J. Callahan of 421 State Street, a mechanic employed in the Remington Arms, U. M. C.
The war boom struck Bridgeport early in 1915. Previous to this time Bridgeport had been a rather slow going city of 115,000. In less than a year, 50,000 men and women were added to its population; the conservative town with its non union tradition and the usual nine or ten hour day changed over- night. Thousands joined the unions; 55 different strikes took place and the eight hour day was won.
Land values and rents jumped by leaps and bounds. Where there had been 1900 vacant houses in the city before the war, when the boom hit town, there wasn't a rent to be had. New workers coming into the city often had to sleep in the railroad station for two or three nights before a room could be found for them. Boarding houses became so crowded that beds were shared by two and sometimes three workers, one using the four poster at night, a second in the morn- ing, when he came off the night shift, and a third, in the afternoon.
EVERYTHING INCREASED
It is interesting to note that over a period of 18 months, the population increased 40% ; savings bank deposits increased a like 40%, and arrests for drunkenness increased 41%.
When the housing problem became so acute that workers would no longer come into Bridgeport, knowing there was no place to sleep, the Remington Arms Company, U. M. C. established a real estate department, commenced buying up property in the vicinity of the two plants and erected 42 four family houses, 63 six family houses, and 14 dormitories, each to house 50 girls. Then on August 9, 1916, the Bridgeport Housing Company took out incorpor- ation papers for the erection of 1000 new homes for working men.
War orders came first to the Union Metallic Cartridge Company which began to add to its force and speed up its factory; next the Locomobile Com- pany speeded up, with rumored orders for three ton trucks for England. The average working force of 1200 was increased to 1800. Then the Lake Torpedo Company, equipped for the building of submarines, after the designs of Simon Lake, commenced enlarg- ing its plant. New water lots were bought adjoining the old plant and work commenced which would quadruple the capacity of 1914. Whereas before the
war the plant could build only five boats a year, by the end of the war, it was equipped to build 20 boats a year.
Two other arms and munitions plants, the American and British Manufacturing Company and the British Projectile Company began turning out materials of war. The Bridgeport Brass Company added new buildings and doubled its working force on account of war orders.
Now came a huge new factory, the Remington Arms Company. The year 1914 found the young Marcellus Hartley Dodge at the age of 34 in posses- sion of the big plant of the Union Metallic Cartridge Company in Bridgeport and the Remington Arms Company at Ilion, New York.
It was rumored that a supplement to the Ilion plant was to be built in Canada. But instead the Reming- ton Arms Company's new factory came to Bridge- port. In five months, from March 15 to August 16, 1915, a row of one story brick buildings (bayonet factories) and a parallel row of five story brick build- ings (rifle factories) a quarter of a mile long, rose on a site north of the U. M. C.
Meantime the U. M. C. had not been idle, but had added seven four story brick buildings to its original factory, had increased its usual 2200 employes to 7000 and was running three eight hour shifts.
All day long a line of men stood outside the Remington Arms Company waiting to be hired and it was said of the firm that one new man joined the force every 20 minutes. Suffice to say that 1400-1600 men were taken on every month for nearly a year. In November 1915, 3000 were employed. By April 1, 1916, the number had jumped to 16,000 and 20,000 more were expected.
Bridgeport suffered acute growing pains during this period, not only in factory space and housing quarters, but elsewhere. Schools were crowded. The normal annual increase in the school population jumped from 800 to 1621. Some 32 new teachers were hired and 24 new schoolrooms were opened. But this still wasn't enough.
Recreational facilities were badly needed. Theaters were filled to overflowing; cheap little dance halls mushroomed overnight; churches opened gymnasiums and clubs; salcons were jammed; and a number of cafés advertised "Cabaret dancing 6 p. m. until mid- night"; the street corners were conspicuous for lounge lizards.
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WAR!
The atmosphere registered a sharp change upon the entrance of the United States into the World War. April 2, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson stood be- fore Congress and asked that body to formally declare war on Germany.
Bridgeport boys were organizing and several com- panies had already been mobilized by the time war was declared April 6, 1917. A few men in Battery F, 10th Field Artillery from Bridgeport entered the federal service, March 30, 1917.
Second Company, Coast Artillery Corps, Connec- ticut National Guard, two officers and 106 enlisted men, entered the federal service April 2, 1917.
Fourth Company, Coast Artillery Corps, Connec- ticut National Guard, two officers and 119 enlisted men, entered federal service April 3, 1917.
The Connecticut Naval Militia, was mobilized April 7, 1917, and the Third Division located in Bridgeport under the command of Lieutenant Wil- liam A. Anderson, left for Commonwealth pier in Boston, April 9, 1917. This division was ordered to join the cruiser U. S. S. North Carolina which acted as an escort for the first convoy of American troops sent to France.
The Sixth Division of the Naval Militia for Aero- nautic duties only, was mobilized April 7, 1917 and sent to the aviation base at Marblehead, Massachu- setts. This division had been organized in February, 1917, by Lieutenant Albert J. Merritt, ordnance offi- cer, on order from the Bureau of Navigation, Washington. The commanding officer was Ensign D. Cooper. This aviation division and the one or- ganized in Rhode Island by Lieutenant Richard Byrd, now admiral, were the first two naval reserve aviation divisions organized in the United States.
July 25, 1917 was official mobilization day for all Connecticut National Guard units. On this day, the First Connecticut Ambulance Company with four officers and 139 enlisted men from Bridgeport entered federal service.
The same day, 20 Bridgeport men in the Sanitary Detachment, Coast Artillery Corps, Connecticut National Guards, entered federal service.
July 25th also, the 11th Company, Coast Artillery Corps, Connecticut National Guard, three officers and 115 enlisted men, entered federal service. Also, the band, Coast Artillery Corps, Connecticut National Guard, 22 enlisted men from Bridgeport
and one enlisted man from Plainfield entered federal service.
FIRST PARADE
Bridgeport's first World War military parade took place July 24, 1917, the night before the first detach- ment of boys left for camp. The men marched through streets lined with cheering men, women and children. They were escorted by the Home Guard units and were reviewed in front of the City Hall by members of the Grand Army Post.
By 5 o'clock the next morning, official mobilization day, the city was alive with khaki clad lads. Long before dawn, camp was broken at Pleasure Beach (then Steeplechase Island) for the soldiers of the Third Battalion, Second Connecticut Infantry. Shortly after 8 o'clock the battalion marched off the island, through Seaview Avenue and tramped in heavy marching order, through Stratford Avenue to the railroad station. As their going had not been made public, there were few to bid the infantry boys good bye but nevertheless they were given a rousing send-off by the group at the station. Four companies of the Third Battalion left at 8:30 a. m.
By 10 in the morning the station was jammed with the hundreds of fathers, mothers, wives and sweet- hearts and relatives who had come to bid farewell to the members of the Fourth Coast Artillery Company. The boys entrained for Fort Wright at 10 a. m.
Saturday morning, July 28, 1917 at 10 o'clock, the last unit of national guardsmen left the city. The First Connecticut Ambulance Corps, known as "Bridgeport's Own" boarded the train for Niantic at seven in the morning. This company was recruited to war strength of 150 men and the name of the com- pany changed to the Third Connecticut Ambulance Company. Later, the name was again changed to 102nd Ambulance Company. After eight weeks training at Niantic this company was, on Steptember 25, 1917, ordered on its now famous journey to the western front in France.
Members of the Eleventh Coast Artillery, the C. A. C. band, and the Sanitary detachment en- trained shortly after 9 o'clock for Forts Wright and Terry, New York. Battery F., Tenth Regiment, Field Artillery, Connecticut National Guard, started on the hike to Niantic at 9:30 a. m.
A huge crowd gathered to see the last delegation entrain. Some of the wives and mothers became
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hysterical and several women fainted, necessitating the calling of the ambulance.
As the train pulled out of the station, the crowds yelled and cheered, shouting bravely after the depart- ing boys, "Good-bye, Good Luck, God Bless You!"
By noon the great armory was as bare as the pro- verbial cupboard of Mother Hubbard. Only Ex- Sergeant Timothy Donahue, who had seen service in his time, remained behind, in charge of the armory.
Among the Bridgeport officers who commanded
STESSO BENTON
the first detachment of boys who went to the war from this city were the following:
Lieutenant colonel Vincent M. King, second in command, C.A.C .; Captain Arthur C. Bennett, Fourth C.A.C. Company; Lieutenant Camille Mazeau, Fourth C.A.C. Company; Captain Louis J. Brague, Second C.A.C. Company. Major Frederick J. Adams, chief surgeon, C.N.G .; Lieutenant John T. Powers, Ambulance Company; Lieutenant Charles H. Sprague, Ambulance Company; Lieuten- ant Philip E. Bronson, Eleventh C.A.C. Company; Lieutenant George B. Garlick, Sanitary Detachment; Lieutenant William Nagle, Ambulance Company; Captain J. Allen Twachtman; Second Lieutenant Harold T. Griswold.
Lieutenant Laurence E. Poole, Sanitary Detach-
ment; Lieutenant D. H. Lawlor, Ambulance Com- pany; Captain Louis R. O'Neill, Eleventh C.A.C. Company; First Lieutenant Miles G. Thompson; Second Company; Second Lieutenant Perry L. Haynes, Eleventh Company; Captain Frank W. Stevens.
With the Connecticut Naval Militia, Third Divi- sion (from Bridgeport) were Lieutenant William A. Anderson, Lieutenant Albert J. Merritt, Dr. H. B. Lambert, Lieutenant John C. Ross.
HOME DEFENSE
Bridgeport was now left to its war munitions, its relief and comfort clubs and its various other war activities.
The Bridgeport Chapter of the American Red Cross now came into prominence This was not a new organization for as far back as July, 1898, a woman's auxiliary of the National Red Cross had been organized at the home of Mrs. William D. Bishop on Courtland Hill. Mrs. Charles B. Read was elected chairman and Mrs. Bishop, vice chairman.
When the present Bridgeport chapter was organ- ized nearly 20 years later, Mrs. Bishop was again named vice chairman. February 14, 1917, the group met and formally organized the existing chapter. Walter B. Lashar was named chairman.
One of the most important committees of the chapter was the Military Relief Committee of which Mrs. C. Nathaniel Worthen was chairman. Another was the Civilian Relief Committee with Mrs. Charles B. Read as chairman. A third was the Finance Committee with Bradford D. Pierce as chair- man.
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