Encyclopedia of the history of Missouri, a compendium of history and biography for ready reference, Vol. II, Part 83

Author: Conard, Howard Louis, ed. 1n
Publication date: 1901
Publisher: New York, Louisville [etc.] The Southern history company, Haldeman, Conard & co., proprietors
Number of Pages: 800

USA > Missouri > Encyclopedia of the history of Missouri, a compendium of history and biography for ready reference, Vol. II > Part 83

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454

FIRE DEPARTMENT OF ST. LOUIS, VOLUNTEER.

the convenience of tying. The Veteran Vol- unteer Firemen's Historical Society has in its possession one of these buckets, dating back to 1791, formerly an heirloom in the family of one of its members. They were all made on the same pattern and all of sole leather. On the occasion of an alarm each designated person was expected to go to his home with all speed and secure his bucket. It might be in the cellar where the children left it the last time they played "fire," or his wife might have mislaid it; but, attaching his badge to his everyday hat and securing the bucket, he hastened in the direction of the blaze, and on arrival formed a link in the human line which conveyed the water from the nearest well or cistern. Three years before this date, how- ever, efforts had been made to secure regular apparatus in place of the ladder and buckets. Early in 1819 William P. Anderson and oth- ers raised the necessary amount by private subscription for the purchase of two small rotary engines in Cincinnati, and up to 1826 they were utilized by citizens in general and by the members of the two companies which were formed shortly after their arrival. The North Fire Company organized May 20, 1820, and the South Fire Company in August following. These engines were housed in barns or outhouses, and fires being very infrequent, were neglected to the extent of rendering them unreliable in case of need of their services. This fact rather discouraged the members of the two companies above mentioned, and they went out of existence some time before the formation of the next company, called the Phoenix Fire Company, in May, 1826, under the following act of the General Assembly, passed as an act supple- mentary to the act incorporating the town of St. Louis, namely :

"Section 3. Be it further enacted, that the board of aldermen shall have the power to or- ganize and establish fire companies in the city of St. Louis, and the members thereof shall be exempt from all military duty in time of peace." Approved February 19, 1826.

The following ordinance was then passed, authorizing the citizens to form themselves into fire companies :

"Be it ordained by the mayor and board of aldermen of the city of St. Louis: That the citizens be and are hereby empowered to form themselves into fire companies, one company to each ward, to consist of residents

of that ward; and that no person shall be- come a member of any company who shall not be twenty-one years of age. Be it or- dained that the number of members shall not exceed at any time seventy-five, and that as soon as fifty shall have subscribed their names a meeting shall be called and officers appointed, which, if approved by the mayor and board of aldermen, shall be deemed to have the force and effect of an ordinance until repealed.

"Passed by the board of aldermen, Sep- tember 10, 1825.

"Joseph Charless, President. "Wm. Carr Lane, Mayor."

In May of the following year a call was is- sued under the above, and a large number of subscribers convened at the Baptist Church on the 2nd day of June following. Josiah Spalding was called to the chair, and Wilson McGunnigle was appointed secretary. A committee was appointed to draft a constitu- tion and by-laws, consisting of Wilson Mc- Gunnigle, Charles Wahrendorff, Edward Charless and Charles Spalding, the result of which action was the passage of the following ordinance by the city fathers :

"Whereas, an association of the Middle Ward, styled the Phoenix Fire Company, have submitted a constitution and by-laws : Therefore, be it resolved, That this board do approve the constitution as subscribed and constitute the same as a fire company for said ward, and said company shall have charge of the engine now in the Market House."

The officers elected to serve the first year -and, in fact, the only officers ever elected, as the company existed but a short time- were as follows: President, Bernard Pratte ; secretary, Wilson McGunnigle; captain, Christ M. Price; lieutenant, John Simonds ; first engineer, Ames Hill; second engineer, John L. Sutton; first director, Henry Von Phul; second director, Thomas Ander- son; third director, John H. Gay; fourth director, Charles Wahrendorff. The roster of members consisted of sixty-five of the most prominent residents of the young city- now all passed to their reward. "The engine in the Market House"-which latter was situ- ated on the block bounded by Levee, Main, Market and Walnut Streets-was one of the two acquired in 1819, and was called the "None-Such," a very appropriate name, for

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FIRE DEPARTMENT OF ST. LOUIS, VOLUNTEER.

upon every occasion in which she was called into service, she either refused to work when in apparent condition, or broke down when otherwise, the oft occurrence of which so dis- gusted the parties having her in charge that they ceased taking her out of the house and went back to the "good old way of extin- guishing a fire with buckets." These engines are now difficult to describe, the oldest in- habitant's recollection being of a square box of the dimensions of six by three feet, on wheels, said wheels being not over eighteen inches in diameter, the whole being painted red and black, the internal pumping ma- chinery being worked by large iron fly- wheels, one on each side, revolved by the hands of persons standing on the ground, communicating the power through cogs.

In 1829 another effort was made to utilize these engines by the formation of another company called the St. Louis Fire Company, the membership of which was, in a great measure, the same as the Phoenix; but after a very short lease of life it died out like its predecessors. The "None-Such" bore her name with distinction until time called in her accounts. Those who remember her can not but wonder at the immense strides which have been made in everything pertaining to the fire service. Place an Ahrens engine of to-day alongside of the "None-Such," if such a thing were possible, and the attitude of the poles would be nearly realized. "Fighting the devil with fire" never entered the human mind at that date; and, in fact, steam as a motive power was in its swaddling clothes, Fulton's first steamer having made her trial trip shortly before the "None-Such" was built. The principle of "Similia similibus curantur," as applied to the extinguishment of fires, was not evolved from the brain of Abel Shawk until 1853. The hand-engine had been brought to near perfection when thus superseded, and the steamer of to-day is nearly so ; and it is not a great stretch of the imagination to say that the young man of to- day will see another revolution as great. Electricity is revolutionizing the world ; it en- ters largely into the fire service now, and will eventually supersede the fire steamer.

Before closing the records of these several attempts to run regular companies, there is appended a list of fines imposed : "For every absence from a fire, captain or senior officer, $5; engineers, $3; directors, $2; secretary,

$1.50; hook, ax and ladder men, $1.25; all other members, $1; provided that any fine may be remitted upon good cause being shown, and provided, also, that any member who shall be the owner of any building within the limits at the time of the imposition of such fine shall be charged double the forego- ing rates." As will be readily seen, a care- less fireman of that period paid dearly for being so, and what effect such heavy penalties had upon the membership can only be con- jectured.

Thus matters stood until the spring of 1832, when, the city having grown apace, and the bucket brigade having of late proved in- adequate to its needs, Daniel D. Page being mayor and governing the city in connection with a board of nine aldermen, an ordinance was passed to commission Martin Thomas to proceed to the East, vesting him with powers for the purchase of another engine. The pop- ulation of St. Louis at that time amounted to 6,500 souls, and the limits extended to Cherry Street-now Franklin Avenue-on the north, Elm Street on the South, and Fourth Street on the west. One must remember that a trip to the East in those days was not the baga- telle of a few hours' ride, as at present, but an undertaking involving at least two months of time. No railroads then-no forty miles an hour; but a steamboat trip up the Ohio to Pittsburg, then a horse-back jaunt or a stage- coach ride of some hundred miles, or a canal- boat journey of a week or so, the invariable result being a heartfelt desire on the part of the sufferer that he were at home and could stay there. Mr. Thomas, however, cheerfully undertook the task, the result of his labors being .the advent, in the fall of 1832, of a small "brake" engine, which at the present day would be rated as fourth class, manufac- tured by John Agnew, of Philadelphia, and named the "Pat Lyon," in honor of the then prominent ironmonger of Pittsburg. In the meantime a company had been formed to man the engine on her arrival, the originat- ors being Thornton Grimsley, E. H. Beebe, George K. McGunnigle, Charles F. Hendry, Thomas Andrews and Edward Brooks. This engine arrived early in the fall and the first test of her fitness for service, considering the scanty water supply, took place soon after her arrival at the southeast corner of Third and Market Streets, taking her water from the cellar of Grimsley's Hotel, which stood

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FIRE DEPARTMENT OF ST. LOUIS, VOLUNTEER.

upon the original site of the Baptist Church. Our old friends, the "rotaries," were on hand also, and the announcement of the trial on a beautiful afternoon in October, brought forth almost the entire population, and much inter- est was manifested when one of the rotaries was put to the test, resulting in her discom- fiture by the breaking off of the cogs at the fourth or fifth revolution-the break being caused by rust and neglect-and both were put aside. The Agnew proved satisfactory to the members of the "Central," as the new company was called, and which proved to be the first of any permancy. What became of these rotaries it is difficult to discover, the prevailing impression among the old firemen being that the broken one was entirely dis- carded, and the other one used by the Union Fire Company pending the construction of their regular engine ; and then both being in- gloriously sold as old iron. The Agnew en- gine was a small affair, of six-inch pumps, seven-inch stroke, with "gallery," "brakes," and "footboards," the latter having a capacity of five men each, while the lower brakes could accommodate an equal number. The Central Fire Company's first step was to increase her brake power by lengthening the arms and footboards, the consequence of which action was that at any attempt to work her at a fire she jumped and rocked to such an extent that chaining her wheels together had to be adopted and the greatest care exercised to prevent her going on her beam ends. These difficulties soon convinced the members that they ought to have a better engine, and they succeeded in obtaining an order from the city fathers for another, in the summer of 1836. The new engine soon arrived, supplanting the "Pat Lyon," the latter falling into the hands of the city, where she ever afterward re- mained, being used by one and another com- pany during the completion of their regular apparatus, until the year 1850, when she was turned out upon an open lot on the corner of Third and Spruce Streets, where decrepitude from long service and the elements soon made short work of her. She was the best known of all the engines in the department, having gone through so many hands and ful- filling the old adage : "A friend in need," etc. Late in the fall of 1832, a short time subse- quent to the trial mentioned, the fever of "running wid de masheen," having spread throughout the city, culminated in the forma-

tion of a company called the Northern Fire Company, their location being in the north- ern ward. Its membership was composed mostly of Irish citizens, backed by influential Americans, large property owners in the vicinity of Fourth and Washington, the site pitched for housing their apparatus being a lot on the east side of Third Street, just north of Washington Avenue, removing subse- quently to the west side, one-half block below, where they remained up to the time of their dissolution in 1855. They subsequently took the name of Union No. 2. The Southern Fire Company afterward took the name of Washington No. 3, their membership being, with few exceptions, made up of German and French citizens. This company was organ- ized in 1833, and first located on the east side of Second Street, south of Spruce, remov- ing in 1835 to Spruce, midway be- tween Second and Third Streets, and again in 1852 to the west side of Third Street, a few doors south of Elm. They were considered the protectors of the southern portion of the city, though in after years there was a company a mile south of their location. In the spring of 1839 the St. Louis Fire Com- pany was organized, their first location being a one-story frame shed on the northwest cor- ner of Fourth and Locust Streets, removing, in 1841, to the southeast corner of Third and Locust Streets. The membership of this company was made up almost exclusively of clerks, young mechanics, etc., the preponder- ance being parties in the higher walks of life. In the fall of 1839 Missouri No. 5 was formed by a number of business men, merchants and their employes, they sharing the same shed in which the St. Louis was domiciled. In 1841 Missouri No. 5 removed to the east side of Third Street, just south of Ludlow & Smith's Theater, which stood on the southeast corner of Third and Olive Streets, where they re- mained up to the year 1852, when they again moved to the east side of Seventh Street, three doors south of Olive Street, where they disbanded. In 1842 a company was formed principally from the employes of Gaty, McCune & Company's foundry, the firm building their first engine, and the loca- tion selected being a lot donated by the city on the southwest corner of Third Street and Franklin Avenue, which they occupied up to the date of dissolution in 1858. The next company to come forward as a champion of

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FIRE DEPARTMENT OF ST. LOUIS, VOLUNTEER.

public safety was Phoenix No. 7, composed mainly of German citizens, who had settled quite a distance south of No. 3, domiciling themselves, in the spring of 1853, in a one- story frame building situated at the junction of Second and Fifth Streets and Carondelet Avenue, subsequently moving across Fifth Street opposite. In the winter of 1847 the citizens of the northwestern portion of the city felt the desideratum of a fire organiza- tion in their quarter, and formed the Franklin Fire Company No. 8, housing their first ap- paratus in a shed in the wagon-yard of Fred. Lauman, situated on the northwest corner of Eleventh and Franklin Avenue, removing thence to the west side of Eleventh Street, north of Wash Street, where they dissolved. The members of this company were also Ger- man citizens-"wooden shoes," as they were derisively called-with few exceptions, devel- oping into a very active company. Next in order was Mound Fire Company No. 9, com- posed of Americans principally, residents of the northeastern portion of the city, their first location being on Howard Street, east of Broadway, on the south side; their second and last, west side of Broadway, south of Brooklyn, just opposite the mound which gave St. Louis the sobriquet of "Mound City." They were followed by Laclede Fire Company No. 10, in a quarter of the city sadly needing their services, their original lo- cation being the south end of Lucas Market -which stood in the center of Twelfth Street, between Olive and Chestnut Streets, remov- ing thence to the carpenter shop of their president, on the west side of Sixteenth Street, north of Chestnut, and again in 1850, to the north side of Market Street, three doors east of Fifteenth. The membership was composed of firemen, members of other companies, who, on moving into that neigh- borhood, had resigned from their former companies. There were never any hose com- panies proper in the department, each com- pany including its own hose service ; and the only hook and ladder company ever in the de- partment was Lafayette No. I, instituted in 1852, their original location being on the east side of Eighth Street, south of Washington Avenue, making several changes during their career, and dissolving in 1858. But one other company may be mentioned, closing the record of the Volunteer Fire Department : "Good Will Fire Company No. 11," located

on the north side of North Market Street, east of Broadway. They were an offshoot of several of the old companies and born of the violent opposition of the volunteers to the establishment of the paid department. After an existence of a few months they succumbed to public opinion and returned their bor- rowed apparatus to their respective owners. Two prominent auxiliaries, however, to the system employed in the extinguishment of fires deserve a place alongside the regular or- ganization, the Fireman's Fund Association, organized in 1841, and the Fire Wardens, in- stituted in 1844. The former was an institu- tion on the benevolent plan of creating a fund for the relief of sick and disabled firemen and their families, the membership of which was open to any fireman in good standing. On the payment of $1 a year, his family was the recipient of $6 a week during sickness or dis- ability, and in case of death occurring, a sum suitable for funeral expenses, besides a monthly compensation to the widow during life. This association is still in existence in the paid department, having been transferred on the dissolution of the volunteers, and is in a flourishing condition. The Fire Ward- ens were an association of gentlemen in the interest of the underwriters, whose aim was the protection of goods from injury or loss by fire and water, the position so ably filled at present by the Salvage Corps. The in- ducement to membership in this organization was immunity from jury and military duty, and many of our prominent citizens availed themselves of its privileges. They were in existence up to 1890, doing no duty after the introduction of the Salvage Corps, but keep- ing up their organization for the purpose of being a support to the Fireman's Fund, four- fifths of the annual dues being paid into the latter's treasury. A late Legislature, in view of the fact of their doing no duty and their supplantment by a better organization, re- pealed the clause exempting them from jury duty, which repeal has been twice tested of late before the courts; the first, in the Court of Appeals, being decided against the recalci- trant member for contempt, and the last, be- fore the Supreme Court, being decided in favor of the claimed exemption, in so far as applied to the volunteer firemen only. This clause, of which mention has been made, was an act of the Legislature, approved in the year 1845, exempting "all firemen while in

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FIRE DEPARTMENT OF ST. LOUIS, VOLUNTEER.

the discharge of their duty, from all jury and military service," and empowering the presi- dent and secretary of each company to issue a card of seven years' membership to all such as had fulfilled said requisite amount of serv- ice, which card would forever exempt them from said duties. Much indignation was ex- pressed on the part of the old fire- men at the action of the Wardens in keeping up their organization, as they were jeopardizing the exemption which most of them possessed, they prizing the latter above all pecuniary consideration, not only as an exemption from a disagreeable but "unalienable right of every citizen," but as a trophy of long years of ceaseless vigil and labor in the cause of protection to the property of their fellow citizens. No feeling would have been engendered in this matter, but from the fact that the judges included the firemen's cards, and several of them served on juries, being too timid after the finding of the Court of Appeals to assert their right, but the Supreme Court righted them, to their immense delight and relief.

A few words may be added in relation to the workings of the department. First, as to their organization; second, their means of sustenance, and lastly, as to their efficiency, viewed in the light vouchsafed on the subject at the present day. In entering upon this elucidation, the first subject presenting itself is the water supply. The city up to the year 1846 possessed a small reservoir of the cap- acity of half a million gallons per diem, the site of which was where is now the southwest corner of Collins and Bates Streets, while the "plug" privileges amounted to a stand- pipe inclosed in a cast-iron cylinder, eighteen inches in diameter, by a height of three feet above the sidewalk, surmounted by an urn and having two openings of two and one- half inches in diameter each. These plugs or hydrants were distributed through the business portion of the city, at a distance of every three blocks, or about 1,000 feet apart, and were a familiar object to all the inhabi- tants up to the year 1860. The last to pass away was one which stood on the southeast corner of Sixth and Olive Streets. The largest diameter of pipe in those days was only nine inches, and it was not until the advent of the steam engine in 1856 that the city fathers concluded to adopt the underground plug, of which there is now one on every corner in

the district bounded by the levee and Twelfth Street and Chouteau and Cass Avenues, and one on every other corner in the city. The diameter of the pipe has also been increased, now reaching a maximum of three feet, while the present waterworks contribute a daily quantum of sixty million gallons of clear water in place of the half and half mud and water of the old regime.

The organization of the different com- panies was as follows: All of them had the same constitution and by-laws, with trifling variations, and each had its president, secre- tary, treasurer and board of directors. Some few had a captain and chief engineer in addi- tion. The members were divided into en- ginemen, hosemen and pipemen, and besides the regular armament of an engine and four- wheel hose-reel, each had a light two-wheeled tender or plug-catcher. The members, in- stead of being a separate organization, gen- erally consisted of the more youthful members, constituting a company within a company, whose duty it was to be on hand at all times, in order to secure, in case of fire, the best obtainable position by an early ar- rival at the nearest plug. These volunteer hose companies, combined with others, which several of the companies adopted, whose province was to follow the engine, carrying a needed amount of "leading" hose, were the nucleus or training school for young men and boys to eminently fit them at their majority to be the best and most efficient of firemen and so valuable were the services of these boys considered that the Veteran Firemen's Historical Society recognizes their claims to membership as volunteer firemen. Fanciful names were adopted for these plug-catchers; No. I's being "Shanghai ;" No. 2's, "Grey- hound ;" No. 3's, "Wild Pigeon;" No. 4's, "Tiger :" No. 5's, "Snatcher ;" No. 6's, "Grey Eagle ;" No. 7's, "Fashion ;" No. 8's, "Rein- deer ;" No. 9's, "Peytona ;" and No. 10's "Fairy." These companies consisted of an average of twenty men, and were considered the flower of the organizations to which they belonged; and no efforts were spared to make them all that practice and emoluments could accomplish in the matter of speed, vigi- lance and efficiency. Many of them had a regular system of prizes, given to the mem- ber taking out the tender the greatest num- ber of times in stated periods, quarterly, semi-annually, or annually, and nearly all of

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FIRE DEPARTMENT OF ST. LOUIS, VOLUNTEER.

them practicing speed at stated meetings for such purpose. The only record obtainable at the present time is that of the "Grey- hound," whose time on Washington Avenue, from Seventeenth Street to Third Street, with twelve men on the rope, was just inside of six minutes, a distance of one mile.

The question of finance was one which never presented any serious difficulty, the main reliance being upon the generosity of citizens at large, and particularly the prop- erty owners in the district guarded by each individual company. Means could always be obtained to apply to any object by balls, con- certs, tea parties and individual subscription and gifts. The underwriters were also always generous in their contributions, and it will be conceded by all the old firemen that being out of funds was an exceptional con- dition. The enginehouses belonged to the companies, as did their apparatus. The lat- ter was the best, and the houses were all com- fortable and supplied with every convenience -bells, hose-towers, etc .- and most of the halls or meeting places in them were lav- ishly furnished with all that taste or utility could desire, while some of them were truly regal, the finest of them all being the beauti- ful Gothic structure erected by Union No. 2. This house was the model one of the city, and was designed and built by William Crane, who afterward made so brilliant a reputa- tion as an architect in San Francisco. The appointments were first-class in every par- ticular ; beautifully frescoed ceilings, velvet carpet, medallion pattern; the finest chande- liers obtainable, and antique carved oak fur- niture, manufactured expressly to suit the general character of the surroundings. A magnificent stained-glass window, reaching from floor to ceiling, adorned the eastern end of the hall, in front of which extended a de- lightful balcony ; a cozy place for an evening reverie, or for the use of lady friends of the members in viewing parades, etc. St. Louis being built principally upon the banks of the river, and of very narrow breadth, the ma- jority of the engine houses were located on Third Street and Broadway, the former ex- tending from the southern limits to Green Street, now Lucas Avenue, and then taking the name of Broadway to the northern limits. This thoroughfare was the main artery of the city from north to south, and six of the en- ginehouses were but a few blocks apart,

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Encyclopedia of the history of Missouri, a compendium of history and biography for ready reference, Vol. II, Part 83

Author: Conard, Howard Louis, ed. 1n Publication date: 1901 Publisher: New York, Louisville [etc.] The Southern history company, Haldeman, Conard & co., proprietors Number of Pages: 800

Author: Conard, Howard Louis, ed. 1n
Publication date: 1901
Publisher: New York, Louisville [etc.] The Southern history company, Haldeman, Conard & co., proprietors
Number of Pages: 800