USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > Cincinnati, the Queen City, 1788-1912, Volume II > Part 8
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Zebulon Byington was chief engineer and Moses Coffin was his assistant.
On December 31, 1829, there was a serious fire, on Main street below Third. The conflagration spread as far as Fourth street. The cisterns proved inadequate and a bucket line of citizens was formed from the river. It was apparent to all that the fire protection arrangements of the city were entirely inadequate, and a public meeting was called to consider further measures.
Another company, the Cincinnati Independent Fire Engine and Hose Com- pany, popularly known as the "Silk Stocking Company," or the "Rovers," was organized February 22, 1830. By the co-operation of the City Council, the in- surance companies and the people in general a liberal amount of money was raised for the equipment of this company. Two new engines and a hose reel were pur- chased in Philadelphia, for four thousand dollars. One was an eight-inch double- chamber engine of thirty-four men-power, discharging four and four-fifths gal-
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lons per stroke in two streams. The other was a suction engine, with double seven-inch chambers of thirty-men power, discharging four gallons at each stroke. There was a hose of fifteen hundred feet, eight and one-half inches in diameter, on a double hose-reel. A contract was made for a new engine house, to be con- structed on Fourth street near Broadway. The president of the company was George W. Neff ; vice president, Joseph Pierce ; secretary, Charles D. Dana ; treas- urer, Kirkbride Yardley.
In 1830 there was formed the Cincinnati Fire Association, composed of mem- bers of the several companies, with the object of regulating the department, tak- ing care of the sick and disabled members and arbitrating differences. John L. Avery was president ; John J. Stratton vice president ; Joseph Landis secretary and William Scudder treasurer.
This association inaugurated a yearly procession of all the companies early in each May.
In 1830, the Eagle Company, Number Four, changed its name to Franklin Fire Engine and Hose Company, Number Four.
In August 1832, the Cincinnati Fire Guards were organized. Under this arrangement, the police ranged themselves in a line round the fire, restrained the crowds behind this boundary, looked after property, and were authorized to order onlookers to render assistance.
In 1832 the "Flat Iron" or "Checked Shirt" Company was formed. The nick- names were given because a considerable number of the members were mechanics and wore checked shirts. The incorporated name was the Cincinnati Fire En- gine and Hose Company, Number Two. Bellamy Storer and S. W. Davis an- nounced the formation of this company in February, at a public meeting; also that apparatus had been bought. The engines were the "Deluge" and the "Cat- aract," and the hose carriage was called the "Pioneer." An engine house for this company was built at the corner of Symmes and Lawrence streets.
In 1834, the directory stated "much attention has been bestowed by the city council upon this important department. There are belonging to it fifteen engines and ten thousand, one hundred and fifty feet of hose. It is divided into brigades, each of which has two engines, a hose company, and one hundred and fifty mem- bers in it. There are belonging to this department fifteen engines, seven hose- reels, one hundred and eighty-six buckets, and seven brigades, besides an engine belonging to the boys."
The Vigilant Fire Engine and Bucket Company, with seventy-five members, was chiefly composed of boys and youths. Benjamin Brice was president ; Henry Pierce, vice president; James Galbreath, secretary; William Coppin, treasurer ; Samuel James, foreman and engineer; Miller Ayres foreman of the bucket company.
In 1836 the department was organized into eight brigades. Each of these had two engines and a hose company. These were manned by one hundred and fifty firemen. For each brigade there was a chief, with assistants, secretary and treasurer. These brigades were called Washington Fire Engine Company, No. I, manning the Pat Lyon and Ohio engines and the Ranger hose carriage; Re- lief Fire Engine No. 2 with the Relief and Cincinnati engines and Reliance hose carriage; Independence Fire Company No. 3, Constitution and Liberty engines
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and veteran hose; Franklin Fire Company No. 4, Neptune and Atlantic Engines and Nymph hose; Brigade Fire Company, No. 5. Fame engine and Canal hose; Cincinnati Independence Fire Company No. I, Waterwitch and Pilot engines and Red Rover hose; Cincinnati Independent Fire Company, No. 2. Cataract and Deluge engines and Pioneer hose; Independent No. 3, Buckeye, with Buck- eye and Niagara engines and Diligent hose. There were also the Fire Warden Company No. I, composed of six members from each ward; the Cincinnati Fire Guards No. 1; Protection Society No. 1; Hook and Ladder Company, No. I.
There were in 1836 twenty-seven fire cisterns, and fifty-five cast iron plugs.
The Fire Department Insurance Company was incorporated April, 1837, with capital stock of fifty thousand dollars. It existed for the benefit of the department firemen; shares were sold only to firemen and no one could hold more than fifty shares, value ten dollars. The several companies could as corpora- tions hold an unlimited amount of stock. For relief of sick or injured firemen, ten per cent of dividends were set apart. Marine insurance was later added to fire risks.
About this period, another company, the Buckeye Independent, No. 3, was formed.
The fire department in 1840-41 was made up of eleven companies. These were, Washington, Number One, two engines and one hundred and four mem- bers, with the hose men; Relief, with ninety-six members; Independence, eighty- eight; Franklin, seventy-four; Fame, seventy-four; Independent, one hundred and twenty-nine; Fire Engine and Hose Independent, Number Two, eighty- one; Cincinnati Fire Guards, sixty-six; the Hook and Ladder Company, forty- two. There were four hundred and seventy-one members of the Protection Society. The company of Fire Wardens No. I had thirty-two members. There were now thirty-four cisterns and thirty-five fire plugs.
The Cincinnati Fire Association was compelled in 1844 to put in force strict rules for the several companies while on duty at fires. The rivalries and con- fusion were such that companies got in the way of each other, ran engines on sidewalks and quarreled with each other.
The rulings were that the first arriving engine had choice of place at the cistern but must give fair chance to later comers. When it was needful to move, the last comer must go first. All racing was forbidden under penalty of fines.
Twelve districts were formed, and arrangements were made as to the divi- sion of labor in caring for fires. The company first hearing an alarm was to sound it again, and after an interval strike the district signal, and continue to alternate the two until all companies had arrived.
Another company, the Queen City Hook and Ladder Company, entered the department in May, 1845. As by September, 1846, the city had not provided a building for this company on its lot, the members prepared to erect one for them- selves. Marching with music to their lot they speedily put up a one story board house. This was their home for a year, and was known as "Rough and Ready Hall." Later the city aided the members in providing a better shelter.
In 1848 Cincinnati firemen entered into a contest with a fire company from Louisville that excited much interest at the time and redounded to the glory of the Cincinnati department. The Louisville company brought with them their Vol. II-5
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engine to compete with any Cincinnati could furnish. The "Flat Iron Company" took up the Louisville challenge. The site selected for the contest was at Third and Broadway. The height reached by the water thrown by the Louisville en- gine was 201 and one half feet. The "Deluge" of the Flat Iron company sent a stream upward 210 feet.
The fire department in 1851 included eighteen companies, engine companies, hose companies and a hook and ladder company. There were forty-five car- riages of the best make and other apparatus placed appropriately over the city. The department was composed of eighteen hundred members. There were eighty-three public cisterns and seventy-nine fire plugs.
The bitter rivalries between the companies often led to quarrels, and threat- ened the efficiency of the whole department. In 1851 a battle between the com- panies took place during a fire at John and Augusta streets. It began between two of the companies and grew until ten companies engaged in it, while the building that needed their attention was allowed to burn down.
The mayor attempted unsuccessfully to quiet matters, and the quarrel was kept up throughout the night. The Covington Fire Company, hearing of what was in progress came over and took sides with one party. A resolution was later passed to the effect that no Covington company would be allowed to come to a fire in Cincinnati save by request of the city authorities.
A change was evidently necessary to a new order of things. The city had outgrown the volunteer system. Many of the citizens who were fire wardens were too busy with their own affairs to look after the interests of the fire de- partment.
For some years the newspapers had commented on the neglect of the fire wardens. Cist in 1845 had written in reply to these censures: "What can per- sons expect from such men as Judge Torrence or Councilman Stephenson, two of the best among them? Do they imagine they can neglect their own busi- ness and spend six days of the week examining whether the houses of a large city such as ours are exposed to taking fire from the carelessness of neighbors? The whole system is deficient and defective. There are thirty-two fire wardens, about three to a ward, having general jurisdiction wherever they please to ex- ercise it,-which, of course, is nowhere. If we desire to have any good result from the appointment of such officers, let the institution be remodelled. Let each block in the city have its own fire warden, who will then be interested in taking care of the block; and fine him five dollars for every fire which results from his neglect to remove all undue exposedness to it."
A movement for reform began. Miles Greenwood, James H. Walker and other prominent citizens led in the movement. At that time steam fire engines were beginning to be planned and built, though none had proved practically suc- cessful. One had been used for a brief time in New York, but without good results.
In "The Great Industries of the United States," 1872, we read: "The first steam fire engine was built in London, in 1830, by Mr. Braithwaite. It weighed over five thousand pounds, was of about six horse power, generated steam in about twenty minutes, and could send about one hundred and fifty gallons of water a minute from eighty to ninety feet high. The boiler was upright. The
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steam and water pistons were placed at opposite ends of the same piston-rod, the stroke of each being sixteen inches, and their diameters seven and a half and six inches respectively. The clumsiness of the apparatus, and the length of time necessary to get up steam, were the chief objections made to this first steam fire engine. The entire feasibility, however, of the idea of making steam fire engines was settled beyond question, and the attention of inventors, as well as that of the public, was turned into the direction of so improving them as to remove the ob- jectionable features of this first attempt, and to replace the cumbersome and inadequate use of hand engines for the extinguishing of fires by the more effica- cious and handy use of steam engines.
"In 1841 an engine was built in New York, at the expense of the combined fire insurance companies of that city, by Mr. Hodges, which performed good service upon several occasions at fires in that metropolis. It was a very powerful steam fire engine, but its extreme weight made it so difficult to handle readily that it was finally sold to be applied to other purposes.
"In 1852 the city of Cincinnati, having resolved to organize its fire depart- ment upon the basis of steam fire engines, and thus obtain at once the greater efficiency from their use, and also to do away with the evils incident to a volun- teer fire department, had an engine constructed by Mr. A. A. Latta, which was finished in the early part of the next year. In this engine the steam was used as a partial aid to its propulsion, but its great weight,-nearly twelve tons,- necessitated also the use of four strong horses to drag it. Other lighter ones were built the next year, and finally all idea of using steam in propelling the steam fire engine had been done away with by the best constructors.
"The first of these engines built by Cincinnati was peculiar in the method of its construction. It had a square fire-box, like that of a locomotive boiler, with a furnace open at the top, upon which was placed the chimney. The upper part of the furnace was occupied by a continuous coil of tubes opening into the steam chamber above, while the lower end was carried through the fire-box, and connected outside with a force-pump, by which the water was to be forced continually through the tubes throughout the entire coil. When the fire was commenced the tubes were empty, but when they became sufficiently heated the force-pump was worked by hand, and water forced into them, generating steam which was almost instantly produced from the contact of the water with the hot pipes. Until sufficient steam was generated to work the engine regularly, the force-pump was continuously operated by hand, and a supply of water kept up. By this means the time occupied in generating steam was only from five to ten minutes ; but the objections to thus heating the pipes empty and then introduc- ing water into them are too well known to be insisted upon here.
"The engines made upon this pattern were complicated and heavy, but effica- cious, and led to their introduction in other cities, and also to a quite general establishment in cities of a paid fire department in place of the voluntary one, which had theretofore prevailed. The lightest steam fire engine constructed upon this method weighed about ten thousand pounds. It was carried to New York upon exhibition, and upon a trial there threw, in 1858, about three hundred and seventy-five gallons a minute, playing about two hundred and thirty-seven feet, through a nozzle measuring an inch and a quarter, and getting its water supply
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from a hydrant. The same engine is said to have played in Cincinnati two hundred and ten feet, through a thousand feet of hose, getting its water supply from a cistern."
The first steam fire engine in Cincinnati, named the "Uncle Joe Ross," was stationed on Eighth street between Plum and Central avenue. The chief engin- eer reported April 1, 1854, "If any doubt remained of the practicability of this invention for protecting property from destruction by fire, it must now be re- moved. The triumphant success of this invention has so completely satisfied every one that has seen it in operation, not only as a means of greater security to property, but in point of economy beyond anything now in use."
The practicability of this steam fire engine stimulated the citizens and insur- ance companies to raise money for another similar one, which early in 1854 was well-nigh completed. The council at that time had given authority to the chief engineer to order a third engine, but it was the judgment of the engineer that it was advisable to delay the contract until the second engine had been tried, as improvements might be suggested for the third machine.
The following reminiscences were given in 1880 by one who recalled the days of the first steam fire engine in Cincinnati. He said: "I drove the team that hauled the first steam fire engine ever built to the first fire on which streams were played by steam power." Evidently he knew nothing of the London and New York experiments. "My brother worked in Miles Greenwood's foundry in Cincinnati, and I lived at Island Pond, Vermont. In May, 1852, I believe, I went to Cincinnati to see him, arriving there Saturday evening. We were on our way to church Sunday morning, when the fire bells struck, and my brother said, 'Now we'll see what they'll do with the steam machine,' and he started for Miles Greenwood's shop, where the steam fire engine was. It was built by Green- wood, the first ever on wheels." This, of course, was an error. "There the engine stood, steam up, four large gray horses hitched to it, a crowd looking at it, and Greenwood mad because he couldn't get a man to drive the horses. You see all the firemen were opposed to his new invention because they believed it would spoil their fun, and nobody wanted to be stoned by them, and then the horses were kicking about so that everybody was afraid on that account. My brother says, 'Larry, you can drive those horses, I know.' And Greenwood said, 'If you can, I wish you would,-I'll pay you for it.' My business was teaming. And just as I was, with my Sunday clothes on, I jumped on the back of the wheel horse, seized the rein, spoke to the horses, and out we went kiting. Miles Greenwood went ahead, telling the people to get out of the way, as the streets were full of people. The horses went on a fast run nearly the whole way, and when we got to the fire we took suction from the canal and played two streams on the building, a large frame house, and put the fire out. That was the biggest crowd I ever saw in my life, and the people yelled and shouted while some of the firemen who stood around the piano machines (hand fire engines) jeered and groaned. After the fire was out, Greenwood put on two more streams, and four were played. Then the city hired me to drive the four horse team with the steamer, paying me seventy-five dollars a month. It was a great, long, wide affair, with a tall heavy boiler, bigger than this room-and run on three wheels, two behind and one in front to guide it by. After a few weeks a fellow offered
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to do my work for fifty dollars a month, and they turned me off and hired him. The second fire he drove to he was run over and killed."
The leaders in the reform that brought about the change from a volunteer fire department and the procuring of the steam fire engine were particularly Miles Greenwood, Jacob Wykoff Piatt, James H. Walker and Joseph S. Ross.
In 1854 Greenwood was chief engineer. The same year, the city council purchased a vacant lot on Sixth street, between Vine and Race streets for a building to be headquarters of the department. An alarm bell was placed upon the Mechanics Institute at that time. The expenses of the department for 1853- 54 were seventy-eight thousand, four hundred and odd dollars. More than twelve thousand dollars of this amount was necessitated by the change to the paid system.
At this time, in addition to the steam fire engine there were fourteen hand engine companies, two hook and ladder companies and one hose company.
The salaries of men and officers amounted for the year to fifty-three thousand, six hundred and odd dollars.
In that year there were one hundred and sixty fires. The loss at these was estimated at six hundred and eighty thousand nine hundred and odd dollars; three hundred and thirty thousand and odd dollars was covered by insurance.
The change to the paid department did not come without serious opposition. Jacob W. Piatt, a prominent lawyer, with James H. Walker, both councilmen, brought the proposition before council. The council room at this meeting had in it a crowd of turbulent rough fellows who noisily exhibited their opposition. At meeting after meeting the proposers brought the matter up. Each time it was lost but each time by a smaller majority. The feeling became so bitter that Mr. Piatt was forced to go to the council chamber attended by a company of his constituents for his protection. At one time a crowd gathered before his house and burned an effigy of him amid groans and hisses.
It was indeed the procuring of the steam fire engine that finally forced the paid department movement to success. When the engine had been tested and accepted it was recognized that it would be safe only in the hands of others than the volunteers. It was decided to organize a company of salaried firemen. To this end a committee was appointed. Council appointed Miles Greenwood as chief of the company and he accepted, without salary, and paid another man to look after his own business meanwhile.
The ordinance of council arranged that members of the company were to be paid $60 each a year ; each lieutenant, $100; captains $150; pipemen and drivers $365; assistant engineers, $300; and chief engineers $1,000.
In a biographical sketch of Miles Greenwood the writer says: "Mr. Green- wood became connected with the fire department in 1829, when there was but one hose company in the city, and was president of the association several times. In 1853 the first steam fire engine was brought out to a fire by a number of picked men under the command of Mr. Greenwood. It was well understood that the buildings had been fired by the members of the volunteer company, who were bitterly opposed to the introduction of steam engines, for the purpose of having an opportunity to smash it. Mr. Greenwood was soon surrounded by three hundred of these men, who were loud in their threats of vengeance. But
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his cool courage and resolute will daunted the rioters, so that everything dwin- dled into a threat that he would never get an office after that. Two other fires oc- curred the same night. It will be remembered that the city council took little or no interest in the great change in the fire department which the exigency of the times called for; and being determined to accomplish the work he had under- taken, he furnished fifteen thousand dollars of his own money, and obtained fifteen thousand dollars more from private citizens and insurance companies, who had confidence in the final success of the change. It was not until the change had been made that the council sanctioned it by paying the expenses attending it. Mr. Greenwood, however, had fully informed himself in regard to the will of the better class of citizens, and was determined to succeed with the moral sup- port they rendered him. He removed his family from the city to Avondale, previous to the struggle, and for the first eighteen months only slept at home six nights ; and from his house on the corner of Race and Ninth streets answered every tap of the alarm bell. The council paid him one thousand dollars to at- tend to their business, and he paid one thousand, five hundred dollars for a person to take his place in his own business; and to show that he was not actuated by mercenary motives, donated the one thousand dollars to the Mechanics Institute.
"After the steam fire engine became a fixed fact in the Cincinnati fire de- partment, a deputation from the city of Baltimore came on to examine its work- ings and compare the paid and volunteer systems. On being questioned as to the points of difference, Mr. Greenwood's answer was characteristic, and as follows: 'Ist, it never gets drunk; and 2nd, it never throws brickbats; and the only drawback connected with it is that it can't vote."
"As evidence that even the council were ultimately made sensible of the benefit accruing to the city from the services of Mr. Greenwood in this direction, we insert the following resolution :
"Resolved, That the thanks of the citizens of Cincinnati are due to Miles Greenwood, chief engineer of the fire department, for the able and efficient man- ner in which he has discharged the duties of said office, bringing order out of confusion and saving property and life by systematized and well defined rules and regulations, and a personal supervision highly honorable to him, and im- mensely valuable to this city."
A beautiful souvenir was presented to Mr. Greenwood, the inscription on which was as follows: "Presented to Miles Greenwood by the officers of the pay fire department, upon his retirement from the position of chief engineer of the department, as a tribute of their respect and esteem for his efficient services as a fireman, his bearing as an officer, and exemplary character as a citizen, for many years an active fireman, and the last two in organizing the present depart- ment, the best the world can boast of."
A writer in "Cincinnati, Past and Present," said: "To Mr. Greenwood the Cincinnati fire department is mainly indebted for its efficient organization. The pay fire department, now in general use, is really his creation. From being a leading spirit in the old volunteer department, he saw the inevitably demoralizing tendencies of it upon the youth of the cities, and conceiving the idea of adopting steam as a motive power in the extinguishing of fires, he next determined to have a paid, rather than a volunteer, department. In this he met with a weight of
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