THE FIRE DEPARTMENT & 1894
A momentous event was a fire. Everybody went to a fire.
The fire department was much different than it is today. It consisted of three handtubs, the Warren on Warren Street, the Neptune at Lord’s Square and the Torrent at Candlewood.
In earlier days the engines were bucket tubs. Instead of a suction hose the water was supplied by a bucket line. The engine had to be filled with water before it could throw it on the fire. The last engine of that type was the Agawam, about the Civil War time. The first suction was the Barnicoat; displaced by the Neptune. The hook and ladder was stationed at the Town Hall. Each engine carried a crew of 55 men.
The first Hook and Ladder truck was just a four wheel wagon with some ladders. There was to be a big parade and the company asked the Selectmen for paint to fix it up and were refused. Therefore they decorated the truck with vegetables and made it look as bad as possible. They were resting on the South Green when General Sutton came by. The General had made a lot of money as a tanner in Peabody, liked to put on a front and was not afraid to spend money. He lived in a house now torn down at the entrance to Warburtons. The General was in an expansive mood and he remarked that this was a pretty poor apparatus for such a good looking company and he called the foreman to one side and told him to go in to Boston and buy the best hook and ladder truck he could find and he, the General, would pay for it. Ant that is the reason all Ipswich hook and ladders were called the General Sutton.
For a water supply for fires there were several reservoirs at various points. There was one in Lord’s Square, the head of Mineral Street, high Street in front of the Whittier Funeral Home and Willcomb Square and several other places. The only one to be seen today is just outside the Library fence. The iron cover is still to be seen.
1894 was a year to remember. Things really happened that affected the whole future of the Town.
On January 13 at about midnight an alarm of fire was given. The church bells rang the alarm and the townspeople woke up to a real fire. The thermometer was down to 13 below zero. At the corner of Market and Central Streets was an old colonial house with big oak timbers and it was here that the fire was stopped, Next was a one story news-stand and then a block, the Masons occupied the top floor, then Jewetts Block. The Red Men had had a big pow-wow in their rooms on the second floor at which two men had been thrown out.
It was always thought that these men set the fire, which started in the stairway and burned through into Goodhue’s Hardware Store, where it reached some kegs of gunpowder and blew the fire both ways the whole length of the street.
The Warren engine played from a hole in the ice on the river; the Neptune at a reservoir near the Library; the Torrent was frozen tight when it reached town. What saved the town was the fact that a heavy coat of snow was on the roofs. As it was, the house where R. W. Davis lives caught fire.
The turning point of the fire was a line of hose from the Ipswich Mills and the big mill pump. Help was called from Salem and in 28 minutes a steamer on a flat car arrived at Ipswich Depot. A pair of horses met it and pumped from the river behind where is now the Ciolek hardware Store. The fire was then under control but they pumped two days on the ruins.
There was more to come. On April 19 there was another fire. This time it was the Damon Block and two other small buildings. Again the deciding factor was the Mill hose. The hand tubs played from a large well on the Depot property. A strange thing occurred when pumping from the Depot well. The well of Thomas Lord at the corner of Pine Swamp and Linebrook Roads was also drained.
Things moved fast after this fire and on April 23 the Town voted to install a Water System. For several years there had been a move to have a water works and a lot of preliminary work had been done towards it but could never get the necessary two-thirds. But the fire provided the necessary need.
A Board of Water Commissioners was appointed consisting of E. H. Martin, Superintendent of the Ipswich Mills, Chairman; W. E. Lord, Treasurer, and W. S. Russell, both dry goods merchants.
Engineers were hired and contracts made, gangs were put on the job and by Thanksgiving Day the work was completed and a demonstration was put on at the newly erected Red Men’s Building.
This was strictly a pick and shovel job. There were no machines at that time.
In the meantime the town had also bought a new steam fire engine, the Masconomet.
But the year wasn’t over, for that Thanksgiving night at six o’clock they had a chance to try out the steamer and the water works at a fire at John Dupray’s barn. The steamer played from a hydrant on High Street and a hydrant stream from a nearby hydrant.
After the steamer was bought James Graffum built hose wagons for the town, in a shop, now Central Garage, for both companies.
A funny incident happened the first time that the Hose 1 was called to a fire. As the driver was about to mount to the seat, the horses started and threw the driver and men off. The unmanned Hose rounded the corners and started up High Street headed for the fire, which was in the village. The Hose 2 people stopped it, put a driver on the seat and had water on the fire before the Hose 1 company caught up.
It is interesting to look back on the town at the beginning of the century as seen in the Town Report.
To show that there is nothing really new, Article 32 in the Warrant for 1895: "To see what action the town will take in relation to sewerage."
Total appropriation for the Fire Department, $1500.