Recently, while researching the Singerly Fire Company’s 125th anniversary, we searched the archives for information on members when we discovered another marker to add to the company’s annals.
In 1892, as the Singerly Fire Company started serving the community, a man was issued a share of stock to show that he was a member. The board of directors voted on the candidates and three nays out of 12 were sufficient to block enlistment. In addition, you had to pay $1, and for that, you became a shareholder.
In those old 19th-century rosters, there is one woman, a card-carrying member of Singerly. Martha Finley (1828-1909) was an immensely popular children’s author whose works reached an estimated audience of 25 million readers. Born in Ohio, the internationally acclaimed writer lived in Philadelphia and New York before settling in Elkton in 1876, according to the biographer C. D. Merriman.1,2
From her beautiful residence on E. Main Street (now R.T. Foard Funeral Home), “one of America’s best-loved authoresses” produced her volumes for national publishing houses. The writer was a progressive philanthropist interested in advances for women.
In those old volumes is stock certificate No. 33 issued to “Miss Martha Finley” on March 8, 1892. After that, the official membership roster doesn’t have names of other women until the mid-1970s. There is no evidence to indicate other types of participation by this pioneer, but she was a stockholder, granted “full privileges of membership,” according to the company bylaws.
Singerly most likely generously benefited from financial contributions from the civic-minded, progressive writer, one of the nation’s leading authors at that time.
Also, See Women Join the Fire Service in the 1970s
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Endnotes- C.D. Merriman, “Martha Finley,” Jalic Inc.[↩]
- “Martha Finley,” Wikipedia.[↩]