Calamity Jane, an all-purpose rescue truck, arrived in Cecil County late in 1953. This special emergency vehicle was available for use in Cecil, Harford, and Kent counties. The truck had nearly 100 different types of extraction equipment, every imaginable tool, mechanical device, and article needed when lives and property were endangered.
It was one of six heavy rescue vehicles that Maryland Civil Defense stationed in various parts of the state. The truck, a bright and shiny Reo with the familiar red-and-blue CD symbols on it, was under the command of rescue squad Captain W. Andrew Seth of Civil Defense. John J. Ward, Jr. the chief of the agency said that while the truck was primarily here to “protect the community in the event of an air attack by a hostile power, it could be used for any disaster which might occur.”
It had been manufactured by the Reo Motor Company of Lansing, MI. It was capable of carrying a crew of eight and traveling at a speed of about 55 miles per hour. The manufacturer called it a “combination Red Cross ambulance, fire truck, and utility company trouble-shooter.”
A major explosion rocked Chestertown in 1954 when the Kent Manufacturing Company’s fireworks plant exploded. The charred five acres of plant property, leveled buildings, and critically injured workers called for massive emergency response from throughout the region, and calamity Jane, Cecil’s heavy rescue vehicle, rushed to the scene to provide aid.
Calamity Jane, a Civil Defense Rescue Truck arrived in Cecil County in 1953. It was one of six CD vehicles stationed around the state. Source: Cecil Whig, Dec. 3, 1953
When an explosion charred five acres of the Kent Manufacturing Company Fireworks plant, the CD rescue truck responded. John Farrell, John C. Cooke, and Andrew Seth were the crew on the truck. Source: Cecil Democrat, July 22, 1954.
The Nickle Mine Coach Shop on Mine Road, Paradise, PA
In the mid-1980s, members of the Singerly Fire Company started gearing up for the company’s 100th anniversary in 1992. One of the tasks for the centennial celebration was the restoration of two old 19th century hand pumpers that had been the hero of many a fight with the smoke and flames in Elkton. The first piece, a hydraulion, had been built about 1817 and arrived in Elkton in 1827. The second unit, a suction engine, arrived here in 1859.
These aging relics were in need of work so members of the company started searching for some contacts to help them with the restoration. They located Jack Robrecht and Al Wills, two experts associated with the Philadelphia Fire Museum. After visiting Elkton to examine the pieces they suggested we contact an Amish carriage-maker so in 1985 members of the company traveled to Bart, PA and talked with the fire company there. They suggested we visit the Nickle Mine Coach shop just a mile or two up the road. At the shop we met a master Amish craftsman, Christian Petersheim, Jr., who was given the job of restoring the firefighting artifacts.
Today I visited Mr. Petersheim, at the shop on Mine Road in Paradise, PA. He has since retired, but the business is now being managed by his sons. He recalled working on this project nearly 30 years ago and had a photo album containing some of his fire engine restoration work. After finishing the Singerly projects, he restored about seven additional pieces of hand-drawn fire apparatus. The equipment came from VT., FL, PA., NY, and MD and included one hook and ladder. By-the-way, today he was upholstering two museum-quality automobiles from the first decade of the 20th century. He has taken up that work since his retirement from carriage-making.
The work of this fine craftsman appears in the Singerly Fire Company museum, looking as good today as it did nearly thirty years earlier when it was returned home to Elkton.
The old hydraulion fire engine before it was restored.
Soon after the North East Fire Company was organized in 1921, a model 38 American La France pumper was purchased at a cost of about $10,000. The first out-of-town fire call, the engine answered was at the Red Mill Crossing in Elkton, according to a history of the fire company. The La France was retired in 1954 after another unit was purchased. But the still operable engine gets around the area for special events. Saturday she rolled through Elkton for the fire department parade.
The American La France from the North East Volunteer Fire Company.
Today an important public safety enhancement takes place in Elkton as the Singerly Fire Company dedicates a greatly expanded and improved Station 13. The new headquarters station provides a recently completed apparatus wing, along with significant renovations to existing areas.
Following a parade through the downtown area later this Saturday, first responders and officials will assemble on Newark Avenue to formally dedicate the building. In this crowd there will be generations of emergency providers who have served the community.
So the Singerly Museum, as part of its mission to preserve the traditions and heritage of the emergency services organization, will open up a listening station. When firefighters, EMS professionals, ladies auxiliary members and administrative volunteers pass by our workstation, we will ask them to comment on the day’s activities, reflect on years gone by, and share a story of two with us.
Our oral historians will be at the recording booth, listening to people. It’s all part of the museum’s mission to chronicle Singerly’s heritage. We are looking forward to tapping into a wealth of stories about earlier times while also documenting this important milestone.
In 1962, John Farrell is instructing a new group of recruits in “basic firemanship.” Hopefully our listening station catches some of these members today to tap into a few stories.
The Singerly Oil Painting shows the fire company’s Amoskeag Steam Fire Engine and Gleason and Bailey Hook and Ladder answer the first alarm in 1892.
For its centennial celebration in 1992, the Singerly Fire Company commissioned an oil painting that showed the company racing out of the North Street station on a cold winter evening in 1892 to answer its first alarm. A team of galloping horses pulled the Amoskeag Steamer past the old courthouse as an early evening February twilight descends on Cecil County. Immediately behind the engine, a group of men tug strenuously on the Gleason and Bailey Hook and Ladder as a fresh coating of snow makes their work slippery. The old hose cart won’t be too far behind for it is just rolling out the firehouse door.
The toiling fire bell has called out the Elkton volunteers for their first general alarm on this winter day. These pieces of newly acquired equipment, and one additional hose cart, which hasn’t answered the alarm yet protected the county seat from the ravages of flames for decades until they were retired as motorized units came into general use three decades later.
In preparation for the celebration of 100-years-of-service, the firefighters commissioned Doylestown PA artist Gil Cohen to produce the oil painting and the company sold a limited edition print. When the company decided it wanted a unique scene showing the 19th-century volunteers answering the alarm, they launched a search for an artist who could accurately depict the technical nature of the setting and capture the mood. The nationally recognized artist, a member of the American Society of Aviation Artists and illustrator for major publishing companies, had done work for the United States Coast Guard Bicentennial and for other major national celebrations so he was selected.
A stickler for historical accuracy, Cohen did lots of research to recreate this scene from another century. His first visited Elkton to get a feel for the town and begin research for the project. He walked down Main Street with a member of the Historical Society, studying old pictures and looking at modern vantage points. “I conjure up images in my mind. It’s almost like entering a time machine, where I’m here but trying to visualize the street as it was before the turn of the century,” he told the Times.
He next utilized company members dressed in turnout gear to pose for him as he dramatically portrayed their 19th-century counterparts. So on a cold Monday afternoon in February 1992, 100 years after the department was formed, Cohen had firefighters running down North Street and hanging off apparatus as bystanders leaned over the railings on the Howard House porch. As the sun went down, long shadows became more apparent on the buildings. It was just the look and mood Cohen was after. His research also took him to fire museums in Philadelphia and in New York as he interviewed experts on 19th-century apparatus and viewed old photos.
Once he completed his research and had visualized the twilight in that winter of long ago, he submitted several rough sketches for the company’s approval. After the drawing was approved, the artist started to painting the scene. Later that year, the company unveiled Singerly’s Call to Alarm, a fitting tribute to past firefighters who established a tradition of service and to the present members who faithfully serve the community.
In the middle third of the 20th century, when forest fires were a greater threat to rural Maryland counties, Cecil had three forest fire spotter towers. Sitting on top of those tall structures, some 80 to 100 feet above the ground, observers kept a careful watch out for wisps of smoke in the vast tracts of woodlands that covered the county.
From that high vantage point, the operators could provide a watchful eye, scanning the horizon for any sign of trouble. Working with other fire towers, they could triangulate the location and dispatch forestry and fire companies to the spot where an incipient blaze had started. This early warning system was critical in the time when the county was less developed and notification of a fire in an undeveloped area might be delayed.
Two of those structures were erected in the 1930s as part of the Roosevelt Administration program to provide relief from the Great Depression. A WPA (Works Progress Administration) publication noted that the erection of three structures was authorized. Woodlawn and Pleasant Hill (Egg Hill) opened in 1935. Black Hill came a little later, in the 1940s.
James Hurlow Keeps a careful eye out for forest fires from the Pleasant Hill Tower in 1966.,
During World War II, the lookouts also doubled as posts for identifying airplanes. By the late 1960s, the importance of these protective measures for early warning was declining, though seasonal staffing continued into the 1970s. At some point in recent decades, the State stopped operating the towers as they had become obsolete due to their diminished value as an early warning system.
Woodlawn Fire Tower in 1966 (Source: Cecil Whig)
For a complete report on Forest Fire Tower Properties across Maryland, see this helpful report from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.
When a terrible fire struck the DuBois Planning and Sash Mill, the largest industry in Havre de Grace, one June day in 1883, men rushed the town’s small Holloway Chemical Engine to the factory. Once on the scene, they worked frantically trying to check the destructive advance. But the “ruthless flames” turned the factory and nearby buildings into a mass of blazing ruins as the conflagration spread to large piles of nearby lumber.
The small stream from the soda and acid engine, which wasn’t designed to suppress a large industrial fire, was totally ineffective for this growing inferno so officials telegraphed nearby fire departments, asking that special trains be commandeered to rush steam engines to the stricken community. Hastily in Port Deposit, Wilmington, and Baltimore the P.W. & B Railroad assembled a locomotive and flat car and cleared the road for quick, emergency runs to the river town.
The Water Witch Fire Company of Port Deposit apparatus was on the grounds first, going right to work to prevent the advance. “The Port Deposit boys displayed themselves to good advantage and worked with a zeal and skill that would have done credit to a more experienced force,” the Havre de Grace Republican remarked about the three-year old firefighting organization.
Just over an hour later a second pumper, the engine from Baltimore, shrieked into town, the engineer laying on the whistle warning unsuspecting people to clear the tracks. No. 11, from Baltimore, showed from whence the well-earned reputation of the Monumental City Fire Department was derived, the paper remarked. It was supervised by Chief Engineer George W. Ellender. The Reliance Engine from Wilmington, Delaware, under direction of Chief Engineer Murphy, went into action about forty-five minutes later.
With three powerful steam pumpers playing large streams of water on the blaze, the “fire ladies” from neighboring places finally subdued the inferno, with the help of the citizens.
Two Water Witch Fire Company Steam Engines on Main Street Port Deposit in late 1800s.
The North East Fire Company’s Chemical Engine Source: Cecil Whig, March 23, 1901The fire destroyed the North East United Methodist Church
North East Fire Company — When a fierce fire on May 7, 1911, destroyed the Methodist Episcopal Church and two dwellings, and threatened destruction to the entire town, North East realized that something needed to be done. The community had no fire department as some years ago, the town acquired a small chemical engine capable of squirting a modest stream of water on a fire, but it was virtually useless in the face of a roaring inferno like this. On this occasion, residents had stood their ground stubbornly. Buckets in hand, feeling the hot flames of the fire consuming the doomed structures, they had flung pail after pail of water on the blaze.
Calling for Assistance
At the fire’s height, they had turned for assistance to the nearest towns with fire departments, Elkton and Havre de Grace. Companies in those towns were unable to answer the urgent plea for aid because of the poor condition of the Philadelphia Road between the localities. Confronting the inferno alone—buckets in hand—townspeople eventually checked the “demons” spread. Then, as hours went by the fire finished devouring the structures already ablaze and the flames died out. Soon after daybreak (the sun came up about five o’clock that Sunday morning), the outcome was obvious. Exhausted, citizens had emerged victorious!
Although the fire had ravaged several buildings, the town was fortunate, the night was calm. What if the wind was blowing next time? Would the Philadelphia road be passible? What if the fire started “in some of the tinder boxes in town?” Buckets were all they had! What would North East do?
George O. Garey, Editor of North East’s newspaper, The Cecil Star did not have answers, but as ruins smoldered he knew something had to be done: The most serious problem is the protection of the community against fire, he said. “The people of a town of this size ought to be able to lie down to sleep at night, with a reasonable feeling of assurance that something is in readiness for the emergency of fire and that life and property are not dependent upon chance happenings.”
Many in the community were calling for creation of a fire department. Therefore, R. C. Simpers, secretary to the Town Commissioners, announced a meeting of taxpayers at the Grand Army Hall on May 24. Purchase of a steam fire engine and the protection of the town was the subject. “The responsibility rests with them (town commissioners), and it is right for them to get the view of taxpayers before taking any action,” Editor Garey stated.
The public must have wanted a steam fire engine for town fathers agreed to send C. P. Bartley and Clem Reeder to Baltimore to inspect a steam engine offered there for $350. Another committee, consisting of E. P. Fockler, J. F. Diggs, F. H. Thompson and John Tobin, was to solicit funds for the purchase of the apparatus.
Meanwhile, the Cecil Star had considered this problem some more. Its conclusion: North East needed an adequate system of water works. Anything short of this would be an “expensive and unsatisfactory experiment” as protection against fire. A steam engine would be okay if there was satisfactory water supply and outbreaks of fire occurred sufficiently often to keep an engine in readiness. “A town the size of North East would neither justify nor guarantee an efficient and permanent fire company. Machinery deteriorates rapidly when little used, and so do organizations of men,” the Star cautioned.
As for water works, the Star suggested that plenty of water, with good pressure, enough fire plugs, and a few sections of hose, would provide adequate protection. Besides, a water system was just as seriously needed for public health and domestic purposes. The price of this fire “would have more than paid for water-works,” North East’s newspaper observed.
At this point, unfortunately, there is a significant break in the copies of The Cecil Star which are available for research. Still, other county newspapers, for instance, The Midland Journal of Rising Sun and the Cecil County News of Elkton, carry no indication of what transpired next. When the Star resumes a year or so later, our research has found nothing to suggest that the steam engine was purchased. (Water-works in North East were still many years away.)
The Old Chemical Engine
But what about that chemical engine mentioned in the Cecil Star? Where did it come from? Our research yielded answers on this: Town commissioners purchased from the Holloway Company of Baltimore a chemical fire engine in March 1901 at a cost of $450. Mounted on a cart, the engine had a hose reel, 75 feet of hose, a 65-gallon water tank, and a soda and acid pressuring mechanism. When the soda and acid were mixed, gas was created which forced water from the tank through the hose.
Citizens also organized a volunteer fire company in 1901. Dr. R. G. Underwood was the chief and Professor E. B. Fockler was the president. That 1901 fire company had its temporary quarters in the Star building. It established a “reading room and social room which was open to members every evening.” The new company inherited some equipment from town-fathers. North East had purchased two ladders and 24 buckets for protection a year earlier (Cecil Whig, March 16, 1901.
While North East may not have always had the most sophisticated fire-fighting apparatus early in the 1900s, its townspeople were certainly good at fighting the “fire demon” with their buckets. “The covered bridge on Main Street” caught fire in January 1901. Buckets in hand, citizens responded. They promptly put out that fire!
North East’s earlier fire company must have been very efficient too. Soon after the company was established, it was called out to an alarm. Mrs. R. T. Rambo’s millinery store caught fire, on March 23, 1901. The “North East Volunteer Fire Company” responded “within three minutes,” the newspaper reported.
A little way down the Philadelphia Road, The Perryville Record asked its town’s officials to take notice of goings-on in North East: “The attention of our town fathers is called to the chemical fire engine that has just been put in at North East. Perryville is in sad need of some protection against fire, as it would be practically at the mercy of the flames should a fire start in its now unprotected state.”
In 1915, a Wilmington newspaper the North East Fire Company had disbanded, and the town commissioners were selling its chemical fire engine, hose, and appliances.” (Morning News, July 3, 1915).
It would be a few more years before a fire would occur that would spark the organization of the present day North East Volunteer Fire Company.
