The 118-year-old fire bell that stood watch over Elkton for decades, arousing firefighters from their slumbers in the dead of winter nights or calling them from their labors on hot summer days, remains an important part of Singerly Fire Company today. For years this instrument, mounted in the belfry high atop the fire station, alerted volunteers when a blaze threatened the community.
Cast by the C. S. Bell Co. of Hillsboro, Ohio, the 1,190 pound instrument was placed in its perch high above the engine room in the fall of 1893. By 1910 things advanced as the company installed an electric gong. When the operator at the telephone exchange received a fire call, she pushed a button activating the device. Once the first firefighter arrived at the station, he tugged on the rope striking the gong in the tower as that urgent tolling was heard all over town. In time, the tapping out of calls for Elkton’s volunteers on the bell stopped as Singerly installed a modern fire whistle.
Sam Goldwater, a young firefighter in the early 1970s recalled helping put the instrument back into the spotlight. It had been stored away for generations, but when the Newark Avenue station opened in 1970 Gene Meekins became interested in getting the ancient relic out of storage. As part of the opening of the new firehouse, it was placed on a pedestal at an entrance to the station. Later, in preparation for the 1976 Bicentennial, Mark Onifer, Bobby Holmes and Sam cleaned up the sentinel that had tapped out many urgent alerts, cleaning it up and giving it a fresh coat of paint.
Although the bell was silenced once electronic alarm systems arrived, the Singerly Fire Company has made sure this relic from its past has been preserved. The bell was last formally rung when the fire company celebrated its 100th anniversary. Two former presidents, Jim Spry and Gary Storke, struck the gong causing the sound that once called Elkton firefighters to duty to ring out as the members gathered for the special celebration.
Former Singerly Presidents, Jim Spry & Gary Storke toll bell for the 100th anniverary of the fire company
While traveling in Western Mass one summer backs in the 1980s, we stopped at a large roadside flea market. There I found a few photographs of Singerly Fire Company apparatus in the inventory at one table so I immediately picked them up. Here are scans of two of those images, one showing the Ahrens Fox and the other the Hale. I suspect the pictures were snapped in the 1950s.
With national archives month drawing to a close, we thought
we’d remind those interested in researching Cecil’s history, that the Society
is the county archives. The County Commissioners asked us to assume the responsibility of becoming the caretakers for centuries old local records years ago. Those visionary local government leaders wanted these materials for researching the past to reside in a repository where the focus was on protecting the manuscripts while also making sure they were available to those looking into earlier times. After we entered into the agreement, the county scoured out of the way places, finding valuable records dumped on the floor of old sub-basements, in fallout shelters, and other uncared for spots. Today researchers are able to use protected and organized records from the almshouse, the insane asylum, road department, and more.
Having official repositories where someone focused on caring for historical records is important, if sources for studying local history are going to survive. That’s what archives do preserve governmental or corporate records, manuscripts, photographs and other valuable materials. Unlike a
regular library where most information comes from books and periodicals,
researchers go to these places to gather firsthand facts, data, and evidence
from original sources. The study of the past, whether it is for a family history project, or some scholarly matter is greatly enhanced when we have strong repositories to protect, organize, and provide access to priceless materials. Locally, our volunteer organization is pleased to fill this role.
As the premier spot for digging into Cecil County ‘s past we can help if you’re searching for relatives from generations ago, clues about an old house, or some other elusive historical facts. Whether it is in these sources or other records groups, there’s a good chance that our stacks hold some clues for you.
On this last Saturday in October, an early wintry mix started falling on Cecil County early this afternoon, causing a little snow and ice to accumulate on the ground of the old Principio United Methodist Church. The mix will change over to snow tonight and accumulate 1.5-inches, according to AccuWeather. Mother-nature apparently decided to play a little trick on the area two days before Halloween.
Free Antique appraisals will be the featured program at the annual meeting of the Friends of the Cecil County Public Library, Wednesday, November 9, 6 p.m., at the Perryville Branch Library in Perryville, MD.
The Friends, who support key reading programs for children such as the CCPL Summer Reading Program and are advocates for reading and our county library system, will hold their annual meeting beginning at 6:30 p.m.
Directly following a short business meeting, Carl York, will talk about antique glassware. Mr. York and his daughter, Carla York, will offer free appraisals following his discussion. For antique appraisals, numbers will be assigned beginning at 6 p.m. Antiques should be portable.
The Friends will also host a silent auction of select antique items. Light refreshments will be served.
Cecil County Public Library will be celebrating National Friends of Libraries week October 16 – October 22. This nationally recognized week was established to raise awareness of the importance of community support for libraries, to encourage community members to join library Friends groups, and to recognize the wonderful ways Friends support libraries.
The Friends of the Cecil County Public Library is a non-profit membership group dedicated to promoting Cecil County’s library system as an essential institution in our community. Volunteer members advocate, educate, and raise funds for activities not ordinarily covered under the Library’s operating budget.
Friends volunteers will be at Cecil County Public Library branches throughout the week to give out bookmarks and answer questions about membership. Individual membership is $10 per year. Families can join for $15 and senior citizens or students for $7. Friends membership information is also available on the library’s website at: http://www.cecil.ebranch.info/about-us/support-us/friends-of-the-library/
About the Library
The Cecil County Public Library operates seven branches located throughout Cecil County, MD. The library serves over 50,000 registered borrowers. The mission of the Cecil County Public Library is to provide lifelong educational and cultural opportunities and resources for all, promoting individual and community success.
One of the things that we’ve said often is that you never know what kind of buried treasures are going to turn up when someone starts digging around older parts of Elkton. Many of the town’s parking areas, streets, and building lots have
yielded relics that were tossed aside and buried a long time ago. But there is one well examined parcel in Elkton where many of the secrets of the soil are known.
That parcel is Elk Landing and this evening the Northeastern Maryland Archaeological Society sponsored a talk by Dr. Jim Gibb about that
subject at the Perryville Library. During a most informative talk, he broadly explored the significant cluster of professional digs that have occurred down at Elk Landing since 1980. That first shovel tests were done as they prepared part of the old farm field for construction of the detention center and during the search they found the remains of Native-Americans. The finding of human bones resulted in a second, more detailed, investigation. Once the Historic Elk Landing Foundation was created, a number of additional studies were done on the historic tract and today the total number is near ten, all done by
professional archaeologists.
In a period of just over thirty years, they’ve found material culture from pre-historic people, aboriginal burial grounds, bottles, arrow-hands, a cannon ball, plenty of relics from the 19th century, and lots more.
This evening, Dr. Gibb took a longitudinal view of this well-examined property and tied the conclusions from all the fieldwork together to provide a broader interpretation of ways to look at the Landing. The room was full of serious, knowledgeable researchers and they had lots of questions about the reports for Dr. Gibb, as well as some insightful interpretations of their own. One of the most informative exchanges concerned the nature of the small earthen fort or redoubt that was at Elk Landing. As the bicentennial of the War of 1812 nears, there’s lot of interest and specualtion about that specific element and Dr. Gibb drew on other projects that have examined smaller, rural defenses during the Revolution and the War of 1812 to present generalized concepts.
Elk Landing is one of the most studied historic sites around and there’s lots of valuable information for anyone interested in the history of that priceless piece of property. Many of them are posted on the Elk Landing website. We’re pleased we were able to catch this program to hear another perspective on the interpretations of investigations that have been going on for nearly a generation. Elk Landing is fortunate to have such valuable insights to help guide restoration and interpretation, as many other historic sites in Cecil County have far less information.
The old stone house at Elk Landing as it appeared in the 1960s. Near the southwest corner of the house, state archeaologist unearthed a cannon ball and were able to provide some insight on where Fort Hollingsworth would have been situated in one of their reports. There are also some newspaper accounts describing the fort.
Cecil County Map from the 1790s shows Elk Landing & county courthouse
Date: Wednesday, 12 October 2011
Time: 6:30 pm for refreshments and business, speaker program at 7:15
Location: Perryville Library
Program: Dr. Jim Gibb: “Elk Landing: Results of Remote Sensing, Summer of 2011.”
Prevew: During the past summer, Dr. Gibb, his field assistant and ASNC members, Dan Coates, Jack Davis, Ann Persson and Dave Davis conducted magnetometer tests at the Elk Landing site. Dr. Gibb has conducted archeological investigations of the site previously with ASNC member Annetta Schott assisting as a field technician. This presentation will include the results of the various archeological investigations at this site, and some discussion regarding its potential for future investigations and possible site nomination for an Annual ASM Field Session.
North East –May 7, 1911 — An untroubled Saturday night lapses peacefully into Sunday morning. It’s just about three o’clock and townspeople are wrapped safely in slumber. Then, unexpectedly, the fearful cry is heard, first by a few — someone is shouting Fire! … Fire! … Fire!
It is the Rev. J. P. Otis pastor of the North East Methodist Episcopal Church. Awakened by crackling and a glow, he looks out his window to see a nearby dwelling on fire. Rev. Otis bolts into the night shouting the alarm and arousing the occupants of the house, who barely escape.
Not having an alarm system to sound the warning, whatever means nearby is used to rouse help. Church bells at St. Mary Anne’s and the Methodist Churches are soon tolling. There are pistol shots and more cries of fire; the telephone exchange joins in by calling all phone renters.
This brings practically every one of North East’s 1,100 residents face to face with a “terrorizing sight.” Two houses are already “in the clutches of the fire fiend.” Flames are spreading south and north swiftly, North East’s newspaper, the Cecil Star reports. “The pity of it all is the helplessness of the hundreds who come to the rescue.”
The double house of Joseph T. Kenney and T. C. McCracken beside the Methodist parsonage is first on fire. Swiftly, flames spread to the nearby parsonage. Soon the roof of “the finest, the largest, and the most costly building in town,” the church, is in flames. As the church roof blazes, the church bell high up in the tower of the building continues its “almost human appeal for help,” to the very last. Then it falls, burying “itself in the molten and unshapely mass of metal” that was once a church bell, observes editor George O. Garey of the Star.
Towns-people Organize to Fight the Inferno
Towns-people speedily organize to fight the inferno, but the only means available to them is a bucket brigade. North East has “no other fire apparatus of any description.” Citizens willingly keep to the task nonetheless. “Bucket brigades, with men, women and children in the lines,” hold to the work heroically and keep the buckets full reports Editor Garey.
With the M.E. Church just catching fire, a general conflagration appears imminent — the situation is serious! Dr. Housekeeper wires Elkton and Havre De Grace for aid. Chief Giles of the Singerly Fire Company advises that getting Elkton’s steam fire engine to North East will be impossible because the road between the towns is so bad. Also the apparatus can’t be sent promptly by rail. Havre De Grace finds the same condition, reports the Cecil Democrat.
Dr. Housekeeper next telegrams Wilmington. That city’s fire department responds and has some “hundred men and two steam engines loaded on flat cars” at the railroad yard. They are on their way when word comes, the fire is under control. Two steamers get as far as Newark by six a.m. when they get word that the fire is checked, says the Democrat. Another newspaper, the Midland Journal of Rising Sun, reports the fire department is loading apparatus on flat cars preparatory to the railroad run to North East when the word comes. Railroad officials later tell town commissioners they will not make a charge for the “partial service rendered.”
North East doesn’t have a municipal water system so the steamers would have pumped water from the river. This isn’t a problem though because the river is within 400 feet of the “ill-fated locality,” and easily accessible. A heroic effort by the bucket brigade to save the church is unavailing. Quick work succeeds in getting all the furniture, pews, organs, piano, Bibles and hymn books and the membership list for the church out of the doomed structure before the roof falls in. Church records in the parsonage are destroyed. Meanwhile, on the north side of the fire, the other half of the double dwelling (the vacant McCracken part) is quickly destroyed.
The brick dwelling and store of W. J. Cameron about ten feet distance,several times catches fire, but is saved by the hard and steady work of the bucket brigade. Mr. Cameron’s store suffers heavy damage though. Several other buildings in the vicinity catch fire, but are also saved by quick work of citizen firefighters. A “score of properties,” including the Grand Army Hall, the Ford building, occupied as a shirt factory, the Thomas Hotel, besides stores and houses are in great danger. Most of them are on “fire at times from flying sparks,” but are promptly extinguished by volunteers. People living in the neighborhood realize the danger in which their homes are placed.”A score or more of the residences are made bare of their furniture, in the face of what has every appearance of an impending personal calamity and loss” to much of the town. The frame buildings south of the Church, owned by Ida Thomas catches fire but is saved. A narrow street intervenes between these building and the church. To prevent the spread of flames further along S. Main Street, volunteers plan to blow up one house in this row, but they get the fire under control before this is done.
The Fight Succeeds
The stubborn fight of the bucket brigade eventually succeeds “in snatching from the burning grip of the fire monster, the other surrounding properties.” And the morning was very calm, else the havoc would have been much greater than it is, the Cecil County News reports. The absence of wind saves the town from a general conflagration the Democrat adds. Editor George O. Garey of North East has an opinion: “North East got its first genuine fright and the long deferred lesson was taught its people for neglecting to provide proper protection against fire.
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.
With national archives month drawing to a close, we thought
