Probably New Woodstock's
most spectacular fires were the E.W. Gunn fire in October 1890, and the
destruction of the mill of the New Woodstock Milling Company's property
on Railroad Street on February 13, 1879, which wiped out another of the
community's enterprises. The first of these conflagrations destroyed
five businesses.
It originated in the store
of E.W. Gunn on the northwest corner of the intersection of Main and Mill
Street, shortly after noon on October 9, 1890, a sunny, Fall day.
Mr. Gunn was producing his patented and popular wire tooth rakes.
It burned west to the store
and residence of Dr. A.D. Smith, (later owned by the Parker Drug Company
& Lewis McManus), and north on Mill Street to the residence occupied
by L. Smith. It resulted from the explosion of benzene.
Mr. Gunn used the second
floor as a workshop, while the lower floor was occupied by P.E. Jaquith
as a general store. Mr. Gunn, with his hand in a tank of benzene,
accidentally spilled some of it into a lamp and an explosion instantly
occurred.
Mr. Gunn was very badly
burned. He was too much stunned to take instant measures to extinguish
the fire, which immediately communicated with dry lumber stored overhead,
and a first class conflagration was under way before anyone knew what had
happened. So rapid was its progress that flames were bursting from
the upper windows before the first alarm was sounded. It was evident
that a big fire was on hand, and that the sources for fighting it were
totally inadequate.
At 2.30 P.M. a call for
aid was telegraphed to Cazenovia, and in eighteen minutes their hook and
ladder truck was run to the E.C.& N. (Elmira, Cortland & Northern
Railroad) depot, having been loaded onto a flat car and made the run of
six miles to Main Street of New Woodstock in six minutes. Because
of the probable lack of water, only the hook and ladder was brought down.
Further inspection indicated several cisterns available, so the locomotive
was returned for the hand pump and hose. In eighteen minutes the
equipment was on the scene.
For all time these were
the fastest runs over that section of the railroad. Engine No. 18
in charge of Conductor Shepherd made the run. The name of the daring
engineer has not been ascertained. The run back to Cazenovia was
made in six and a half minutes; the return to New Woodstock in about eight
more.
Chief Webber of New Woodstock
was out of town and Dr. I.N. Goff was elected first assistant. George
T. Atwell, who was on the train, directed vigorous measures which helped
to stay the progress of the fire.
A shed north of the burning
block was torn down by the Hook and Ladder Company, and another between
it and Dr. A.D. Smith's After a hard fight in which the local citizens
fully participated, the fire was brought under control. Burned out,
besides the corner store, was the meat market occupied by P.E. Jaquith,
the hardware owned by Henry Rider, S.S. Hayes' boot and shoe store and
residence, M.C. Wood's Justice Office, and the AOUW Lodge (Ancient Order
of United Workmen) rooms. All except the corner building were owned
by the estate of Benjamin Wightman, and were a total loss. The property
remained as burned out cellar holes for several years.
The exhausted firemen were
given a substantial lunch, using an entire hurriedly emptied counter in
the center of C.A. Fox's store. There is no record of thanks to the
engineer or the dispatcher in Cortland who gave them the railroad.
The E.C.& N. (Elmira, Cortland, and Northern Railroad) was notable
for extending help to villages and shippers along its line.
For a great many years by
common consent each property owner kept a pail for the passing of water
along a bucket brigade line. The call of "fire" was taken up by each
person who heard it and spread rapidly through the community. An
adjacent pond, creek, or cistern was depended upon for a water supply.
Much of the efforts of the impromptu firemen were directed to the saving
of the contents of the threatened buildings, or the adjacent properties,
if any. In summer, dry shingled roofs added to the danger of a fire
spreading.
The cry of "Fire" has always
been one of the most dismaying sounds to be heard in a small nineteenth
and early twentieth century town. If an isolated building was involved,
it was more often than not burned to its foundations. If the fire
was in a structure in close proximity to another building, that more often
than not was a complete loss. If the blaze was so located, the hastily
assembled bucket brigade provided the only help of preventing its spread
to other buildings.
The distance from a creek,
pond, or cistern determined the length of the bucket brigade and the number
of people necessary for its operation. If a high wind was blowing
the brigade had a lesser chance of controlling the fire. Fires originating
in rural sections required more time for the citizens to organize and added
to the difficulty of prompt response, so essential to the control of a
blaze.
About 1912 the formation
and equipment of a fire department became the subject of an informal discussion
of property owners, concerning the formation of a better source of fire
protection. This discussion continued through 1913. Plans slowly
developed along these lines.
There developed a plan for
the purchase of chemical equipment and the construction of a building in
which to house it. Voluntary contribution was the only means available
to finance such a step. There was informal discussion around the
pot-bellied stoves where the male citizenry congregated. This led
to a more formal meeting of the general public at Stoddard's Hall an January
13, 1914 to more thoroughly consider the proposal. This led to a
demonstration of chemical hand drawn equipment by the American LaFrance
Company in the ensuing summer.
A plank shed of ancient
vintage and absorbability was placed on Main Street in front of the hotel,
and heavily saturated with kerosene oil. The soda operated, two wheeled
apparatus then extinguished the fire which had been kindled and allowed
to attain a good, vigorous blaze.
The test must have been
deemed satisfactory because two of American LaFrance forty gallon, hand
drawn chemical engines were purchased at about six hundred dollars each.
On June 18, 1914 the Department,
known as the New Woodstock Chemical Fire Company, with twenty seven members,
purchased land for the fire house, this being the little first building
on Elm Street next to the hardware store. Payments were made entirely
through public subscriptions. Trustees to manage the legal affairs
of the company were Morillo Smith, George M. Thompson, and Gardner Freeborn.
Most of the able bodied
men of the village were members of the Department as originally constituted.
The officers chosen were:
I was often amazed by the
rapidity with which an alarm was spread from end to end of the village.
It was faster than the telephone when that instrument was available.
The warning was not ignored by any able bodied man. The spirit of
neighborliness and civic duty was paramount.
Each available man, equipped
with at least one pail or a ladder, appeared on the street in record time.
All too often, however, the best efforts were limited to saving surrounding
structures, and the contents of the burning building. Night fires
in isolated locations sometimes destroyed half of a mill or other uninhabited
building before it was discovered.
Shops and mills were, in
fact, the greatest victims of fires. The record of such destruction
in New Woodstock is not unlike the experience of hundreds of small towns.
Some disappeared as the result of the burning of a key industry.
A full record of the economic
changes brought about in this community are not available, but we know
that conflagration here, ranging from the destruction of the wool carding
and oil mill, erected in the 1830's and burned in 1864, to the Mew Woodstock
Milling Company property lost on February 13, 1979, mark a tragic loss
of business property.
Samuel Baker's grist mill
was carried away by high water in 1837. It was rebuilt, and burned
in 1896, while owned by Randall and Wood. Sims' Flour and Feed Mill
burned the same year. The Chair Factory burned in 1898. The
first cheese factory in town burned twice. K.E. Cardner's mill was
twice destroyed by fire. In more recent times the Cardner Box Factory
and Seymour's Grist Mill were destroyed by arsonists, after each had closed
operations.
The formation of the New
Woodstock Fire District was unusual then and now. Its inception was
a fire at the Frank Damon residence on Erieville Road. At the time
of its formation, fire districts were the only form of special district
permitted by New York State law. Ours was one of the earlier districts
organized and the only one in Madison County.
That sunny fall day of the
fire, William S. Huntley and Walter F. Mann were perched on an exposed
beam, pouring a chemical stream on a stubborn fire in a partition, when
the latter brought up the subject of a fire district and motorized apparatus.
The next day E.E. Cummings was circulating among the residents a petition
to the Board of Supervisors, required for the application for such formation.
The required number of signatures
was quickly obtained. The Board of Supervisors held a hearing in
early 1928, as required by statute, on the question of the creation of
a fire district in the First Election District of the Town of Cazenovia,
and the northern end of the Town of DeRuyter, including Sheds. The
Board recommended its formation. It is interesting to note that of
the ninety nine people who appeared at the hearing, Mr. Mann is the sole
survivor.
The committee filed a favorable
report on May 29, 1928, and the Board passed a resolution creating the
district on August 7, 1928. This was one of the elements of a very
good year for New Woodstock.
A few years ago it appeared
more space was needed, especially a heated meeting room and added space
to serve meals, notably the annual beef supper, a fund raiser. An
addition was made to the fire house, paid for by the fire department, with
the new electric heat service being paid for by the fire district.
Fire districts eventually
were placed under the jurisdiction of Town Boards, as are all other special
districts created by the State Legislature. That the system had its
inception and development through the agency of the fire district is a
matter of considerable interest.
Realizing the dire need
for a water system a group of citizens working through the fire district
became responsible for the cost of construction, before the broadening
of the state law made the development of a water district possible.
In the Fall of 1929 the
fire company undertook the work of installing such a system, to provide
an adequate supply of water. It also assumed the burden of financing
such construction. A dam site and water rights were purchased and
a million gallon reservoir constructed. Water mains and hydrants
were installed.
When the water district
was established, the Fire Department was reimbursed nearly nine thousand
dollars to cover the cost of their advances to initiate construction.
This same year a Buffalo five hundred gallon pumper was added to the equipment,
with fifteen hundred feet of high pressure hose, gas masks, fire coats
and boots. An engine house was erected at Sheds, and one of the chemical
engines was located there.
The department then had
twenty four men, and felt justly proud of the progress they had made.
They felt no department of their size in New York State had done more for
community betterment and protection from loss by fire, under as great a
hardship as they. When necessary to take the engine out of town,
any truck that was available would serve the purpose. This often
led to a merry and bumpy chase.
Early fire commissioners
were: Arlington Morgan, George N. Thompson, E.E. Cummings, Robert Smith,
and Barnard Fuggle. As many as seventy eight votes were cast in an
early fire district election. These elections have become largely
perfunctory, participated in by a minimal number of people. Annual
budgets throughout the period of the 1930's ranged from twelve hundred
to eighteen hundred dollars in amount, being held at the lowest possible
level.
As time went on the commissioners
recognized that the average volunteer department suffered from too many
members, rather than too few. The local membership was held rigidly
to twenty four men, Application for membership was maintained on a numerical
order, and membership was a prized possession. Elwyn Judd was the
first to go through an induction ceremony upon the occurrence of a vacancy.
Records of actions and events
following 1940 are much harder to locate than for the earlier period.
The secretary at that time maintained detailed records of the period, but
they have not been preserved.
During the half century
of its existence, the department has suffered only two casualties while
fighting a fire. At Ivan Hirt's residence on March 4, 1942, E.E.
Cummings suffered a heart attack, and died instantly. Lewis McManus
was the second casualty on May 6, 1973, at a mutual aid fire on DeRuyter
Lake Road. Injuries to personnel have been few in number and mostly
of a minor nature.
To replace the Buffalo Pumper,
# 262 was purchased in 1962. The new pumper was a Chevrolet, five
hundred gallon tank, with a seventy five hundred gallon midship pumper,
and a high pressure pump. The Buffalo became the second. In
1970 another Chevrolet one thousand gallon tank with a high pressure pump
was purchased and the Buffalo was retired. The underwriters were
satisfied.
In 1992 the commissioners
purchased a one thousand gallon pumper with a crew cab for six, thus providing
an efficient piece of equipment.
The present (1992) commissioners
are: Richard Babel, Roger Davenport, Henry Brooks, Gary Foster, Donald
Burden, Sr., and Louise Clark, Secretary and Treasurer.
Officers of the Fire Department,
1992, are: Chief Walter Starkweather; First Assistant, Terry Austin; Second
Assistant, Thomas 0'Hara; Captain, Ted Parisou; 1st Lieut., Mike Babel;
2nd Lieut., Larry Wallingford; Fire Police Captain, John 0'Hara; County
Fire Advisory Board, Ned Holmes.