THE FIRE DEPARTMENT IN 1889

By Harry M. Jones

There is an old saying: “Fire is a good servant, but a bad master” – and the writer for the past fifty years has seen evidences of both. With practically no protection, I have helped try to conquer several bad fires in Leonardtown. Among them was a two-story dwelling owned by Capt. H. A. Lawrence on Lawrence Ave., a home owned by Mrs. Laura W. Holmes, on the present site of the Tobacco Warehouse, a dwelling owned by Mr. B. R. Abell, where Mrs. F. O. Morgan’s home stands today, a saw-mill owned by J. W. Grave near the wharf, a dwelling owned by a colored man, Thompson, where the new cemetery now is located, Jordan’s Hotel, W. C. Mattingly’s stableyard, Wm. G. Mattingly’s residence, Jos. B. Drury’s stable, Geo. P. Loker’s tenant house and Leonard Hall’s two fires.

I am sure with the present up-to-date equipment and the “minute-men” service we now have, nearly every one of the above named fires could have been checked and put out with but little damage.

The two fires that stand out in the mind of the writer are the Leonard Hall second fire and the one near the wharf. In each case, fire had gotten under the weather boarding, and with no pressure in the water, it could only be put on the outside where there was no fire. The night of the fire that destroyed the Abell residence, was a calm one. Every blaze went straight up but the heat was so intense, blankets had to be nailed outside of the house then owned by Judge J. F. Morgan and water poured in them to save building.

The last fire fighting equipment prior to the present one was captained by Kemper A. Viett and sponsored by the town fathers. This constituted a large tower in the center of the town over a well equipped with a windmill, where the present siren now stands, a frame on wheels with ladders and leather buckets and a steel tank on wheels to carry water to the scene of the fire. The building that housed the equipment was a storage room belonging to the William F. Edelen property, where now stands St. Paul’s M. E. Church.