Steamers, the alarm telegraph, and the paid department

1856–1882 · PROFESSIONALIZATION

A chief over the volunteers: It was not until 1856, Griswold writes, that the city took official recognition of the department: a fire chief was appointed — L. T. Bourie — "whose supervision extended over such volunteer companies as existed or which might be formed," with B. Saunders and A. Wiley as assistants, and the company members exempted from jury service and the poll tax. Griswold's own officials lists, printed in his note on the 1855–56 chapter, give the office a slightly earlier and busier life: a fire chief James B. Teller in 1855, resigning and succeeded by Henry Baker, and in 1856 B. Saunders holding the place before Bourie succeeded him; Bourie's portrait note dates his service as chief engineer 1856–1858 and again 1862–1864. The municipal office behind the title was older still — the city's first officers' table of 1840, carried in the Government section, already lists a "chief engineer," Samuel Edsall. Of the chiefs between, Griswold's narrative names George Humphrey, succeeded about 1860 by O. D. Hurd, and in 1874 Frank B. Vogel, with Robert Crann and George Strodel as assistants.

Steam: The city bought its first steam fire engine in 1861, from the Silsby Manufacturing Company for $4,800, named the "Frank Randall" for the mayor. A second steamer, the "Charley Zollinger," came from Clapp and Jones in 1865; a third, of the Amoskeag type, was bought from the city of Pittsburgh for $3,000 in 1867; the first rotary engine, the "Anthony Wayne," was purchased in 1872 for $4,800, and the first hose for use on reels in 1874.

The alarm telegraph: In 1874 the National fire alarm system was installed — fifteen boxes and about eight miles of wire, at a cost of $5,000. The system grew fast: by August 1878 the Sentinel counted thirty fire alarm boxes on fifteen miles of wire. The street-corner box, flipped and waited on, was the city's fire call for the rest of the century.

The quarrel that ended the volunteers: The end of the volunteer system was fought out in the newspapers. In May 1878 the Torrent company withdrew from the department and the Vigilants threatened to follow unless the council met their demand for an allowance of $2,000 a year; the chief of the day countered with a plan to dispense with the volunteers (the Alerts excepted) and employ fifteen paid men at $10 a month to board near the engine house and man the pipes, with two stokers. In the fall of 1881 the Gazette ran a running story under the head "the fire department muddle": First Assistant Chief George Strodel was placed in charge and directed matters at the engine house; the mayor's reorganization was debated against the city's purse — "the city is not able to stand this additional expense" — and the choice stated plainly as the present "half pay, half volunteer system" against a paid department outright.

1881 — or 1882: Griswold states the result in one sentence: "The first paid fire department came into existence in 1881, with Henry Hilbrecht, Jr., as chief," adding that by 1917 the department was "very thoroughly motorized." The newspaper record spreads the change across two winters: the council's election of a chief in May 1882 returned Hilbrecht with fourteen votes to Diehl's three, and Hilbrecht filed his $2,000 bond and assumed the duties that month, with Frank Vogel and J. G. Strodel as his vouchers. The Fort Wayne Firefighters Museum brackets the eras the same way — a volunteer department, 1839–1882; paid professionals, 1882 to the present. The three records are printed together here: the reorganization was Griswold's 1881 decision and 1882's working fact. Hilbrecht's tenure ran long: he was still chief of the department at the Aveline House fire of May 1908, a quarter-century on.

Sources:

1. Griswold, Pictorial History (1917), Ch. XXV and the Note on Ch. XXXV — the 1855–56 chiefs, the steamers, the 1874 alarm system, the 1881 paid department.
2. Weber, History of the Fort Wayne Fire Department, Parts 3, 14 and 16 — Sentinel, May–August 1878; Fort Wayne Daily Gazette, October–November 1881 and May 1882 (the Strodel charge, the paid-department debate, the Hilbrecht election and bond).
3. Fort Wayne Firefighters Museum (fortwaynefiremuseum.com) — the volunteer/paid periodization, 1839–1882 and 1882–present.