T.W. Scott with the First Fire Engine

Stories of Guernsey County by Wm. Wolfe Page 583

     The First Fire Engine.—A fire engine was purchased, the cost being $6,500.  It weighed 3,600 pounds and was pulled by hand.  Its arrival was the occasion for much excitement in Cambridge.  Everybody wanted to see it in action and most of the cisterns on Wheeling avenue were pumped dry in the demonstrations.  Then it was taken down to Wills Creek where there was an unlimited supply of water that could be used for practice and entertainment.

     An announcement that the fire engine would be exhibited at the county fair the following month drew a large crowd.   One farmer drove twenty miles, he said, just to see the new “water squirter.”  For several years the engine occupied a prominent place in the Cambridge parades, whatever the occasion. 

     Every body was pleased with the new engine.  Within four and one-half minutes after a fire was started in it, a stream of water was thrown over tops of trees and houses.  It was proposed that, when not needed for fires, the engine be used in sprinkling the streets.  Cambridge was not paved then and there was much dust.

     The engine was stored in the basement of the Town Hall, and here the members of the Rescue Hook and Ladder Company met regularly.  A fire bell was placed on the top of the building, but when it was found that its ringing jarred the plastering loose in the Masonic room on the third floor, it was moved to a high pole in front of the hall.  With the engine came a wagon for carrying hooks and ladders, and 1,400 feet of hose. 

Seagrave Pumper 1928  8th Street Fire Station
Chief- H. C. Callihan, Unknown, Harry Siegfried, Jack Fulton
(McCracken Funeral Home on the right)