- Police/Fire - Janesville Sesquicentennial
-
- [Photograph; caption reads: The whole Janesville Fire Department
came out for the last fire-horse run featuring horses Dick and
Charlie, far right.]
-
- Horses gave way to 'steel monsters' in 1924
- Hundreds of people assembled downtown one Saturday morning
in July 1924 to see two fire
- horses clatter by with an "old-time" engine trailing
behind them.
- "Charlie" and "Dick," black geldings
under the care of James CASEY, had been sold by the fire
- department. They were being replaced by "steel monsters."
- An American LaFrance aerial truck had arrived July 1, so
the fully motorized department staged
- one last fire-horse run:
- "Charlie and Dick responded to the call from the West
side barn. Driven by Harry NARBY, they
- crossed the Milwaukee Street bridge, turned south on Main
and halted in front of Janesville Floral Company. Jack ALDRICH
was tillerman on the truck. The ladders were raised and several
firemen climbed to the top of the structure..."
- A few minutes later, another alarm sounded and the motorized
aerial truck pulled up at the mock
- fire scene. It's appearance ceremoniously and "sadly"
marked the end of a half-century tradition of gallant fire horse
service.
- To many, the thrill of horses clattering down city streets
trailing engines that spewed clouds of
- smoke and showers of sparks was as sensational as the fires
the horses went to.
- A Janesville Gazette article dated May 5, 1924, personified
Charlie and Dick to sum city-wide
- feelings of the horses' fate. Written from the horses' mouths,
it said: "Then, everyone went to the fire, small boys and
all. Everyone stopped to watch the fire run. It was everyone's
blood run, horses and humans. They were the days."
- The horses long were a source of pride for firefighters.
They called their horses such things as
- "good and faithful servants," "old friends."
- In fact, a record kept of 1888 boarding costs showed the
department paid more to feed their five
- horses than they did to employ an assistant chief. Feed cost
$214, while the employee's annual salary was $200.
- Though the number of horses diminished as years passed, fireman
feelings for them apparently did
- not.
- An article written Jan. 15, 1901, bemoaned the death of Colonel,
a former circus horse who
- worked with yokemate Cap. It said old fire department friends
recognized Colonel's worth, spoke of him with affection and rejoiced
that his labors were at an end.
- The end of horse service was as quiet as its beginning. In
the early days, horses were not used by
- bucket brigadiers and volunteer firemen. Rather, the men
first held drag ropes - not the reins of a horse - to pull the
apparatus to fires.
- It is commonly believed the September 1868 arrival of steam
engines marked the first firehorse
- run. They apparently were recruited from volunteers' livery
through December 1876, a date when reference was made to an indoor
stable at the new, "Washington Engine House."
- Even so, it wasn't until the reign of chief John C. SPENCER
in 1885-86 that tow ropes officially
- were replaced in the department. Then, old hose carts were
disposed of and four-wheeled carriages were bought for service
on the engines and drivers were paid to be ready at all times.
- That was, until steel monsters arrived at the scene.
|
