Historic Pelham

Monday, December 07, 2015

The Code Used on the City Island Fire Bell in the Late 19th Century Used for Fire Alarms

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In early 1894, City Island, Pelham Bay Park and the islands in Long Island Sound off the shores of Pelham Bay Park were still part of the Town of Pelham. It would be, at the time, about a year later before New York City annexed the area, removing City Island, Pelham Bay Park, and nearby islands from the Town of Pelham.

City Island was the most densely-populated area of the Town of Pelham with approximately 1,800 residents living and working principally in wooden structures. Fire was a very real risk and could be quite devastating. Consequently, by the early 1890s, a fire district within the Town of Pelham covering City Island was created. Three volunteer fire-fighting units were created within the district: the Minneford Engine Company the Minneford Hose Company, and the City Island Hook & Ladder Company.

I have written a little about the history of these early Pelham fire-fighting units before. See:

Tue., Dec. 08, 2009: The Darling Triplets: Three Brothers Among Pelham's Earliest Firefighters.

Thu., Oct. 08, 2009: Firefighting Units on City Island in Pelham During the Early 1890s.

Mon., Aug. 31, 2009: Contest in 1891 To Determine Which Steam Fire Engine Company Could Throw a Stream the Greater Distance.

Fri., Aug. 28, 2009: Reorganization of the Minneford Engine Company on City Island in February, 1891.

I also have written about a number of significant 19th century fires fought by City Island volunteer firemen. See, e.g., Fri., Nov. 20, 2015: Account of 1894 Fire in One of Pelham's Earliest Newspapers.

One of the fire districts of the Town of Pelham during the 1890s covered City Island. On May 21, 1894, the Fire Commissioners for the district met in the City Island office of George E. Reynolds, Secretary of the Commission. Those who attended, in addition to Reynolds, were William E. Lowndes, Herbert Hegeman, and D. J. Turner (Treasurer of the Commission). The Fire Commissioners voted to divide City Island into four sub-districts. They were:

The First Sub-District: extending from the northern point of City Island to the center of Ditmar Avenue.

The Second Sub-District: extending from the center of Ditmar Avenue to the center of Fordham Avenue.

The Third Sub-District: extending from the center of Fordham Avenue to the center of Scofield Avenue.

The Fourth Sub-District: extending from the center of Scofield Avenue to the southern point of City Island.

Interestingly, the Commissioners announced that the Trustees of the Local M.F. Church had granted consent to use the church bell as an official fire alarm bell. The Trustees also had agreed that the church janitor "or any of his assistants" would serve as the official alarm bell ringer. The Commission further announced an interesting "CODE OF SIGNALS" so that the number and frequency of rings would signal the district within which a fire erupted. The code was quite simple. It was described as follows: "The code of signals for use in all cases of fire are as follows: - Five strokes of the bell in rapid succession indicates an alarm, then a short pause, after which the number of strokes given, will indicate in which district the fire is located." Thus, for example, five strokes - pause - one stroke, would ndicate that a fire was located somewhere in the First Sub-District between the northern point of City Island and the center of Ditmar Avenue.

Map of Town of Pelham with Inset of City Island, 1868.

Source: Beers, F.W., Atlas of New York and

Vicinity, p. 35 (NY, NY: Beers, Ellis & Soule, 1868).

* * * * *

Below is a transcription of the brief article from The City Island Drift describing the vote of the City Island Fire Commissioners and the implementation of the fire bell code. It is followed by a citation and link to its source.

"FIREMEN!
A SYSTEMAT [sic] SERVICE WELL UNDER WAY.
-----

The Fire Commissioners at their meeting on Monday night, May 21, 1894, held in the office of the secretary subdivided Fire District No. 1 into four (4) sub-districts as follows: - from the northern point of City Island to the center of Ditmar Ave., shall be known as the First Sub-district; from the center of Ditmar Ave., to the center of Fordham Ave., shall be known as the Second Sub-district; from the center of Fordham Ave., to the center of Scofield Ave., shall be known as the Third sub-district; from the center of Scofield Ave., to the southern point of City Island, shall be known as the Fourth sub-district.

The consent of the Trustees of the M. F. Church has been secured for the use of the church bell as an official alarm for the present.

CODE OF SIGNALS. -- The code of signals for use in all cases of fire are as follows: - Five strokes of the bell in rapid succession indicates an alarm, then a short pause, after which the number of strokes given, will indicate in which district the fire is located.

Thus, five strokes - pause - one stroke, indicates that a fire is located somewhere between the north point and Ditmar Ave.

The alarm will be repeated in the same anner, ,and continued to the judgment of the bell-ringer who is the janitor of the church or any of his assistants.

Fire Commissioners {

Wm E. Lowndes.
Geo. E. Reynolds Secty.
Herbert Hegeman.
D. J. Turner, Treas."

Source: FIREMEN! A SYSTEMAT [sic] SERVICE WELL UNDER WAY, The City Island Drift, May 26, 1894, p. 3, cols. 1-2.

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Labels: 1894, City Island Fire Fighters, City Island Hook and Ladder, D. J. Turner, Fire District No. 1, George E. Reynolds, Herbert Hegeman, Minneford Engine Company, Minneford Hose Company, William E. Lowndes

Friday, November 20, 2015

Account of 1894 Fire in One of Pelham's Earliest Newspapers

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In early January, 1894, Orrin F. Fordham established a weekly community newspaper "devoted to the interests of the Town of Pelham and City Island." The newspaper, The City Island Drift, was published on City Island every Saturday morning. The cost of a subscription was "$1.00 per Year in Advance." When the newspaper first began, the earliest issues were offered for one cent per copy, although the newspaper quickly raised its price to two cents per copy.

By February 24, 1894, The City Island Drift had reached a weekly circulation of nearly 200. Consequently, the following week the little newspaper raised its newstand price to two cents a copy. At the time, in addition to a one-year subscription for a $1.00, it was offering subscriptions of six months for fifty cents, and three months for twenty-five cents.

The quick success of The City Island Drift is somewhat surprising and strongly suggests that the growing Town of Pelham was becomingly increasing hungry for local news and a local newspaper devoted solely to Pelham news. The United States suffered the "Panic of 1893" that led to a severe economic depression. During that depression, by some accounts, unemployment in New York State reached an astounded level of 35%. More than 500 banks across the nation failed and were closed. More than 15,000 business failed and countless farms ceased operations. In the midst of all this, Orrin F. Fordham was able successfully to establish a tiny little community newspaper in the Town of Pelham even while recognizing the extent of the economic devastation caused by the depression. In the March 3, 1894 issue of The City Island Drift, he wrote:

"The depressing times through which we have been passing will be felt for a long time to come. Even though more prosperous times should be at hand, the effect of the depression will offset, to a degree, the prosperity." (See page 2).

Extant copies of the newspaper have been digitized and, via optical character recognition technologies, are now available online in full text searchable format via the New York State Historic Newspapers Web site, a project being administered by the Northern New York Library Network in partnership with the NY 3Rs Association, Inc. The entire database is available via http://dev.nyshistoricnewspapers.org.

The database includes 37 issues of The City Island Drift, all published while City Island was still part of the Town of Pelham, before its annexation by New York City was completed in 1895. (Actually, the database includes 38 issues -- a January 22, 1894 "EXTRA" issue is erroneously combined with a February 17, 1894 issue as a single issue.)

Shortly after The City Island Drift first appeared, City Island suffered a significant fire. The newspaper put out an "EXTRA" edition on January 22, 1894 describing the fire, efforts to fight the fire by the local "Minnefor Engine Co.," and including a hand-drawn sketch of the remnants of the building after the fire. The entire EXTRA issue of the newspaper was prepared in long-hand writing (as were a number of the earliest issues of the newspaper).

The fire virtually destroyed Jacob Gruse's Boat House, Saloon and Restaurant on main street, City Island. For some time before the fire, Pelham residents had been engaged in a debate over funding for the volunteer fire fighting units established on City Island and whether such units would really make a difference in stopping significant fires and saving lives and property.

The fire at the Jacob Gruse Boat House, Saloon and Restaurant demonstrated that quick response by local volunteer fire fighters using state-of-the-art equipment (crude by today's standards) could halt such a fire and preserve some of the property involved.

The fire seems to have occurred on or about the evening of January 21, 1894. City Islander Samuel Bell was on his way home and noticed smoke wafting across main street near the structure. Smoke from the restaurant was not unusual, so Bell continued home assuming that a fire was being kindled. Soon after he settled in, he heard another resident shouting "Fire!" and realized what he had seen. He raced to the fire house as others took up his cries of "Fire!" By the time he arrived, however, the horse cart had already departed the fire house on its way to the fire.

Members of the Minneford Hose Company arrived early on the scene, but had trouble removing the rusted cap from a nearby hydrant. After getting the cap off, they were able to begin a stream of water through a window of the burning structure. Soon members of the Minneford Engine Company arrived with their steam pumper which had a good head of steam going. After attaching a siamese connector to permit the use of two hoses, the firefighters disconnected the original hose and began using the steam pumper to inundate the fire with water. Soon, the fire was under control.

The little two-room restaurant and saloon, however, was a wreck. The firemen were able to recover the pocketbook of the wife of the owner within a bureau inside. When they asked the wife of the owner if she wanted the liquor and beer, she said no. The firemen retrieved beer and liquor from the structure and spectators enjoyed the contents. When the firemen emerged with an entire keg of beer, however, the owner's wife demurred and told them to replace the keg as she would prefer to keep it.

The entire contents of the "EXTRA!" edition of The City Island Drift reporting on the fire appear below. The transcription of the entire text of the issue appears immediately below. Following the text, images of each of the four pages of the issue are included.

"[Page 1]

The City Island DRIFT EXTRA! FIRE

Trifold Pub. Co. Publishers City Island, N.Y. Jan. 22nd, 1894 ONE CENT.

FIRE!
-----
Great Fire!!!
-----
Minnefor Engine Co. on hand.
-----

Everybody knows about the fire.

It was J. Gruse's boat house, saloon and restaurant on main street on the 'Meadows Lots.' It did not burn down but it is a complete wreck. It is only fit for firewood now.
-----

As near as we can get to the actual time the fire started is seven o'clock. A number of persons saw the smoke drifting across the road, but no one dreamed of a fire as it is quite a common experience to see smoke persisting in the air about that place.
-----

Mr. Saml. Bell, going home from the Post office and passing there about five minutes past seven, smelled smoke, but thought it was a fire being kindled. He got home & was comfortably seated when he heard Mrs. Lane shouting Fire!

Mr. Bell blowed out the light, locked the door and ran down the street shouting Fire! and a voice, presumably Mr. A. S. Wilson, took up the cry and passed it allong. When Mr. Bell reached the engine house the horse cart was on its way to the fire.

We saw the hose attached to the [illegible] and by the time the engine arrived, a stream had been playing on the fire for some time, and another line of hose was being laid from the hydrant. Thje engine had on a good head of steam by the time the pipes were made fast to the hydrant, the first stream was cast off, and the engine began her noble work. The firemen worked noisily before the first the first streams soon quenched the blaze, as the engines two streams put an end to it.

[Page 2]

The City Island Drift
Published on
City Island, New York.
-----

The Fire!

Our reporter was informed by Mrs. Gruse that Mr. Gruse was away to the city, and no business was being done in the house at the time. The lights were out and no signs of business were visible about the place before the fire broke out. What there was in there to start a fire was not known except the stoves. Some said the stove had upset, but when the fire was out sufficient enough to enter, the stove stood in its place ready to do duty again, if another pipe were furnished it.

The interior of the building on the south side is entirely burned out -- showing the rafters and the sheathing very plainly.

The furniture is more or less charred, some of it being useless, while some of it may be utilized again.

This building is divided into two rooms, the southern room being used for a restaurant and the northern room as a saloon. It was in the southern room that the fire seems to have started, and it is where the most damage is done, confining itself to that room entirely but for a place over the front door of the saloon.

In the restaurant was

[Page 3]