The City Of Chester.

to avoid destructive fires. The act prescribed that ten days after the publication of the law any person "who should set on fire their chimneys to cleanse them, or shall suffer them to be foul, that they, shall take fire so as to flame out at the top," on conviction, should be fined forty shillings. By the same enactment, within twenty days after its promulgation, "every owner of every dwelling-house within the towns aforesaid, shall provide and keep in or by his or her house a swab twelve or fourteen foot long, and a Bucket or pail, to be always ready agt such accidents of fire." The act of Aug. 26, 1721, repealed that part of the old law which required swabs and buckets to be kept in every house under a penalty, but the advantage of having such articles was so apparent that it became the rule to have leather fire-buckets in every house in the village, which were suspended from the ceilings in the hallway, so that in the event of an alarm they were easily obtained by opening the front door. At a fire it was the recognized duty of every able-bodied man to fall into the line, which extended from the burning building to the most available point where water could be had, and along this line full buckets would be passed to those persons who had taken post near the flames, to throw the water upon them, and the empty buckets would be returned the same way to be refilled. Persons who refused to fall into line and pass buckets were usually doused with water as a punishment by their indignant neighbors. After the fire had been subdued, or it had ceased because it had totally destroyed the building, it was rare sport for the boys to gather the leather fire-buckets and return them to their several owners, for every man's name was painted on his bucket.

I do not know when the first fire company was established in Chester, but seven months ago I found among a quantity of old paper in a waste store a torn leaf from a book which was the record of a fire company. From the scrap which has fallen into my possession, it seems evident that the organization was similar in character to that of Darby borough. On July 8, 1808, is given a list of members as follows: William Graham, John Caldwell, James Withy, John Odenheimer, James Birchall, William Anderson, Jonathan Morris, Ephraim Pearson, Isaac Eyre, Jonathan Pennell, Joseph Engle, Daniel Broomall, William Siddons, Jonas Eyre, Samuel Anderson, Joseph Piper, and Jonas Sharpless. From the report of the various committees appointed, we learn that in that time the buckets and ladders are up and in good order, but that "the engine and hose want oiling." Whitehead, in his historical introduction to the "Directory of Chester for 1850-60," says, "A beer-house, called the Globe, was once kept upon James Street, below Market, by a man named Scott, but abandoned as a public-house for nearly fifty years. It was burned down in 1830, and the site is now occupied by the Upland buildings owned by Samuel A. Price." This building was brick, with a curb-roof. It had been a tavern in 1796, kept by William Harrison, and was known as "The Indian Queen." Harrison's widow, Elizabeth, followed her husband in the business until 1805, when Samuel Price had the house, when it was known as "The Ship." After that date it ceased to be an inn, but became an eating-house, the first ever established in Chester. Martin¹ says Scott sold eatables and table-beer, and that the fire occurred in 1835 or 1836, not in 1830, as stated by Whitehead.

The doggerel lines, which bring back the names of residents of Chester about 1790, are said to have been written shortly after a fire which consumed an old shed on the property of John O. Deshong, in North Ward. The lines, so far as they remain to this day, are as follows:

"Fire! Fire! cried Anthony Guyer,
Where? Where? said Squire Eyre,
It's up street, said Parson Heath.
It's down town, said Dr. Brown.
It's here! it's here! cried Charlie Lear.
It's in Anderson's Hall, said Capt. Paul.
You are all wrong! cried Peter Deshong.
It's up in the shed, said Morris' Deb.²
You lie! you lie! cried Kerlin's Sie.²
I'll go to it, said Mrs. Hewitt.
You sha'n't! you sha'n't! said John Denant.
It's time you're startin'! said Dr. Martin.
You'd better be quick, said Thomas Dick.
I'll be there in an hour, said Richard Flower.
Here's my bucket, said Jonathan Duckett.
Put on the water, said Martin Carter.
They're all too lazy, said Mrs. Daisy.
The roof is rotten, said Johnny Shotten.
Keep off my toes, said Odenheimer's Rose.²
I'll make them whiz, said Odenheimer's Liz."²

The fire-engine was known as the "Liberty," and was housed in a one-story frame building, still standing, between the City Hall and the First National Bank, now used as a coal-house and a place of deposit for all the trash which accumulates in the mayor's and other offices in the hall. Samuel Edwards was president of the company in 1832. Some time after 1844 a new hand-engine was purchased, the "Friendship," which was more generally known as the "Pickle Tub," from the fact that in 1850, at the fire at Market Square, some of the active firemen of that day emptied the contents of a tub, in which a lady had been greening pickles, into the engine, and it began squirting pickles at the fire, until an unusually large one got fastened in the nozzle, and effectually stopped the flow. After the introduction of water into the city, the old fire-engine became useless, and steps were taken to organize an efficient fire department.

The Franklin Fire Company was instituted Nov. 30, 1867, and incorporated Feb. 22, 1869. During that year the lot on Concord Avenue was bought, and a two-story brick hose-house, fifty by twenty-two feet, was erected. For over ten years this house served the purpose for which it had been built, although, after