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(PENNSYLVANIA.) Minute book of the Northern Liberty Hose Company, an independent volunteer fire company. [336] manuscript pages. Folio, original calf with gilt label, quite worn and partly disbound; first few leaves worn at edges with slight loss, the remainder clean and legible. Philadelphia, May 1828 to October 1841
From 1803 to 1854, Northern Liberties was a separate municipality just north of Philadelphia along the river; it is now part of the city. This minute book documents the birth and growth of the hose company created to supplement the existing fire company. The first entry here describes a very early meeting of the company, in which Amos Howell was hired to "build a substantial hose carriage for the sum of three hundred dolls with the exception of frontispiece, bells and gilding" (7 May 1828). Subsequent entries are concerned with badge designs, an official motto ("When duty calls, 'tis ours to obey,", 27 August 1828), and a company cape (July 1831). They built a fire house on St. John Street (now North American) north of Green Street. At the 5 November 1834 meeting, "the following members was reported for being intoxicated at Bouvier's fire on the night of the 17th inst." In another incident, one John Scott was fined "for intoxication, leaving apparatus, destroying the Co's property & commencing an altercation" (7 September 1836). These kinds of fines became increasingly frequent, and a temperance resolution was adopted on 21 October 1839. The high level of competition between volunteer fire companies is reflected by a special meeting "to prevent the further disturbance & to settle the past difference between this Co and the Independence Hose Company" (2 January 1836). Later, a committee was appointed to "investigate the altercation between this & Resolution Hose Company" (3 April 1839)--apparently North Liberty was accused of "throwing their hose from the plug." Hose Company members were summoned to court for a dispute with the New Liberty Engine Company (25 February 1841). The best actual account of a fire is a letter recorded into the book 6 June 1838: "The Association for the Care of Colored Orphans take this method of returning their sincere & heartfelt thanks to the firemen of Philadelphia for their energetic & benevolent exertions to preserve their property from destruction on the night of the 18th inst., and earnestly request their future protection on behalf of the innocent & helpless orphans committed to their charge, this being a charitable institution having no connection to the Antislavery Society"--the implication being that if the orphanage were an abolitionist operation, the firemen might be tempted to just let it burn.
