....but I'll try to use fewer this time. This picture shows Needham Fire Company #1, just after it was formed in 1886. Until that time, Needham, like most towns, relied on a corps of volunteers who were called out by the fire bell. The new fire house was on Chestnut Street, just cross the street from the current fire house. In this picture, it is so new that the driveway has not yet been graded or cleared of rubble and grass.

 

The hand-pump "Niagara" was built in 1843 for the Hingham Fire Department, and was purchased from Hingham by Needham in 1884. The tank (the decorated part) was filled with water; the pump was operating by pulling up and down on the side rails. The engine was horse-drawn, but when time and distances were short, the firemen could pull the engine by grabbing the rails and running alongside. The small wheeled cart in back held extra hose and the various nozzles, wrenches and other necessary tools. Niagara was used in Needham until about 1916, when its copper tank was sold for scrap.

 

That is what the town's recorded words tell us, but what else does the picture itself say? There is a great deal more information in the picture than in the written record, information we would not have from any other source. I already mentioned the brand-new firehouse. This is also our best view of the splendor of Niagara - in later pictures, the engine shows its age, missing most of its decorative paint and the fire bell. Firemen were proud of their engines, and Niagara was a beauty. 

The men in the photo look like a capable bunch, posing in their shirtsleeves and wearing their hose wrenches in their belts. Their boots are scuffed and their clothes are well-worn and not particularly elegant. They do all maintain the polite convention of wearing hats in public - even if those hats have also seen better days. Two of them are African-American. They all wear fire badges on their vests. I had originally thought that they were the last of the volunteer force, since not one of them shows up in the Fire Department photo ten years later, but having noticed the badges I'm not so sure.

 

By the way, though Niagara is gone, the hose cart at the back is not. It is part of the Needham History Center's collection, and currently rests in the garage of the Mills House, along with several of the nozzles and wrenches.