HISTORY OF WOOD COUNTY



country are entitled to draw books. Transients are allowed the same privileges
as residents on furnishing satisfactory references or guarantees.
   The Fire Department.-No local organization has a more interesting history
than the Marshfield Fire Department, which has enjoyed an uninterrupted growth
of 40 years. It is only a few of the oldest residents who can appreciate
the differ-
ence between the crude fire-fighting apparatus of early days and the up-to-date
equipment to which the city can now point with pride. Among the original
or-
ganizers of the department were T. F. Vennedom, E. C. Derby and C. B. Whar-
field, the two latter drafting the original by-laws. Mr. Vennedom was chosen
to
preside at the first meeting which was held on the evening of May 2, 1883,
in what
was called the Hinman Hall, over Vennedom's general store, now Laemle's corner.
R. H. Howarth was elected captain, T. F. Vennedom, assistant, and E. C. Derby,
secretary and treasurer, of what was then termed the Pioneer Hose Company.
The others who attended the meeting that night, according to the secretary's
minutes, were: John McGivern, James Beattie, Ed. Payne, F. L. Hinman, A.
Goetschius, Ed. Maurer, W. Morse, S. Reily, Frank Payne, Z. A. Canfield,
J.
Phillips and W. Mallaley. Charles B. Wharfield and Frank Lueckenbach joined
the company April 17, 1884, and were included among the charter members.
Frank Lueckenbach resigned in 1904 after serving 20 years, but Mr. Wharfield
is
still an active member, the only one of the original company, with the exception
of Ed. Payne, who is still responding to fires. The organization will be
40 years
old in May, 1923, and up to the time of this writing (Oct. 1, 1922) it has
had six
secretaries; E. C. Derby served from 1883 to 1886; C. B. Wharfield from 1886
to
1899; Mr. Wharfield's successor was Lacy Gwin, and after him have served
0.
Dorschel, Louis Carl, W. H. Kemps and the present secretary, T. S. Spaulding.
The fire chiefs have been, in the order given, R. H. Howarth, L. A. Arnold,
J. H.
Matthes, E. E. Ames, E. A. Upham, J. A. Hoffman and E. B. Finney, the last
mentioned now serving. W. A. Sexton joined the department in March, 1886,
aid in 1892 became treasurer, succeeding James Beattie. He was succeeded
by
the present treasurer, L. Hartt. In the early days the hose-cart was kept
in a
small frame building on Chestnut Street, where Dr. Hayward's residence now
stands. It was later moved to a building on the corner of Third and Maple,
oppo-
site the Methodist Church. The next move was to the old city hall, and the
third
to the present commodious quarters in the new hall, which stands on the same
site.
The great fire of 1887 was thus mentioned in the minutes of the company:
"June
27, 1887-A general alarm sounded at 11:45 a. m., the company responding,
fire
having been discovered in the lumber yard of the Upham Manufacturing Com-
pany. After a gallant fight of seven hours the fire was gotten under control,
leav-
ing a large tract (extending over nine blocks and the mill yard) a mass of
smoulder-
ing ruins." This was not the company's first experience with large fires,
as one
had occurred in 1883, when a row of buildings on South Depot Street (the
subse-
quent site of the Marshfield Iron Works) went up in smoke. The next important
fire was the Rivers House. In the year following the great fire, on March
23,
1888, the handsome residence owned by Fred Vollmar was burned. The com-
pany's minutes state that "owing to delay in alarm the company arrived
too late
to save anything more than adjacent buildings." The Marshfield Fire
Depart-
ment is unique in the fact that its members during the greater part of its
existence,



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