Over the life of the city, Hickory’s firemen have been charged with a sacred duty, to keep watch on the town. If fire threatened life or property their job was to get there as soon as possible and stay until the flames were extinguished. And yet, once they threatened to quit, one and all.
It was at a Hickory Board of Aldermen meeting on a Monday night, September 24, 1906 when the entire fire crew, walked in, sat down and adamantly demanded changes be made, or else. They wanted “an adequate fire alarm system be installed throughout the city” in order to more sufficiently protect citizens.
Just a year earlier, a new department had been organized to better address the needs of this growing city. Members of the company totaled 30 and after a year they determined that support from the municipality was crucial if the community was to remain safe.
The firemen marched into the board meeting, made their demands known, issued the ultimatum and waited for an answer. As you might expect, the conversation was more complicated than a yes or no answer. Negotiations began. “After much discussion and argument” the firefighters had what they wanted. The city agreed to purchase the alarm system. The move was called “one of the wisest in the history of the fire department.”
In the days when the horseless carriage was just starting to make its appearance on the streets of Hickory, the fire department galloped to the scene by horse. The first regular, organized company came about eight years after the town was incorporated. A hook and ladder company emerged a few years later, employing homemade yellow ladders, needed to save any second story victims. A horse named Jake pulled the wagon as men raced to the emergency. A second horse, George was added a few years later, giving the brigade, you guessed it, more horsepower.
In those days, firemen were not on salary to wait and watch. Instead, they were paid by the fire. At first, 50 cents for each time they were called out. The rate eventually went to a dollar per event (1919), then two dollars in 1928, about $71 in today’s money. But according to legend, the department was vigilant. If “any housewife who made her fire a little too high, enough so that the smoke could be seen outside the home,” she “would receive a call from the fire department.”
In the early days, the fire company was most visible whenever a parade was staged. Firemen dressed in white with their latest equipment to show citizens that their life and property were in good hands. In the horse drawn days, the company participated in tournaments around the state, giving bragging rights to the group that performed the most efficiently when the whistle blew.
A year after the threatened walkout, the company got its first motorized vehicle. Called “Old Faithful,” firefighters used the truck off and on for almost a half-century before it was retired. When the municipal building was constructed in 1921 (now home of Hickory Community Theatre) the fire department had quarters right in the front of the building. They moved to the Earl (Gus) Moser station near downtown in 1962.
Hickory firemen continue to honor that sacred duty of protecting us all. As a 1906 ad for fire insurance proclaimed, “You are never safe from fire.”
Photos: Equipment displayed by Hickory’s early fire departments. (Images courtesy of HDR)
