The mark of the Farmers & Merchants Insurance Company of Dayton was taken from a building on First Street. It was issued about 1865.
This unusual action picture shows a typical three-horse team used for pulling heavier steamers. Firehorses were carefully trained.
Training fire horses to pull the heavy engines was a long and complicated task. The setting off of the fire gong, which often automatically opened the stable doors, was the signal for the horse to take his proper place without guidance under the swinging harness which hung from the rafters of the engine house. This was of vital importance; a wrong or clumsy move would entangle the delicately arranged harness, delaying the run to the fire.
Running at full speed over rough and often poorly lighted streets with a several-ton engine rolling behind required perfect coordination with the other horse or horses in the team. Animals were often badly injured in falls and had to be destroyed. Like race horses, fire horses had to be kept in top condition.
The confining life of the fireman and his constant proximity to and dependence on the horses resulted in close relationships between the men and animals. When a horse grew too old for the demanding fire department life, his departure from the firehouse for a less arduous job, such as pulling a delivery wagon, was usually a touching occasion and a trying one, too, since it meant another long breaking-in process for his successor. It is no myth that former firehorses seldom forgot their original training. Stories are still heard of how the owners of former fire horses were dragged unwillingly to fires in their buggies and delivery wagons by horses which heard the alarm and immediately responded to their old training. Many fire horses could actually tell by the first digit of the alarm whether the fire would be a run for their own company, and most soon came to realize that a burning building was always their destination.
All over America, in cities large and small, the exciting spectacle of the steam fire engine rumbling to the scene of a blaze became commonplace, but never so commonplace that it failed to thrill both young and old. The interest in steam fire engines, which was kindled by various water-throwing contests, spurred additional competition, which in turn increased interest in the steamers still further.
Like the caretakers of the old hand pumpers, firemen who operated “bulljines” usually kept their equipment in immaculate condition. The steamer shown below has been fitted with a tarpaulin behind the front wheels to keep mud off the engine.