Manufactory of Tobacco. Henry Brand & Co. Respectfully inform the Public that they have removed from New York to this Town.
George Town Academy. Madame de la Marche has for sale waters for sore eyes and various salves.
There were public pumps here and there for common use, but many householders had springs or cisterns.
In 1803 the first fire engine was purchased. Every house owner was obliged to have as many leather fire buckets kept in the house as there were stories to his home, to contain not less than two and a half gallons of water each. The little oval metal placques one sees now and then affixed to houses in Georgetown were, in those days, put only on the houses of the members of the volunteer companies to denote that "here lives a fireman." Later, in 1817, The Vigilant, a new fire engine, was bought. Its house is still on High Street, just below Bridge. Set in the wall down near the pavement is a stone with this inscription:
BUSH
THE OLD FIRE DOG
DIED OF POISON
JULY 5th, 1869
R. I. P.
Someone who remembers him tells me that he was a collie, and that he went to every fire along with the engine. I think the men whose companion he was, and who evidently loved him when they inscribed the "R. I. P.," must have believed, as I do, that like the Jim in the poem of that name by Nancy Byrd Turner, he would meet them joyously "on the other side."
Of course, the fire engines in those days—1817, I mean—were drawn by hand, and the old bucket-passing system was in vogue.
Farther uptown, on the corner of Gay and Market Streets, was the home of The Potomac Fire Engine Company. There was great jealousy between the two. While the fire was raging, both worked together beautifully, but as soon as it was over, there was usually a fight.
South of the canal on High Street stood the Debtors' Prison. This was the only prison in the lower part of Montgomery County, although the county court was held at Rockville, and there the cases were tried. At one time the town clerk of George Town got tangled up in his money matters and was placed in this prison where he languished until his friends made good his debts. A report was made to the Town Council that he could not perform his duties because he was in jail! Nothing now remains but a part of the old stone wall.