After this company had procured their apparatus and were domiciled in their new building they developed into a very aggressive company of fire fighters, and it was the boast of some of its members that they could get out to a fire, extinguish the flames and be ready to return home before the steam engine company could get to the fire and be ready to work.
A. R. West, who had been duly elected chief engineer of the fire department, together with John T. Hamilton, who was appointed assistant fire engineer, succeeded after much labor in bringing order out of the chaos that had so long existed in the affairs of the fire department.
The steam engine, together with the hook and ladder equipment, was put into the hands of a newly organized company, most of the members of which had not been identified with any of the previous unpleasantness between the council and the fire department.
For the next five years Cedar Rapids had two fire departments, the one belonging to the city and under municipal control, and the other denominated the "Independent," owning their own equipment and subject to no official orders from the city.
This continued until the advent of the Cedar Rapids Water Co., who put in their system of waterworks and established hydrants in all parts of the city.
MRS. ROCK'S REMINISCENCES
Mrs. R. C. Rock, one of the earliest of the pioneers, is still living in a serene and vigorous old age. She is a relative of Judge Greene, and came west to Dubuque in 1849 at his request to assist him in getting out his first volume of Iowa Reports, which was printed in New York. She later came to Cedar Rapids with the judge and assisted materially in getting ready for the press and in proof reading the matter for the other volumes of his Reports. The members of the supreme court would frequently gather in Cedar Rapids in chambers to prepare their opinions and to O. K. them for publication. Mrs. Rock did much of the law copying for these judges. Their decisions were turned over to her to record and to edit for publication. She says Judge Williams was flowery in his language and it became necessary to do a good deal of trimming of his decisions so as to condense them properly before publication, as attorneys were not so much interested in the language of the court as they were in getting quickly at the meat of the decisions. Mrs. Rock did not hesitate to do a great amount of pruning, with the result that Judge Greene received many compliments over the improvements noted in his second volume as compared with the matter that appeared in the first publication.
For a time Mrs. Rock did editorial work on the Progressive Era, which was published from the Greene Bros. building. J. O. Stewart was then "devil" in the office, and many a time brought to her the proofs of her contributions. The files of this early Linn county newspaper were burned in a fire which destroyed the publication office, so that now there are in existence but a few scattered issues. An early one was given a few years ago to the Masonic Library by Mrs. Rock who found it by accident among some of her effects.
Mrs. Rock came west by boat from Buffalo to Milwaukee, and then by stage to Dubuque in 1849. The next year she removed to Cedar Rapids, coming here by stage over the Old State Road laid out from Iowa City to Dubuque by Engineer Barney of Washington, D. C. This road was a very crooked one. His son, W. J. Barney, on being twitted about its many windings replied that he believed his father was entirely sober when he staked out the route, and that its numerous windings were necessary to avoid the sloughs and swamps.
Mrs. Rock well remembers some of the trips she made on the old stage from Dubuque to Cedar Rapids. It was customary to make 25 miles of the journey the first day. On one trip on arriving at the usual stopping place it was found impossible to obtain any hay for the weary horses. After a further drive of five miles a stop was made at a farm cabin, it being customary for the settlers at any place to provide entertainment for travellers. Here they found feed for the horses, but they were told there was no bread or flour in the house, the man not having returned from the distant mill with his grist. There was some milk, and at last a little flour or meal was discovered. The two were mixed and put in a pan on the stove to cook. Unfortunately it was so badly burned that it could not be eaten, and the travelers were compelled to go to bed supperless. During the night the man returned with his grist, and Mrs. Rock and party had a fairly good breakfast of saleratus biscuits and pork.