CHAPTER XXXXIV.
A few words may be interesting concerning the management of fires in my youth. Either there were very few fires in Plymouth during the colonial and provincial periods, or the record of them is very incomplete. It is known that on the 24th of January, 1620-21, the Common House on Leyden street caught fire from the lodgment of a spark on its thatched roof, and was burned to the ground. At a town meeting held on the fifth of February, 1664-5, it was voted, “to see what may be collected for the relief of Francis Billington, he having lately suffered great loss by the burning of his house.” The house known as the “Crow House” at Seaside, was probably built in 1665, on the site of the “Billington House.” The only other fire, of which there is any record before the Revolution, is referred to in a vote of the town passed March 21, 1757, “that Thomas Norrington, in consideration of his loss by fire, be abated his Province, County and Town rates for the last year.” As there is no record of any house owned by Mr. Norrington, it is probable that he was a tenant of some house or store, and suffered the loss of furniture or goods. In Boston, either more complete records were kept, or there were many more fires during the periods above mentioned. In 1654 occurred what was known as the great fire. In 1676 a fire at the North end consumed forty-five dwelling houses, the North Church and several warehouses within a district enclosed by Richmond, Hanover and Clark streets. On the 8th of August, 1679, a fire occurred extending from what is now Blackstone street, westerly to Dock square, and southerly to the present Liberty square, which destroyed eighty dwelling houses, seventy warehouses, and many vessels with their cargoes, causing a loss of two hundred thousand pounds. The main reliance in extinguishing fires at that time was upon long handled hooks, with which every householder was required to be provided, and upon large swabs attached to poles twelve feet long, with which water was splashed on the walls and roofs. A few pumps and the dock were the only sources of water supply. All buildings in Boston at that time were wooden, and at the next session of the General Court a law was passed providing that no dwelling houses should be erected in Boston except of stone or brick, and covered with slate or tile, unless by permission of the magistrates, commissioners and selectmen. October 1st, 1711, a fire beginning in Williams Court, burned nearly one hundred buildings, including the First Church.
In 1778 a fire occurred at the South end, beginning at Beach street, and extending southerly on both sides of Washington street, as far as Common street, burning in its course the Hollis street church; and in 1825 a fire in Kilby street destroyed fifty stores. The great fire in Boston, which burned from the evening of the 9th to the 11th of November, 1872, covered about eighty acres, and extended from Bedford to State street, and with the exception of a few buildings, from Washington street to the harbor, causing a loss of about eighty millions of dollars. Taking into consideration only the fires in Boston before the Revolution, the number was entirely out of proportion to those in Plymouth during the same period.
The first fire engine used in Boston with any effect, was made in 1765 by David Wheeler, a blacksmith, who had his house and shop on what is now Washington street, a little north of Bedford street, and between the latter street and what is now known as Avon place. From the first settlement of Boston there was a pond belonging to the town abutting Wheeler’s land, which had been always used as a town watering place, and which became a nuisance when dwellings were erected in its vicinity, and was finally sold to Mr. Wheeler in 1753. The first steam fire engine was introduced into Boston in 1854, and there are now between thirty and forty in the city.
In 1792 the Massachusetts Charitable Fire Society was organized, and incorporated in 1794, to relieve sufferers by fire, and to invent means by which fires might be extinguished. For many years its anniversary was celebrated by an oration and an ode. Several of the odes were written by Robert Treat Paine, Jr., who changed his name from Thomas on account of his aversion to Thomas Paine, the author of the “Age of Reason.” The celebrated song, “Adams and Liberty” was written by Mr. Paine to be sung at one of the celebrations of the Society to the tune, “To Anacreon in Heaven,” which is now better known as the tune of the “Star Spangled Banner.” As most of my readers are probably unfamiliar with this song, I give below one of its stanzas:
“Ye sons of Columbia who bravely have fought,
For those rights which unstained from your sires had descended,
May you long taste the blessings your valor has bought,
And your sons reap the soil which their fathers defended;
Mid the reign of mild peace,