Evanston Fire Department history – part 4

In May 1882, the village trustees made a real attempt to establish a paid fire department. They allocated $850 to compensate the Fire Marshal and other firefighters for their service. The Fire Marshal was set to receive a part-time salary of $100 annually, while each of the nine members of the part-time fire company would earn $50 per year. Additionally, a full-time police/fire officer—acting as both night watchman and apparatus caretaker—was to be paid $600 yearly, with half the salary coming from the police department and the other half from the fire department.

Although Fire Marshal Bailey received his payment, and Austin McDonough, a former member of the Pioneer Hose Company, was appointed as the full-time police/fire officer, the proposed part-time fire company never fully formed. By May 1885, the position of police/fire officer was eliminated entirely.

On May 1, 1883, after two years of broken promises from the village board, Chief Bailey once again offered his resignation. This time, the trustees accepted it. However, by that spring, most of the original board members from 1881 had been replaced, leaving only President J. J. Parkhurst. New trustees, especially Alexander Drummond—a former Evanston firefighter—recognized the need for a more effective and well-compensated fire company, similar to the Pioneer and Gilbert Hose Companies.

On July 17, 1883, the Village of Evanston Board of Trustees appointed Sam Harrison, a local merchant and former C. J. Gilbert Hose Company officer, as Fire Marshal. He was tasked with organizing a part-time, paid fire company. Just over a week later, on July 28, Harrison—like Bailey, a butcher by trade—presented a 12-man company to the village board. It was officially approved on November 6, 1883. Each firefighter received $40 annually, while the Fire Marshal still earned $100.

The EFD’s first horse-drawn hose wagon, built by Evanstonian Gerhard Brienen and pulled by a horse named Dave, went into service in October 1883. The new fire company was housed in a remodeled paint shop at the northwest corner of Sherman Avenue and the north alley of Davis Street—later the site of the city's first parking garage.

In addition to the one-horse Fire Patrol and the two-horse Babcock chemical-engine (converted to a horse-drawn unit in 1884), a two-horse hook & ladder wagon built by Davenport Fire Apparatus Company was introduced in 1885. From 1885 to 1892, the horses used for the hook & ladder truck were also employed by the street department to pull garbage wagons when not in use. The Davenport truck remained in active service for over 32 years, until it was retired in January 1918.

The fire company formed by Sam Harrison in 1883 eventually became Engine Co. 1, later known as Engine Co. 21. Harrison led the company for several years before handing over command to J. E. “Jack” Sweeting in 1895. Sweeting became the EFD’s first Assistant Chief Fire Marshal in 1905 and spent all 25 years of his career with Engine Co. 1. He passed away on Christmas Day 1912 from stomach cancer. His tenure was the longest in the department’s history until George Hargreaves reached his 25th anniversary in 1918.

On the evening of September 25, 1883, the new fire company responded to a fire at the Dwight-Buell stable behind the Avenue House hotel, located at the northeast corner of Davis and Chicago. The building was later replaced by the North Shore Hotel in 1916. Upon arrival, firefighters learned that 31-year-old coachman George Gale, a native of England like Harrison, was likely inside. Despite their efforts, Gale died of smoke inhalation. The fire was ruled a homicide due to suspected arson, but no one was ever charged.

On December 20, 1883, just months after the fire company was established, a fire broke out at Evanston Township High School. The school, only three months old, was located at the northeast corner of Crain and Benson. Firefighters struggled to navigate the unfamiliar layout, so Chief Harrison requested help from the Chicago Fire Department—the first time the EFD had asked for mutual aid. Within 19 minutes, an express train carrying equipment and personnel arrived. The fire was quickly extinguished, saving the school with only $5,000 in damage and no injuries.

Not all of Harrison’s efforts were successful. On November 22, 1884, the First Congregational Church at Grove and Hinman was destroyed after firefighters opened doors and windows to ventilate the building, inadvertently causing a wind-fueled firestorm. Though the neighborhood was saved, the church suffered $32,000 in damages. Rookie firefighter Tim Kelleher, who had just joined the department, inhaled smoke and later died of tuberculosis in 1888. While the connection between his illness and the fire remains uncertain, many believed it played a role.