Engine No. 1
Taken from the Salisbury Historical Society Archives, Location: Fire Department File Box
The Salisbury Society was formed in 1843. A constitution was written, and the officers to be chosen annually by ballot were a captain, a clerk, and two horsemen. The meetings were scheduled for the first Saturdays of May, June, and July. August, September, and October. Any able-bodied person —man or woman —over 18 and under 45 could become a member.
The first officers were T.C. Smith, Captain, and T.D. Little, Clerk, W.T. Heath, and George Dimond, Horseman. There were 22 members in 1844.
In 1844, Moses Clement was chosen to procure one of the horse sheds at the Meeting House for an engine House. The treasury had a balance of $1.62. In May of 1845, F.L. Greenleaf and Gilbert Eastman were chosen to build an Engine house and purchase 40 feet of hose.
If you would like to read this book completely, ask to make an appointment with the archives.”
Note: Presumably the reference to the Meeting House is likely what is now the Congregational Church a the Crossroads. The reference to archives must be town archives, as they are not in the SHS folders.
The Building of the Old Firehouse on Route 4, 1947, near Center Road
We are so grateful that Margaret Patten took the time in November of 1984 to compile the notes of Isabelle Bartz and Dorothy Bartlett, who chronicled the building of Salisbury’s Firehouse beginning in 1947. Not only is it an interesting history, but it also demonstrates how the earlier people of the town worked together as volunteers to get big things done. It certainly gives us a window into those times:
Titled: Salisbury Fire Station, Excerpts from the Bartlett Grange History
Location: Fire Department File Box in the Salisbury Archives.
“The Grange received thanks from the George H. Prince Volunteer Fire Association for the use of the hall for a supper and costume party, a fundraiser on November 6, 1947. A picnic dinner for men working on the building of the new fire station was served the following Sunday.
The Grange received thanks from the George A. Price Volunteer Association for the use of the hall for a supper and costume party, a fundraiser, on November 6, 1947. A picnic dinner for men working on the building, both the new fire stations were served the following Sunday.
The records of Oct 5 and Oct 21 st, 1947, report on the progress of the fire station and the construction of the ballfield.
October 5, 1947- Salisbury is a small rural town of 370 population, spreading over 40 miles of forest and mountain farmland. Settled before the French and Indian Wars, it was once a thriving town, the birthplace of the renowned Daniel Webster, and the home of outstanding leaders in the revolutionary state and nation.
In the late 1800’s with the drift of families away from small towns to the west into the large industrial areas, Salisbury’s population dropped to a mirror 300. But the beautiful farmhouse remains, built by pre-revolutionary craftsman-some still lived in and loved by their descendants, Websters, Shaws, Sawyers, Dunlaps, and Princes.
Following the Second World War, others- ‘city fellers’ and GI Joe’s and Jane’s began to find, in the Salisbury hills and homes, the peaceful, productive life for which they had been searching.
One enemy they had – fire! Farms were widely separated, water wasn’t abundant, firefighting equipment was antique and inadequate, and there were too few men. By ones and twos, each year, the spreading farmhouses and barns, their ridgepoles raised two hundred years ago, went up in hot flames, leaving only blackened bricks toppled into sad cellar holes. Salisbury lost, yearly, not only those beautiful monuments to the past, but thousands of dollars of tax revenue to maintain the roads and schools at present.
In January 1947, a group of Salisbury men and women met to consider ways and means of combating their common enemy – fire. Through their efforts, a volunteer fire department was formed, and a fire association was organized to assist the fire department, socially and financially. At the town meeting of March 1947, against strong opposition, these citizens were successful in persuading their fellow townspeople to appropriate the sum of $2150.00 for total fire protection for the year 1947, as against $500 for the previous year. Of this, $1263.00 was spent on purchasing a Navy Surplus pumper truck and hose. The remainder of the appropriation had to be spent on actual firefighting and supplies.
For equipment, besides the pumper, we had only a 1924 Chevrolet truck, which was privately owned, and a small portable pump. The following year, in March 1948, the total appropriation voted at the Town Meeting was $2000.00. Of this, $500.00 was to be spent fighting fires, and $1500.00 might be spent on equipment. This was a generous allowance for the fire engine we needed, but we still had no place to house the new equipment we bought or might buy, no place to repair and service it, and no place to house the other town equipment – grader and plow, etc. – which in a small snow-country town cannot be separated from fire-fighting equipment.
Here, Bartlett Grange, #104, made its contribution. In a small town such as ours, “everyone” had to do “everything”. The Grange brothers and sisters are also volunteer firemen and loyal members of the fire association. In the Grange Community Service contest, we found a golden opportunity to help out our town, both as Grangers and as citizens of Salisbury.
At the next meeting following the receipt of the Contest announcement, it was voted to build a firehouse. The Fire Association then voted to assist the Grange to erect the building and to compete for the Contest prizes.
A plot of land 60′ x 100′ was purchased, ideally suited on the rein blacktop highway, approximately equidistant from the three separate centers that comprised the town of Salisbury. Plans were drawn by an architect for a two-story building 60′ x 32′. On A poured concrete foundation, the lower hall will have five stalls, two are for the fire department. (fire engine and pumper), Two are for the town’s road equipment (snowplow and grader), and the fifth, end stall, is for repair work. The fifth stall has a cement pit for this service work, and it is planned to run hose racks across the whole back of the station for drying and cleaning fire hoses. The second floor will be used for meetings and social gatherings, and as a lounge for the volunteer firefighters. This hall will measure about 40′ x 28′, and at the ends will be restrooms and a well-equipped kitchenette. The roof of the firehouse will be of asphalt shingles, and the siding of white painted clapboard, blending well with the early N.H. buildings of Salisbury.
By early spring, the land was bought, the plans were drawn, the bulldozer was ready to clear the land, and the Grangers were eager to begin work. But this N.H. Spring was a flood of rain, puddles, dark clouds, and mud. It was not until June 6th that the clearing and excavation were complete and the ground was dry enough to begin pouring the cement foundation and piers.
“Workdays” were Wednesday evening and Sundays- when it didn’t rain!. All labor was voluntary. By July, the foundation was complete – 4″ deep and 9″ thick throughout, and the walls had begun to rise.
All summer long, we wished for 48 hours instead of 24 to a day. Having had to be done, and stock taken care of. And our second project, a baseball field for our junior sandlot sluggers, was completed for the ‘spare’ time of our able-bodied Grange brothers from 15-70.
The baseball field is finally cleared, graded, and ready to seed next spring, and with all the efforts concentrated now on the firehouse, we are ready to “put the lid” on before the snow flies.
Snow flies here in the north country before Thanksgiving, and we need a little reminder of how necessary our firehouse is. Last Sunday and the Sunday before, all hands dropped work to fight fires- brushfires out of control near woodlands, which, without proper equipment and trained men, would have meant serious forest conflagration and the loss of standing timber.
We have three or four weeks left to reach our goal, completing the siding, pouring the floor, and enclosing the roof. Grange sisters, until now necessarily only a ‘cheering section’, will be able to do their part once the roof is on, during the winter – painting, sanding floors, and furnishing the lounge and kitchenette upstairs.
In November, we’ll give our first Grange-Fire Dept party with cider and donuts, and an early Thanksgiving for work accomplished. Perhaps the first snowflakes will fall then – on the ridgepole of the Salisbury Firehouse – crowned by a little green pine tree in the old New Hampshire way”.
Note: The old Fire station building is still standing.
About early Salisbury homes, they are lost: in 1995, Dr. Paul Shaw created a book called Salisbury Lost, which documents with pictures 44 of those structures.