Rural Loudoun County
Settlement of
this area began in the early 1700’s. In 1755, Fairfax County was divided and
the new western county was named Loudoun. Like the rest of Northern Virginia,
Loudoun County was an agricultural community with neighbors having spreading
farm lands. Fires were devastating and often spread to multiple buildings on a
farm before burning out. Families risked their lives to save as much of their
belongings, livestock and farm equipment as they could before the buildings was
destroyed. The large distances between properties meant that help would not
arrive in time to make much difference so it was up to the farmers to save what
they could. Neighbors, seeing the smoke and flames in the distance, would leave
their farms and rush to help save the property but could do little to
extinguish the flames. It wasn’t until the early 1900’s that very limited fire
protection became available to these rural areas.
The First Fire
Company
The Town of Leesburg began around 1755
and as the collection of houses slowly grew, the need for fire protection
increased. On Nov. 15, 1803, the citizens of Leesburg formed the first fire
company in Loudoun County, making it the seventh in the Commonwealth of
Virginia and one of the first one hundred fire companies in the United States.
The petition of the citizens that was entered into the County Deed Book reads
in part: “We the subscribers Residents in
the Town of Leesburgh do agree (according to Act of Assembly) to form ourselves
into a fire company…”
Loudoun County Court Archives - 1803 Deed Book, Page 227
Loudoun County Court Archives - 1803 Deed Book, Page 228
Loudoun County Court Archives - 1803 Deed Book, Page 228
There were 48 members in the first
company. At this time, Leesburg only had
about 500 residents and was not yet an incorporated town. The United States of America was only 27
years old, Thomas Jefferson was in the 2nd year of his first term and the
Louisiana Purchase was being finalized. Also, during that time, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark began to explore the
Louisiana Territory in 1804. The Barbary Pirate Wars began in 1805, and in 1808
Lewis and Clark completed their expedition. Also, in 1808, U.S. slave trade
with Africa ended and Beethoven composed the Fifth Symphony. James Madison
became the fourth President of the United States in 1809 and served from until
1817.
Fire Bell
A community
bell would sound to indicate a fire or other emergency. Leesburg’s first alarm bell was located at the
court house downtown. Upon
hearing the bell, the citizens would rush to the scene while members of the Fire
Company would report to the station then respond to the scene with buckets, hose
carts and hand pumpers.
The Relief Fire Company
In
1809, the Relief Fire Company was organized. Like an auxiliary company, the
Relief would have probably assisted the Leesburg Fire Company with extra men
for working the pumping arms of the hand engine. It is assumed that at this
time there is a hand pumper in Town which may have been purchased around 1803.
From this time until around the Civil War, there were two fire companies in
Leesburg.
Assigned Duties Within the Fire Company
The following functions were assigned to the firemen during the 1800's. Many of these jobs carry over into today's fire service.
- Laddermen brought the ladders used to gain entry to upper floors and roofs
- Hookmen carried the large hooks and chains used to pull down burning walls and chimneys
- Propertymen ran inside to try to save as much as possible before the building was engulfed
- Keymen used special tools to quickly disassemble furniture
- Axemen worked to open up walls and remove burning debris
- Enginemen worked the arms of the hand pumpers which manually pumped water to the fire. Water was supplied by citizens who would form a bucket brigade line from a water source to the pumpers.
War of
1812
During
the War of 1812, Loudoun County served briefly as a refuge for the President as
well as national treasures rescued from the Capital. The Constitution and other
state papers were brought to Rokeby, near Leesburg, for safekeeping when the
British burned Washington. During the war, citizens of Leesburg joined various
militias and were away from home for months during the drills. During the
course of research, muster rolls were checked and some of the Loudoun County
enlistees matched names on the 1809 and 1819 Fire Company membership rosters.
Unfortunately, there is not enough information available to confirm them as
members of the fire company; however, there is a very good chance that some
did. Francis Scott Key wrote a poem during the 1814 Battle of Baltimore, which
became the lyrics of our American national anthem - "The Star-Spangled
Banner." The War of 1812 ended in 1815.
First
Firefighting Laws
The Town of Leesburg was incorporated in 1813 and within
days, had passed the first two Laws regarding fire prevention. “An Act Concerning Chimneys” mandated a
fine of two dollars for anyone who’s chimney caught fire in dry weather. People
were encouraged to “fire their Chimneys”, meaning to burn out the built-up
soot, in wet weather. The second was “an Act concerning False Alarms &c.” which
stipulated that “if
any person shall ring the Court House bell, out of order after sundown or shall
falsely alarm the citizens by the cry of fire, every person, so offending,
shall for every such offense pay a fine of two dollars.”
On Friday, January 29, 1819, a large
brick house on Market Street was destroyed by a fire that threatened the town.
As a result, the fire company was reorganized and reincorporated as the
Leesburg Fire Company and the Town Council enacted the first law to regarding
the duties of citizens to aid in fire extinguishment. Named the “Act for the Better Government of the Citizens
on Occasions of Fire and Other Purposes,” it
mandated each home and business in the Town of Leesburg to have fire buckets
and that it was the duty of each male citizen to assist the fire company at
fires. Another result of the 1819 Market Street fire was the purchase of a new
hand pumper, to replace the old hand engine which had proved inadequate for the
job.
Earliest Documented Fire in the County
The earliest documented fire in Loudoun County occurred in
Leesburg in 1818. It was reported in the Genius of Liberty newspaper; printed
in Leesburg, that the roof of the newspaper office had caught fire. The firemen
and citizens extinguished it with little damage.
Changes in Name
The Leesburg Fire Company changed names several times during the first one hundred years. At times, there were also two Fire Companies in Town. Six years after the Fire Company of Leesburgh was formed, another Fire Company was started. On July 29th, 1809 the Relief Fire Company was incorporated with 83 members. This Relief Company was the second Fire Company formed in Leesburg and would have provided extra men to assist the first fire company at large fires.
The fire company of the town of Leesburgh (not the Relief Company) reorganized and became the Leesburg Fire Company on Jan. 30th 1819 with 79 members. The original document reads in part:
"...enroll ourselves as members a Fire Company under the name of the Leesburg Fire Company and pledge ourselves to by governed by the constitution and bye laws of the old Leesburg Fire Company"
In 1821, the Friendship Fire Company of Leesburg replaced the Leesburgh Fire Company and in 1827 the Relief Company became the Star Fire Company.
In the years leading up to the Civil War additional name changes included the Union Fire Company in 1851, which became known as the United Fire Company. On March 16th, 1861 the fire companies were again reorganized and the Virginia Fire Company.
After the war the Leesburg Fire Department was created followed by the United and later a second Relief Fire Company. In the early 1900’s the name became the Leesburg Fire Company.
After the Civil War
The Town and the Fire Company set to work rebuilding. The first “paid firemen” were hired by the Town of Leesburg on October 13, 1866 when two fire engineers were appointed at an annual salary of ten dollars each. On December 23, 1870, the Town of Leesburg reorganized the fire company into a Fire Department and appointed J.J. Stansburg as Captain, with a yearly salary of $50.00, one lieutenant at $25.00, and fifteen men at $15.00. For the men chosen to be in the reorganized Fire Department, this was not a true full-time job. All of them had regular jobs in addition to their duties in the fire department. These stipends were paid at Christmas time and would continue into the 1950’s. In the later years, the Town would deduct outstanding taxes from each member’s “present."
New Fire Stations
In August 1873, the dilapidated Market House and the Fire Shed were torn down and a new, temporary fire station was established on Wirt Street. In January 1875, Thomas B Cockey took over as Captain of the Fire Department and would lead the firemen for the next nineteen years. In the summer of 1878, the United Fire Company moved from Wirt Street to the new, centrally located King Street Engine House between Loudoun and Market Streets. On January 31, 1877, there was a fire at the John Hammerley residence. It was reported that there were problems in getting the hand pumper; named the “Virginia”, to work in the freezing weather. However, the Chief reported to the Town Council the next day, that once it did get working, “the engine forced a stream of water through 720 feet of hose and threw the water on top of Mrs. Thompson’s house.” High winds and a good head start made it impossible to save the two-story frame house but Mrs. Thompsons house along with the others nearby, were saved.
The Bell and the Opera House
The new engine and hose reel that Captain Cockey petitioned the Town Council for years to purchase, arrived by rail on July 1, 1881. They were soon in the hands of the Relief Fire Company, which had re-organized that year. The Fire Department; which was also known as the United Fire Company, was using the old hand pumper “Virginia.”
The new fire bell that Captain Cockey had also requested for several years, arrived in early July 1882. The Loudoun Times Mirror reported:
“The Town Council recently ordered and has just received from the manufacturers, a large fire bell which will be placed in position on the engine house on King Street. The bell weighs 600 lbs. and when struck emits a sound that will leave no excuse for the most sleepy headed to plead ignorance of the fire-fiend.”
That station was torn down in 1887 when the Opera House was built at the corner of King and Loudoun streets. Both fire companies moved into the Loudoun Street side of the new building in 1888 and the ladders, hose carts, hand pumpers were stored inside, under the stage. The Town offices were located on the first floor and the Opera House on the second, with the stage in the rear of the building. The engine room was located on the first floor of the Loudoun Street side, at the rear...right beneath the stage.
Leesburg Opera House and Town Hall, circa 1889. The tower on the left was the belfry. The engine bay was the large door, far right close to the house. Balch Library, Photo collection
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The fire bell was hung on the town hall and sounded the alarm of fire until the late 1920’s when an electric siren was purchased. The Town sold the property in 1956 and the Opera House was torn down, replaced by Whites Department Store. The bell; which was still used occasionally when the siren broke, was donated to the fire company by Mrs. White. It was removed from the belfry by a team of firemen who lowered it with ropes, by hand. The 137-year-old bell now stands in a place of honor in front of Leesburg Volunteer Fire Station Number 1, on west Loudoun Street.
The old alarm bell in front of Station 1
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Turn of the Century
At the beginning of the 20th century, the County’s population was around 23,000 and the settlements continued to grow. Most communities had installed cisterns, supplied tools and ladders, and relied on citizen bucket brigades to fight fires. The Town of Leesburg still had the only Fire Department in the County, led by Captain S.W. Norris.
The biggest fire to hit Leesburg in years occurred on Tuesday night April 13, 1897, when the W. S. Jenkins & Company warehouse and grain elevator near the depot, was destroyed by fire. The mill was rebuilt and on October 6, of the following year “the most destructive conflagration ever known in this town” destroyed the new mill along with the nearby freight depot of the Southern Railroad.
On Tuesday, October 27, 1903, the Leesburg Fire Department fought its biggest fire to date, when the Standard Oil Company’s tank farm caught fire. The fuel oil tank contained about twelve thousand gallons and the gasoline tank about seven thousand gallons. Chief T.W. Edwards led the efforts of the Fire Department to protect the adjoining buildings in order to keep the fire from endangering the town. Suddenly the gasoline tank exploded in a huge fire ball. Fortunately, the blast was directed upwards and not outward, otherwise most of the firemen would have been killed and much of the town destroyed.
The Town’s new waterworks was completed in December 1906 and eliminated the need for the hand engines. Now, instead of using buckets and hand pumpers, the Fire Department was able to attach a hose to the nearest hydrant and stretch it to the fire. The following year, the Council determined that they didn’t need as many firemen to work the pumps and reorganized the fire department from forty-eight down to fifteen. Chief S.T. Hickman and the fifteen selected firemen refused to work with the reduced staffing and no extra pay, so they were dismissed. A week later on July 23, 1907, Mr. Henry L. Casey was selected to be Chief of the reorganized Fire Department and the fifteen new men who volunteered to be firefighters for the reduced pay, were appointed by the Town Council. None of the original firefighters transferred to the new department.
It appears that the next town to have organized fire protection was Round Hill. In 1911, the storehouse and lumber yards of A. J. Simpson, in Round Hill, were burned. The Times Dispatch newspaper of Richmond reported that the main portion of the Town was threatened until the “Fire Company” got the fire under control. At this time, there were no other incorporated fire companies in Loudoun, so the one referred to may have been a group of volunteers operating as an unincorporated fire brigade. It wasn’t until 1938 that the Round Hill Volunteer Fire Company was incorporated, the fourth in the County, with the designation of Company 4.
Information on this page was compiled from "The Lost History of the Leesburg Volunteer Fire Company and the Fire Service in Loudoun County 1803 - 1925", copyright 2015, James R Fazekas and from the book "The 215th Anniversary of the Leesburg Volunteer Fire Company 1803 - 2018" copyright 2018, James R Fazekas.
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