Starting with a Tavern
The Town of Leesburg
began around 1755 when Nicholas
Minor acquired land around the intersection of
Carolina Road (U.S. Highway 15) and Potomac Ridge Road (Virginia Highway 7)
where he established a tavern. Minor divided his plot into seventy lots to form a Town which he named "George Town," after
the King of England. In 1757, Loudoun County was
split from Fairfax County and the Assembly of Virginia selected the small
settlement for the location of the Loudoun County courthouse. The Town was
officially established when the name was changed to Leesburg; to honor
the influential Thomas Lee by an Act of Assembly in
September 1758 but it still had a lot of growing to do.
In 1803, the Town of "Leesburgh." as it was known, continued to grow. That year, Thomas Jefferson was the third president of the United States and
had just concluded the Louisiana Purchase. The country was only twenty-seven
years old - stockings and powdered wigs were still in fashion (but not for
long) and many of the citizens could remember the 1776 reading of the
Declaration of Independence on the courthouse steps. In fact, many of them had
participated in the War of Independence either by serving in a Militia or by
providing supplies and support for the troops. Leesburg had less than one thousand residents
and it would be another decade before the Town incorporated.
On February 18 1813, one year into the War of 1812,
the Act of Incorporation of the Town of Leesburg by the General Assembly was
signed. Acts and ordinances governing a variety of activities in the Town
quickly followed. The next month, two of the Town’s first fire prevention laws
were enacted.
On
April 24, the Town Council passed “An Act Concerning Chimneys” which ordered:
…that if any persons’
chimney shall take fire in dry weather and burn out of the top thereof, the
occupier of the house to which such chimney belongs shall pay a fine of two
dollars.
Chimney
fires were one of the greatest threats to the safety of the Town because of the sparks and embers spewing downwind onto neighboring roofs
and property. Note that
the law stipulates that the occupier of the house that incurs a chimney fire
will be fined in dry weather. If it was raining, or there was snow on the
roofs, the occupant would not be in trouble. In fact, in newspaper accounts of the period, citizens were encouraged to “fire” their chimneys in wet
weather to clean out the soot and creosote buildup.
The
second law enacted that day 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; if a child be guilty of the like offence, his parent,
guardian or master (as the case may be) shall for every such offence committed
by such child pay the like fine of two dollars. And if any slave shall be
guilty of the like offence, he or she offending shall for every such offense,
shall be punished with stripes not exceeding ten lashes on his or her bare
back, well laid on at the public whipping post, unless the owner or master of
such slave, shall pay a fine of two dollars.
Provided that nothing herein contained
shall prevent the ringing of the said bell, at any time, in occasions of fire
or other public alarm.
The First Comprehensive Fire Prevention Act
On
February 6, 1819; one week after a devastating house fire on Market street, the Leesburg
Town Council passed the following ordinance.
An Act for the
Better Government of the Citizens on Occasions of Fire and Other Purposes
Whereas.
The citizens of Leesburg are all times exposed to the loss of their property by
the alarming and devouring element of fire, even under the regulations for its
extinguishment, of it being represented to the Mayor, Recorder of Common
Council of Leesburg by many of its citizens that from the great confusion and
disorder generally attendant on such occasions, growing out of the want of the necessary
means of extinguishment and some good system for the government of the
citizens, the danger of loss and distress is greatly increased, the propriety
of providing such means and some general system for the government of the
citizens by an ordinance of law; becomes obvious and necessary to the interests
of the town.
Sec 1 Be it therefore enacted by the Mayor Recorder
and the common council of the Town of Leesburg in common hall assembly, that it
shall be the duty of all persons owning houses and lots within the town, one
fire bucket made in the usual manner of the usual size of the buckets now used
by the Leesburg Fire Company for each story of every dwelling house or store
house by him, her or them owned in said town, whether the same be used or
occupied by such owners or tenanted out – and it shall be the duty of such
person or persons to have such buckets with the initials of his, her or their
names, kept constantly in repair and fit for use and in some convenient place
in such house or houses and upon all alarms of fire it shall be the duty of the
male citizens of the town upon all alarms of fire repair forthwith to the scene
of the fire and take with them the fire buckets in their possession and when
assembled on such occasions it shall be the duty of each to aid by every
possible means in the extinguishment of fire and in all matters connected
therewith shall be subject to yield prompt obedience to orders of the Captain
of any fire company organized within said town, whether communicated in person
by said Captain or by his subaltern officers.
Sec
2 Be it further enacted that the
buckets aforesaid be procured in a manner aforesaid by the 1st of
May next and if any person or persons being the owner of a dwelling house or
houses, store house or houses, fail to produce in the manner aforesaid the
number of buckets required by the first section of this act to be by him or her
or them not procured on or before the 1st of May next. The person or
persons so failing shall pay a fine of one dollar for each bucket not procured
and fifty cents for every ten days thereafter until such bucket or buckets
shall be so procured and every person procuring buckets and failing to keep
them in repair and fit for use in some convenient place as herein before
described shall for each failure pay a fine of fifty cents and every person
being present at a time of fire who shall fail or refuse to aid in the
extinguishment, or fail or refuse to obey the orders of the Captain of the Fire
Company communicated in the manner before described shall for every such
offence be subject to pay a fine not less than one dollar and fifty cents and not more than
three dollars at the discretion of the person before whom the ? shall of ? fine
shall be had, if a free person and if a slave such corporal punishment by
stripes on his or her bare back as the person before whom the conviction be had
shall think proper not less than five nor more than ten stripes at the
discretion of the person before whom they shall be convicted unless the Master
or the Mistress of such Slave shall pay the fine afore said in lieu of the
corporal punishment.
Sec
3 It shall be the duty of every tenant
who may occupy any house furnished with buckets, in pursuance with the first
section of this act, to keep the same in their proper place and on any alarm of
fire to repair forthwith to the scene of fire, and any tenant failing to keep
such bucket or buckets in their proper place or shall or put them to any other
use other than to aid in the extinguishment of fire shall for every such
offence pay a fine of fifty cents.
Sec 4 It
shall be the duty of every person procuring buckets under the authority of this
law to have each bucket so procured number’d and the number of the same be
turned to the recorder of the town, whose duty it shall be to record the same
in a book to be kept for that purpose. In the event of any such bucket being
lost or destroy’d on any occasion of fire and the same shall not be found
within ten days after such loss; notice shall be given by the town sergeant,
whose duty it shall be to give such public notice it shall and may be lawful
for and the duty of the treasurer of the town to procure and furnish the person
sustaining such loss, shall within twenty days after such loss first take an
oath before the Recorder of the town that the loss of the bucket was at the
time of fire, that he had caused public notice to be given thereof and that he
had not found it and did not know where it was, and produce to the Treasurer a
certificate thereof from the recorder, whose duty it shall be to administer
said oath, record the same in a book for that purpose and give the certificate
thereof. In the absence of the recorder the mayor shall perform the duties
required of the Recorder. If the person losing such bucket shall fail to make
such application within the time prescribed by this section he shall replace
the same within thirty days or be subject to the same fine as tho’ he had not
procured such in the first instance.
Sec 5
The several fines and penalties impos’d by this act shall be recover’d and
enforce’d with costs before the mayor Recorder or any Justice of the Peace
residing in the town and the fines go three fourths to the Corporation and one
fourth to the sergeant whose duty it shall be to give information of any
violation of this law.
Sec 6 This
act to commence and be in force from and after the passing thereof
Passed Feb. 6th. 1819
Sam M. Edward, Mayor
(Thomas Balch Library of Leesburg Virginia, filed as Town of Leesburg Records, Record Group 1)
“A Law for the Safe Keeping of Ladders and Fire Hooks in the Town of Leesburg”
The Town of Leesburg enacted this ordinance on Apr. 10th 1822 which basically says that anyone who takes a ladder or a fire hook from the storage area except in the case of fire or the alarm of fire, shall pay a fine of one dollar.
(Thomas Balch Library of Leesburg Virginia, filed as Town of Leesburg Records, Record Group 1)
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