Brewster Fire Department
Brewster Fire Department
Upcoming Events

There are currently no events
View All Events

2023 Incidents
Jan 232
Feb 226
Mar 215
Apr 202
May 248
Jun 250
Jul 276
Aug 258
Sept 245
Oct 226
Nov 257
Dec 273
Total 2908

2024 Incidents
Jan 247
Feb 220
Mar 218
Apr 250
May 256
Jun 264
Jul 285
Aug 291
Sept 245
Oct 273
Nov 230
Dec
Total 2779

Web Counters
Website Visitors
Since
January 28, 2015
1,058,679
Visitors Today
Dec 07, 2024
265
Chief, HISTORIAN Ed Schneider
Email Print RSS Facebook Twitter RSS

By Life Member James Delawder
April 21, 2024

"Around 2004, I (former Chief Ed Schneider) with former Chief Thomas Hughes started placing firefighter flags on graves of deceased Brewster firefighters before Memorial Day. At first, there were not too many to deal with in St. Lawrence Cemetery, Miltown Cemetery, Raymond Hill Cemetery in Carmel, and St. Peter's Cemetery in Mill Plain." ( paraphrasing article written by Ed Schneider)

Ed decided to find more deceased members of the Brewster Fire Department. He began this herculean task by first searching all the Brewster Fire Department records since its inception in 1870 to the present. "Some were difficult to read because of the hand writing." Afterwards, he listed all members from 1870 to the present. Next, he had to find where they were buried. He went to the Brewster Library to go through all the Brewster Standard newspapers from 1870 to 1945. Afterwards, he consulted with Beecher Funeral Home as well as Cemetery.com on the Internet. He found a total of 376 members of which 321 had flags placed on them.

Towners, Patterson, Pawling, Peach Lake, North Salem, Somers, Mt. Kisco, Bedford, Sandy Hook and Dover Plains were some of the additional cemeteries that had markers and flags planted. This number has slowly been increasing. Some deceased members were without gravestones, so Ed created concrete markers with their names on it. He made up a list of all members, their years of service, and when they died. He organized deceased members by cemeteries and their location in those cemeteries. (photo #5)


Besides deceased members and their respective cemeteries, Ed created a museum in the firehouse. In this museum there are albums with newspaper articles covering the Brewster Fire Department from the 1960's to 2010. There are also albums of pictures dating from the 1980's to 20010 of department members engaged in activities. There are shelves of old equipment, trophies, badges, helmets from the past. (photos 6-16)


This tradition continues today. In 2024 a total of 25 locations and 347 flags were placed on deceased members grave sites by the grave crew. The words above and pictures below are inadequate to describe the effort put in by HISTORIAN Ed Schneider. After seventy-one (71) years of service to the Brewster Fire Department, Ed died on February 7, 2021, due to complications from COVID-19. (Photo #17)


Add a Comment Add a Comment 0 Comment(s)


Website Designed and Hosted By: Content Proudly Maintained By: Contact Info:
Firehouse Solutions
www.FirehouseSolutions.com
Brewster Fire Department
501 North Main St.
Brewster NY 10509
Emergency Dial 911
Non-Emergency: 845-279-3555
E-mail: info@brewsterfiredepartment.org
Copyright © 2024 Firehouse Solutions (A Service of Technology Reflections, Inc.)