The Baptist Church at 460 North Main Street in Brewster is ringing its bell. Why? It is a weird time of the day. It is not a Sunday or a religious holy day. It is not due to any day of particular national significance . Why?

In 1870 The PROTECTION Fire Engine Company No. 1 was formed by local merchants. This was the precursor of what is now known as the Brewster Fire Department. It was based in the Old Town Hall currently known as the Southeast Museum. A Journal was kept of men on duty

In Picture number 1 is a page I selected at random to photograph of that Journal. The Journal is in the possession of the Southeast Museum. The log is written in cursive and this is my translation:

TIME DECEMBER 1878

?:03 Fireman Morant returns from dinner

?:05 Engineer Beusel consumed six (6) hours cleaning steamer

?: 45 Fireman Wilson returns from Barber shop

?: 00 Asst. Foreman Campbell; Fireman Post and Hughes left quarters for
supper. Allowed one hour.
(Assistant Foreman was comparable to what is now called Assistant Chief}

?:10 Red Alarm by Telegraph Station 419

?:56 Fireman Post returned from supper

?:59 Fireman Hughes returned fro supper

???? Private(?) Martinez detailed on house patrol in place
of Fireman Wilson

???? Fireman Daly and Wilson left quarters for supper
Allowed one hour each

In 1880 a fire house was on built on Railroad Avenue opposite the Baptist Church. A postcard from around 1890 pictures the 22 foot by 35 foot two story firehouse with the recently purchased hose cart. The firehouse cost $800. It had no heat, no electricity, no plumbing, no insulation, no siren. The first floor stored the apparatus which included a steamer, a hook and ladder truck, a hose drying tower, and after its purchase, the hose cart. A fire alarm would be signaled by the First Baptist Church on North Main Street (between Oak Street and Hoyt Street) which was just across the street from the 1880 fire house. On Wednesday June 11,1880 , the first firehouse built in Brewster was open to the public. A stove was provided in November

In 1888 , Samuel Church, stepson to Gail Borden, was one of the founding members of the Protection Fire Company. In 1888, he traveled to Elgin, Illinois to purchase the hose reel cart. That 1888 hose cart is currently on display in our current 1941 Main Street firehouse. The Borden Company flourished during and after the Civil War. It supplied condensed milk to the Union Army. The surrounding area was composed of farms for milk cows. The Hose Cart's first parade occurred in the June 1,1888 Memorial Day parade.The "Church" hose carriage was declared the finest in the Yonkers parade of Oct.17,1889.

More details on the hose cart as well as history of the Brewster Fire Department are available. Just click on the official Brewster NY Fire Department website, Then click on Public Information above the statue of the fallen firefighter. Choose News Archives, 2022 and the article entitled "The GREAT Hose Cart HEIST. Other articles are available from 2021 to the present as well

Notes
1. Deceased Chief and Historian Ed Schneider compiled much of the information on the 1880 fire house as well as the hose cart.
2. Apologies to Ernest Hemingway
3. The author has been a member of the Brewster Fire Department from February 1976.