Caldwell Volunteer Fire Department

Duane's take

The official marker for the Caldwell Volunteer Fire Department tells it like this, and I'll do my best to honor it. Now, picture Burleson County, Texas, in the summer of 1886. Caldwell isn't even an incorporated city yet.

That doesn't happen until 1891. But on July 22, 1886, twenty-two citizens get together anyway and decide they are not going to wait on anybody to save their town from fire. They call themselves the Caldwell Hook and Ladder Company No. 1, and right away you've got to respect the ambition in that name.

Here's the thing about those original twenty-two members. They didn't have a city budget behind them. They had dues.

They had donations from neighbors. And with that, they scraped together their first pieces of equipment: a four-wheel truck, pulled not by horses, not by a steam engine, but by manpower. Pure human effort.

On that truck rode extension ladders, axes, and leather buckets for holding water. That's what stood between Caldwell and the flames in 1886. Five years later, the city got around to incorporating.

And gradually, over time, the city of Caldwell took over supervision of the fire company. The first money the city kicked in came in 1916, two hundred and fifty dollars, for the purchase of a new fire truck. Two hundred and fifty dollars.

Mark that number, because it represents the moment a volunteer outfit and a growing city decided to work together. In 1907, the company reorganized under the name the Caldwell Fire Company. The new structure provided for the election of officers and directors and set a membership cap of forty persons.

In practice, membership over the years has averaged somewhere between twenty and twenty-five. A tight crew, always. But here's the part that doesn't always make it into the fire department story.

These folks were community people first. They sponsored circuses. They put on maifests.

They taught first aid classes and ran safety programs. And from 1889 all the way through 1910, they maintained Fireman's Park. Think about that next time someone tells you a volunteer fire department just fights fires.

They also answered calls outside the city limits, out into the neighboring rural areas, because when a barn is burning three miles down a dirt road, you don't stop to check whether it falls inside somebody's jurisdiction. And then there's the 1937 fire truck. That truck got a second life as a city preservation project, restored as part of the Texas Sesquicentennial, marking the span from 1836 to 1986.

A machine that fought real fires, kept and honored. Some organizations are born out of crisis. Some are built out of sheer stubbornness and leather buckets.

The Caldwell Hook and Ladder Company No. 1 was both, and the town is still standing to prove it.

What the marker says

Caldwell's volunteer fire department was organized as the Caldwell Hook & Ladder Co. No.1 on July 22, 1886, five years before the city of Caldwell was incorporated. The original 22 members of the association obtained their first pieces of equipment--a four-wheel truck (pulled by manpower) complete with extension ladders, axes, and leather buckets for holding water-through membership dues and donations from citizens. Reorganization as the Caldwell Fire Company took place in 1907, providing for election of officers and directors and limiting membership to 40 persons. Membership over the years has averaged 20 to 25. After its incorporation in 1891, the city of Caldwell gradually took over supervision of the fire company, giving its first $250 for the purchase of a new fire truck in 1916. The volunteer fire department has historically answered calls for assistance both inside the city limits and in the neighboring rural areas. Throughout its history, the Caldwell Volunteer Fire Department has been a community service-oriented organization, sponsoring circuses, maifests, first aid classes and safety programs, and maintaining Fireman's Park from 1889 to 1910. The company's 1937 fire truck was restored as a city preservation project, Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986.