on the S.S. Magdalen . “We’ve got Number Forty-nine, which we call the Martin Van Buren, after the president,” he said. The eighth U.S. president had used the hand-drawn engine to wet down the lawns and irrigate his fields on his New York estates before William Free brought the engine around the Horn to pump water at his gold mines. “Some engine!” Brannan said. “Twenty-years old. A toy machine.” “We have another,” Geary said, “an inefficient hand-drawn engine—the Oahu, a private water wagon brought from England by Starkey Janion & Company [a British importing firm]. It’s well worn by years of service in Honolulu, in the Sandwich Islands.”
“Put in an order for two engines,” Broderick said. “Side strokers from New York for Volunteer Company Number One and Company Number Two.”
“I can prevail upon Bill Howard to buy an engine for a Volunteer Company Number Three,” Brannan said. The Mormon leader owned more real estate than anyone in town and could have bought twenty engines if he had been so inclined, but he allowed his wealthy partner to do the honors. “We’ll still need ladders, pumps, and men trained in their use.”
“And hoses,” Broderick said.
“No hoses. No water. No buckets to put water in,” Brannan said.
“Some salvageable merchandise still lies in the devastation,” Geary noted. “Have the new police chief station men around the burned district to protect the property of the sufferers.” Broderick suggested that they afford immediate medical aid to the few people who had exerted themselves during the fire and been injured. Geary nodded and resolved that the citizens meet in the Square on Wednesday at noon to organize fire companies. “So ruled,” said them all, even Sam Brannan. The eavesdropping scarecrow lost himself among the charred rubble as the councilmen retired. Late that afternoon, under a heavy canopy of smoke, the most illustrious citizens in town appropriated $800 to buy hoses, buckets, ropes, hooks, axes, ladders, and Ed Otis’s wagon. Otis suggested they call the new volunteer department the Independent Unpaid Ax Company. The official names of the three volunteer groups became the San Francisco (or Eureka) Company, the Protection Company, and Engine Company Number One, which, because it was the first to organize, became Independent One. The next day the Council appointed Fred Kohler as the volunteers’ temporary chief engineer at a salary of $6,000 per year, to be paid monthly from the city treasury, and increased by $1,200 within six months if he should be reelected. Kohler insisted Independent One be renamed the Empire because the unit was composed solely of men from New York, “the Empire State.” Because the enormously popular Broderick had been so instrumental in establishing the first volunteer unit and was its first foreman, the majority celebrated the first volunteer unit as Broderick Engine Company Number One, ultimately renamed Broderick One.
On February 5, 1850, the Council ordered Kohler to obtain three engines. He was to superintend the organization of the volunteers, examine all engines, hose, and apparatus that the city might acquire, manage the construction of engine houses and cisterns, protect all engines and apparatus placed in the houses of private companies, and have the authority to blow up any buildings he deemed necessary for the suppression of fire.
Sawyer
O n February 17, 1850, shortly after the striking of a single match burned San Francisco to the ground, the Splendid , a 392-ton mining company ship under the command of Captain Bayliss, anchored in the stream with Tom Sawyer aboard. The Spendid had sailed from New York on September 17, 1849, and taken 139 days by way of Cape Horn, St. Catherine’s, and Valparaiso to reach the city of gold. Sawyer, who had just turned eighteen a month earlier, and sixty-five other passengers were rowed ashore for $3.00 apiece. Dressed in a hickory shirt and corduroy trousers, he
“Put in an order for two engines,” Broderick said. “Side strokers from New York for Volunteer Company Number One and Company Number Two.”
“I can prevail upon Bill Howard to buy an engine for a Volunteer Company Number Three,” Brannan said. The Mormon leader owned more real estate than anyone in town and could have bought twenty engines if he had been so inclined, but he allowed his wealthy partner to do the honors. “We’ll still need ladders, pumps, and men trained in their use.”
“And hoses,” Broderick said.
“No hoses. No water. No buckets to put water in,” Brannan said.
“Some salvageable merchandise still lies in the devastation,” Geary noted. “Have the new police chief station men around the burned district to protect the property of the sufferers.” Broderick suggested that they afford immediate medical aid to the few people who had exerted themselves during the fire and been injured. Geary nodded and resolved that the citizens meet in the Square on Wednesday at noon to organize fire companies. “So ruled,” said them all, even Sam Brannan. The eavesdropping scarecrow lost himself among the charred rubble as the councilmen retired. Late that afternoon, under a heavy canopy of smoke, the most illustrious citizens in town appropriated $800 to buy hoses, buckets, ropes, hooks, axes, ladders, and Ed Otis’s wagon. Otis suggested they call the new volunteer department the Independent Unpaid Ax Company. The official names of the three volunteer groups became the San Francisco (or Eureka) Company, the Protection Company, and Engine Company Number One, which, because it was the first to organize, became Independent One. The next day the Council appointed Fred Kohler as the volunteers’ temporary chief engineer at a salary of $6,000 per year, to be paid monthly from the city treasury, and increased by $1,200 within six months if he should be reelected. Kohler insisted Independent One be renamed the Empire because the unit was composed solely of men from New York, “the Empire State.” Because the enormously popular Broderick had been so instrumental in establishing the first volunteer unit and was its first foreman, the majority celebrated the first volunteer unit as Broderick Engine Company Number One, ultimately renamed Broderick One.
On February 5, 1850, the Council ordered Kohler to obtain three engines. He was to superintend the organization of the volunteers, examine all engines, hose, and apparatus that the city might acquire, manage the construction of engine houses and cisterns, protect all engines and apparatus placed in the houses of private companies, and have the authority to blow up any buildings he deemed necessary for the suppression of fire.
Sawyer
O n February 17, 1850, shortly after the striking of a single match burned San Francisco to the ground, the Splendid , a 392-ton mining company ship under the command of Captain Bayliss, anchored in the stream with Tom Sawyer aboard. The Spendid had sailed from New York on September 17, 1849, and taken 139 days by way of Cape Horn, St. Catherine’s, and Valparaiso to reach the city of gold. Sawyer, who had just turned eighteen a month earlier, and sixty-five other passengers were rowed ashore for $3.00 apiece. Dressed in a hickory shirt and corduroy trousers, he
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