It seems so common today – every community has created and provided some type of fire protection. In larger municipalities, there are paid fire departments with fire commissioners and firefighters to provide protection against conflagrations of all sizes. In smaller communities, there are often volunteer fire departments that also receive some support from the taxing authorities of that town or village.
While that may seem common sense, it was not always so. For those interested in the history and development of firefighting, many turn to Benjamin Franklin as the father of what would be considered modern fire departments. In the first three decades of the 19th century, the area that is today the city of Binghamton did not have any truly organized fire protection.
In 1813, during the first attempt at village incorporation, there was an attempt at creating a fire protection system with 25 firemen and some officers. The incorporation failed, as did the fire protection system. Another attempt was tried in 1823, but again failure was the result. It was not until 1834 when the village of Binghamton was formally incorporated by the state of New York, that a plan was created for fire protection.
The first part was to appoint five fire wardens – one for each of the wards of the village at that time. They included Myron Merrill, George T. Ray, Levi Dimmock, Cary Murdock and Isaac Leavenworth. They were charged with creating at least one hook and ladder company with no more than 16 members. Remember that these would be horse-drawn engines, and the wardens could appoint or remove fireman, make arrangements for cisterns and reservoirs, and compel all male inhabitants to keep two water buckets of a particular size for use by the firemen.
It was that last portion of their authority that raised some concerns among the citizenry of the village of Binghamton. The ordinance stated that “every householder or occupant of any store, shop, room or building in the…
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