The Fire Department

The Mount Union fire department and a crowd of dignitaries on the engine in front of the Municipal Building, 1920. In a tight-packed brick town, the volunteer firemen were a real point of pride, one bad fire could take a whole block.

Before this happened

The county histories on file were printed in 1847, 1876, 1883, 1897, 1909 and 1913, so none of them can describe an event of 1920. What they can do is describe this same place and these same firms beforehand. These passages are background, not corroboration. Each names the book and the position in the text so it can be checked. Spelling is as printed.

The same companies took part in the centennial exercises at Huntingdon, July 4, 1876. i The fire department of the borough at this time includes two steamers, a hook-and-ladder truck, and the "Juniata" hand-engine, under the charge of four efficient companies. In 1869 a part of a lot of ground at No. 508 Washington Street was purchased, and a house for the accommodation of the fire apparatus on the first floor, and the meetings of the Borough Council and fire company on the second floor, erected during the summer of that year. A few years later the ground adjoining on the west, No. 510, was purchased, and the building enlarged. Fire alarms are struck on a large bell in a tower upon the building. The Huntingdon Gas-Light Company was ineorporated by the Legislature March 14, 1857, with an authorized capital of $30,000. The contract for the duilding of the works was executed May 18th, and on the night of August 29th following the consumers were supplied with gas. The works are situated between Allegheny and Penn Streets, east of Second, and the business office at No. 320 Penn Street. The incorporators of the company were James Gwin, A. P. Wilson, B. E, McMurtrie, John Scott, David Black, William P. Orbison, James Saxton, David Blair, William Lewis, Alexañder' Port, J.J. Simpson Africa, History of Huntingdon and Blair Counties, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia: Louis H. Everts, 1883) · character 3,020,656 of the scanned text

Checked 2026-08-09 · Historic Mount Union collection

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