Cridersville residents got a first hand look Monday night at the Cridersville Fire Department as Chief Rick Miller and the rest of Ohio’s oldest volunteer company showed off the village’s first fire truck.
The hand pumped tanker, purchased in 1890, sat in the garage while Miller took the villagers for a guided tour through the history of the department in the final installment of the Cridersville Historical Society’s 2017 lecture series.
“Since its founding in 1856, the people of Cridersville, like those in every town, had to depend on each other for fire protection,” the chief said. “When the shout, ‘Fire! Fire!” was heard in town, every able bodied man dropped his work, grabbed his pail and ran with the bucket brigade.”
But that changed for good in January of 1890, when the village bought the hand-pumper for $249.75. Freight was $11.75. It was shipped into town on the railroad.
With no running water, the tanker was filled in the fire cisterns built under Main Street. The cisterns collected runoff from the street and gave the department a reliable source of water.
The original fire truck was able to accommodate the village’s needs until a large fire raged through much... For more on this and other stories, pick up a copy of The Wapakoneta Daily News.