Excerpt from Henry S. Nourse’s “History of the Town of Harvard Massachusetts 1732–1893,” written in 1894.
April 4, 1831, a report to a Harvard town-meeting recommended the appropriation of $100 in favor of an engine company which had been recently organized in the town. The company had bought a fire engine, one of the “tubs” of the period, the price agreed upon being $229, and had raised by subscription $168. The adoption of the committee’s report cleared the company of debt and built an engine house, which was ordered located in a “corner of the burying ground near the hay-scales.”
The engine company and its machine were sufficiently esteemed 15 years later to obtain a new engine house in place of the old one, but after 1846 no mention is found of them in the records.
About 1880 the old engine was sold at auction, among the chattels of A.A. Jenkins, and is now in Worcester, utilized as a pump.
The burning of the Fletcher Brothers’ mills and the Unitarian meeting-house disclosed the utter lack of means to control a fire even in the most populous part of the town, and in June, 1875, the selectmen were instructed to buy 25 hand fire-pumps and distribute them. This vote was subsequently amended, and the pumps were ordered to be kept at the town hall and almshouse.
November 2, of the same year, the need of more efficient fire apparatus was discussed, and the town was stirred to quite radical action. It was voted:
“. . . to purchase a sufficient number of Force Pumps to supply every head of a family in town that wishes to have one, by the paying to the town of one-half the cost of same; the pumps to be the property of the town, the parties receiving them to have them always in order ready for use in case of fire. The town reserves the right to call them in at pleasure . . .”
November 4, 1879, the selectmen were authorized to procure two carriages with buckets, fire hooks, ropes, ladder, axes, etc., to be used in case of fire—one for Still River and one at the Centre—and to build suitable houses for their protection, and to appoint men to care for them. The trucks and apparatus, costing $386, were at once purchased.
A fire May 14, 1892, which destroyed two dwellings and greatly endangered others in the heart of the central village, aroused general attention to the insufficiency of the town’s preparations to cope with any considerable conflagration. In the lack of convenient water supply, it was evident that recourse must be had to chemical extinguishers, and at a special town-meeting on June 1, it was decided to buy a 55-gallon Hathaway hand machine and three small extinguishers for each of the two villages, at an expense of about $1,200.
Some of the most noted fires in Harvard of which record has been found are the following:
1755. March 15. The Gates mansion at East Bare Hill was consumed with all its valuable contents, while the family were attending the funeral of one of their number.
1852. August 31. The dwelling of Charles Atherton—the ancient garrison house of Hezekiah Willard—on the western slope of Makamacheckamuck’s Hill, was burned.
1862. January 23. The Fletcher saw and grist mills, but a short time before bought of Samuel F. Stone, were destroyed by fire.
1874. August 8. The Fletcher Brothers’ saw and grist mill, box factory, etc., were consumed for the second time, the loss being total and estimated at $11,000.
1880. August 25 and 26, the Wetherbee tavern, or Elm House, and Asa Daby’s dwelling, with barns, etc., were totally destroyed. The fire broke out in the stable a little before midnight, and was no doubt the work of an incendiary.
1883. December 6, at Still River, Gustavus Newell’s store, Harrod’s smith shop and the Lawrence house were destroyed.
275 Years of a Town: In June 1732, the town of Harvard incorporated within the colony, after nearly 100 years of settlement in the area and several years of petitions, objections, and re-petitions to the legislature. To celebrate this milestone, the Press is running extracts from Henry S. Nourse’s History of the Town of Harvard Massachusetts 1732–1893.