Our Formative Years
The Wellsville Fire Company, an integral part of our community, celebrates its 50th Anniversary in 1991.
Looking at the Wellsville Fire Company today and reflecting back to its humble beginnings, you might want to compare the process to that of growing a beautiful lawn. To do that, one must remember the seeds that were sown at the beginning, and the hard work and nurturing that ensued continuously from its actual formation in 1941.
Back in the late 1930s, a group of hard-working and dedicated people projected that our community was growing and that a community center was needed, and also that the hazards of fire always existed - thus the need for a community building and a fire company.
On January 10, 1941, a meeting was held in the Wellsville High School building (the restored William Wells Young Memorial School, presently owned by Joe Garner), and the citizens of Wellsville and surrounding areas responded to plans to build a community building/fire house. The following officers were elected at this meeting to spearhead this endeavor:
General Chairmen:
- Rev. Floyd Carroll Treasurer
- E. W. Gladfelter Secretary
- C. G. Brougher
A Charter, a Constitution and Bylaws were written and the "Warrington Community Center and Fire Association" was chartered in early 1941.
The original parcel of land (on which the present building stands) was donated to the community by Mary J. Lewis, whose family lived on the adjacent property.
Until this time, the
only piece of equipment in the borough relating to fire fighting
was a 40-foot extension ladder owned by the borough and stored
at the old ice storage house at the rear of the general store
(what is now the Richard Wagner Apartment Building, next to the
bank).
In December 1941, with the bombing of Pearl Harbor, our
nation was drawn into World War 11 and, therefore, the progress
being made regarding the new fire company slowed down considerably.
However, Spurg Kimmel relates vividly how he helped Sylvan Weigard to cut down many trees on the Sylvan and Alvin Weigard woodlots above town, cut the trees into logs, drag them by horses to the roadside, load them on a large Dodge truck owned by Walt Spangler, and haul these logs to Bill Strayer's sawmill (then located near Rossville) to be cut into the framing lumber that is in the building today. These trees were all donated by people in our community. Also, ten civic-minded people in our community were asked for five hundred dollars each without any collateral in order to purchase the other building materials. None of the ten people turned us down. Some loaned us the money and others endorsed notes at the bank. Mr. Paul Bodwell, one of the ten people, before his death donated his $500 to the association.
The pain and suffering of World War 11 continued but this small group of people persisted in getting the pieces together to begin the construction of our new "Community/Fire Hall." Finally, in 1945, the war came to an end and shortly thereafter four walls and a roof were constructed for a 40' x 100' building (the present social hall area).
Martin Meyer, who owned the shoe factory across the street (now a parking lot, as the building was purchased by the fire company in 1967 and torn down), provided water and electricity to the new building until we could afford to have a well dug and pay the monthly electric bill.
In 1946, Richard Crone bought an old Reo chemical truck in East Prospect and gave it to the fire company. This was our first truck (sorry, no pictures could be located). About this same time, Clarence Brougher bought a surplus military trailer-mounted, engine driven pumper with a hose for use by the fire company. This trailer was stored at the Brougher Net Factory and Brougher had the only vehicle with a hitch to pull the trailer. Recognizing that the response time with such a set-up was enormous, Spurg Kimmel and Martin Meyer got together and made a commitment that Spurg would donate a truck (a 1937 International) and build a pumper, and Martin would obtain the required donations to buy the trailer-mounted pumper from Clarence Brougher. The fire company now had its first motorized pumper, which it owned outright.
(S.E. Kimmel with our first
motorized pumper built in 1945)
At this time, the fire company had no money to buy a door for the fire company garage on the lower level of the building, so Spurg Kimmel paid rent on a building to house the equipment during the winter of 1946.
Early events held at the Community Hall during cold weather were heated by wood stoves with the pipes sticking out the windows.
From its beginning, the fire company has counted on the yearly picnic to be its top fund raiser for the year, and a much-anticipated social event for the community and surrounding areas. Our first picnic was held 50 years ago at the rear of the Wellsville High School. Two of the main features of the Wellsville Picnic, which continue to this day, were the chicken corn soup and the interesting bingo games.
The famous Wellsville chicken corn soup has always been everyone's favorite food item at the picnic. For many years, the ingredients for the soup were totally donated by the residents of Wellsville and our rural neighbors. Cash was scarce but farmers could always be counted on to donate chickens and corn, and the Wellsville neighbors would purchase noodles, etc. at the store and donate them to the fire company for the soup.
From the beginning, as it is today, putting the picnic together was/is a total cooperative effort of most everyone in Wellsville and surrounding townships. Everyone, young and old, has a job - is part of the team pulling the picnic together. In years past, Mr. and Mrs. Ira Miller always came with their electric operated chicken picker which sure helped make the chore of preparing the chickens much easier and quicker.
In 1946, the Warrington Neighbors Women's Club bought the kitchen equipment, which was in the original kitchen in the basement of the building, for approximately $3,000.
In 1948 Walt Spangler engineered a fund raiser that provided the funds to enable us to drill a well on our property and have plumbing installed in the building.
In 1951, realizing that we needed a larger truck, we bought a u sed 1946 Ford chassis. Spurg Kimmel and Del Rodgers designed a very functional pumper with room for accessory equipment, including helmets, boots and coats. Bob Urich built the body on the truck, we painted it white and it served us well for years. This truck (pictured below) was retired in 1968 when we purchased our present Engine 66-2.
In 1952, through the cooperation of Fermin Myers, a Washington Township neighbor, we obtained our first tanker which was the first fire company tank truck in Northern York County.
In 1956, Leroy Sherman donated a Dodge cab-over truck on which we mounted a larger tank. At this time, our equipment had grown to the point where we thought we were capable of handling most any fire emergency in our area. We were quite proud of what we were able to accomplish in a decade without incurring any major debt.
Beginning in the mid-1950s, the fire company sponsored weekly Saturday Night Square Dances at the Community Hall, which were well attended by people from all over York County and surroundingareas. The fire company, in its effort to promote family-oriented activities, sponsored a square dance group in state competition in 1959, 1960 and 1961. This group responded by earning blue ribbons in 1960 and 1961 in the state competition at the annual Farm Show in Harrisburg.
In 1959 and 1960 the membership began searching for additional ways to generate more revenue. Wellsville at that time had a number of families owning horses, many of whom belonged to the fire company. This group would regularly get together to trail ride and hold competitive events. From these informal get-togethers came the idea to form Wellsville Frontier Days with the purpose of promoting "frontier" flavor activities and attracting outside dollars to our community with the fire company providing the refreshments and receiving the revenue. All activities (rodeo, parade, square dances, trail rides and camp outs) were designed and oriented so that people of all ages could participate together. It took a year or two to get the word out that Wellsville could put on a professional-type rodeo, but soon after we were drawing large crowds to not only the rodeos (one year we even had Larry Mahan, the professional rodeo National Champion Cowboy, as a contestant) held on Memorial Day and Labor Day but also the square dances which were held on Saturday nights and also the trail rides/camp outs. Food for all of these functions was provided by the fire company. In 1966, we even had the "Pony Express" pick up our mail at the Labor Day rodeo. In 1967 our activities were recognized by the State Capitol as "one of the prominent yearly events in Pennsylvania." John Lauer and Russell Griest provided much imagination and creativity that contributed to the success of this endeavor.
