This bucket appears to have belonged to Samuel Allyne Otis (1740-1814), who was a significant political figure in Massachusetts during and after the American Revolution. After graduating from Harvard, Otis engaged in mercantile pursuits in Boston. He was a member of the state house of representatives in 1776 and again from 1784, when he was elected speaker of the house, to 1787. In addition, Otis was a member of the Board of War in 1776, a member of the Massachusetts constitutional convention, and a member of the Continental Congress in 1787 and 1788. Otis was elected the first Secretary of the United States Senate in April 1789, a position in which he served until his death in 1814. His brother, James Otis, was a lawyer and an influential Revolutionary patriot who made the argument that Britain did not have the right to tax colonists unrepresented in Parliament. Samuel Otis’ sister, Mercy Otis Warren, was a writer and one of the first female historians. Her most important work was the History of the Rise, Progress, and Termination of the American Revolution (1805).
Otis’ bucket bears the year 1775 and the Latin motto “in angustie amici,” meaning “friends in distress.” Like many mottos adopted by volunteer firefighters, this emphasizes the communal, social nature of American firefighting—when one member of the community suffered from a blaze, his neighbors came to his aid. It was quite common for early Americans to adopt Latin mottos, as Latin was the international language of science and scholarship. The original national motto, “E Pluribus Unum,” or “out of many, one,” was also a Latin phrase.
This bucket is marked with the name of its owner, the motto of his fire company or fire society, and the year 1794. The motto “Pour Nos Amis” means “For Our Friends” in French. In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, volunteer firefighting was viewed as a civic responsibility. Firemen received no monetary remuneration for risking their lives, but they were well paid in terms of community respect, praise, and tribute. For example, newspapers praised the chivalry and daring of firemen on every possible occasion. Volunteer companies chose mottos that would portray them as selflessly serving their communities and fulfilling their duty as citizens. They wanted to present themselves as devoted and morally worthy. “For Our Friends” emphasized the civic virtue and commitment of the volunteer fireman, who performed strenuous work in the service of his city. It highlighted the company’s connections to its neighbors, and thus encouraged the kind of community adoration and status enhancement that volunteers received in lieu of official payment.
This bucket was most likely made in a community with a sizable French-speaking population, which would have wanted to reflect its heritage by adopting a French motto. This suggests several possible places of origin. For example, French Huguenots, who were persecuted for their Protestant faith in France, settled in large numbers in New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and various parts of New England. French Canadian immigrants from Quebec also settled in New England, particularly in Maine and Vermont. After the American Revolution, Congress gave French Canadians who had fought on the side of the colonies land in New York, on the shores of Lake Champlain. There was also a large French-speaking population in Louisiana, which had been claimed in the name of King Louis XIV of France in 1682. While in 1794, when this bucket was painted, Louisiana was under Spanish rule, most Louisianans were of French origin.
Note: Regarding potential cities of origin: This bucket is of the same design as G161, which belonged to W.P. Goodhue and is marked 1839. There was also a large Huguenot population in Charleston, South Carolina, but there is no W.P. Goodhue listed in the 1837-38 Charleston city directory, or in the 1838 New Orleans city directory; therefore this bucket is probably not from either of those cities.
This nineteenth-century bucket is market with the owner’s name, C. Endicott, and the word “active.” “Active” most likely signified that Endicott was an active firefighter. Beginning in the 1830s, fire companies introduced new membership strategies that distinguished between different types of service. There were three grades of membership: active, honorary, and contributing. Active members performed the actual work of extinguishing fires, and sometimes paid minimal dues. Honorary members were so called because they had performed notable active service. They had the right, but were not obligated, to attend fires. Contributing members were members in name, but did not have to perform physical labor. They instead paid heavy dues, financing engine decorations and the acquisition of new technology, and were allowed to participate in parades and company functions. Over the course of the nineteenth century, the proportion of non-active firefighters steadily increased. The introduction of these three grades of service significantly changed notions of volunteer firefighting. Rather than a civic duty performed by all members of the community, the hard labor of firefighting became the duty of fewer and fewer men, those with a taste for danger or those who could not buy their way out. The owner of this bucket was evidently proud of the fact that he performed active service, and marked his equipment accordingly.
This bucket, which belonged to Jonas White, is dated 1803 and is painted with the image of a sun. This design is known in heraldry as “the sun in his splendour”: it consists of a disc, drawn as a gentle, smiling face, surrounded by a series of alternate straight and wavy rays. The sun may symbolize a variety of things, such as enlightenment, knowledge, prosperity, greatness and eternal glory, or rebirth and regeneration. The name “Sun Fire Company” was fairly common in nineteenth-century America, as volunteer firefighters wanted to clothe themselves in symbols that would appeal to their neighbors and supporters, and they were eager to appropriate the qualities typically associated with the sun. Jonas White may have belonged to a Sun Fire Company, or he may have chosen the sun as a decorative symbol for his bucket simply because of its associations or because it was featured on his family crest.
Note: Regarding whether or not Jonas White was a member of a Sun Fire Company: There were Sun Fire Companies in both Philadelphia and Lancaster, PA, but there is no Jonas White listed in the 1800 Pennsylvania census (though he of course could have moved to Pennsylvania between 1800 and 1803). There was a Sun Fire Company in Alexandra, VA, but once again, there is no Jonas White listed in the 1808 Alexandria census (though he could have left Alexandria between 1803 and 1808). There was a Sun Fire Company in Baltimore, MD, but there is no Jonas White listed in either the 1803 or 1810 city directories for Baltimore.
This riveted leather bucket belonged to A. Stiles, a member of the Union Fire Company in Moorestown. The volunteer fire company provided men with the opportunity to prove their worth, fulfill a particular ideal of citizenship, and be instant heroes. Companies frequently chose names such as “Union,” which would demonstrate their patriotism, civic virtue, and devotion to American ideals. However, not everyone in nineteenth-century America was allowed to participate in fire companies and thus be acknowledged as a virtuous citizen. Firefighting was an exclusively male and Caucasian endeavor, as civic duty and property rights were considered the domain of white males. Women were not allowed in volunteer companies, though they might participate in limited ways, such as the bucket brigade. The volunteer fireman was celebrated as an ideal of masculinity; contests between companies, in which each would try to pump water the fastest and the highest, allowed men to put their masculinity on display. African-Americans were also not usually members of fire companies. In Philadelphia, blacks attempted to form their own African Fire Association in 1818, but community pressure and hostility from white companies quickly forced them to disband. Firefighters excluded people from public service, based on who they believed deserved the opportunity to prove their civic virtue.
This bucket belonged to Edward Carnes, Jr. (1807-1883). He is listed as a “rigger” in the 1831 Charlestown (Mass.) city directory. In later years, he would serve as the superintendent of an alms house in that area. In 1843, Edward Carnes, Jr. had the honor of riding the capstone to the top of the Bunker Hill Monument upon its completion. His father, Edward Carnes, was also a rigger, and was the first foreman of Warren Engine No. 4 in Charlestown. Edward Carnes, Jr. was a member of the Franklin Fire Society in Charlestown. Such neighborhood organizations were common in the Boston area in the late 18th and 19th centuries. Officers were elected from a membership that ranged from 10 to 30 men, each required to have leather buckets, bags, and tools like bed keys in good order and at the ready. In the event of a fire, members brought these to the scene with the intention of saving the property of other society members. A doorkeeper was often appointed to guard the property and a password used to prevent looters from entering. This bucket appears to have been painted the year the society was organized.
It was common for volunteer firefighters to name their organizations after Benjamin Franklin, who many credit with founding the first volunteer fire company, the Union, in Philadelphia in 1736. Franklin, having experienced the chaos and confusion that characterized ad-hoc volunteer firefighting in the colonies, was frustrated with current practices of firefighting. Large crowds gathered at the scene of a fire, and bystanders often got in the way of those trying to extinguish a blaze. As owner, editor, and publisher of the Pennsylvania Gazette, Franklin began writing articles on fire prevention and extinction. When he was thirty, Franklin organized a fire company of thirty volunteers. Additional companies, modeled after Franklin’s, quickly sprang up in Philadelphia; at the outbreak of the Revolution, there were eighteen companies in the city. Many later companies and fire societies, such as the one to which the owner of this bucket belonged, took the name of “Franklin” to pay tribute to this man’s contribution to the organization of volunteer firefighting. Indeed, several Franklin Fire Societies existed in the Boston area alone, including this one from Charlestown.
This hand-sewn bucket, dated 1784, is painted with the image of two hands clasped in friendship, a common motif in the material culture of firefighting. The image of the handshake symbolizes the cooperation and community effort that were essential in early firefighting. In the eighteenth century, when this bucket was made, firefighting was the responsibility of all able-bodied members of the community. It was necessary for everyone to provide equipment and to participate in the bucket brigades. Engine companies worked side-by-side with ordinary citizens to extinguish a fire. Surrounding the image of the handshake is a circular chain, another symbol of cooperation and strength through unity. It is possible that this bucket belonged to the Hand-in-Hand Fire Company of Philadelphia. The Hand-in-Hand was founded in 1742, and its members included some of the important professional, civic, and religious leaders of the community.
This fire bucket is identical to G45. Both are painted green and labeled with the name of the owner, N. K. Sargent, and the year, 1841. They are numbered No. 1 and No. 2 respectively. Buckets were painted bright colors and marked with the owner’s name so that, in the confusion following a fire, they would be easily recognizable. While inevitably some buckets would be lost or stolen after a fire had been extinguished, such labeling increased the likelihood that buckets would be retrieved and taken home by their proper owner. Sargent possessed two buckets, as was often required by local law; buckets would frequently be purchased in pairs. Numbering his buckets provided an obvious distinction between the two, which would have been useful should one have been lost or stolen during a fire.
This bucket belonged to Samuel Kennedy, Jr., who lived in Salem, Massachusetts in the mid-nineteenth century. He was listed as a “captain” in the 1850 Salem city directory. Kennedy was most likely a member of the Naumkeag Fire Club, the fourteenth fire club formed in Salem. It was chartered in August 1832. In 1837, the town of Salem also received a Hunneman engine, which was named the Naumkeag #5. (Hunneman engines were named for their maker, William Hunneman, whose company manufactured some 750 engines between 1792 and 1883. ) The volunteer firefighters of Salem most likely chose to name a company and an engine “Naumkeag” because this was the town’s original Indian name. Salem was founded at the mouth of the Naumkeag River in 1626, and the “Christian name” of Salem was given to the town in the first half of the seventeenth century. Companies frequently chose names that had local significance and that would identify them as belonging to and serving a particular neighborhood or town. In Salem, calling a fire club “Naumkeag” connected the organization to the town’s long history, as well with the geography of the region, and thus helped to integrate the club into the community.