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This is Rose Hearn interviewing Mr. Harold Ruch, 116 Waterloo
Street, Fort Erie, Ontario, and the date is October14, 1985.
R.H:
Good morning Mr. Ruch.
H.R:
Good morning.
R.H:
Could you please tell me when you were born?
H.R:
April17,1918.
R.H:
And, where were you born?
H.R:
Fort Erie.
R.H:
Was that the North End or the South End?
H.R:
It was the South End, the original Fort Erie on Niagara Boulevard
and I think the apartment my mother and dad were in, is just over
where Riverside Travel is now, on Niagara Parkway.
R.H:
Can you tell me anything about the area, what it was like?
H.R:
It was a real thriving business area actually at one time.
They
had two meat markets, a hardware store, a grocery store, and a
clothing store.
John Charles had the clothing store you know, where
the Salvation Army is now.
There was the two hotels, the King
Edward, Mr. and Mrs, Ramey had that and the Anglo American
and Mrs. Hunt had that, at that time.
There was a lot of activity
with the ferry dock, the ferry dock was right in behind where Agrette's
Store is now or was and...
After that time... we were married in
1940 and prior to that we looked for a home, a place to build a
home and it was the South End that we picked because of the proximity
of the business section and then it all disappeared over the years.
Now, we have restuarants and we have no problem going out to
eat but...
R.H:
But you enjoyed living in the South End then?
H.R:
Yeah, the South End was real nice.
We watched it disintegrate,
the business section, but the park lands grew.
We watched the
Peace Bridge being built and actually all the dirt for the circle
at the Bridge was hauled right from behind the library here in...
R.H:
Oh, was it?
H.R:
Yeah in horse drawing wagons.
At that time, a few of the first
solid tire trucks were on the road.
That was all hauled.
R.H:
And you watched the Peace Bridge being built?
H.R:
Yeah.
The cribbing for the piers in the river were built right at
the foot of Queen Street and towed up to the Bridge area and sank
1)
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�in the water and that's when they poured the piers, right on the
rock.
R.H:
Didn't they used divers for that?
H.R:
Yeah, helped locate them and then we watched the concrete work
and we watched the steel go up.
We watched them join and we
were there for the official opening when the Prince of Wales came.
R.H:
Oh, you were there for that, what was it like that day?
H.R:
Great! it was a good programme.
from then 'til now.
You wouldn't recognize the area
Where they came off the Peace Bridge and
went up the main road, it went right straight up where the Q.E.
is now. That was Main Street and that took us right up to
•••
well,
it's Walden now, right up through Garrison Road.
It came out by
King Wah Gardens, that's all been reversed now.
There was a big
restuarant, the Plaza Restuarant was on the left hand side.
R.H:
What street was that on?
H.R:
On Main Street and that ended up the Armouries for Lincoln and
Welland.
They just tore that all out when they reversed the flow
of traffic.
R.H:
When they built the Peace Bridge, of course a lot of homes had
to be taken away, did any of the streets actually disappear completely?
{
H.R:
The Niagara Parkway, you see it now from Walnut Street to Albany,
from south on Albany is all brand new.
The old original road was
called Erie Street and it went right straight from Walnut
•..
it cut
in, it is all truck lot there now and it went right straight across
and hit the foot of Garrison Road and Goderich and they all came
together in front, to the Garrison.
All those homes were moved,
just ·a couple were tore down but most of them are relocated somewhere
up on Lavinia Street, some on Garrison Road.
still remained in
•••
I think Erie Street
as far as the Peace Bridge property would be,
maybe an l/8th of a mile in that section.
were four houses, there were five.
In that section there
Mrs. Kee was on the corner,
a big stone home and then Waites-Waites had a home and Rutherford,
he had a lumber company and he had a small home there and a
smaller one beside it, that his son Jim lived in.
I can't think who was in it originally
•.•
The next home,
but my mother-in-law, Mrs.
Shore, they bought it, her and her husband and they had a small
print shop.
He did the gas bills and the water bills and next to
(2)
�it was a big stone;··stone and brick house and that was M r . and M r s .
B ill Ke e a n d h e r e , that's back . .. oh, I can' t t h ink w h a t y e a r . .. They
bought t he m out, the P eace B r idge finally bought all that out and
(
M rs . Kee had a l ife lease on her h o m e . W h e n she d ied, t h e y tore
it down too but all the rest was tore out and there were trucks
backed r ight u p bes ide her property for a few years, she wouldn' t
m o ve, she stayed in h e r ho m e .
R.H:
i-LR:
S he wouldn't move ?
�<?�
.
·.
''·
r
'
They bought it and they knew then that they had it once she
gave up.
R.H:
H.R:
Didn't she know that she had sold it ?
Oh yeah, she sold it to th e m .
R.H:
D i d she change h e r m in d ?
H.R:
No, but in the lease, she s t ill wouldn' t move. S h e would sell it if
she could s t ay there as long as she needed it, so she d i d . She stayed
r ight in and she had t rucks around her place but she was hard of
hear ing, s o . . . mother always laugh ed that she never heard a th ing
at n ight when she took the hear ing aid out .
..
R.H:
(
So, when did she finally . ?
H.R:
I can' t rem e m be r .
R.H:
B u t she finally m o v e d though?
H.R:
No, she d ied r ight there. Her daugh t e r was . . . h e r son was k illed
overseas and Betty die d early, she was m ar r ied to a Donald M u ir.
That w as a F ort E r ie fa m ily, h is father owned t h e Brewers Warehouse
on G il m o r e and Don s t ill works for Brewers Warehouse, unless he's
retired . Betty had a son John and I t h in k he came dow n and took
everyt h ing out of t h e house, e verything was left to him . Everything' s
gone, there's no street o r any t h ing any more. It's all the t ruck parking
back there.
R.H:
H.R:
What w as her name again ?
Mrs. Kee . Where the main road is now , the Niagara Parkway, it
was a m illrace. The edge of the river was r ight in that area. We
used to fish in this m illrace as k ids.
R.H:
H.R:
What is a m illrace ?
Well, I th ink at one time there must have been a m ill of some descript ion
for grain or for what, I don' t know , and there must have been a
water-wheel s o m e place in there. There was just a race where
(3)
�came down from the lake into the river and turned the wheel . . .
I can't just g o back that far .
(
R.H:
H.R:
R.H:
A n d you went fishing there ?
Yeah , w e could fish in that w ithout going r ight into the . . .
Is that the place where people have said that s o m e o f the divers
stayed when they were working on the Peace B r idge ?
H.R:
S tayed where ? In a bu ilding ? They m ight have but I can' t r e m e m b e r
w h e t h e r t h e r e w e r e construction build ings under the B r idge or n o t .
R.H:
Th is w a s an o l d place t h a t was t h e r e a n d they used it to h o u s e t h e
d ivers, do y o u r e m e m be r anyth ing about that ?
H.R:
An old ho m e ? W ell, there was a n u m ber of t h e m on the r iverside
and the m illrace w as in behind them. E r ie S t r e e t went r ight straigh t
up to h it the corner of th _e G a r r ison and G o d e r ic h and then L akeshore
from there, and there were homes on both s ides of that . They ' ve
all been relocated or tore down.
R.H:
H.R:
D id you work any part-time jobs when you w e r e grow ing up ?
A r oun d 1927 or '28,: my fathe r was Town super intendent when they
had to put in the main sewer system and pave a lot of the streets ,
I
can r e m e m ber. P rincess S tree t , P rincess part icularly, I r e m e m ber
when they were paving that, it was all rock and whe n they put the
(
sewers in , they had to blast. My dad said, " What do want to do
for the su m m er ? " I asked , " D o ing for the s u m m e r ? " . H e said, " Would
you like a job ? " ,I said, " S u re " . So, I was water boy o n the construction
and I s pent all su m me r on P r incess and Que e n , I r e m e m ber.
R.H:
S o , they had to blast because of the rock, d i d they use dynam ite ?
H.R:
They had t o blast into rock and yes , they used dyna m it e . One in
particular, one home is st ill there and it's the second house u p from
A rchange and there's a fellow in there by t h e name of Alfie C oulthu r s t ,
h is still lives there. This day , t h e y blasted and t h e y had m a t s and
t hey had railroad t ie s , everything on top. I don't know whether
they put in too much but up she w ent and a stone about s ix inches
in diameter came out and went r ight through the botto m panel
of Alfie's door, the front doo r . S o , there w as a little furor for a
w h ile, but they got it repaired and there were a few th ings that . . .
They blasted r ight i n the m iddle of the res ide ntial section a n d i t
w as hard r o c k , oh, just crazy .
R.H:
A n d then of course they put on the blacktop ?
(4)
�H.R:
Yeah , they fille d in all the sewer and water trenches and com pacted
it and then put in the stone base and . . . that's all there is on there,
pretty well yet. They've re-topped it s ince but . . .
(
R.H:
What year did this go on ?
H.R:
'2 7 or '2 8 .
R.H:
How old were you when you were doing that?
H.R:
O h , about ten years old, I was born in . . .
R.H:
Ten years old ?
H.R:
Yeah.
R.H:
H.R:
You were the water boy and you got paid ?
·
'
Yeah , I can't r e m e m ber how much. It was pennies but it gave m e
something to do f o r the s u m m e r .
R.H:
And then, did you h ave any other j obs aft er that ?
H.R:
N o , noth ing ' t il aft e r school. I can't r e m e m be r any th ing besides
that . M y dad bu ilt a new home on H igh Street r ight behind the
Douglas S chool and we were very close to school . A n d then we
went from there to h igh s chool. Th e year I started h igh school,
we moved to the Racet rack, dad took the supe r intendent's job at
the R acet rack in 1 93 2 when the Towns amalgamated. H e could
see what would happe n. Th e amalgamation of B r idgeburg and Fort
(
E r ie 'caused the j o bs to be split so he had an offer to go to the Racetrack
as super intendent and he took it . H e was there until '52 o r '5 3 .
R.H:
H.R:
D i d you say that you lived r ight there ?
Yeah , we lived r ight on the R acet rack in a big h o m e . That h o m e
is d o w n Catherine S treet about a block f r o m Concession. S o m e
·
people b y t h e n a m e o f Malucci have i t n o w and they've fixed i t
u p , bricked i t a n d everything. But , i t w a s a b i g f r a m e h o m e , sat
r ight ins ide the railroad tracks at the front gat e s . W e lived there,
dad lived there 't il 53 o r 54, h e took s ick and h e couldn' t carry on.
That's when they a malgated all the racetracks in, H a m ilton, Longbranch
and Toronto. They brought a man in that was superintendent of
the H a m ilton Racetrack. I was dad's assistant at the R acetrack
and I took over as assistant to this Bert F aulkner . He passed away
in '57 and I got the superintendent ' s job then. I was supe r intendent
from '57 until ' 62. I left when they built the pollut ion plant at C ozy
Dell. I j o ined the water resources and I was chie f operator of that
(
plant and I was there unt il I retired in '83.
(5)
�R.H:
H.R:
(
What was the nam e o f that plant ?
Fort E r ie Water Pollut ion Plant , it's r ight at Cozy Dell.
R.H:
Tell m e about the R ace track , was there any thin g d iffe rent about
it the n , than there is now ?
H.R:
Oh yeah . Well, bas ically the buildings are in the s a m e place but
they were a lot d iffe r e n t . They remodelled the clu bhouse at one
time and I have a pict u r e , there was a p icture and I took it apa r t ,
s o m e body w a n t e d the picture . T h e r e w a s a n e w s paper i n beh ind
the back ing and it's the original arch itect's draw ings of what he
thought the Race t rack should look like when it was bu ilt . I have
.those at h o m e in a file but I don't dare touch t h e n , they're just like .. .
b r ittle. But the draw ings are there and it shows a picture . . .. a draw ing
of the main grandstand and the clu bhouse and what a s table would
look l ike. Th is is what the arch itect was .e nvisioning when h e built
it . It was quite an old-fash ioned styled track at the t i m e they modern ized
it back in . . . fro m '52 on. I was throu gh all that construct ion of
the new stables, new grandstand, new clubho u s e .
R.H:
H.R:
(
When did y o u r father t ake this j o b ?
1 9 3 2 , and h e w as there 't il ' 5 2 .
R.H:
What was h is first name ?
H.R:
H e nry .
.
R H:
Can you r e m e m be r anyth ing else about the R ace t rack ? W e r e there
more races then ?
H.R:
They only had two weeks racing , right u p u n t il the t i m e they started
to rebuild in ' 5 3 , '52 o r ' 5 3 . Only when the Ontar io Jockey C lu b
t o o k over d i d t h e y get more racing. T h e y got t h e s.p ring m e e t s ,
and our su m me r meets b u t apart f r o m that , there was only two
weeks of racing. That's all the charters that the, what they called
the N iagara Racing Association had. That was controlled by two
m e n , two
up
or
f r o m St.
three m e n
out of S t . Louis . The
Lou is every year and run
after it the rest o f t h e year.
j u s t t w o weeks.
the
general manager came
Racetrack.
Dad looked
No, there was just t w o weeks.at that ,
N o w they can ' t make
a
go of it no m a t t e r how
many weeks.
Prince
R.H:
S o , they didn' t have the
H.R:
N o , nothing in that t i me.
of Wales S takes then ?
They had
the
H o t e l Buffalo
Purse,
something
like that and that was centred around the A me r ican trade co m ing
( 6)
�across and it s t ill is .
R.H:
(
What about the B e r t ie Fa ir, can you tell me anyth ing about that?
H.R:
Y eah , that w as there a long t ime. My dad was the d irector of the
B e r t ie Fa ir. It was there before we ever m o ved and then h e took
quite an active part in that . It was at the Racetrack ' t il it just
fizzled out and there wasn't anyone left in t h is area to run a Fair
w it h . Dad run t h e horse draw ing contest and t h e d iffe rent th ings
that they had.
R.H:
What was that lik e , the horse draw ing contes t ?
H.R:
It was w ith a team. They'd load u p a team ... they'd b u ild a stone
·boat ...
R.H:
A stone boat , what was that?
H.R:
Yeah� it w as a s k i d ,. it had t w o poles and a deck on i� and they used
to fill it u p w ith s a ndbags. A team pulled it and when a team pulled
it , th ey' d add a cou ple of more sandbags and they had to pull so
far . The one that pulled the .farthest w ith the most w e igh t won
the event. They s t ill have them but th ey got some t e r r ific floats
now and as they pull along on a wheel the w e ights au t o m a t ically
ride u p the be d and put w e ight on the front where the team has
some extra pulling . They s t ill have horse d r a w ing contests and
(
they have them for tractors and trucks and e veryth ing els e , course
these big . . . what do you call them ? I can't r e m e m be r but
I
went
to see one at . . . to the s peedway one nigh t , they h a d t h is big tractor
draw ing contest. I t was all souped up tractors . . .
R.H:
What else did they have there ?
H.R:
W E;ll, they had their d is play s , fru it and vegetables and h o m e craft s ,
.
.
a l l their baking and animals. T h e y had an ideal spot because they
had the s t ables righ t
there for the
anim als
and the
poultry. They
had all their cages and that and the paddock itself w as on t h e west
end o f the grandstand.
It was ide a l , they had all these s t alls and
they just put all the d iffe rent animals in the s talls and then the.
cages for fowl w e r e in one s e c t ion of it.
good and it used t o have
R.H:
H.R:
a
lot of people.
You don' t know why it s o r t of petered out do y ou?
No, there was j u s t not enough far m ing in the area any m ore.
had any animals or teams like ... it j u s t . ..
(
It was a good F a ir, real
Nobody
even in big areas r ight
now, they don' t d r a w that m u ch. They are g e t t ing away from
(7 )
�far m . . . we s t ill go to them. We go to the S i mcoe one and the Caledon ia
one and they're good fa irs.
(
R.H:
Do you know when it stoppe d ?
H.R:
No, I can't re m e m be r back to the Bert ie Fair when it was last put
on.
R.H:
Where d id you work full-t i m e ? I know you told me but tell me aga in,
where was your first full- t i m e j o b ?
H.R:
The Provinc ial Gas Co m pany .
R.H:
Oh, the Prov inc ial Gas Co m pany! you d idn't tell me.
H.R:
No, I went to h igh school and when I finished h igh s ch ool I was going
-to go in to refr igerat ion and a ir-cond i t ion ing and I walked the Peace
B r idge every m o r n ing fo r a year and went to a technical Inst itute
on the corner of N iagara and P o r t e r in Buffalo . I j u s t finished my
course and I c a m e home one n igh t and mother said, " Mr . G lenny
was here and wants to talk to you " . H e was the pres ident of P rovinc ial
Gas. So, I went down and h e s a i d , " H o w would you l ike to go to
work ? " S o , I went home and I discussed i t , I wasn' t sure what I
wanted to do then, whether I wanted to cont inue my refr igerat ion
or go to the G as C o m pany . S o , the more I looked at it , they were
into . . . gas refigerators at that time were j u s t start ing to c o m e
(
in, s o , I said to m om, "I th ink I'll t a k e it " . S o , I was t h e r e from
'38 'til ' 4 1 . During the war years then, Flee t was boom ing and the
money looked better there than the G as C o m pany so I quit there
and went to Flee t . I was there from ' 4 1 unt il '46 and then I went
w ith my father t o the Racet rack but he had no author ity to put
m e on as h is ass is t ant.
R.H:
What did you do at Fleet ?
H.R:
I was
on
in
the
ass e m bly , an assem bler on sheet metal. I worked
r ight
w ings and planes l ike the Lancaster and the F a irey Battle.
They brought those in to have repa ir e d and I worked on the F a irchild
Trainer.
60
I
was on the h y d raulics sec t ion of that.
Model
that they bu ilt , they bu ilt quite a few of t h o s e , that was supposed
to be one of the better t r a iners.
started there and
I
But then
I
That was j u s t finishing when
I
got in on that an d
had noth ing after racing finished,
and that was
'46
I
got in on all the b ig repairs and then when they
started the F a ir c h ild T r a iner,
(
You see the
and
'47
that
I
I
I
enjoyed that.
had to find s o m ewhere
went over to Ha r t and C ooley.
(8)
I
�got a job there for the w inter. The next s p r ing ... I ·told M r. C lark,
at that t i m e Bert C lark was the manager and I told h i m , I said,
"It ' s a stop gap" and he said, "I realize that, most everybody here
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is a stop gap". W e were only getting about 2 5 cents an h o u r , it
d idn't go very fa r . S o , in the s p r ing I went back w ith m y father
and when M r . Cella came up from St. Louis, dad approach e d him
on an assis tant s o , they went for it and I was at the Racetrack,
in w ith dad from ' 4 6 , around '47 ' t il I left in '6 2 .
R.H:
What d id a super intendent do?
H.R:
He was in charge of maintenance , g rounds and the race s t r ip itself.
_He had m e n under h i m and I t rained m e n to do the d ifferent stages
and then as it grew, they put in heating for the spr ing meets, they
had steam boilers. I had to get a man that had eng ineer ing experience
on s t e a m but bas ically it was all m a intenance and I th ink that I've
done that pretty well all my life. That's why I took the j o b at the
Water P ollu t ion P lant , because it was operating a plant, m a intaining
it and looking after it.
R.H:
D o you r e m e m ber what the wages were then for a superintende nt ?
L ike you were ass istant f irst , s o how much d i d you make then?
H.R:
(
Whe n I left the Racetrack, I k ick myself now, there was three t i me-books
in m y file and I said, "Well, I don't need these any more" but those
were dad's t i m e-books when h e went there in ' 3 2 and they worked
for 25 cents an hou r . The Teamsters got a n ickel more, they got
30 c e nts.
R.H:
W h o was t h is ?
H.R:
The Teamsters. They came in . . . we had t w o t e a m s at the Racetrack
back then that did the hauling before w e had tractors. It gradually
increased but I don't r e m e m be r what I got back in ' 4 7. It was a
lot more than I got at Hart and Coole y , I know that , that' s why
I w ent. W e w orked 1 2 hours a day and it w as about a dollar an hour
I think when I started s o we w orked long hours and a long day for
$12 a day, $60 a week. But it's went up w ith everyth ing else and
I did well r ight up until ' 62 when I left. I have no com plaints but
this other one looked better and I enjoyed my last 20 years with
the Ontar io Water Resources up until '7 1 .
R.H:
H.R:
(
When did you get interested in the F ire Depart ment ?
It was ' 4 3 , I guess, about ' 4 3 o r ' 4 2 , after we were married and moved
(9)
�back in my dad's h o m e on H igh S t reet r ight in behind the school.
That was only a couple of blocks from the F ire Hall. My fathe r
h a d c o m e u p through t h e ranks , he w a s a n offic e r a n d all t h e rest
(
of it and he retir e d . He for med an exempt F ire Departm ent and
that's where I am now. When you had 15 years in of a c t ive service,
you could go on e x e m p t . Th is means you .. . you s t ill go to m e e t ings
and do everyth ing but you d idn't get paid, or no reco r d . S o , when
dad said, "Would you like to j o in the F ire Depart m ent ? " H e said,
"I' m gonna retire and I"ll put your name in to fill my position".
S o , I said, "Sure". S o , from '42 on, or '43 on, I've been a volunteer
fire m an.
R.H:
So, when you we re working as a volunteer fireman, how did that
H.R:
affect your full-t ime job ? Was there any proble m s ?
'
Not any jo b I had r ight up until '57. They all accep t e d that I was
part of a team that could help them at somet ime or anoth e r . In
'57 when
I
got th e super intendent's job at the Rac etrack, they came
to m e and said, "You'll have to g ive u p th is fire ch ief's j o b , it might
take too m uch". I could st ill remain as a volunt eer fireman but
I h ad to give up the chief's j ob. That was the harde s t thing I e ver
(
did.
R.H:
So, that ' s why you gave u p the job as c h ie f ?
H.R:
Yeah , i n '57, or I would have s t ill kept o n t r y ing. I enjoyed it- it
was a challenge that I really enjoyed. Then afte r , I stayed on and
after '57 r ight up un til about '63. Then I was secretary , then a lieutenant
in the five year s , but then I lost interest. I didn't feel like running
to fires any more so I just . . . I had 23 years in, so, I went e xe m pt
then . I.still go once in a wh ile if they have a ladies night o r a dance
o r something like that , we go and support it , but I don ' t go t o
As you g row up in
had a carnival, a
a
group, you went w ith the m aj o r ity and they
f ield
day every year and
I n e ve r
agreed that
should spend that kind of t i m e ... you work, you labo u r , they
do but
I
don' t know why.
at field day s .
.. .
But once
I
I
you
s t i ll
know why-we made quite a b it of money
r e t ired
... I w orke d t w o years, I went on
a j u d g ing stand w ith the C h ie f o f Police and d ifferent ones to help.
Units c o m e through to
be
des ignated
I finally gave up because I wouldn' t
(
everyth ing.
(IO)
by
haul
the j u dges but after
that
all that e quipment and
�R.H:
S o , what about when you were a volunteer fireman, when you went
out on call, where you insu red at all ?
(
H.R:
Not at firs t , noth ing.
R.H:
S o , if you had an accident, l ike something happened . ?
H.R:
..
You were on you r own and w e got no pay at that time but as we
got larger and got into it fu r th e r , the Town gave us a grant each
year. We divided that u p a m ongst the volunteers on a point system.
R.H:
What about if you had to leave your full-time j o b , was your pay
docked for that?
H.R:
N o , no it was very seldom any organizat ion
... I don't th ink even
·now . . any man who's in the volunteers and works in a plan t , does
h e lose t ime if h e leaves,. �Bu t h e doesn't abu se it t o do everyth ing
else; it'sj just for the call itself. You see, they feel that they would
like to be protected too some day. Bu. t then gradually as w e.got
money for the ch ief and money for a ch ief driver you've got those
on, like a salary. As the fire mar shall got more involved in the
in div idual volunteer groups , w e got c ompensat ion then. I can't
re m ember what year, but it was during my term as ch ief.
R.H:
(
S o , you were covered then ?
H.R:
W e were covered for accidents then.
R.H:
H o w many F ire C ompanies w e r e there before F ort Erie, B r idgeburg
and Bertie Township a m algamated ?
H.R:
O r ig inally there was three F ire Depa r t m ents. There was F ort Erie,
B r idgebu rg and B e r t ie , B e r t ie was in R idgeway .
R.H:
There was no Am iga r i F ire D e par tment ?
H.R:
Y e s , I' m forgett ing that one. There was a s mall one in A m igar i .
T h a t house h a s j u s t b e e n the c e n t r e of a controversy . R e m e m be r
the woman that h a d a c a r i n h e r living room j u s t a short wh ile back ?
The house is right on the corner of Jenne t , no Russell, where it
turns to go down to Horton S teel. There's a little house right there
that used to be the F ire De.part ment , that fireball. She's had cars
run over her lawn and the last one, I see in the papers, the car went
right inside and knocked her c h ina and s tuff down. Well, that was
the original A m igari Station and all they had was hose carts , I believe .
I don't think they had any mobile equip ment, no m otorized equipm e nt
in that hall.
R.H:
Oh ,
I
see. S o, it was just the h o rses and . . . ?
( 1 1)
�H.R:
Yeah , and hand drawn hose wheels.
R.H:
(
Where did they get the water from at that t ime, do you know ?
H.R:
N o , I can't th ink back. In Town, we s t ill had . .. I th ink, even A m igari
at that time had water mains and hy drants.
R.H:
H.R:
They d i d ?
Yeah , at B r idgeburg and F ort E r ie . You s e e , the main water system
and e ve ryth ing went in . . . before you got water p r ior to '28, they
had mains p r ior to ' 2 8 but they updated a lot of th ings in ' 27, ' 2 8.
So, there were hydrants around .
R.H:
S o , when the amalgamat ion came . . . ?
H.R:
·It must have been before amalgamat ion. I' m t r y ing to th ink how ...
C rystal Beach had al F ire D e pa r t ment too.
R.H:
They had their own F ire Depart ment and did S t e vensville have their
o w n F ire Depar t m e nt ?
H.R:
Y eah , S t evens ville had their o w n because they h ad a fel iow by the
name of H e x i m e r that bu ilt their first tru ck. Then, as it went on,
Willough by started their own and my uncle was the fire chief there,
Charlie . They bought a truck and they just put enough equipment
on it, like a pu m p and a hose. They had a 1 , 0 0 0 gallons of water
I guess, they would carry, which for ru ral was good . Then, East
(
B e r t ie . . . I w ent out , I was calle d out , a friend of m in e , E d G orham
was interested in East B e r t ie area and they called m e out one night
to see . . . I took F reddy H e n de rson w ith me, he was my as s istant
and we went out to a s mall hall r ight across from the little Anglican
C h u rch on D o m in ion Road . It was a com m u n ity hall, I can't th ink
of the name of it now . Anyway, we met in there w ith a group of
interested m e n who wanted all the info r mat ion they could get ,
on a volunteer F ire D e par t m e n t . S o , w e gave i t t o them a n d before
long they had e qu i p m e nt they started to buy, and they s tarte d to
build a h all.
R.H:
Where was this ?
H.R:
R ight where it is now, on D o m in io n Road. They gradually enlarged
it and they've got a beautiful bu ild ing there now. That was all on
their own, they built that themselves through bingo, now the Town
is helping them keep it up.
R.H:
This was a c o m m u nity hall ?
H.R:
It was a c o m m u n ity hall where w e m e t but then that was the end
( 12)
�of that.
R.H:
(
H.R:
It became the fire hall?
N o , no, we met in the community hall to give them an idea of whe
:11
they had t o do to form a volunteer F ire Department. S o , they de. lde d
they would for m it and that was the first me et ing. They had ano1 ltn
meeting in that hall to form their F ire D e pa r t ment. I don't know
where they m e t , from then on or what they d i d , but they started
to get their e qu ipme nt together and they bought property up whe1 l'
the fire hall is now , on Dom inion.
R.H:
H.R:
S o , this was East Ber ti e , do they s t ill have it?
·
Yes.
R.H:
It is s t ill there ?
H.R:
Oh yes, that's one of the biggest h alls there is now.
R.H:
That's s t ill there, r ight?. S o , Fire C ompany N o . 1 , and No. 2 are . .. !
H. R:''
Tliat's s No. 3, R idgeway is N o. 4 , C rystal Beach is N o . '5 and S tevens v ille
is No. 6. When W illough by . . . they went to the c ity of N iagara F alls.
it's a N iagara F alls F ir e Department now but w e were all together
at one t ime .
R.H:
(
H.R:
Your first hall was on Queen S t r e e t , I believe?
Yeah , and the one that we can remember .. . I th ink that it mu st
have been bu ilt in the '20s , the'.early '20s , to house the first motort::e d
e qu ipment w e got. It was on the west s ide of the .. . well, it's the
Legion Hall now , that used to be the Town Hall for the Town of
F o rt E r ie , the b ig building. It was there until about 1 9 47. W e decide d
that w e needed a bigger hall, we had a Seagraves and we had roorr1
for the hose d r y ing rack and then in the back r oom, we had our
meet ing roo m . It
get
30
was
pretty well c r ampe d when w e started to
men hang ing around.
our area was M r. Rapege
R.H:
H.R:
S o, w e w e n t to... the C ouncilman
for
•...
Who?
Rapege, he was manager of the C anadia n N iagara Power, F in dlay
Rapege.
He would be an uncle to a Doug Rapege, h e ' s with the
Regional h o m e s now.
We went to him and asked h i m .What it woulq
entail if we could have an a d d i t ion put on to t h e Queen Street hall r
He c a m e down and he looked it all over with us and he said, "No",
he sa id, "We ' r e not
(
build
a
new one".
I
going to
s p e n d any m o ney
in that hall,
said, "Oh, gee, t h is i s great".
( 13)
So,
first
we' l l
t h in g
�w e know , we went to C ouncil and he convinced them that w e needed
a new fire hall. They called the F ire M arshall' s O ffice in and they
picked out three locations and one of them was the one where it
(
is now . It was picked because it was . . . the business section was
downh ill, you d idn't have to go uph ill and then if anyth ing did expand,
go ing uph ill, we would be able to take care of it . S o , it was bu ilt
on Bertie S treet and it has been a good site, it's central and . . . we
had M r . Teal, O. C . Teal built the building for it .
R. H:
Teal was the contractor ?
H.R:
D i d you do any of the work yourselves ?
H.R:
Not in the o r ig inal hall. We finished off ins ide ...
R.H:
On B e r t ie ?
H.R:
Y eah , on Bertie and aft e rwards we did a little remodelling, we
put a piece on the back ourselves and changed the stairw a y. It
'
was a reversing stairway and there was a lot of wasted s pace underneath.
So, we took it r ight out comple tely , bu ilt a room in there and then
where the kitchen was u pstair s , we moved it over to the top part
of the s tairway and put a new stairway up t h e outs ide and it made
a w hole new concept in the hall. Well, then, just a few years ago,
they put a piece on the east s ide and that was d u r ing Ken S touffer's
(
t e r m as chief. They d i d a lot bf the int e r ior . . . once the br ick work
and everyth ing was up outs ide , they d i d most of the inte r ior. K e n
was a carpenter or i s a carpenter a n d h e supe r v is e d a l l the work.
H e did hours and hours of work h imself s o they o w e a lot to him.
R.H:
S o , of course th is hall is a lot larger than the old one, r ight ?
H.R:
Oh yeah, we had two bay s , now we got three for the t rucks to back
in. They put the third one on for the . . . they made it in hope s that
s o m e day that they would be able to get an a e r ial truck, wh ich they
have now. It's big enough to house it o n that one s ide.
R.H:
S o, how m any trucks did you h ave?
H.R:
Well , from
1928
only truck ' t il
Did you have more than one?
on, we had the B ickle S e agraves and that was our
195 1.
and called tende r s .
Wh ile I was chief, we des igned another truck
We had a
1951
A me r ican LaF rance G. M.C.
delivered and w e kept the t w o of them .
to
The B ic k le w as s t a r t ing
go downh ill but it was st ill a good bac k u p truck and we used
it w it h the water ... we had put a water tank o n in later years and
we used
it to hold the
fire w it h
a boost e r hose u n t il such time that
( 14)
�the others could get hooked up to a hydrant. It served well for
a wh ile . In the m id dle ' 6 0 s , I can' t r e m e m be r the year they sold
it , the Seag raves to the Rac e t rack, they s t ill have it . They sold
it for a dollar w ith the provisal that it be ma inta ined and ready
for any parade that the F ire Depart m ent o r the Town of F ort E r ie
had . It's s t ill put in parades. F ro m then on, f r o m the '5 1 truck,
they've had two or three s ince that year, you'd have to get that
from Ken or ...
R.H:
S o , when you got this e q u ipment then , it was brand new ?
H.R:
Yeah .
R.H:
The L aFrance was a brand new truck?
H.R:
Everyth ing we've had s ince that t i m e , since the B ickle , the B i ckle
was brand new too and the S eagraves. Everything w e've went for,
we've always had a new one .
R.H:
S o , that truck lasted a long ti m e then? What would s o m e th ing like
that cost ?
H.R:
Oh yeah , that las ted a long t i m e , that was a good truck. I' d have
no idea of the cost, I couldn't f ind it in any of the books.
R.H:
(
It m u s t have been very expens ive though ?
H.R:
Oh y eah , well, the one that . .. what was it? The '51, the tender
was $12,000 and that aerial truck was over a $ 100,000 at least and
I don't know what the other pu m pers were that they replaced.
R.H:
When you say an aer ial t ruck, is that w ith the ladd e r that can reach
to h igher build ings ?
H.R:
The big ladder , hydraulic turntable , can go up to a 100 feet.
R.H:
You couldn't before that ?
H.R:
N o , the longes t ladder we had would only go u p 40 fee t , it had a
40 foot extens ion and w e had to put that up by hand, it took quite
a few men.
R.H:
Soi you really needed that extension?
H.R:
Yeah, for t he buildings we've got now and the concept of fire-fighting
has changed. Instead of going in and up, you went down from the
top. You can t ake an aerial ladder with a nozzle on the top, we
call it deluge nozzle, and just work r ight down from the top, blanket
it s o it didn't spread. So, this is a d ifferent concept that we used
(
to use.
\
(1 5 )
�R.H:
What about fire calls when they came in ? I'm not talking about
calls th rough Bomar but the early years when fire calls came in,
{
how did you get the info r m a t ion ?
H.R:
The fire siren was always on the h y d r o tower way up at the top
of Queen Street, the h ill. That was m a intained by the Power House.
In that picture, there's two or three of them who were Canadian
N iagara Power men, Sam K elley , Joe M u r doch, A rt Nolan ... A r t
worked for t h e Canad ian N iagara P o w e r C o m pany. ( M r . Ruch is
reffer ing to the photograph in the 1 9 32 e d it io n o f the program m e
put o u t by T h e N iagara D ist r ict F ir e m en's A s s o c iat ion ) Th ey always
had a man on call, day and n ight, and the calls w e nt in to the C a nad ian
N iagara Power C o m pany and they blew the s i r e n . Once we
g ot
to the hall
then, we' d have to call back the P ow e r House.
R.H:
So, your say ing the public would call t h e N iagara Power Co m pany?
H.R:
Yeah, they had a fire call n u m ber.
R.H:
W as there a spec ial n u m ber ?
H.R:
Yeah, and they would relay everyth ing and record it.
.
H.R
R H:
:
(
D id you respond to fires in Crystal B e ach too ?
No, only on . . . there's a name for it and they s t ill use it b u t we had
an agreement that if they needed help, w e ' d help w ith backup.
It was a backup and I' m t rying to think . .. mutual aid, l ike a mutual
aid deal and; we backed u p R idgeway and . . . W h e n the E r ie B e ach
Hotel burned, well, it w as like o n the corner of H e lena and E d g e mere,
r ight there, we had Buffalo ove r , they even came over and helped
us . They b rought a big p u m p e r over and took it r ight down on the . . .
R.H:
When did the E r ie Beach Hotel burn down ?
H.R:
We had our Seagraves then, I think, the early ' 3 0 s . It was the early
' 3 0 s I th ink now , I' m pretty sure w e had the S e agraves then and
they brought a big pu m p e r over from Buffalo and set it r ight down
the Lakeshore and pumped w ater from the r iv er , r ight from the
lake .
R.H:
D id they have better equipment then ?
H.R:
Yeah, they had bigger e qu ip ment and w e got no charge or anyth ing
for tha t , for what they d id for us that n ight. But then, we have
quite a mutual aid setup between the ... our F ir e M arshall got involved
and he got a hold of the Buffalo F ir e D epar t m e nt .
..
You see, at
one time, there was e ight or n in e d iffe rent hoses at two and a half
diameter and even between F or t Erie and B r idgeburg, they were
( 1 6)
�d ifferent . W e had to have special couplings t o use the two hoses
and Buffalo w as d ifferent again. S o , I don't know whether this has
all gone by the board now or not, but at one t i m e there was four
(
boxes, red boxes sitting in the firehalL. They had every coupling
w e would need for this area and if we knew we were going to a
d ifferent area. But now Ontario is all standard ized. A s far as Ontar io
is conce rned, the whole P rovince is standard ize d , it was done back
in around '55, I th ink. They standa r d ized all the e quipment , Buffalo,
I' m not sure y e t , they could s t ill have a d ifferent thread than we
do but we have kept u p on this and updated the coupl ings . I don't
re m e m ber . . . th rough m y time they were there and if we had to
go to work w ith a B uffalo team, there was a box t o take w ith us
that would match .
R.H:
W h at about e quip ment w h e n you first started, how was the e qu ip m e nt,
was it good ?
H.R:
Yeah .
R.H:
I t w as good?
H.R:
W ell, as far as the truck but any ind ividual e qu i p ment ... well, we
had leather helmets, raincoats and boots , but nothing else. We
(
had ve ry lit tle protective e quip m e n t . Back in 1 95 0 when w e were
negotiating for the n e w t ruck, I had w r itten a letter and M r . Von
Zu ban of Von Zuban's L u m be r Co m pany used to b e , h e was the fire
chairman of the co m m ittee and after the budget was all s t ru c k ,
I went to h i m one m o r ning and said, " How w ill w e make out f o r
a new t ruck?" H e said , "I d idn't p u t it in". I said, " F o r why ? " Oh,
·.·.
,he said, "We can't spe n d that kind of money " , a n d I said, " Well,
we need a new t ruck and I told you in the letter w hy "
his other c o m m ittee m e m be r who w as Har r y
.
S o , h e got
H e pb u r n and
they
got together and they c a m e back to m e a week later and said, "We
j u s t found out that we could have the F ire M a rshall's Office c o m e
i n a n d m a k e a s u r vey.
I
W i l l y o u be satis f ie d w ith t h is? "
I
s a i d , "A bsolut e ly".
knew once the F ire M arshall's Office was called in, we had m o r e
than
a
t r uck.
S o, they c a m e down and they took a s u r vey of everything,
they ran tests , they blew th e s iren and they clock e d us for gett ing
to the firehall and gett ing t o where they said the fire was.
sat down w ith us at n ight and then they
wha t we had a n d what w e didn't have.
(1 7 )
asked us
d ifferent
They
t h ings,
A t that t i m e , w e w e r e starting
�get a few s m all th ings and we'd asked for a . .. no, we d idn't ask for
a S cott A irpacks . A t that time the self-contained breathing aparatus
(
was Scott A ir packs, so, h e said to u s , . . . No. 2 Co m pany sat in on
t h is meet ing too, wh ich was old B r idgeburg and they said, " H ow
many self-contained b r e athing aparatus do you have ? " I said, "None".
H e said, " Well, that's two for each c o m pany " . Boldly, h e wrote
the list out and it cost them a fortune, and they could've got by
w ith just a truck .
R.H:
The Von Zuban' s L u m b e r Co m pany burned down, were you in on
that one ?
H.R:
Yeah , I h elped save it .
R .H:
That was a bad one, r igh t ?
H.R:
A ll the l u m ber com panies . . . the last t i m e N iagara Coal had a fire,
Ken was ch ief then, but I was d o w n watching and I had Niagara
Coal when it was on G il m ore R o a d . Von Zuban's was the first fire
that F re d dy Henderson h a d after I r e t ired. I s t ill volunteered , but
I didn't h ave to take t h e respons ibility of it .
R.H:
H.R:
(
They sav e d it then ?
E nough of it so that they could rebu ild.
.H
H.R
R
:
H e d idn't rebuild, d id h e ?
:
Yeah , not rebuild but h e used a s m aller area, that's all. Shortly
after that, the R otary Clu b got interested when they foun d out
about these airpacks and everyth ing. W e took first-aid train ing
from the Buffalo F ire D epart m e n t through the A m e r ican Red Cross.
They came over and trained us in f ire-fight ing and first-aid and
before w e knew it, we had purchased a inhalator on our own.
R.H:
What was it you purchas e d ?
H.R:
An inhalator and that was to resusc itate. You would t ake oxygen
as you breathed, along w ith art ific ial respirat ion. F re d H e nderson
had been in the airforce and said, " There's these controls exactly
the same as the inhalator in every aircraft, for the individ_u al man".
S o , he picked up two o r three of them but everybody pooh- poohed
the idea and that we were tampering w ith somebody's l ife, but we
have helped people. W e had made up three units w ith an oxygen
bottle on a l ittle cart and if anybody had asthma o r breathing proble m s ,
t h e y could call us and they could u s e thos e . T h e y only use oxygen
when you inhale , if you needed it, if you didn't need it-it wouldn' t
(18)
�got d ow n . S o , we had those for a nu m be r o f years along with th is.:.
I can't th ink . .. safety supply , I think, supplied the inhalators. The
R otary Club got interested in the F ire Depart m e n t and th rough
(
C h r is E d e n , h e had a garage down at the corner of Lavinia and
N iagara B ouleva r d , h e purchased a used van and reva m pe d it , pa inted
it and had it lettered w ith . . . that it was donated by the R otary
C lub for F ort E r ie No. 1 F ire Departm ent as a rescue r ig . Th ey
started putt ing equipment in it . Now they d o this w ith m os t eve r y
F ire C o m pany nowaday s .
R.H:
When you h ave a fire does t h is go w ith you now ?
H . R:
The rescue r ig goes with it and they've got n o w , well, they've got
a boat and a trailer to take it and they use it in the r iver quit e
often. They realize the percentage they could gain from it and
I th ink most fire com pan ies .. . I don't know whether the K insmen
do it or the Rotary do it for every c o m pany , or whether the K ins men
are involved too now, but they keep that supplied. They've got
the jaws of l ife and anything that w e need for rescue , they w ill
supply if they know that we need it . They've been very good.
R.H:
(
H o w does the F ire Department maintain the e q u ip m e n t ? Was that
your respons ibility as a chief, to see the equipment was looked aft e r ?
H.R:
I had a chief d r ive r u n d e r the chief and h e was respons ible for t raining
h is d r ivers and keeping the equipment in shape. I f they needed
anything done there was a garage allocated to do it . Now , Charlie
C l e m e n t s , in our c o m pany, was a mechanic and h e had a shop on
C e ntral A ve nu e , h e d i d most of ours. N o w , I see that m ost of them
are into D ave S pear. He's got the build ing and the m e n to do it ,
so, h e has taken an interest in them h imself, that ' s why they . . . it
looks like that's where they are going to end up now .
R.H:
Did you ever have any breakdowns on the way t o a fire , does that
ever happen ?
H.R:
W e had an accident one day . Before the Q.E. was paved , I think
the one lane was paved and the other was a b ig hump that went
across the C oncession Road and I can't th ink who was d riving the
truck . . . this car must have came out of nowhere, an A merican Cadillac,
and all of a sudde n , there was a bang, he hit the backend of the
truck. This Bickle Seagraves was a well built t ruck, it's steel, it 's
(
bent and welded in place and there was a slight dent on the backboard
( 19)
�of the truck but you ought to have seen the front of the C a d illac,
it just cleaned it r ight off. So, w e had some proble m s for a wh ile ,
(
gett ing lawsuits and everything but as far as w e were concer n e d ,
we had the r ightaway. There were no stop l ights or anything, no
stop s ign and we blew the s ir e n and where this fellow c a m e fro m ,
we st ill don' t kno w .
R.H:
D i d that 'cause m uch of a delay in going to the fire ?
H.R:
N o , we k e p t r ight on g o i n g . W e d r o p p e d a man o f f and told h i m
j u s t t o keep t h e m a n there a n d t h e first c a r that c a m e along, get
him to call the police . The police were there by the t i m e w e got
back, fortunately it was a grass fire o r s o m e t h ing we were going
to on a Sunday afternoon and w e got back in t i m e to get th ings
straigh tened out . I don't know how the Town insurance made out
but they paid and w e never got a report back. That's the o nly t i m e
I
R.H:
r e m e m be r having an accident .
S o , the Town covered y o u , they paid for the ins u r ance and everything
like that on the truck and the e q u i p m e nt ?
H.R:
Y e ah , everyth ing .
R .H:
How about when you had to go th r ough the P olice Department for
(
the calls , the fire calls , how was that syste m ?
H . R:
That was excellent as far as w e were conce r n e d . We were very
sorry to see the P ol ice D epart m e n t give it u p . They seemed to
be one of us because they would go out to the calls and be there
when we got there lots of t i m e s , and they took an interest in mak ing
sure we got the proper calls .
R.H:
D id they do what Bomar did, like they had charts of the area and
could tell you approx imately where the fire h y drants and the streets
where ?
H.R:
Y e ah , everything .
They knew their areas
too,
the s a m e as w e d i d .
I realize why t h e y had t o g ive it u p , they w e r e b u r dened and that
was just another burden for t h e m .
B o m a r , I'd say the last w h ile
bac k , they've done pretty well as far as I can see.
They've got their
hands full now , w it h the areas divided u p t h e way they are.
They've
changed the boundarie s f r o m w h e n I used to be there and they have
to know their boundarie s .
they get a
North
End
I t h ink they get m ixed
in the
up
once in a w h ile ,
South End but that doesn't make a d ifference
(2 0 )
�any m o r e , they all work toget h e r .
R.H:
(
But now of course, they have radio- receivers, don't they ?
H.R:
Yeah , many t i mes there was fires and you didn't even know it , the
w h istle d idn't even blow . But now, everybody has a monitor in their
home now .
R.H:
When t h e y get t h is s ignal on t h e i r r a d ios , who do t h e y call ?
H.R:
I
th ink t h e i r m o n itors on t h e i r b e l t tell them w h e r e it is . They
can hear the o r ig inal broadcas t , and in their hom e , they have the
regular u n it on their table and it broadcasts everyth ing.
R.H:
A n d they carry these m o n itors everywhere they g o , r igh t ?
H.R:
Yeah .
R.H:
G o ing back, d id you know exactly where t h e streets a n d where the
fire was ?
H.R:
P retty well, anybody that l ived in the area . . .
R.H:
H ow d id you get in touch w ith the m e m bers ?
H . R:
Th rough the s iren and if they d idn't hear the s ir e n , we went w ithou t .
.H
H. R
R
:
D id you go w ithout ?
:
A couple of t i m e s we were shy , then w e blew the s ir e n the second
t i me and we got a couple of more out . We were never too far down
the roa d . After I was chief, Ken . . . before h e was chief even, he
(
took quite an interest in young men com ing u p and know ing the
areas . He had a book in the dash of the t ruck and if you knew the
s t reet you were going to, the number and everything, h e could go
to a page and tell you how to get there . He had it all layed out
from the main st reets , the cross streets and I th ink they p robably
s t ill use that .
R.H:
So, you s t ill, m o re-or-les s , do your own area unless you are calle d
for
H.R:
backup ?
If you ' re
called
up . . .
and
usually when y o u r
you usually go to the other hall .
in No.
1
are called
out f o r backup,
N o w , w it h the aer ial truck b e ing
F irehall they get calls quite often for the aer ial t ruck for
backu p , s o , they go right in then, to where the fire is.
R.H:
S o , you ' r e the only F ire C o m pany that has an aer ial truck ?
H.R:
It was bought for the Town.
so
R.H:
O u r hall was b ig enough to house
it
it was kept in there.
D i d you ever hear of a fire, or d id your dad ever m e n t ion a fire,
t h a t was
on a
ship
called
the
M . T . G re e n ?
(2 1 )
�H.R:
R.H:
(
No.
Never heard of it ?
H.R:
No. Where was this , in Tow n ?
R.H:
It was down by the S h ipyards . I believe it was a cruise, danc e , party
ship.
H.R:
No, and my dad worked at the Sh ipyards too, he helped during the
war at the Shipyards. He was chauffeur for one of the m e n at that
time but I can't r e m e m b e r hearing anything about a fir e .
R.H:
It w a s a large s h i p that w a s u s e d as a pleasure s h i p b u t it w a s o n
d r y dock .
H.R:
Oh yeah , it wasn't on water then ?
R.H:
I' m not sure, maybe it was on water but it wasn't taken out on t h e
rive r .
H.R:
Well, there's not too many people around any m o r e that you could
contact , that w o rked th e r e .
R.H:
Oh , I j us t wondered about it, that's alL
H.R:
One th ing that I forgot t o m e n t ion to you, in the old South End,
there was two boats built at the foot of Queen S t reet by Horton
Steel.
(
R.H:
Is that r ight ?
H.R:
Yeah , they built t w o b ig s t eel boats there, and launched t h e m and
everything.
R.H:
Do you know the name of these boats ?
H.R:
No, it's in an art icle s o m e place, in one of the F ort E r ie histories
someplace but . . . There's one of tJ:l.e books . . . 'the P ark C o m m is s ion
jus t put out a new book that they had for sale . We bought one in
N iagara F alls one night and I th ink there's a p icture in there that
shows . . . it could be the one that Al Spear had of F ort Erie, on the
Peace B r idge . But these boats were both duds of h istory, they both
sank, they t ipped over, they weren't stablized right or something.
I
don't know what happened to them but they d idn't build anymore,
they just built the two.
of Queen Street when
I
I
re m e m be r seeing those down at the foot
w as a kid, being welded together.
R.H:
When you needed money, you had to go to the Town C ouncil, r ight ?
H.R:
We had to make a budge t the same as anybody else . Towards the
end when
I
took over as c h ief, we'd prepare a budge t . We'd put
it in and then we'd e ither have to cut more and get along w itho u t ,
(2 2 )
�or . . .
R.H:
(
Who was the mayor then ?
H.R:
Yeah , J a c k T e a l w a s mayor t h e n and h e was m a y o r from . . . a lot
of the time he was mayor and I'm try ing to th ink who else we dealt
w ith, Charlie P r ice and . . . boy my m e m ory's going.
R.H:
You have some notes w ith you I see, what k in d of infor mat ion do
you have w r itten down that you want to tell m e about ?
H.R:
I found out that back i n t h e . . . from 1 9 0 0 on, t h e y u s e d hand-carts,
our area too. They graduated to a steam-pu m pe r , a horse-d rawn
pumper but we can't find out who ever got it , where it ever ended
u p or . . . we know that a fellow by the name of Charles Baxter had
a team and he would draw the s t e a m e r , the p u m pe r , and it was
housed in a barn owned by A rt Rose who lived in where the · E r ie
Lane is n o w . The barn is where R obo is n o w , the b ig barn, and he
used to g o over and actually the r ig was kept at the firehall and
then he'd go and hook u p and take it . But then, that was retired
when they bought the . . . it must have been in t h e early 1 9 0 0 s when
they got the Model T.
R.H:
(
The M odel T ?
H . R:
Yeah , and where the other one w e n t . . . I th ink w e did locate a couple
of the hand-carts, they were in a museu m down in New England
s o m e w h e r e . Some fellow had come th rough and saw these hand-carts
sitting in a berth in a lot next to the C atherine S t reet Pump Station
at one t i m e . I r e m e m b e r the m , and he said, " A m I in the firehall
on Que en S t reet ? " He must have seen t h e m w h ile looking .around
an:d they gave th e m to h i m , I don't think h e even bought the m , they
just gave them to h i m . I think s o mebody's got that steam pumper
s o m e plac e , we never located it. That's too bad, stuff l ike this should . . .
we've been down t o New England and all over and they've got museu m s . . .
they have the old hand- pu m pers there . . .
R.H:
Why don't you have a museum ?
H.R:
Well, to look for this stuff now w ould be hopeless I think, to get
a lot of it. We went to a fire chief's convention in New Brunsw ick
once , St. J ohn's , there was six of us went in my car and Harold
Morningstar was chief of the No. 2 C o m pany , myself and the c h ie f
of S t . Catharines , A rthur Birch a n d o u r w ives. E v e ry f i r e stat ion
(
we got to, we had to stop. A rt had a museum in S t . Catharines
(23)
�F ire Depart ment . So, h e was just look ing th rough them for ideas
and we got into one down towards New England s o m e plac e , in Boston,
(
but we were headed for Boston because we knew · a:· fellow there
that was fire chief of A rlington, just outside of Boston. H e had
a firehall second to none and I always wanted to see h is museu m
and firehall s o , we went there. But p r ior to that, we h it a fire statio n
one d a y and h e t o o k us upstairs and h e had glass cabinets and t h e
whole upstairs had everyth ing in it, pails , hoses, and it was leather
hose , hand sewn leather hose . A r t said, "I'd g ive
my
r ight a r m for
that " . H e said, "I got a leather pail, I got everyth ing but
I
haven't
got a piece of leather hose " . So, h e said, "You w ill have " . So, we
w e nt on through and h e called s o m e body, one of h is m e n and when
we got back into the roo m , here's a three foot p iece of leather
hos e . He had gone up in the attic and cut a p iece off for A rt , I
just can't believe it . When we got to S t . John's, New B r u n s w ick,
they had to pack a box a n d ship it h o m e , we couldn't get it in the
c a r . He had a field day that t r ip and I think that is s t ill in the S t .
C athar ines F ir e D epart m e n t , they have their m u s e u m there . B u t
we've gone t o o far d o w n t h e road now . We could've kept o u r stuff
as we went along but they just kept giv ing it away and they ' d forget
{
about it .
R.H:
What else have you got for m e in your notes ?
H.R:
I th ink t h a t ' s it .
R.H:
The first station w as the one on Queen S t r e e t t h e n ?
H.R:
Yeah , that's the one that I r e m e m b e r , I d o n ' t know w h a t they d i d
prior to that . T h a t had t o be bu ilt in the ' 2 0 s in order t o house
the M odel T .
you don't
know
what happened before
R.H:
And
H.R:
No, and whether the s t e a m e r
was,
that ?
the pu m pe r was kept there
whether it was kept in the barn, I can't find that out y e t .
or
There's
only one man that can relate bac k , maybe close t o this, is Ken M ino r .
H e ' s i n that p icture ( T h e photograph i n t h e J u l y
1 , 1 932
progra m me
put out by the N iagara D is t r ict F iremen' s A ss o c ia t ion ) and h e ' s
still
if h e
a
v e r y act ive exe m p t man.
I'll talk t o K e n s o m e day a n d s e e
c a n re m e m be r ' c a u s e t h a t w a s i n
and h e
may not
1 93 2 .
He was a young man
go back that far and there's nobody else left , they
are all gone.
(2 4 )
�R.H:
I
guess you don't even know when it actually started, the first F ire
D e part ment ?
(
H.R:
Yeah , 1 8 5 7 , that's on the banner and that's hanging in the South
End hall now .
R.H:
W h o were s o m e of the c h iefs , can you name t h e m again ?
H.R:
Yeah , there was Douglas , Bullock, Su mner, Nolan . . .
R.H:
C ould you give m e the dates too ?
H.R:
A l r igh t , the first book w e went through , was 1 9 1 4 and Lou Douglas . . .
I
figured out from those books u p t o . . . there's one set o f books m is s ing
from 1 9 3 0 , one s e t , a year's in there, but Lou D ouglas was chief
before and after the next book so,
I
th ink , h e was r ight st raight
th rough . S o , from ' 1 4 t o ' 2 9 , was Lou D ougla s , 1 9 3 0 , was N o r m
S t e iman, '3 1 , ' 3 2 , '3 3 , a n d '3 4 , w a s W . L . Bullock, '3 5 to ' 3 8 , was
Tom S u m n e r , '3 9 to ' 4 6 , was A rt Nolan, ' 4 7 , was Louie Harris, ' 4 8 ,
w a s A rt Nolan again a n d i n 1 9 4 9 ,
I
took over f r o m A r t a n d I was
fire c h ief from then u n t il ' 5 7 , nine year s . Now you've got . . . from
K en , you got Henderson and the rest of them u p to the present
day, r igh t ?
R.H:
(
I know you mentioned fire protection gear , d i d that change ?
H.R:
W ell, they modernized t h e helmets and they made waterproof coats
that were a lot ligh t e r , the boots are safety toed now w ith steel
plates in the sole . But bas ically it's all the same, you buckle up
a n d get a helmet on r ight away .
R.H:
ls any of it fire-proof ?
H.R:
Well, as much as you can get,
I
guess. The h e l m e t s , at one t i m e ,
we had metal h e l m e t s and t h e y w o u l d be fire-proof. Now they
,
are mostly p l a s t ic I guess the new
are actually fire-proof.
h e l m e t s , s o , I don't
t hink
they
They may be resistant but the coats, we
lost a few coats here and there w ith the hem b u r n ing and it would
b u r n t h r ough , they were canvas , r u b b e r lined a n d they were hot.
Oh , you worked in these all buttoned u p so that you wouldn't g e t
w e t and you were wetter t h a n if you didn't have the c o a t on s o m e t i m e s
when you got finis h e d .
The b o o t s were c u m b e r s o m e , they are g e t t i ng
into n o w , a little b it lighter weigh t , w ith p r o t e c t ive gear in the m .
R.H:
H o w old d i d you have to be to j o in the F ire D e part m ent ?
H.R:
I don't k n o w w h a t i t i s now but w e had
(2 5 )
2 1 when
I was
in that t i m e .
�You had to retire at 65.
R.H:
What about h is first-aid t raining, was there anybody . . . I know you
got people over from Buffalo to teach th is t r a ining, do you re m e m be r
(
who i t was ?
H.R:
Oh, Paul Uster was one of the ins t ructors in first-aid and h is mother . . .
he's a F ort E r ie lad, h e moved to the S tates and h e retired from
the Buffalo F ire Depar t m e n t and h e was in the alar m offic e . He
worked h is way up to the ala r m office s o he d id quite well. Well,
then, there was Ted G r e e n and Sy Donovan and they were officers
in the Buffalo F ire Training Session and they ' d c o m e over and put
us t h rough our pace s , oh , for five o r s ix months I guess, one year .
A lf d then, we took the A m e r ican R e d C ross first-aid training t h r ough . . .
oh, how cou i d I forget the man's na m e ?
R.H:
Was it D ick . . . ?
H.R:
Yeah , D ick S toll . He was tops, we lost a good man. I th ink h is
picture was s o m e place around where we had rece ived first-aid
certificates and buttons and Mrs. S taddon got involved in that.
She was w ith the C anadian R e d C ros s .
R.H:
(
You ment ioned that the m onthly meet ings were held at the Queen's
Hotel, and that's going back, can you tell me something about that ?
H.R:
Yeah , that's p r ior to ' 1 4 .
R.H:
S o , they were held there ' t il when ?
H.R:
Well, up unt il this new hall was b u ilt and I th ink that would be the
early '20s. We had a m e e t ing room in the back of the new hall.
R.H:
What about the old hall, d i d they have a m e e t ing room in the one
on Queen S t reet ?
H.R:
.
That's the one I said.
R H:
Oh, I thought you m eant . . .
H.R:
No, I had the meeting room i n behind, no , this new one was built
in '48 and the whole top floor was a . meeting r oo m . It was a well
layed out hall .
R.H:
And how often are your meetings now ?
H.R:
T w ice a month, second and fourth M ondays. I'd like to tell you
about one incident , we had a man in the F ire Depart ment, B ill N icks ,
h is picture is in that paper , ( The July 1 , 1 9 3 2 program me put out
by The N iagara D istrict F iremen's A ssociation ) and they put us
through paces. Every man had a fire hose spread out in the field
( 2 6)
�and every man had p icked up a coupling and another man would
go back halfway the length and he could carry, t ransport this hose,
hundreds of fee t somewhere, hundreds of feet of it around and no
(
proble m . So, this one night w e were working w ith the hose and
the first night we went up to the inside of the D ouglas School, up
the stairwells , we got r ight to the top floor j u s t by two men carrying
a length of hose and they were all connecte d . They could get up
there and then they could turn the water on. Well, the next n ight
they got the 40 foot ladder up the s ide of the bu ilding and all of
a sudden, u p the ladder . . . so, here we are, about 1 5 or 20 of us on
t h e roof of the school w ith all the hose and B ill N icks sits down
and he says, " What am I doing here ? " I said, " Why ? " H e said, "I
just spent $ 1 5 0 to have my gable ends pa inte d " , and you know, he
froze, we had t o take him down on a rope hanger , a saddle .
R.H:
You mean he froze up there ?
H .R:
Yeah , he just . . . he was scared of heights and h e d idn't realize it.
We were all together go ing up that lad der and h e went u p that ladder
and got to the top and . . .
R.H:
(
H e couldn't get down, he couldn't move ?
H.R:
N o , but these guys from Buffalo thought that . . . they'd never seen
anything like that before but they helped us get h im d o w n . They
knew what happened, h e just froze .
R.H:
But that d idn't prevent h i m from be ing a fireman, did it ?
H.R:
Oh no, we just d idn't let him go up a ladder but h e was a good fire man ,
other than that. H e got u p there that n ight and h e said, "I' m crazy ,
I j u s t spent a $ 1 5 0 to have my gable ends painted a n d n o w I' m u p
here " . He couldn't do anyth ing when h e g o t u p there .
R.H:
C ould you tell me where you got the money t o build the new fireball ?
H.R:
The Town supplied and built the new hall but the East Bertie F iremen,
through b ingos and fund raising, they own their own bu ilding. I'm
not sure whether the Town has taken it over s ince it has gone Region,
or what, but
I
think they _maintain it for the m . They just put a
new addition on themselve s , again, I'm pretty sure. And S t evensville
built theirs . They are a good bunch of volunteers,
I
tell you.
..
R.H:
So, does anyone get paid at all ? I know the ch iefs do but . ?
H.R:
The chief and the chief dr iver and they s t ill g ive a grant to the
(2 7 )
�total F ire Depart m e nt and it's up to the offic e r to dec ide who gets
any part of that. S o , every time you are at a fire o r a practice
or a parade , there's a p o int system and you divide that number of
{
t otal points into the m oney that's available and that's what each
one gets , a percentage .
R.H:
Is this a yearly grant ?
H.R:
Yeah , once a year . I ' m not even sure what it is any more now , I
can't even r e m e m be r what it was then.
R.H:
Thank-you very much for the in terview, it was really inter e s t ing
and I enjoyed it very m u ch M r . Ruch .
H.R:
You are very welc o m e , I' m glad I could help to get s o m e of the
info r m a t ion together w ith such short not ice . If I can t h ink of anything
else, I will get back to y ou .
l
(28)
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Oral History Transcripts
Subject
The topic of the resource
oral history, Fort Erie
Description
An account of the resource
Transcriptions from interviews of various Fort Erie residents conducted in 1985 by the Fort Erie Public Library
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Fort Erie Public Library
Source
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FEPL- LH - Oral History
Contributor
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Fort Erie Public Library
Document
A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text.
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview.
Rose Hearn
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed.
116 Waterloo Street
Location
The location of the interview.
Mr. Ruch's home at 116 Waterloo Street, Fort Erie
Original Format
If the image is of an object, state the type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
Casette tape
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Oral History - Ruch, Harold
Description
An account of the resource
Provided here is Harold Ruch's interview. He discusses such topics as:
South end
Peace Bridge
Bertie Fair
Fleet
Factories and industry
Fire department
Amalgamation
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Fort Erie Public Library Local History Collection
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
October 14, 1985
1980s
1985
amalgamation
Bertie fair
factories and industry
Fleet
Fort Erie
Oral history
race track
south end
transcripts