TX BIOS:  J. R. Meers? Moors?  McLennan Co. TX
   Selected and converted.American Memory, Library of Congress.
   
   Washington, 1994.
   
   Preceding element provides place and date of transcription only.
   
   This transcription intended to be 99.95% accurate.
   
   For more information about this text and this American Memory
   collection, refer to accompanying matter.
   
   U.S. Work Projects Administration, Federal Writers' Project (Folklore
   Project, Life Histories, 1936-39); Manuscript Division, Library of
   Congress.Copyright status not determined.
   
   00011
   
   Folkstuff - Pioneer Lore
   
   FOLKWAYS
   
   Wm. V. Ervin, P. W.
   
   McLennan County, Texas.
   
   District No. 8.
   
   AUG 23 1937 [???] [#175?]
   
   No. of Words 570
   
   File No. 240
   
   Page No. 1 Reference
   
   Interview with J. R. [Moors?], Chief, Waco Fire Department, Waco,
   Texas.
   
   "The first volunteer fire department in Waco was organized April 2,
   1873; and was known as the Rescue Hook and Ladder Company No. 1
   Colonel Wiley Jones was the chief.
   
   "I first joined us a volunteer in 1892, and after serving several
   months, I went on the night shift for three years and eight months.
   The night shift were two men who were paid to be on hand for night
   alarms. I went on as extra man August 7, 1896, at $30.00 a month. The
   only paid men were the engineer, who received $75 a month; the driver
   of the engine, $65; and the drivers of the hose cart and the hook and
   ladder, each $60. The extra men took the places of these men when
   necessary and if they acted in the place of any of the drivers they
   received double pay, or $60. for the month in which they did the work.
   I went on regular in 1898. I became chief of the department April 21,
   1917, succeeding Ed. Baurle.
   
   "One night in the spring of 1892, after I had joined as volunteer, I
   was visiting with the night men, and decided to stay all night. I had
   to sleep on a pool table. It was the hardest bed I ever had. But while
   I was there I turned in my first alarm. A fire broke out in the J. W.
   Winfred livery stable, and spread to the J. W. Blackwell toy store,
   which was a large concern; and also destroyed the Ed Straus wholesale
   hardware store. These buildings were across the alley from the old
   postoffice, and faced on Fourth and Mary streets, where the White Line
   Taxi and Baggage Co. are now. We got a number of the horses out of the
   livery stable, but some ran back in, and a lot of them were burned to
   death
   
     NOTE: C - 12 Tex.
     
   "In those days out where there was no pavment, the apparatus was
   likely to get stuck in the mud if it was rainy weather. One time we
   got stuck for an hour or more, or until mules were brought and pulled
   us out. 00022The place where the fire was, burned down.
   
   "We had an aerial tiller truck in 1893, but no tillerman, and the
   tiller had to be locked if there was no one on hand to operate it and
   the driver would have to make wide turns like he would if he had a
   trailer. The Cotton Palace burned in 1893.
   
   "In those days when I first joined the department there were mostly
   pretty tough men in it. We were right down by the redlight district,
   at the foot of Washington street, and no respectable people ever came
   down that far. There was no bridge, and the street went to a dead-end
   at the river. Many a time I've seen the hook and ladder truck come
   into the station with the redlight girls hung all over it.
   
   "The men all drank. The old chief drank, and of course we younger men
   thought it was all right for us to drink, too. I did, but one day I
   thought to myself that I wasn't getting anywhere that way, so I quit
   drinking, and haven't drank since. I was about twenty-five then.
   
   "When I became chief, I decided to give a chance to the men who drank
   and had never got anywhere, and maby make good men out of them, but
   there was such a small percentage of them who did any good that it was
   not worthwhile. There were only two out of about thirty-five or forty
   that I tried, and it took some hard work to get those two to do right.
   
   "A good many of my boys went into the army during the World War. Most
   of them wrote me regularly. Two of them were on the American troopship
   that was torpedoed off the Irish coast, the Tuscanis I think it was,
   but they were rescued.
   
   "Here is a letter from one named Robert McWilliams, who lived at South
   Sixteenth and [?lay]. He says, "I have just heard the sad news of the
   death of your little daughter." The chief's glistened with tears. "He
   was a peculiar man. He was quiet and didn't have much to say. When he
   got the call to go into the war, he said to me. "I'm going over, but
   I'll never come back." He didn't; he died in France of the flu".

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