Citizens Fire Company No. 1 — Town of Stockton — 1890–1900

On March 24, 1899 the City of Camden annexed the adjoining municipality, the Town of Stockton, whose citizens chose to join the City after a close and hard-fought election. Stockton was comprised of what today is known as Cramer Hill and East Camden; all of Camden that lies north of the Cooper River was originally Stockton. Cramer Hill became Camden’s Eleventh Ward, and East Camden the Twelfth. Camden’s City Council authorized the sale of bonds to build a new firehouse in the new part of town, at North 27th Street and Federal Street (a library and police station was also built on the same ground), and in South Camden on Kaighn Avenue between South 6th and South 7th Street.

Prior to the annexation, Stockton had been served by five volunteer fire companies. These companies remained on active duty as part of the municipal fire department for several months after the annexation to Camden. They went off-line at midnight, February 28, 1900, relieved from their duties by the newly organized Hook and Ladder Company No. 3, Hose Company No. 1, and Hose Company No. 2.

Of the Stockton volunteer fire companies, the first to organize was the William Penn Hook & Ladder Company No. 1, organized on March 15, 1885 and incorporated June 21, 1889. Citizens Fire Company No. 1 was organized the following year, and in mid-1892 the Stockton Hose Company No. 2 was organized. Pavonia Hose Company No. 3 was founded about the same time, joined lastly by Rosedale Fire Company No. 4 a few years later.

Citizens Fire Company No. 1 was organized on December 4, 1890 at a meeting in the home of Ferdinand Sell on Sherman Avenue above Cooper Avenue (present-day North 27th Street) in the town of Stockton, which was made up of what we know today as Cramer Hill and East Camden. The company’s minute journal from that meeting listed the following members: Dr. William Kensinger, Joseph Dowell, Frank Hartmann, George W. Carlin, Frederick Smith, William H. Clarkson, George Marple, W.C. Rodgers, Ferdinand Sell, John H. Pratt, Robert Law, Isaac C. Stone, Oscar Rheyno, Jonathan F. Southcott, Edward Heimach, Aquilla S. Shimp, Abner Taylor, Samuel Jaquillard, Joseph Widud, Dr. J.A. George, Antoine Kenna and Dr. H.H. Sherk. Temporary officers were elected, the meeting was adjourned for one week and then reconvened to elect permanent officers. Frank Hartmann became president, Ferdinand Sell vice-president, George Carlin secretary, Isaac Stone treasurer and George Doerfuss, Herman Ladowig, William H. Clarkson, Robert Law and William M. Petzelt trustees. Several additional men became members at this meeting, possibly including John G. Schramm.

The company was located on Cooper Avenue opposite Cleveland Avenue on lots #13 and #14, section X in Pavonia, a subdivision of Stockton. When the streets were renamed after the 1899 merger of Camden and Stockton, this address became 715 North 27th Street. The two lots had been purchased in early 1891 for $250 from Alfred Cramer, a member of the company. A temporary engine house was built and occupied 13th of that year and a used hand engine was adopted for service. Prior to that date, members met at the Pavonia School or at a member’s home. The company’s first new piece of apparatus, a four-wheel hose carriage complete with hose and purchased from W.W. Wunder, was successfully tested on September 7, 1891 and placed in service.

According to the company’s minute journal, the Citizens Fire Company No. 1 answered its first alarm at 6:15 A.M. on November 24, 1891 at the home of R. Yeager at Front (later Harrison Avenue) Avenue and Howard (later Dupont) Streets in the Pavonia section of Stockton. This large frame dwelling sustained only $200 in damages. The company stretched 500 feet of hose from the river and played a single stream on the fire with great success.

The men of the company referred to their hand engine as the “Little Pet.”

In 1893, Samuel M. Welch Sr., a blacksmith who lived at what is now 1014 North 27th Street, was named Chief Engineer by the Town of Stockton. He served for three years, supervising the activities of the volunteer fire companies.

The company erected its new headquarters at Cooper and Cleveland Avenues in the spring of 1893 at a cost of $3,100. Edward Elliot designed the two-story firehouse which the company occupied on June 28, 1893. By the end of that year the company boasted a membership of eighty-seven men. On January 1, 1895 the membership voted to purchase a horse-drawn hose carriage for $585 — a Gleason & Bailey Pompier Hose Carriage (figure 610, number 0). On the twenty-fifth of that month the old hand engine was sold for $200 to Gleason & Bailey. The new hose carriage arrived on May 1, 1895, and a stable was built to shelter the horses. The company’s motto was “Where duty calls, there you will find us.”

When the Town of Stockton merged with Camden in 1899, the volunteer fire companies remained active for a brief time. On June 25, 1899 the Stockton companies rendered assistance to the Camden Fire Department when the Moro Phillips Chemical Company factory at North Twelfth Street at Linden Street was struck by fire, resulting in $60,000 worth of damage and injury to three Camden firefighters, Joseph Maxwell, David Andrews, and William Hertline.

The City of Camden assumed responsibility for fire service in Cramer Hill and East Camden at the end of February, 1900. With that, the Citizens Fire Company No. 1 and the other Stockton Fire Companies disbanded. Some of the Stockton volunteers ended up joining the Camden Fire Department, most notably Robert Gick of Pavonia Hose Company No. 3, and Elmer Ellsworth Stevens of Stockton Hose Company No. 2.

Many of the photographs on this website are from the limited edition book “Fire Department Camden NJ 125 Anniversary 1869–1994” and were taken by Department Photographer Bob Bartosz. Others are courtesy of Joel Bain of the Camden Fire Department and Vern Welch, grandson of Samuel M. Welch.