Stop 18 – A New Water System Brings Change

​

HYDRANTS AND THE HARNESS DROP

In eighteen eighty-eight, Nebraska City built a water works: a pressurized pipe system with fire hydrants placed along the water main. Steam pumps drew water from the Missouri River to keep the system pressurized. Take a look at the pressure gauge here. It was mounted in the original fire station in eighteen eighty-eight.

Ever wonder why a hydrant is called a fire plug? Early water mains were made of hollowed-out logs. Firemen would dig down to the main and bore a hole in it, so the pit filled with water they could pump from. When the fire was out, they sealed the hole with a plug.

With the new system came horses and a paid driver. Above you is a harness drop. When the alarm sounded, the driver led the team under it and lowered the frame. The trained horses slipped their heads into the collars, and a pull of the lever dropped the harnesses onto their backs, ready to buckle.

THE DEPARTMENT'S FIRST HORSES

Starting in eighteen eighty-eight, horses were the heart of the department. A trained team was always kept at the fire barn, with a salaried driver on duty. The first driver was White Handley, who served more than twenty-five years. The first horse-drawn hose reel, shown here, cost the city seven hundred fifty dollars.

Motorized trucks put an end to horse-drawn fire engines across the country. On March sixth, nineteen twenty-three, Nebraska City's last team, Duke and Dan, was sold for two hundred dollars. The stalls came out, and from then on it wasn't the fire barn anymore, just the fire station.

When the city got its first motorized fire truck in nineteen sixteen, White Handley tried driving it, though he was nervous about it. On his first run, he turned onto Central Avenue at Sixth Street, swerved, and crashed into the store at six-oh-six Central. The truck and the storefront were only slightly damaged, and Handley wasn't hurt, but he decided to leave the driving to others and retired soon after.