UPDATE: SCHS -- Photo of the Week / October 26: Fire Department Tournament, Bay Shore, 1905

Photo of the Week

FROM THE SCHS LIBRARY ARCHIVES

“How shall we know it is us without our past?”
– John Steinbeck

Fire Department Tournament, Bay Shore, c. 1905

by Wendy Polhemus-Annibell, Head Librarian

Fire Department Tournament, Bay Shore, c. 1905, by Hal B. Fullerton. (From the Harry T. Tuthill Fullerton Collection of the Suffolk County Historical Society Library Archives. Image © Suffolk County Historical Society. All rights reserved.) [To view the Hal B. Fulleton photograph, please visit www.suffolkcountyhistoricalsociety.org.]

A Bay Shore fire department, Hook and Ladder Company No. 1, was organized by volunteers in 1885. John Daggitt was elected foreman. By 1891, the western portion of Bay Shore had formed Penataquit Hose Company with Leonard W. Young as foreman, and the eastern section founded the Bay Shore Hose Company, electing the Rev. Charles Forham as its headman. Rivalries between the two companies were keen, both racing to fires and trying to beat its competitor to the scene. Finally, on January 30, 1891, the Bay Shore Fire Department was incorporated, creating and financing the fire district.

The fire department tournament developed as a major event in the early twentieth century. The Bay Shore Fire Department won so many tournaments that it gained statewide recognition for its speed and efficiency, which brought down fire insurance rates in the immediate area.

Suggested Reading: A Brief History of Bay Shore, by Etta Anderson Tuttle (Author, 1962).

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HOT OFF THE PRESS!The 2020 issue of Journal of the Suffolk County Historical Society will be published in November. The popular annual publication is available to members only. Supply is limited, so be sure to send in your membership request before the end of the current year to receive your copy of our latest JSCHS! Topics to be explored include ritual magic in Southold, the battle of Northville, a biplane landing on a Greenport farm, and the exploitation of migrant farm workers in 1960s Riverhead.

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