Lewis Tompkins Hose Co. #1

"duty first-pleasure last"

LTH HISTORY

This page was last updated on: 25 November, 2008

The alarm went out by early telephone to the villages of Matteawan and Fishkill Landing: "Fire at Tioronda Mills!" The wool room at the Tioronda Hat Shop had caught fire on a late August morning in 1882 and a desperate call was put out for firefighting help to save the factory from the flames. Unfortunate for the factory owner and his workers was the fact that, by the early 1880s, neither of the twin villages then had an organized fire department. Both Matteawan and Fishkill Landing had firefighting apparatus and volunteer firemen under different company names since the 1840s. But at the time of the Tioronda fire, only a handful of men apparently took an interest in fire department affairs. Fortunately for Tioronda that day, those few who showed saved the day. After the alarm had sounded, a few former members of the disbanded Protection Engine Co. of Matteawan hauled out their fire engine and hooked it up to a team of horses borrowedfrom the Matteawan Manufacturing Company. Another old member, S.H. Tillman, hooked the company's hose cart up to his horse and wagon. Together the two teams dashed down to Tioronda. Meanwhile, back att he Excelsior Engine House in Fishkill Landing, things were moving slower. The alarm had brought out only J.T. Smith and J.F. Schlosser to the little-used firehouse on South Avenue. The two men wasted fifteen minutes running around looking for the key to enter the building. When they finally got to the engine, no horse was to be had, so the men, (now joined by a third) began to pull the apparatus by hand down the avenue to the fire. Luckily for them, not too far down the road they were met by a team of horses from the factory and the Landing's men soon joined the fire. With the help of the two engines pumping a steady stream of water from the mill's raceway, the main building at Tioronda was saved. The fire was also fought by the hat shop workers, men from the nearby New York Rubber Company, and a carload of men sent by the New York & New England Railroad. Superintendent of the mills, E.L. Tompkins, thanked the workers and the firemen for saving the factory. "But for the timely arrival of the two fire engines," Tompkins stated, "the whole property wouldhave been consumed." That realization was not lost on Tompkin's brother, Lewis, either. Lewis Tompkins was the owner of the Tioronda Hat Shop, along with its main branch factory, the Dutchess Hat Works, and a third hat factory in Fishkill Landing. With no organized fire company in town, his factories would always be in jeopardy from fire. Soon after the Tioronda fire, Lew Tompkins began to take an active interest in a new fire department for thevillage. It was no coincidence then that in 1886 that new department would be organized under his name - the Lewis Tompkins Hose Company.

"Gleason & Bailey Hand Drawn Parade Carriage.  1889.  The woolen hat manufacturer Lewis Tompkins, patron of the Fishkill on Hudson, NY Vol. Hose Co., bought this carriage for display at parades, musters and fairs."  This is the information from the Hall of Flame Museum of Firefighting, Phoenix, Arizona, where this piece of LTH history is today.

1880s Hat Shop Factory Sparks Formation

of a Beacon Fire Company

Ben, Lewis Tompkins Hose Co.'s horse pulling the fire apparatus.  Ben was the only horse in the Beacon Fire Dept.

Ben at Hudson River Convention in 1909

Era 1900 LTH baseball team.  Elmer Steel, front left, became a professional ball player.