258 History of Hingham. 



built the tub and Ezra Leavitt made the wheels. The one for 

 " down town " was made by Hunneman & Co. of Boston. 



The engine for " the Plain " was completed first, and for that 

 reason was named the " Precedent." It was located about where 

 the' public scales now are (1893), adjoining the Hingham Centre 

 Post Office. The earliest records are dated May 4, 1819, and 

 show Moses Sprague to have been elected Master or Director. 

 The records continue through 1841. 



The other engine was called the " Centre." Both were com- 

 pleted in 1802, and were "bucket tubs" without suction attach- 

 ments, and had to be filled by hand. The water was then forced 

 through the hose and pipe. 



If one were to imagine a fire in those days he would see a com- 

 pany of perhaps fifteen men at work upon the brakes and attend- 

 ing to the hose and pipe, while a line of men and women stretched 

 away to the nearest water, which they passed from hand to hand 

 in buckets, emptying it into the tub, passing the empty buckets 

 back by another line to be filled again. 



The house for the "Centre" stood at first about where the North 

 Street end of Ford's Building now is (1893). It was afterwards 

 moved to Thaxter's Bridge on the southerly side of the Town 

 Brook, where the Anthes Building now stands. Here the old 

 " Centre" remained until she ceased to be used, except for the last 

 few years of her stay in Hingham, when she was kept in the barns 

 of Norton Q. Thaxter and Thomas L. Hobart. When her former 

 owners had all passed away, deserted, and no longer fit for duty, 

 she was taken to Crow Point and put on board a vessel bound 

 for Miramichi. A list of the original proprietors of the " Centre " 

 engine, dated Feb. 20, 1802, gives 124 names, of which 12 were 

 women. Dea. David Lincoln was the first captain of the " Centre." 

 A meeting of the proprietors was called for April 5, 1851, " to see 

 what disposition they will make of the engine," which will give 

 some indication of how long she remained in town. 



After the " Precedent, No. 1," and " Centre, No. 2," came the 

 " Constitution, No. 3." She was located near the Meeting-house 

 at South Hingham, and was owned, like the others, by proprietors. 

 The town paid for the building in which she was kept, according 

 to the Selectmen's Records : " 1805, Paid for building an Engine 

 House in the South Parish, $95." She was also a bucket tub. 

 smaller than No. 1 and No. 2. Her brakes ran " athwartships," 

 and not " fore and aft," as was the later fashion. 



The " Torrent, No. 4," was purchased by citizens of West 

 Hingham in 1826. Isaac Little was elected the first captain Feb. 

 21, 1826. The town paid for her house #141. 



June 16, 1830, the first suction engine, "Hingham, No. 5," 

 was brought into town, being built by Stephen Thayer of Boston, 

 and purchased like her predecessors by citizens of the lower part 

 of the town, more especially around the harbor, at a cost of about 

 •1600. Luther J. Barnes was her first foreman. In addition to 



