 |
| Left to right: Art Palmer, Sr., Don Black, John Tittmann, Sr. These three men were a motorcycle racing team. They competed in professional hillclimbing events during the 1930's. |
Arthur Edwin Palmer, the first elected fire chief in Continental Village, was a natural command person who possessed excellent organizing skills. He stood over six feet tall, and weighed about two hundred pounds. He was a U.S. Navy career enlisted man. He was one of the Navy's first Master Chiefs. He was trained as a boilerman for steam engines, and during WW2 he worked in a ship's engine room. The USS Delta (AR-9) was his ship during the war years. On board this ship he received training in damage and fire control—not to be confused with gunnery fire control.
He was the firstborn child in his family. His father, Edwin Palmer, nicknamed him "Tiny" because he could fit the baby in the deep pockets of his knickers. Art Palmer quit school when he was sixteen years old to help his family pay bills while his father was unemployed. He was a newspaper boy and a "soda jerk" at a pharmacy near his home in New York City. When his father was re-employed as motorman in the NYC subway system, Art Palmer did not return to school but continued to support his family. He got a job with Consolidated Edison during the depression of the 1930's. He joined the Navy Reserve before WW2 started.
In early 1947 he was assigned to Fort Schuyler in the Bronx, a Navy Reserve base. He was put in charge of the power plant and base fire department. While on this assignment, he received additional training for fire prevention and fire fighting.
He soon
moved his family, which included six children, from Manhattan to Continental Village,
where he had purchased one of the first three model homes built and marketed by
Winston Development on Sprout Brook Road. He bought the house for $10,500, and
he paid for it with a VA loan. Initially, he commuted to Fort Schuyler in the Bronx in a
1936 Ford Coupe, which had a rumble seat instead of a modern car trunk. Later he took the train, subway and bus to and from work.
In the pre-development days of Continental Village fire companies from surrounding towns and communities were the late-to-arrive fire-protectors to this small hamlet. Response time was unreliable. In addition, home insurance rates were high without a local fire department. The dangers of a chimney fire or brush fire in open fields where houses were not yet built, or a fire in the pine trees surrounding the lake, were a constant threat to homeowners.
By September 1950 Art Palmer and other responsible residents organized the Continental Village Volunteer Fire Department. These volunteers bought a 1920 Mack pumper and christened it "Old Betsy." It was first housed in the cellar of a barn located on the east side of the junction of Putnam Road and the north entrance of Tryon Circle. A house and lawn occupy this area today. (See Google maps, No. 76 Putnam Road.) The barn was located a short distance from the backyard of Art Palmer's house. Later "Old Betsy" was moved to a silo barn next to the old Cinnabar Dude Ranch Clubhouse.
Art
Palmer was elected fire chief and Sam "Al" Lazar was elected assistant fire
chief. Soon the volunteers were in motion. The early
volunteers trained near the Clubhouse and at various field locations. In time
they added a Women's Auxiliary. They organized and planned the first bazaar and
parade. They raised money to buy uniforms and they marched in parades. In the line of
duty they responded to brush fires and house fires as far away as Annsville.
Subsequently the fire department joined in mutual aid with other fire
departments.
No comments:
Post a Comment