In this post, we are featuring our 1889 Gleason & Bailey Hand Drawn Parade Carriage which currently resides in in Gallery I at the Hall of Flame Museum.
For many years after its invention in 1807, riveted leather hose was an expensive part of a fire department’s inventory. Only the wealthiest volunteers could afford to organize hose companies, and they commissioned builders to make elaborate rigs to carry the hose. By 1870 inexpensive cotton and canvas hose was replacing the leather variety, and practical but plain hose carts were the norm.
Not to be deprived of their beautiful carriages, hose companies ordered even more highly decorated, extremely expensive versions of the old carriages, intended only for use in parades or ceremonial occasions. Many modern departments follow this tradition by carefully restoring their old fire engines for parades.
This rig, decorated with elegant engravings, is a great example of such a parade carriage. The woolen hat manufacturer Lewis Tompkins, patron of the Fishkill on Hudson, New York Volunteer Hose Company, bought her for display at parades, musters and fairs. Her New York City maker, Gleason & Bailey, also made an extensive variety of fire apparatus. She was restored by Don Hale.
