| Local history as it is presented here often seems so much more meaningful because we relate to it in so many ways. As of this writing, our community's rich historical heritage has just received a boost with the signing of legislation creating a 100-mile corridor intended to revitalize the original Illinois and Michigan Canal. This act of Congress will assuredly affect many of our own residents in this area, since many of those associated in some fashion with this canal are our own ancestors and former acquaintances. As these names and events are recaptured in the years ahead, more and more interest will build within the community reflecting upon our past and in tracing our roots back to the days of this historical era. Projects similar to this one will rekindle thoughts about the "olden days", because they will concentrate on the very institutions that became the lifeblood of communities like ours. |
In this report, our attention will focus solely on one of these community institutions - that being the Lockport Fire Department.
Together we plan to highlight its origin, growth and current operations, and in doing so, many prominent citizens of Lockport who played a part in this process will be identified and lauded for their contributions. As a result of this study, our local history will enrich and touch each of you who read these historical accounts, for surely as we have mentioned it above, the reader will come away from this experience recounting vividly either that person or event they remember in the "good ole days gone by" which were an integral part of the history of the Lockport Fire Department.
Herein lies the intrinsic value of local history for anyone desiring to read or study it. All of us can thank our local historical societies and the architects of the I & M Canal Corridor project, for the limelight will now shine on us as we recall the way we were. |
Credits for the contents of the report are extended to numerous groups and individuals who lent their time and energies to the author as he went about accumulating the information contained here. Specifically,
thanks are given to the U.S. History students in my classes who worked feverishly interviewing those associated with the fire department. Their work established the base from which this report stems. These other people listed here were interviewed and consulted about their recollections of the fire department, and their testimony proved invaluable to what follows. I'd like to single these people out and identify the particular role they played in the history of our department. Such a list would include:
- Chief James Miller
- Former Chief & Trustee Carl Munson
- Trustee Howard Adelmann
- Former Trustee Orman Harrison
- Former Commissioner Clarence Woock
- Former Commissioner Roland Lif
- Assistant Chief Charles Findlay
The testimony of these fire department personnel serve as the base for much of the historical commentary that appears in this study. Written texts are sketchy at best and offer little help to either the unveiling of characters or events in the department's past.
Given the scope purpose and intent of the research as set forth here, it is time to turn to chapter one of the history of Lockport's fire services acquainting ourselves with its inception and subsequent growth.
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