Tag: Gerhart

The Humane Hose Company on Manor Street

Jim Gerhart, January 2021

Cabbage Hill once had its very own volunteer fire company. From 1838 to 1882, it served the West King and Manor Street corridors. Starting very humbly as the Humane Hose Company, it fought many fires and was a source of much neighborhood pride.

The Humane Hose Company was established in 1838 by a group of civic-minded citizens of the west and southwest sections of Lancaster. In August of that year, they purchased a hose carriage from a company in Philadelphia and paraded it through the streets of Lancaster, with the “uniform of the members neat and appropriate” and its members “entitled to much credit for their zeal and public spirit.”

First location of Humane Hose Company on the north side of West King, just west of Concord Alley. From  Moody and Bridgens, 1850.

In March 1839, the charter of the Humane Hose Company was approved, limiting the company to 40 subscribing members and establishing its hierarchy of officers and directors. The company rented part of a lot on the north side of West King just above Concord, and built a small frame building in which to keep its hose carriage.

In the early 1840s, a few of Lancaster’s more established fire companies had their own horse-drawn, hand-pumper engines, but the Humane only had a hose carriage, which was simply a large reel holding a wound-up hose on a four-wheeled carriage. The members of the Humane would pull the carriage to the scene of a fire using ropes, unwind the hose and hook it to one of the city’s new fire plugs, and use the hose to fill the tanks of the hand-pumpers of the other companies.

Remains of the first house of Humane Hose Company on West King. Photo taken in early 1880s by George M. Steinman, Humane treasurer, some 30 years after the Humane had moved from the site, and just before the building was torn down in the mid-1880s.

In June 1853, for $225, the Humane purchased the rear portion of a lot on West King to be the site of their new larger hose house. The Humane’s lot fronted 21 feet on the northwest side of Manor and extended 30 feet in depth. The Humane built a two-story brick hose house on the site, approximately where the rear parking lot for Reveron Electronic, Inc. is today, across from 424 Manor. The hose house was topped with a bell tower from which fire calls would ring out.

Location of Humane Steam Fire Engine Company No. 6 on Manor Street. From Everts and Stewart, 1875.

At the time the Humane’s new hose house was built, the company boasted 75 active members. Only six were property owners; the others were minors or those “who earn their bread by hard labor”. Their hose carriage had become old and was in need of repair, eight sections of hose were deemed too old to function dependably, and the company was $550 in debt. Other volunteer companies also were struggling with hose problems, and in 1854, the city allocated $3,000 to be shared among the Humane and four other companies for the purchase of new hoses.  

Humane Steam Fire Engine Company No. 6 on Manor Street, about where the rear parking lot of Reveron Electronic, Inc. is today, across from 424 Manor. This house was built in 1853, and was the home of the company for about 25 years. Note the steam-pumper fire engine proudly displayed in front of building. The Humane bought their steam-pumper in 1867, so this photo was likely taken shortly after then. Photo from collection of George M. Steinman, treasurer of the company.

By 1857, the Humane’s situation had improved to the point that it was able to purchase its first engine—a used hand-pumper purchased from the Union Fire Company for $300. The hand-pumper engine was a metal tank mounted on a horse-drawn, four-wheeled carriage. In the tank, which was filled with water, was a set of pistons that were operated by long horizontal levers called brakes extending from either side of the carriage. Teams of men moved the brakes up and down in rapid succession to activate the pistons, drawing water in from a hose connected to a water source with one stroke, and then driving the water out under pressure through a hose leading to the site of the fire with the next stroke.

The Civil War had a major impact on the Humane. The call for soldiers drew on the same pool of young men who were active in the Humane. In early September 1862, about 10 days before the Battle of Sharpsburg (Antietam), the Governor of Pennsylvania asked for all able-bodied men to start military drills in their neighborhoods, as the Confederate Army was moving north to invade the state. As a result, a large number of men from the “Hill” met at the Humane’s hose house to get organized. One of the speakers noted that 69 of the Humane’s volunteers had become soldiers and that only 18-20 volunteers were still available locally to fight fires.

By the mid-1860s, the Humane decided that it should have a steam-pumper like the one the Union Fire Company had recently acquired. A steam-pumper consisted of a steam boiler mounted on a horse-drawn, four-wheel carriage. The steam boiler was used to pressurize the water, forcing a stream of water through a hose directed at a fire. In 1866, the members of the Humane began canvassing the neighborhood for subscriptions to buy a new steam-pumper.

In early January 1867, after enough money had been pledged, a committee was appointed to purchase a steam-pumper. The committee went to Philadelphia to purchase the new apparatus, and a couple weeks later the new steam-pumper was delivered to Lancaster. The steamer was purchased for $2,800 from the Undine Steam Fire Company of Holland, New York, and had been built by A.B. Taylor.

On a cold January day, a parade was held to deliver the new steamer to the Humane’s house on Manor. Six Lancaster fire companies were represented, in addition to 75 men from the Humane. After the parade was over, the men of the Humane were anxious to see their new engine perform, so they took it back down to the square, where they fired it up and threw a stream of water 200 feet up North Queen.

In the early 1870s, the Humane is said to have declined in membership, and was saved from folding only by a reorganization in late 1875. Hugh Fulton was elected President, and the company officially modified its charter in April 1876, taking on the unwieldy new name of the Humane Steam Fire Engine and Forcing-Hose Company No. 6.

Lancaster City Fire Department Station House No. 1 in 1918. This house was completed in 1880 as the engine house of the Humane Steam Fire Engine and Forcing-Hose Company No. 6. The building is now occupied by Station One Center for the Arts. Photo courtesy of Ryan Conklin, Lancaster City Fire Department.

The revitalized Humane decided to move out of its aging house on Manor. A lot was purchased for $2,100 not far away on the north side of the 400 block of West King, and the foundation for a new larger building was laid there in 1878. The new engine house cost almost $5,300, and was completed in 1880. It still stands at 411 West King and is currently occupied by Station One Center for the Arts.

The grand opening of the new West King engine house in October 1880 was marked by a ball attended by 150 couples. The ball was held in the large second-floor room of the new house, which measured 40 by 100 feet. The newly energized version of the Humane seemed to be on its way, but within about two years, it went out of business when Lancaster City decided to take over the firefighting services that had heretofore been handled by the numerous volunteer companies.

In April 1882, the new city fire department was established, and in June 1883, the city purchased the Humane’s three-year-old house on West King for $5,200. The city designated the house on West King as its Station House No. 1, which would remain in use for many decades.

The Humane Hose Company on Manor is now a forgotten ghost of old Cabbage Hill, but in its time it was a formidable firefighting organization that helped protect the Hill’s buildings for some 40 years, as well as an important part of the Hill’s social scene.

When Did Cabbage Hill Get Its Name, and Under What Circumstances?

Jim Gerhart, May 2019

Tradition has it that Cabbage Hill was named because of the smell from the making of sauerkraut that permeated the air above the Eighth Ward, whose residents were mostly of German descent. But when did the name enter common usage? And was the name intended to be complimentary or derogatory?

The first written reference to Cabbage Hill that I can find (so far) was in the October 11, 1871 edition of the Lancaster Intelligencer, and the subject of the article may provide a clue as to the circumstances under which the name came about. The name, Cabbage Hill, appeared in an article entitled, “RADICAL MEETING IN THE EIGHTH WARD”, which was a lunch meeting that took place at Samuel Erisman’s saloon at the corner of West Strawberry and West Vine Streets on October 11, 1871. The sentence in the article that contains the reference to Cabbage Hill is, “The Radical politicians, scared almost out of their boots, by the outpouring of the Democracy of Cabbage Hill, on Tuesday evening, determined to get up a counter demonstration to undo the damage which had been done to the cause of Reed, plunder and usury.”

The “Radical politicians” who met in Erisman’s saloon were members of a wing of the Republican party that before and during the Civil War, had advocated strongly for the total defeat of the secessionists and the end of slavery, and after the Civil War, had urged harsh punishment for the Confederate states. The “Democracy of Cabbage Hill” was the German population of the Eighth Ward, who were part of a wing of the northern Democratic party that strongly opposed the need for the Civil War and called for a truce and peace with the Confederacy. The Republican party dubbed the northern Democratic wing “Copperheads”, a name meant to disparage them by comparing them to the treacherous poisonous snake. Interestingly, another name for the German Democrats of the Eighth Ward, in an article in Father Abraham from October 23, 1868, was “Sauer Kraut Gorillas”, clearly not a compliment.

The lunch meeting of the Radical Republicans in Erisman’s saloon was apparently an attempt to upstage a very well attended meeting the previous evening of the Democrats of the Eighth Ward. An election was approaching, and the office of Mayor of Lancaster was on the ballot. The Republican Mayor whose tenure was just about to end was William Atlee, and the next Republican candidate for Mayor was George Reed. Both Atlee and Reed were at the lunch meeting at the saloon, trying to drum up votes among the residents of the Eighth Ward. To encourage attendance, a sauerkraut meal and free beer were on the menu. Unfortunately for the Mayor and Mayor-hopeful, the meeting was poorly attended, and somebody forgot to make the sauerkraut, and after a few beers and a speech by the current Mayor that was “a weak defense of his administration”, it was clear that Eighth Ward voters were going to favor the Democratic candidate for Mayor (Frederick Pyfer) in the upcoming election. 

So it appears that the name of Cabbage Hill was in common usage by October 1871. Also, we can surmise that the Eighth Ward was probably not called Cabbage Hill before the mid-1850s because it was not until then that the central part of the Eighth Ward began to be populated. My guess is that the name, Cabbage Hill, came into usage sometime in the 1860s, but I have no further evidence to back that up.

As for the circumstances under which the name came into common usage, it is possible that it came about as a result of the political differences accentuated by the Civil War and its aftermath. When considered in the context of another name from the same era, Sauer Kraut Gorillas, the name, Cabbage Hill, seems likely to have been a derogatory label bestowed by the Radical Republicans of Lancaster on the members of their rival party in the German Eighth Ward.  I am going to keep my eyes open for additional information on this topic. In the meantime, if anyone knows of an earlier usage of the name, Cabbage Hill, or about the circumstances under which it originated, please get in touch with me at SoWeCommunicate@sowelancaster.org  I will update this story with any new information in the next entry for this blog. Let’s see if together we can answer these long-asked questions about the origin of “Cabbage Hill”.                  

History on the Hill

Cabbage Hill has a long history as one of Lancaster’s most vibrant and enterprising neighborhoods. Quaint houses, hilly streets, a diverse population, and many neighborhood businesses are some of its attractions. But as we walk or drive around the Hill, it is easy to miss the amazing amount of rich history right before our eyes. Just beneath the surface of what we see are a couple of centuries’ worth of fascinating stories about the people, buildings, and businesses that once existed here.

The William Paulsen family posed in front of their house and bakery at 560 Manor Street in the summer of 1902.  (From private collection of Suzanne Stalling)

I am a retired geologist who was born and raised in Lancaster, and I have always been interested in history. For the past fifteen years, I have been researching selected topics of Lancaster’s history, with a recent emphasis on Cabbage Hill. Much of my research has been focused on my Hill ancestors, with surnames such as Paulsen, Krentz, Scherer, Kautz, and Frey. In the last few years, I have started researching other aspects of the Hill’s history, including Christ Lutheran Church, Bethelstown (the first neighborhood on the Hill), and early businesses on Manor Street. Some of my research has been published in The Journal of Lancaster County’s Historical Society.


The 400 block of Manor Street near West King Street during the grand opening of the newly paved street in June 1923. (From Author’s Private Collection)

Under the auspices of SoWe, the Southwest Lancaster Revitalization Project, I will be using this blog space to share some of my research findings, and to explore with you some of the hidden history of the Hill. I will periodically update this blog with what I hope you will find are interesting tidbits of Hill history. Several members of SoWe committees are as interested in Hill history as I am, and they will be bringing their historical knowledge to bear by suggesting research topics and providing input to this blog.

The Plow Tavern (1745-1924) on the northeast corner of the intersection of Charlotte and West King St in the early 1920’s. (From archival collection of LancasterHistory.org)

I also want to try to answer any questions you may have about Hill people, buildings, and businesses of the past, by researching things that interest you and reporting back on them in this blog. If you have always wondered about an unusual building, or are curious about how a well-known family name became established on the Hill, or are interested in what kinds of businesses have operated in a particular corner store, bring it to my attention by commenting on this blog or emailing SoWeCommunicate@SoWeLancaster.org and we can try to find the answers together.

I look forward to sharing and discovering with you many fascinating historical details and stories of…..History on the Hill.  

Jim Gerhart