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recommendations of said Committee on fire protection in procuring fire fighting apparatus that will comply with the requirements of the insurance companies in raising our village from a fifth rate to a fourth rate town. Carried.

    Duly note we are not just some fifth-rate town.

Moved and seconded that the Chairmen of the finance and street committees and the president of the village board negotiate with the American La France Fire Engine Company and procure their best terms and purchase one double 35 gallon Chemical Engine [rather than using a pump, the water pressure in a chemical engine was generated by combining water, soda, and acid in a sealed tank] as per specifications furnished by their agent T. R. Johnstone under date of June 3rd and exhibited in writing. Carried.

    If you’re going to have a fire truck, you better have a fire chief. And he’ll need minions and underlings. We move to July 1, 1905:

Moved and seconded that for the purpose of organizing a volunteer fire company we hereby appoint Thomas W. Peterson as Fire Chief he to select his own assistants. Carried.

    On August 2, 1905, it was time to kick the tires:

The Chemical Engine which was shipped by the LaFrance Company having arrived the president appointed a committee to check over invoice of paraphernalia and to see that the village gets a good demonstration of what the engine will do.

    Three days pass. In minutes dated August 5, 1905, it appears agent T. R. Johnstone had a bad day:

The exhibition given by the agent was not satisfactory to the board and they asked Mr. Johnstone to give them a further demonstration to show what a chemical engine could accomplish.
The representative of the company agreed to do this on Monday, August 7, and the board adjourned to await the call of the president.

    So they chewed the whole thing over for a few days. I imagine T.R. Johnstone in a room at the Hotel Auburn, downing stomach powders and calculating lost commissions. I don’t think he ever had anything to worry about. Small-town folk want to appear skeptic and shrewd, but more than that, we really, really want the newfangled doodad. I imagine the board members met around town and did some dismissive bloviating, but you can hear corollary expositions in the local café to this very day, when some local goes on at length and volume about the frivolous vacuity of satellite television or Indian casinos, then hurries home to watch Silk Stalkings before catching the courtesy bus to bingo night. We know we’re rubes, we just don’t want to be taken for rubes. So they made old T.R. sweat some, and they performed some procedural gymnastics, but on August 10, 1905, New Auburn got itself a fire truck:

Board met in special session at call of President to make settlement of the matter of the chemical engine…the committee on Engine reported that they did not prepare another demonstration feeling that it would not satisfy all, there being so much sentiment against the engine, and thus they would save extra cost. The committee was satisfied that the first exhibition was not a fair test. Committee’s report was on motion, seconded. Adopted.
Moved and seconded to postpone the acceptance and settlement till some future time. Motion lost.
Motion made that we reject this engine. Motion lost.
Motion and second that we accept the engine and that the President and Clerk be authorized to draw an order for ($200) two hundred dollars to make first payment on contract and to sign all necessary warrants in settlement of the same. Carried by unanimous vote. Moved and carried to adjourn.

    Really, the village board deserves a little credit. In the space of three months, our burg went from appropriated buckets to a full-blown department. From fifth rate to fourth rate.
    The chief arranged to store the fire engine at the village hall. The local marshal hauled it to fire scenes at a buck a shot. (The same minutes that indicate the marshal was paid $4 for hauling the fire engine to four