DEATH OF FORMER CHIEF DAMRELL.
A Boston correspondent—well known in that city’s fire circles, writes to us as follows concerning the lamented death of former Chief John S. Damrell:
BOSTON, November 11, 1905.
“毫无疑问,你已经听说过死亡burial of our old friend and brother member of the International Association of Fire Engineers, John S. Damrell, a former chief of our city’s fire department. He had been more or less of an invalid for over a year, but the immediate cause of his death was a paralytic stroke, which smote him on October 30, while he was waiting in the depot for the train which was to take him from Dover, where he had a country home, to his residence at Charlestown. For a time the stroke deprived him of the power of speech, and he was conveyed to his city home, where he lay till a second stroke carried him off on November 3. He was buried on the following Tuesday from the Temple street Methodist church, of which he was a member, and whose Sunday School he had superintended for many years. He now sleeps in Forest Hill cemetery, his family lot adjoining that of the firemen. The funeral services were largely attended. Forty members of the city fire department, the majority of whom had served under the dead chief, attended under Chief Cheswell, as did the Charlestown Veteran Fireman’s association, uniformed, who acted as escort to the body from the house to the church. The Sunday School attached to the church, and a crowd of volunteer and active and veteran firemen and chief’s from round about, and representatives of the various organisations to which he belonged. The pall bearers were as follows: Superintendent Brown S. Flanders, fire alarm telegraph; District Chief John Grady; Superintendent H. M. Hawkins, fire department repair shop; J. C. Littleton, captain engine company No. 20; R. A. Denver, president of the Charlestown Veteran association; and Tobias Beck, of the same association. The deceased, who was born in Boston on June 29, 1828, was over seventy-seven years of age. As an orphan he went through the public schools, worked on a farm and then learned the trade of a carpenter. He became a volunteer fireman in 1845, joining Hero engine company of Boston, on the disbandment of which lie joined Cataract engine company No. 17, and resigned as foreman in 1857, when he was elected a member of the common council. In the following year he was appointed assistant engineer of the fire department and was appointed its chief in 1866—an office to which he was elected every year till 1874, when he resigned on the appointment of a board of fire commissioners. After having passed three years as a builder on his own account, he was appointed building commissioner of Boston, resigning that office only two years ago. On his retirement into private life, he was publicly presented with a silver service valued at $3,000. During his tenure of office as head of the fire department Chief Damrell fought the great fire of November 9 and 10, 1872, and was highly praised on all sides for the able way in which he handled it. Had he lived a few days longer, he would have seen its thirty-third anniversary. It was he who initiated and practically organised the International Association of Fire Engineers, of which he was the first president, and at whose meetings he was a constant attendant and a valued speaker. He also helped to organise the Massachusetts State Firemen’s association, and was a member of the Charlestown Veteran Firemen’s association, Boston Firemen’s Charitable Relief association, Boston Veteran Firemen’s association, Boston Firemen’s Relief association, and Massachusetts Fire Chiefs’ club. Of some of these associations, notably the Massachusetts State Firemen’s association, he had been, or at the time of his death was president. As a fireman, he was a man of progressive ideas. He was the first to employ a fireboat; he was, also, one of the earliest to make use of the chemical engine, the aerial ladder, and many other appliances that were new in his day. To the last he maintained a keen interest in all that pertained to the fire service and its betterment, and from his experience in that line as well as from that derived from his thirty years’ tenure of office as head of the building department of Boston, he was able to speak with authority on all matters concerning the equipment, training and discipline of fire departments, the handling of fires and the safe construction of buildings. As such, he was a valued member of the International Association of Fire Engineers, at whose conventions his presence will be greatly missed. As a thoroughly business man, also, he was fittingly looked up to, and frequently elected as president of the various associations of which he was a member. Personally, Mr. Damrell was a man of the highest integrity, absolutely incorruptible, one whose sole moving principles were right and duty. Hence, he was held in the highest respect and esteem by his fellow citizens and all with whom he came in contact, whether as a public officer or in a social capacity. By these, as by his friends outside of Boston his passing away will he sincerely and heartily mourned.”
