Fredericksburg Honors Old Apparatus
“Lily of the Swamp” is not a very suggestive name. It fails to convey the affection that the community of Fredericksburg, Md., has for a steam pumper that has served the city for fifty years.
The engine was delivered on February 22, 1878, and was built by Clapp and Jones Manufacturing Co., Hudson, N. Y. It was sold on the guarantee that it would deliver a better fire stream than the apparatus then in service in that district. The pump fulfilled its guarantee.
With the development of motorized apparatus, “Lily of the Swamp” was held as a reserve piece of apparatus. But recently a program has been held to honor the fiftieth anniversary of the steam engine. Her old time crew forgot their rheumatic pains and had the old machine pumping to show that it could still deliver a good sized stream. The veteran member was fully honored in song and story at a banquet held in the evening.
