In 1783, many Connecticut residents gathered around the State House on Main Street in Hartford, CT to celebrate the end of the Revolutionary War with a huge bonfire. To everyone’s surprise, some of the burning embers set fire to the roof of the State House. Although the building survived it was so badly damaged that a new one had to be built leading to the erection of the structure we know as the Old State House today.
In addition to building a new structure, the State and City leaders of that time decided to get organized about emergency response. Therefore, in 1789, the Hartford Fire Department was founded. Each man was paid a shilling and six pence per day, not to exceed 8 days per year. The first Chief was Miles Beach.
In time, the "Great Hartford Fire Department" experienced many changes. Prominent among them was the hiring of the Irish, beginning during the second quarter of the nineteenth century. Hartford’s Kelleher family emigrated during this period and four generations of Kellehers have served in the Hartford Fire Department. When Captain Timothy Kelleher (now retired) was asked why his ancestors and fellow countrymen displayed so much pride in the uniform, he explained "in Ireland, during the potato famine the men sometimes had to feed their family grass, when they got to America and received the ability to support their families and be of service to the community, they repaid Hartford with excellence".
The Connecticut Historical Society has a large collection of photographs and artifacts relating to the Hartford Fire Department. The Horace B. Clark collection alone has over three thousand photographs documenting early fire department history. A few examples are included in Connecticut History Online at www.cthistoryonline.org. Additional resources relating to the Hartford Fire Department may be explored by visiting the Research Center at the Connecticut Historical Society, One Elizabeth Street, Hartford, CT 06105. The Research Center is open Tuesday through Friday from 12-5 and Saturdays from 9-5. For more information, go to http://www.chs.org/page.php?id=514.
