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Rough ‘N’ Tumble History: Fire-Fighters [Literally] by Mark Hatmaker

 


Fighting, to a firefighter in the early US was literal in two senses of the word.

A)  You fought fires and…

B)   You were often a fighter expected to literally “fight” other human beings at the scene of the conflagration.

Let’s turn back the clock to early America when practically all dwellings were made of wood, patched with pitch, illuminated with open flames or rickety vessels of coal oil.

Let’s add cigarettes and cigars and pipes and a lucifer [striking match] in most every hand.

Let’s add open flames being the primary source of warmth.

With all of these additions I think we might see just how dangerous early incarnations of the firefighting job were.

Now about that fighting other humans bit of the early job description.

Let’s have a look at the why.

In the early days of the firefighting game the “fire departments” were, shall we say, competitive. They earned according to the number of fires doused. This quota incentive led to a few nefarious practices, among them a bit of salary-earning acts of arson.

And…hell and high-water races to get to the scene of a fire.

Rival departments used the schoolyard “I was here first!” rule to earn fire-money.

With that in mind, the fastest musters [assemblage of men and gear] who could get there first was at a premium.

In a game where speed counts, fire musters became faster and faster. Speedy fire musters are still used today in the profession and in competitive fireman games.

What was different then, was that as each department gained speed and fire-money being on the line, brawls at the scene of the fire to be the first to get the pumps going and earn the prize became a bit of a usual thing. Scuffles to pull the other team off of their pump started turning into wholesale warfare.

Recruiting for fire departments became less about those with altruistic fire-dousing souls and more about adding brawlers, bruisers, and rough and tumblers who could secure the fire-money prize.

In New York in the 1830s the Old Maid [Number 15] Engine Company had on their rosters such noted brawlers as Johnny McCleester, the Chanfrau brothers, and San Banta a friend and protégé of early pugilist Yankee Sullivan. [San Banta was present in San Francisco when Sullivan was lynched by vigilantes—more on that another day.]

Over at Number 40, the Lady Washington Engine Company, they had Old Mose himself the leader of the brutal Bowery B’hoys gang, Big Jim Jeroloman a 6’ 4” shipbuilder and pugilist, and a gent known as Orange County who hobbed his boots with protruding nails for better stomping. [See all of the Lumberjack entries in this blog for more on this.]

Big Jim Jeroloman, in spite of his size, strength, and fistic prowess, was a notorious biter, he often complained that he could never go far in the professional fight game as he could not resist the temptation to bite. He was so adept at this game he makes Mike Tyson look like a finicky eater. Most Big Jim opponents left with at least a half-dozen bitemarks along their neck and shoulders.

The fireside brawls were chockful of swinging fists, booted kicks, stomps galore, and lots and lots of windpipe punches.

This was not merely a New York “thing”, historian Amy Greenberg in Cause for Alarm: The Volunteer Fire Department in the 19th-Century, has dutifully noted similar brawling in St. Louis, San Francisco, Baltimore, Boston and other cities.

We’ll dig a bit deeper into more of this early lore another day, but in the meantime, we can be thankful that when we see a fire engine racing to do some good that we never once have the thought “I bet someone is getting stomped tonight.”

For today’s Old School Rough n Ready Fire-Inspired Challenge

 

THE BUCKET BRIGADE ¼ MILE

·        Grab a bucket, a 5-gallon one is ideal.

·        Fill it to the brim.

·        Mark out 50 paces from your heavy-bag, BOB, partner, or attack stand-in of choice.

·        Grab that bucket, sprint to the “Opposing Fireman” lickety split, spilling as little water as possible.

·        Set the bucket down…

·        Sprint fight for 30 seconds.

·        Grab that bucket, sprint aback to your mark and repeat…

·        X’s 5.

·        Keep the lungs burning hot, hotter than the imaginary fire you are trying to put out.

 

[Excerpted from our book ROUGH & READY: Old World Strength & Conditioning for Modern Warriors. See here for more Old School Tactics and Evil historically accurate and viciously verified see any of the below resources.]

The Black Box Training Warehouse

The Indigenous Ability Blog

The Rough ‘n’ Tumble Raconteur Podcast

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