By Phil Egan, Special to The Sarnia Journal, Then and Now.
(2015) Dawn broke that morning on a warm, clear day. There was no humidity in the air. A breeze from the river, at times brisk, swirled up clouds of dust on the dirt roads of Front Street.
It was May 24, 1859, the birthday of Queen Victoria, a day celebrated as the “national holiday” since rebellion days. Nobody would be working today. The streets were decked out with bunting, and Union flags flew from every public building and from ships docked in the harbour.
People were excited. In what would be considered the main event of the day, the Port Huron Fire Brigade was coming to town.
In a town constructed principally of lumber, fire was a constant danger in 1859, and the fire companies were celebrated. In 1859, Sarnia’s fire department was less than 20 years old. It consisted of 120 volunteer firemen in a town population of less than 1,000. Four companies had been organized; the Beaver Hose Company, the Phoenix Engine Company and their brand new fire engine, the St. Clair Engines and the Hook and Ladder Company. They operated from four stations clustered around the heart of the town.
The visit of the Port Huron firemen was “payback;” the Sarnia men had been invited to the recently incorporated city of 4,000 the year before to help Port Huron celebrate the fourth of July.
Cheers and salutes greeted their arrival aboard the Union ferry at 10:00 am, following a march by the Sarnia Fire Brigade to Ferry Dock Hill to greet them. A royal 21 gun salute was fired as the two brigades formed ranks to march through the streets of the town. Any fire in Sarnia would have been extinguished quickly on that day – both brigades had brought along their equipment for the parade.
Lunch at the Agricultural Hall on London Road began, inevitably, with speeches. The Sarnia Fire Brigade was invited to return to Port Huron on the American Independence Day once again.
Another parade followed lunch, after which both brigades were given time on their own. At 3:00 pm, they gathered at the Great Western Railway building near Ferry Dock Hill for dinner. The hall had been decorated in keeping with the pomp and formality of the event. The Mayor, Dr. Johnston and the elite of the town had been invited to join the fire brigades – 220 men in all.
Toasts were drank, but not with liquor. These were temperance days, after all. They drank to the Queen and Royal Family as the Sarnia Band played God Save the Queen, and to President James Buchanan to the strains of Hail Columbia. They drank to Canada and the United States, to the town of Sarnia and the city of Port Huron, and to both fire brigades.
Their camaraderie was fortuitous. The Port Huron firemen would soon come to Sarnia’s rescue in 1867, and ten years after that, there were so many fires in Port Huron it became known as “Matchstick City.”
But all was festive on that great holiday in 1859.