U - Newton Free Library

110 THE OLD COMPANIES.
NEWTON UPPER FALLS,
July 7, 1858.
To the Honorable Board of Engineers of the Fire
Department of the town of Newton.
At a regular meeting of the Mechanic Engine
Co. No. -t, held at their engine-house on the evening
of July 7, 1858, the following resolve was
passed : —
"Resolved, that we, the officers and members
of Mechanic Engine Co. No. 4, will not take the
engine out of the house until it is put in proper
working order ; as the machine is at present, all
the firemen of Newton could not work her ten
minutes."
Per order of company.
DANIEL G. RICE, Foreman.
GEORGE A. BILLINGS, Clerk.
The engineers lost no time in placing a new
lock on the engine-house door, which was the
form then used to disband a company.
Another
company was organized, with the veteran Samuel
H. Hall foreman, which was composed largely
of middle-aged and old men, and the ex-members
allied themselves with the Eagle No. 6 company
as volunteers.
The defects of the engine were remedied soon
after the new company took possession of it, and
new cylinders provided, which it is said were
surreptitiously put in late one night, that the