U - Newton Free Library

142 THE OLD COMPANIES
EMPIRE No. 5.
NEWTON CORNER.
1806-1807.
At the burning of the carriage and blacksmith
shops of Mosher and Tucker and others,
at Newton Corner, July 11, 1866, the Nonantum
No. 5 engine failed to perform the duty required
of it, and the need of another engine was made
apparent.
A public meeting of the citizens was subsequently
held, and assistant engineers J. W. Bailey
and Orrin Harris Avere instructed to purchase
another engine.
The Washington No. 5 of
Charlestown, a splendid side-stroke Jeffers engine,
now owned by the Peabodv Veteran Firemen's
Union, was the engine desired, but for
some reason or other it could not be purchased
at that time, and the Empire No. 5, a large
seven-inch Leslie machine, was purchased of
the city of Lynn, and a more unsuitable engine
for Newton could hardly have been found, as it
was much too heavy and cumbersome for the
number of men available to work it and for the
service required of it.
The greatest benefit ever
derived from its possession w T as, that it hastened
the purchase of a steam tire-engine.
A one-story, shed-like building, barely large