History Knox
Local historian Mark Sebastian Jordan authors a column each Saturday which reflects on the history of Knox County.
MOUNT VERNON — This winter’s weather has proven a good example of how difficult conditions can impact public-service vehicles.
For instance, snow plows in Ohio have already been involved in more than 30 accidents so far this winter, compared to a total of only 22 all of last year. But, as bad as that is,
consider what road conditions would have been like over 100 years ago.
Which brings us to today’s recollection, as recounted in the Friday, Jan. 26, 1912, issue of the Democratic Banner. Wednesday, Jan. 24 of that year, saw a remarkable occurrence on a Mount Vernon fire call.
Mrs. Mary J. Coile, of 302 High Street, telephoned an emergency call to the fire department around 9:30 that morning for help with a small blaze at her second-floor apartment. The fire department flew into motion — and then they got into a whole lot more motion than expected.
In 1912, Mount Vernon was still using horse-drawn fire wagons, including pumpers and hose wagons, as documented in the accompanying postcard image from 1910.
When the hose wagon team rounded the east side of public square on this occasion, they discovered to their great dismay that the bricks of that side of the square had been glazed with a thin layer of black ice by the overnight weather.
As a result, while the team was turning as they came around the square, the ice sent the wagon skidding, pulling the team of horses sideways, then backwards as the wagon slid in an arc.
The entire team and wagon ended up pointed in the opposite direction from that which they had been traveling! The hook-and-ladder wagon, following immediately behind them, did the same 180-degree spin, almost taking out a city lamp post in the process.
Shaken, but remarkably unharmed, the teams carefully picked their way out of the icy square and continued on their way to the emergency call on High Street.
Once there, the team found a rather perplexing blaze: a couch in Mrs. Coile’s hallway was fully ablaze.
The firefighters were quickly able to extinguish the blaze before it spread to the rest of the house. The flames totaled the couch and burned the carpet in the hall, but the rest of the structure suffered minimal damage.
No explanation was given for this peculiar fire, but one can guess that the landlord was none too pleased with it, because Mr. and Mrs. Coile are not found at this address in future city directories!