Pioneer Mutual Hook and Ladder Society (PMHLS) is a tax exempt historical society dedicated to all firefighters. PMHLS was founded on April 24, 1990 to establish a fire museum in Sacramento, California. As reflected by its name, the society honors the first organized Sacramento Fire Company, Mutual Hook & Ladder Company #1, formed on February 5, 1850.
The purpose of our organization is to collect, preserve, and display fire related equipment and memorabilia in a permanent museum. A museum fund was established to secure a permanent building to display the equipment and memorabilia already in storage, and for future acquisitions and donations.
On a sad note I want to report that Hardie Setzer passed
away on Saturday May 15th. He and his brother Cal owned Setzer Forest
Products. He was Chief Executive Officer of the philanthropic Setzer
Foundation, which has generously supported the Crocker Art Museum, California
Aerospace Museum and Pioneer Mutual Hook and Ladder Society. The foundation
has also contributed to the Sutter Medical Center and provided seed
money for the Stanford Mansion renovation. He gave to children's charities,
schools and the arts. Pioneer Mutual is proud to be a benefactor of
the foundation, beginning back when the society was first established. Mark
Setzer, his son, was a friend of our first Chairman, Paul Esola. They
came together to donate and be members of Pioneer since 1990. Hardie
Setzer was a fighter pilot in the Second World War. He was a member
of the greatest generation. His loss is a loss to his family and to
the whole community.
Father's Day Breakfast: On Sunday, June 20 we will be holding our 20th Annual Father's Day Breakfast. It will again be held at the Newman Center at 5900 Newman Court, near City Fire Station 8 and CSUS. Breakfast will be served from 7:00 a.m. until noon; the cost is a mere $8 for adults and $4 for children under 10 years. This is an all-you-can-eat breakfast with a choice of pancakes, scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, ham, biscuits and gravy, a variety of fresh fruit, coffee, juice and milk. In addition there will be a French Toast Bar. Bloody Marys and Gin Fizzes will be available after the 8:00 a.m. shift change. Come and start your Father's Day off with old friends and good food.
Station 8 Bell Tower: The Bell Tower from the Old Sacramento Volunteer Fire Department's Young America Engine Company #6, which has been resting at Station 8 since 1961, and has been restored by Pioneer Mutual is now going through the process of being placed on the local historical list. As has been previously reported, this is a long and slow process. All historical information, including photographs, has been given to the City's Preservation Planner, Robert Deering. The next step will be to send the information to a Preservation Director Hearing to make a preliminary determination of eligibility.
Pioneer Mutual Annual Business Meeting: On April 17 Pioneer Mutual Hook & Ladder Society held our Annual Business Meeting at Sacramento Metro Station 21. The following members were re-elected to serve on the Board for the next four years: Loran Wolcott, Tim McCormack and Phil Reif. This organization was founded in 1990 with the ultimate goal being to establish a fire museum representing the Sacramento area. Much progress has been made with the collection, saving and restoration of much of the local fire service history, but we need a lot more help. We are grateful for all the financial support you have been contributing over the past 19 years, but we could use more of your personal assistance. If you would like to become involved with our, no YOUR, organization, please feel tree to contact us by calling our voicemail at 916-456-3473 or send an email to pmhls@rcip.com. We thank you in advance.
Old Station 20: As has been
previously reported, Old Sacramento City Fire Station 20, located at Del
Paso Blvd. and Arden Way, will be vacated in the near future. We have met
with City and Fire Administration and Council member Sandy Sheedy, within
whose District the station is located, and we have their support for Pioneer
Mutual to have the facility to establish a fire museum. On April 29 we met
with Fire Administration and City Architect, Gary Szydelko, and we toured
the station and explained our needs to the architect, who in turn examined
the structure and determined what it would take to convert the structure
into a fire museum and what the fiscal impact would be to accomplish this
conversion.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Board of Directors for re-electing me as your treasurer for another year. For those of you who are not familiar with our election process, board members are elected to four year terms by the general membership at the Annual Business Meeting. This meeting is always held on the third Saturday in April. Four directors are elected each year for a total of sixteen directors. The Board of Directors then elects the officers at the following board meeting in May.
Speaking of the annual meeting, although we have over 700 members on our membership roster, the story is the same as usual. Fewer than 20 people attended the meeting on April 17th. It is a little disappointing to those people who put a lot of work into this organization all year. During the meeting our annual report was presented. Thank you to Tim McCormack for the excellent job he did in preparing the report. As for my part of the report, I will note that our cash assets surpassed the half million mark in 2009 with a balance of $533,087.29 at the end of the year.
In April Tim mailed out the annual member dues notices. The checks are starting to come in so if you haven’t yet renewed your membership, please keep me busy. Renew yours today.
I will finish up with my usual reminder of our next event,
our annual Father’s Day Breakfast. Good food, good friends and a great
chance to support Pioneer Mutual. I hope to see everyone there.
We are working on a number of histories and databases to preserve and organize information pertaining to the Sacramento area fire departments. Our plan is create a new website in order to share this information. My current project involves a database of all of the firehouses to serve the Sacramento area beginning with the early 1850s volunteer fire companies. There are plenty of gaps that need to be filled in. There are a number of fire companies and fire districts that didn’t leave much information or photographs behind. It is our hope that, by sharing and presenting on the Internet what information and photos we have in our collection, others will share information to help us fill in the gaps.
It is understandable that there would be a limited number of images or information from the 1850s, but there is also a shortage of information and photographs from the fire districts of the 1940s, 50s, and 60s. Anyone interested in seeing the firehouse list can contact me by email at pmhls.archives@gmail.com and I will email the list to you. Comments and corrections regarding the information would be definitely welcomed.
Tehama Hose Company (formed April 21, 1853), Broderick Engine Company (formed June 1, 1860), and the Good Will Volunteers are early volunteer fire companies for which there is very little information and no known photographs. We are also looking for information and photographs relating to the Highland Park Fire Department, Oak Park Fire Department, Colonial Heights Fire District, South Sacramento Fire District, and the Riverside Fire District.
Recent donations and acquisitions:
Rhonda Werner donated six glass carbon tetrachloride fire extinguishers that her husband Bob had collected.
Jacqueline Groff donated three Arden Fire Department badges and one Bryte Fire Department badge that belonged to her former husband – Charles G. Haeling who served Arden Fire Department from 1954 to 1968. Dennis Plessas donated three badges from the American River Fire Department and a belt buckle from the Arcade Fire Department. Clay Bassett donated a breast badge and a cap badge from the Pacific Fire Department.
We purchased a set of early fire apparatus torches. The nickel plated torches have been placed on our hand drawn 1890s W. T. Y Schneck ladder truck.
We purchased a retirement badge issued to Thomas Corrigan
who retired from the Sacramento Fire Department on January 5, 1964.
It was great to see all those who attended our annual Meeting. The
highlight of the meeting, other than renewing old acquaintances and B.S.ing,
was the unveiling of the 1890 W.T.Y Schneck Hand Drawn Ladder Truck. 
It was rescued from the chicken farm at Pollardville on
highway 99.
Sporting its new paint and varnished ladders it glistened in the sun. With its newly acquired whale oil torches, it took us back to the “maybe” good ole days. On both sides of its frame were hung twelve new Leather buckets ready to be put into service if the need arose.
Work continues every Tuesday in maintaining and repairing our equipment.
Life is not easy at times, like having to relocate two fifty-foot storage containers and our wood Seagrave Aerial Ladder Truck.
Hope to see you all at the annual Father’s Day Breakfast.
New Shop Member : Meet John Dorris 
John was born and raised in West Sacramento, attended Westmoor Oaks Grammar School and James Marshall High School.
He became a Fire Cadet in Davis in 1975 and worked CDF seasonally. He was also in construction and a reserve Fire Fighter for West Sac. He became full time in 1985 and is now an engineer.
John has many Hobbies, such as working on Vintage cars and classic wooden boats. He also rides a Harley and enjoys his yoga sessions.
John is very enthusiastic in preserving history in the Fire Service and will bring new ideas to help us in the future. Welcome Aboard John. Gil
In past newsletters we have asked for help from you, our readers, to assist us in our efforts. We generally don't get much of a response from such requests. That's not to say that we don't get volunteers to help us out. Our fundraisers, especially the Fathers' Day Breakfast and the Crab Feed, are prime examples of the gracious assistance we receive from our members. But it's pleas through this newsletter, which seem to go unheeded. I've often thought the reason for this is because our requests are vague: they don't address particular needs. Obviously, a different approach is called for. Following are a couple of very specific needs we have. Can you help?
We need a volunteer to serve as chairman of our membership committee and to enlist other volunteers to aid in achieving the committee's goals. The committee's chief responsibility, of course, is to recruit new members to our society. More specifically, the chairman will be responsible for increasing the number of our payroll deduction memberships from the Sacramento City and Metro Fire Departments; initiating a membership drive in the Cosumnes River and West Sacramento Fire Departments, and securing payroll deduction in those departments for membership fees; and developing strategies to recruit from the general public.
While on the subject of volunteer service, it is noteworthy to mention another gracious demonstration of assistance to our society. Pioneer has recently assumed the lead in overseeing the reconditioning of the cupola at the Firemen's Plot at the Old City Cemetery. It requires some minor repair, repainting and a measure of elbow grease to restore the brilliance of its copper roof. As word of the project began to circulate, a recently enrolled member of our organization—Ric Dorris, brother of John who was introduced to you in Gil's Restoration Report—has decided to take it on. Ric is from the Dixon area. He served as Chief of the Dixon Fire Department and as Battalion Chief with the West Sacramento Fire Department. Retired from the fire service now, he is the regional Director of Emergency Services for 1-800-BoardUp, a nationwide company that assists homeowners and businesses with the aftermath of fire damage. Pioneer is grateful to Ric for his enthusiasm for the fire service and for his eagerness to lend a hand.
Have we set fire to your interest in voluntarism? What better organization to devote your efforts to than your fire museum! We do hope there are those among you who will respond to this call for help. Email us at pmhls@rcip.com or call me directly at 916-456-8423, if you can lend assistance with the membership committee or with some elbow grease on the cupola roof.
Another item we could use some help with—not a volunteer
position in this case—concerns the fire alarm boxes and pedestals,
which Pioneer received from the City of Sacramento a number of years ago.
We have since sold most of the alarm boxes and all of the pedestals. However,
we keep hearing that there are still some pedestals that were never removed
from the city streets. Therefore, we have established a list to record the
locations of these pedestals and have posted it here on our website. Click
on Fire Alarm Pedestals in the column at left to go there. We ask
all members, especially Sac City firefighters, to take note of any such
stragglers while you're driving around Sacramento City streets. (One such
pedestals is located at 39th and J Streets; another is at 9th Avenue and
Martin Luther King Junior Blvd.) If you do notice any, please check our
website. If it's not already listed, send us an email noting its whereabouts.
We’ll add it to the roster. Eventually, arrangements will be made with
the city to have these pedestals dismantled for us. Keep a sharp eye out
now.
The following extract is from an article found in the Sacramento Daily
Union newspaper of February 1, 1854. It relates the exciting activities
involving the delivery of a new fire engine for the volunteer fire company,
Protection No. 2. It also provides a detailed description of the hand pumper
as well as the uniforns worn by the members of the various companies of
the young department.
Yesterday was a gala day with the firemen of Sacramento. The occasion was the reception of a new engine for Protection Engine Company, No. 2, built by James Smith, the celebrated builder, of New York. The engine arrived at San Francisco on the clipper Skylark, on the 15th January; was set up under the superintendence of the "Knickerbockers," of that city, and arrived here yesterday morning on the Senator…
The companies which participated in the parade were, the Engine Companies Nos. 2. 3 and 4. and the Hook and Ladder Companies Nos. 1 and 2. The Eureka, (No. 4.) preceded by a fine band, took up the line of march about 10 A. M., and having visited the lower part of the city to gather in Engine company, No 3, and Hook and Ladder Company, No. 1, proceeded to the house of the Engine Company, No. 2. The customary salutes having been exchanged, Alerts (Hook and Ladder, No. 2,) and the Protection boys fell into the line, and the entire procession, headed by the Eurekas as the escort, moved through Eighth to K, down K to Front, and through Front to L, where it rested for the reception of the new apparatus. The members of Protection, No 2, having withdrawn from the line and proceeded to the store of Messrs. Chipman & Anderson, where the engine had been temporarily housed, soon returned with their beautiful prize. Thereupon the line counter-marched through Front-st. to J, up J…to Eighth, and through Eighth to the house of Engine No. 2. The procession was in the following order:--The "Eurekas," (Engine No. 4.) the "Protections," (Engine No. 2.) the "Alerts," (Hook and Ladder No. 2.) the "Mutuals," (Hook and Ladder No. 1,) the "Sacramentans," (Engine No. 3). The uniform of the three companies first mentioned were red shirts, black pants, patent leather belts, (those of Two and Four being stitched,) and New York fire–caps. The uniform of Engine Company, No. 3 and the "Mutuals," were blue shirts and black pants—the cap of the former a blue fatigue with a pretty brass front—of the latter, the regular New York pattern. There was about one hundred and fifty firemen in the procession, not including the delegation from San Francisco.
After a rest of about twenty minutes the line again moved
dow
n K to Second, and through Second to J, for the purpose
of testing the new apparatus at the cistern at that point… The first
performances were from the pipe, Engine No. 3 supplying the water from the
cistern. The point aimed at was the ball which crowns the flag-staff on
Adams & Co's building. The ball is about seventy-five feet from the
pavement. The first trial was with a pipe of one inch bore; distance thrown,
from six to ten feet above the ball; the second was with a seven-eighth
inch pipe—distance, about twenty feet above that point; the third was
with two three-fourths inch pipes—distance, about three feet above
the ball. The engine was then backed down to the cistern and supplied Engine
No. 3; the latter with a seven-eighths inch nozzle threw to the ball, and
proved herself one of the "machines," but was washed in one minute-forty
seconds. The new engine was then tried from the butt, and threw twenty-nine
feet. The stream was solid and compact. For a new engine the result was
very creditable and satisfactory. The boys then "took up" with
keen appetites, and resumed the march up J street to the House of Engine
2, tasting, en passant, the hospitality of Ald. Daly, at the Indian Queen…
(The hand pumper pictured above is not the subject of this article, but one quite similar to it also manufactured by James Smith of New York.)
The engine is beautifully finished in all its details. The wood work is of mahogany, highly finished, and delicately penciled with gold. The box is 7 feet in length, 2 feet 7 inches in breadth, and 10 inches in depth. The air chamber is of burnished copper, in height 2 feet 2 inches above the deck, surmounted by a gilded metallic spread eagle, and adorned on either side with a polished brass escutcheon engraved with the name and number of the company. The iron work above the deck is polished, and springs are attached to the levers to break the force of the concussion. The latter are jointed to enable them to fold up over the engine. Iron work extends from either side of the front of the deck to a point immediately over the front axle, sufficiently arched to permit the front wheels to turn at a right angle with the box. The front wheels are 3 feet 3 inches, and the back wheels 3 feet 6 inches in diameter. An octagonal signal of red stained glass inscribed with the name and number, and crowned by a small gilded eagle, swings between bright iron stanchions rising in the form of a lyre directly over the front axle and connected above by an arch of brass, upon which is engraved "Protection." Cylinders 8 inches, stroke from 6 to 9 inches. The outlet gates are two in number, located on each side of the front of the box. Length of arms, 20 feet 6 inches. Extreme breadth including hubs, 4 feet 7 inches. It is provided with a tender and hose; three lengths of suction, 5-1/2 feet each; an alarm gong, and two pipes with extra nozzles. May she prove worthy of her gallant company.
This Events Calendar is published here to announce and promote planned activities of Pioneer Mutual, as well as the upcoming events of local associated organizations.