Was George Washington Really a Volunteer Fireman?
Historians regularly regard George Washington as the father of our country, serving as our first President and commanding general of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. Some sources also indicate he may have been a volunteer fireman and charter member of Alexandria Virginia’s first organized fire company. Is there any truth to this? Here is what was learned visiting the Friendship Fire Museum of Alexandria Virginia.
In August 1774, the Friendship Society, later Fire Company formed in Alexandria Virginia. Alexandria is a colonial era riverside port situated opposite and south of Washington DC. George Washington lived not too distant to the south at his Potomac River plantation Mount Vernon in Fairfax County. Washington is often noted as one of the company founders. He did serve from 1760-1774 as Justice of the Peace at the Fairfax County Courthouse then in Alexandria. Otherwise he was at the time a busy planter involved in Virginia politics and the growing discontent with England. As told, Washington has entries in his diary about attending meetings at the society. The Friendship Society, who knows as there could have been others and his diary does not specify. It is unclear if he was ever a company member of if he ever attended fires.
In 1775, Washington as verified by a receipt, did pay for the Friendship’s first pumping engine built by a man named Gibbs of Philadelphia. This suggests that Washington may well have at least been a friend or fan of this early fire company. Maybe he held something of an administrative or associate position. Given the some seven mile distance from Mount Vernon to Alexandria it is doubtful Washington could even hear the fire bell ring let alone ride his horse to the engine house or fire scene in time to be of much service.
Still it is fun to regard good old George as a volunteer fireman that at least helped this company acquire its first apparatus. As for the Friendship Fire Company, they were ordered by the Alexandria Fire Chief to cease fighting fires on May 17, 1872. Later efforts to reorganize did not bring them back to service. In 1952 the organization became a philanthropic entity their last circa 1855 built firehouse at 107 South Alfred Street converted into a museum as stands today.
