Look Back: ‘Old Neptune’ was used to fight fires in early Wilkesbarre

In the early days of Wilkesbarre Borough, those who owned wooden cottages and cabins were required by an 1806 ordinance to keep a certain number of buckets and one ladder in their homes.

The buckets were used in bucket brigades in the event of fires.

“In those pioneer days each small village had its own bucket brigade, which turned out whenever a fire occurred and rendered efficient services in battling with a severe blaze,” reported the Wilkes-Barre Times about the history of the Wilkes-Barre Fire Department published Nov. 24, 1904.

The 1806 ordinance came about after the December 1805 fire that destroyed the Black Horse Tavern and other wooden structures on East Market Street in Wilkes-Barre. Fortunately, a bucket brigade saved the old Wilkesbarre borough jail.

“As time passed on and towns grew larger, more pretentious buildings began to be erected and the danger of fire increased many fold. It was found necessary to have a machine which would throw a stream on the blaze an the hand engine was the result,” the 1904 story reported.

Another story about the history of the Wilkes-Barre Fire Department, published in the Wilkes-Barre Semi-Weekly Record on Oct. 5, 1897, reported borough town council in August 1817, agreed to purchase a hand-pump engine called “Little Neptune” for $300 in Philadelphia.

“In 1818, town council made another move and ordered the purchase of the old Neptune engine, which had been used in Philadelphia for thirty-eight years previous. This old machine was drawn from the Quaker City by a team of horses. It was later dubbed ‘The Wyoming,’” the Semi-Weekly story reported.

The Neptune took two men to operate as it was a hand-pump engine and would serve Wilkesbarre Borough until 1856.

During the early to mid 1850s, Wilkesbarre borough council would levy taxes each year for the sole purpose of funding a volunteer fire department.

Eight years before the Neptune was first retired, Wilkes-Barre borough council had purchased The Triton, a suction engine in Philadelphia for $850, which was also drawn by horses and came with 1,000 feet of hose.

The Neptune was brought out of retirement, so-to-speak, in 1867 when a fire broke out in the Theron Burnett tin shop on West Market Street that destroyed several buildings between the Grand Opera House that stood at North River and West Market streets and Voorie & Murray’s store at North Franklin and West Market streets.

Old Neptune, as it became known, came out of retirement once again on Jan. 1, 1874, when a fire destroyed the Fraunthal’s Opera House.

But the Neptune, being the borough’s first fire engine, remained a favorite and would sometimes be featured in “where is the Neptune” now type of stories.

Such was a story in the Jan. 13, 1885, edition of the Wilkes-Barre Record asking who had possession of The Neptune.

“Intimately connected with the memory of the old volunteer fire department of this city is the Neptune fire engine, an antiquated but in its time an effective extinguisher of local fires. The machine was only a small one, some six feet long by three feet wide, and was dragged by horses and operated by hand,” the 1885 story reported while asking, “where has Neptune gone?”

It was reported in the 1885 story the Neptune was taken possession by a coal mine, refitted and worked as a pump to remove water from the mines.

The last reference of Old Neptune found during a search of Wilkes-Barre newspapers appeared on Oct. 3, 1931, when the historic fire engine was presented during a firemen’s parade in Wilkes-Barre.