Fair Play Fire Co.

History of Fair Play Fire Company #1

In the summer of 1830, the first fire company in Madison was organized. It was named United Volunteer Fire Company and met in a one rooms frame building on what is currently the southwest corner of Main and Walnut St. On February 6, 1835 the town board voted to approve the formation of a paid fire department. However, this was short lived and within 10 month it was canceled and the job of fire protection of the city was returned to the volunteers.

On September 15, 1841, Fair Play Fire Company was founded by 100 of the former United Firemen which were still active. They adopted the motto of "Help One Another". Meetings were held in the same location and the fire company used "Little Red". "Little Red" was a hand pumper purchased by the town council and arrived in Madison in February of 1832 for a total cost of $646.88. In March 1847, the Fair Play officers worked with the town council to purchase "Madison" which was a larger up-to-date engine, built by Fleming Durham.

"Neptune" was purchased December 15, 1851 and was built by Ez. Green (Green and Myers - Second Street in Madison) and painted by William Peddie. "Neptune" was a hand drawn fire apparatus which used a long strong rope that was pulled by the members. "Neptune" is still owned by the fire company and remains in the fire house.

Fair Play purchased the first steam engine which was horse drawn on April 9, 1870. The engine was the first one manufactured by Chris Ahrens (Ahrens and McGrew of Cincinnati, Ohio). This engine had been exhibited all over the country and had beaten every other make of engine in every test.

The first motorized apparatus that was used by the fire company came in August of 1920. It was an Ahrens-Fox-Model J-M-2. This apparatus was replaced by a red 1947 MACK In 1848, the town council purchased a lot on the northwest corner of what is now Jefferson and Third St. to build a larger fire house for the company. However, in 1888 the fire company purchased the current building which had previously been used by Madison Street Railway Company. The fire company agreed to build the tower that is on the southwest corner of the building. A weather vane was placed atop the tower and was built by Peter Hoffman who was a member of the fire company and was employed by John Adams Repairing. The weather vane was called "Little Jimmy". The original Little Jimmy was retired in 1997 when a new "Little Jimmy" was placed atop the bell tower. The new "Little Jimmy" is made of copper and was hand made by Don Felix in Seabrook, NH.

More recent fire apparatus that served the community included a yellow 1969 MACK fire Engine. This engine was the first "yellow" engine in Indiana. The current apparatus used by Fair Play Fire Company is a 1994 E-One.

The current members of Fair Play Fire Company #1 have over 650 years of cumulative service to the City of Madison, Indiana and it remains as the oldest fire company in the State of Indiana.