Junior Firemen

To encourage young men to enter the fire service in the 1890s, James Chadwick, the president of Lawson Hose, and Ralph Weston, the company's foreman, initiated a junior fire company called Lawson Junior Hose.

Chadwick paid to build a miniature firehouse on his property (still standing) for boys to practice firemanic skills with small fire wagons. One "engine" for little boys was drawn by a goat; the bigger ladder cart for older boys was drawn by a pony.

Partly for play and mostly for the sons of volunteer firemen, the junior hose company was nonetheless studied as a way to recruit and encourage potential new firemen as they approached the age of eighteen.