I had an article on firefighting in the early 19th century published in the June edition of Maryland Life Magazine. The piece examines how a rural Eastern Shore Town, Elkton used two old hand pumpers to fight blazes until those veterans of many a struggle with flames were retired after a steam engine arrived. The first pumper was acquired in the 1820s from Philadelphia, and the second one came to Elkton about 1859 when Baltimore was going to steam engines. It was an interesting article to research, and along the way, I found several interesting photos showing those old pumpers.
