Ancient Engine Society, Although Admittedly Efficient, Disbanded by College Regent, Wet and in High Dudgeon

That Harvard once boasted its own fire department, manned by undergraduate fire fighters, was revealed by a search in old University archives.

The destruction of Harvard Hall by fire in 1764 called forth the gift of an engine, which was manned by a group of kindred spirits known as the Engine Society. This organization was very select and it was considered a high honor to be numbered in its ranks.

Since there were few alarms in the vicinity, the engine company sought other fields to conquer, and exercised their skill abroad, particularly in Boston. Following their labors on behalf of Boston's citizens, the University firefighters invariably held a dinner or supper in town before returning to Cambridge, by way of celebrating the conflagration. Little is known of these dinners, but it appears that water, which flowed so freely from their pumps, was little used as a beverage once the fire had been quenched.

One of the most famous of undergraduate poetic flights, "the Rebellisd," in which the Sophomore uprising of 1819 is told with flowing humor, had its inception among members of the Engine Society, and was first read at one of their post-alarm dinners in Boston.

An inordinate zeal for pumping, three years later, sounded the death knell for the volunteer firemen. At one of the company's drills, either out of malice, or because the chief of the company was not entirely certain of his bearings, the room of the College Regent was chosen as the scene of the "fire". Not until this "fire" had been thoroughly extinguished by gallons of water directed through an open window did the furious pumpers desist, and only when the window was closed by the saturated occupant of the room, was the drill declared over.

Shortly afterwards, as a result of this flood, the authorities declared the Engine Society disbanded, and Harvard's first and last fire department was a thing of the past.