George L. Keller called a citizen’s meeting on November 22, 1894, for the purpose of organizing a hose company for the newly incorporated Village of Depew.
Hose Co. No. 1
Twenty-seven interested citizens attended the meeting. John Graney called the meeting to order and a motion was made by George L. Keller with a second from John Byron that, “We organize a hose company to be known hereafter as Depew Hose Company Number One”. The motion was carried unanimously.
The next order of business was to elect a slate of officers for the fledgling company. The following were the first elected officers. Charles Dutcher, President; Anthony Hartung, Vice-President; John Klepfer, Secretary; George L. Keller, Foreman; John Byron, First Assistant Foreman; James Youll, Second Assistant Foreman; George Waltz, Treasurer and George Weimer, Melvin McDonald and John Graney, Trustees.
The Chairman, Mr. Graney, appointed a committee of three to draft a set of by-laws and ordered an article submitted for the next edition of the Depew Herald.
On November 26, 1894, the Depew Village Board laid the matter of the Certificate of Incorporation of the Depew Hose Company Number One on the table, and on December 3, 1894, the Village Board adopted the following resolution.
RESOLVED: That in pursuance of the statute in such case made and provided with the Trustees of the Village of Depew do hereby approve and consent to the organization of Depew Hose Company Number One of the Villages of Depew as designated in their certificate both as to its form and the object therein specified, subject to the provisions and limitations of said statute.
And it was further resolved; in pursuance of Section 80 0f Chapter 320 0f the Laws of 1859 and the acts supplementary thereto and accendatory thereof, and in the exercise of the power conferred on the Trustees of said village, they do hereby ratify, approve and consent to the organization of a hose company called Depew Hose Company Number One of the Village of Depew as designated in the Certificate of Corporation there to annexed and for the purpose and object therein specified.
The following are the Charter Members of Depew Hose Company Number One: John Bryan, M.J. Conley, Patrick Conway, Joseph Dean, Charles Dutcher, Michael Farrell, F.L.Fischer, John Graney, George Harrison, G.B.Hemanway, Nicholas Keil, George L. Keller, Dennis C.Lawrence, G.H. Loe, John Lyons, Melvin A. McDonald, Thomas Meagher, Philip Mehl, William O’Grady, W.Y. Pattenden, George Stanley, Daniel Sturm, George Waltz, George Webber, George B. Weimer, and James Youll.
The original charter of Hose Company Number One was for a 50- year period. A report was made at the village board meeting on May 26, 1951, that Hose Co. No. 1 was re-chartered.
