On April 6, 1789, some seventy-two inhabitants of the Borough of Carlisle met to organize a fire company. The figure is to be deduced from the fact that seventy persons signed the articles of agreement at the organizing session.
The following article is adapted from a speech given as part of the commemoration of the role of the Union Fire Company of Carlisle, Pennsylvania in the American Civil War, read before the Union Fire Company on April 21, 2011. Much of the material is derived from research for an upcoming book, "The Union Legacy," that will be published for the 225th anniversary of the company.
The Union Fire Company was organized on April 6, 1789 by a group of citizens that had joined together to order a fire engine after a devastating fire in the fall of 1788. By January of 1790 the engine was housed in a shed built to the west of the Court House in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.