OCTOBER is FIRE PREVENTION MONTH

Cortland Volunteer Fire Department (1960’s)

Chief?

How are you today, Chief? (As I recall, I wasn’t even in my teens and ‘chief’ of nothing.)

The question came from the always-smiling face of Herm McLaughlin who actually had been the Chief of the Cortland Volunteer Fire Department. He lived next to the fire station and owned The Corner Store on Main and High (which was smaller than a couple of snack isles in a 21st century convenience store).

SOURCE article for the photo above contains an even more interesting article about Cortland from a tragic story which some of you may have read or seen on WKBN earlier this year.

https://www.wkbn.com/news/cold-case/search-on-almost-50-years-later-for-killers-of-cortland-couple/

An earlier history

A Cortland Volunteer Fire Department was organized in 1885, and consisted of a bucket brigade. Later, a tanker with a manpowered pump was obtained. The water was drawn from the mill pond on Walnut Run. Later, cisterns were dug at strategic locations about the town. A water system, completed in 1939, provided fire hydrants, another big step for the betterment of Cortland.

The old fire station, built in 1885, was torn down and replaced with a modern structure in 1949.

Source: CityofCortland.org website (which every Cortland resident should visit), which is full of interesting and useful information.

Some family memories from Cortland

My dad, Bill Harned was just another volunteer fireman, who built houses nearby and like all the other volunteer firemen dropped everything when Herm pushed the button to ring the fire siren from his house next door to the volunteer fire department. (This was not an uncommon scene for Bazetta, Fowler, Howland, Champion or any other volunteer fire department nearby which frequently cooperated with other stations for big fires anywhere in Trumbull County.)

It may have been during the time my Grandpa Al Harned was Mayor of the Village of Cortland and local traffic court Judge (also volunteer positions) at the time when he was Superintendent of the failing Richards Milling Company. Not many people buying oats for their horses anymore in Trumbull County since the 50’s. My Grandma Gen owned the last horses in Cortland, ‘grandfathered in’ as an exception to owning a farm animal within the Village Limits (now the site of Harned’s Landing). It was where dad, Bob and Ornetta all grew up just a few doors down E. Main Street where I grew up.

Later my dad would become fire Chief of the Cortland Volunteer Fire Department, succeeding Burke Ensign who owned the farm across W. Main St. from Richard’s Milling (Shafer’s Feed, then Durst’s Ace Hardware) and descended down the hill to the road along Mosquito Lake. His friend Richard Baxter became Assistant Chief at that time. Later my dad left the Cortland Fire Department and joined the Lakeview School Board.

Dad had graduated from Cortland High School. He and my mom Marie, who had worked at seemingly every Packard Electric plant in the county, later retired and moved to Bazetta township.

About Roger

Roger is author and administrator of a blog for Christian Social Witness, TalkofJESUS.com which is NOT a personal blog about Roger.

Since Roger has always loved to travel and once traveling to Europe in 1965 added an interest in history, you may find him guiding a virtual first century missionary tour of Paul throughout the Mediterranean from Acts of the Apostles, complete with Google Earth satellite views along the route. Check it out.

For a deep dive into what I now teach (since the years I taught band in Maplewood Local Schools and conducted The Cortland Community Band prior to moving to Florida and now back to the Cincinnati area), READ some of my 1000+ posts about the Bible and study or ask me about the teachings or doctrines of the church.

I currently worship at Hope Evangelical Free Church in Mason Ohio. I was first a member of Cortland Methodist Church and later, along with my wife Becky we were members of Christ Episcopal Church on Atlantic NE in Warren near where we lived at the time. Becky (d.1999) was a physical therapist for Trumbull County Schools working in Lakeview Schools with physically handicapped kids and coaching Jr. High Girls Track & Field, H.S. Wheelchair Track and H.S. Gymnastics for Lakeview (where I graduated in 1968).

Always thrilled to hear from and about my Cortland friends. 
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- Roger Harned 

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