Sussex-Lisbon Area

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1923 Parade Shows Off First Sussex Fire Truck

by Fred H. Keller, Staff Writer, Sussex Sun, November 16, 2005

    The Ashlar Masonic Lodge, which had just been completed the previous year, is also a highlight, as is the then-new concrete-paved Main Street (Highway 74) going west to North Lake and east to Meno mo nee Falls.

    The photographer, Roy Stier (1902-1983), used a 122-A post card camera. Roy's great-great- grandmother was Melinda Weaver (1813-1886), the first woman pioneer of Lisbon, who arrived here in 1837. Roy was also related to Fire Chief Wil liam Smith and to Otto Smith, who are both in the photo.

    Roy was a charter member of the Sussex Fire Department and a future fire chief, village trustee and village president. He was also a charter member in 1939 of the Sussex Lions Club and later its president.

    The parade had assembled in west Sussex, probably at Lis bon Town Hall (today, Sussex Family Practice). It marched east through Sus sex's four corners (Maple Avenue and Main Street) to Tem ple ton's four corners (Wau ke sha and Main), then across the Wisconsin Central Railroad tracks to a picnic in the woods where Quad/Graphics is today.

    The picnic in the Viergutz Woods (also known as the Orgas Woods and later the Mamerow Woods) included legal bingo, illegal beer and a 10-cents-a-couple dance on a wooden floor laid on the forest floor. The picnic earned $1,100 that day for the Fire Department.

    The department was only one year old at the time. It had been formed in 1922 after the massive Jan. 30, 1922, fire that destroyed the nine-year-old Sussex Main Street School. The initial orga ni za tional meetings were held May 3 and 9 and the bylaws written.

    There was an immediate push to buy a firetruck. Depart ment member John Stier, who owned the Nash automobile franchise at the Sussex Garage (today Paul Cain's Service Station), sold the department a Nash truck for $1,000.

    It was driven to Pirsch in Kenosha to be outfitted with two 45-gallon steel water tanks, ladders, a siren and other equipment, including a chem i cally operated pumping sys tem.

    Ten pounds of baking soda and some sulfuric acid were added to one of the tanks, which would be agitated to create a chemical reaction inside the sealed tank. Pres sure would build up to 175 pounds to push the water out of the hose when its valve was opened. Then the second water tank would be charged the same way. It was like shaking a bottle of soda and then taking the cap off.

    Fully equipped, the first firetruck cost was $2,500. It was first parked at the Sussex Garage, later at the Universal Garage (Lotter's Car Care Cen ter today) before the 1937 con struc tion of Sussex Community Hall.

    Driving the firetruck in the photo is 15-year-old Joseph LeVern "Mickey" Clarey (1908-1994). He was not a member of the SFD, but from the get-go, even though he was only 14 years old, he ran to every fire call, and when the new fire- truck came in 1923, he was one of the very first to learn to drive and clutch the Nash truck.

    He officially joined the department in 1926 when he turned 18, and remained a member for the next 42 years, the current record for longevity on the department.

    Current Fire Chief Corky Curtis is trying to break that record. He also joined at age 18 right out of Hamilton High School in 1975. He has 12 more years to go to tie Clarey when he turns 60. He wants to go a few years longer even to create a new record that will probably never be broken.

    Born in Colgate, Mickey Clarey was a 1925 graduate of the two-year Sussex High School. He spent all 54 years of his work ing life at the Mam moth Spring Canning Co.

    In 1986 at the Lisbon-Sussex sesquicentennial cele bra tion, he saw to it that his collection of fire department memorabilia and trinkets were included in the large time capsule buried at Sussex Vil lage Park, which is sched uled to be opened 50 years later in 2036.

    Note: The Sussex Fire Depart ment was originally called Lisbon Fire Company No. 1. The name was changed a couple of times in later years.