Heart and Hand Fire Company

The Heart and Hand Fire-Company (1810-1842)

• Founded on April 3, 1810, the Heart and Hand Fire-Company had a structure similar to the others (President, Vice-President and Secretary, appointed annually). This company is similar to the Union Fire-Club in the sense that nothing is known about it, other than through its printed set of rules from 1827; moreover, mentions of it in local newspaper are almost inexistent. This Company was a mutual fire society, because although they stated they were “ready and cheerful” to attend all fires in the town of Halifax, their priority was to protect “the members of whom our society is at present or may hereafter be composed” (Heart and Hand Fire-Company 1827).

• Their equipment consisted of two bags, two buckets, and one cap. The bags were made of raven’s duck measuring one and a half yard long, with strings to close them and straps so that they could be carried on one’s shoulder. On one side, the owners name had to be printed in black letters, while the other side would sport the words “Heart and Hand Fire Company”, also in black and printed lengthwise. The buckets were big enough to contain three imperial gallons; they were painted black “with the owner’s name in white letters on the side near the bottom, with a figure of a heart and hand directly over it”. The heart was red, while the hand was the colour of flesh and was “reclining on the heart”. The cap was made of leather, “with a helmet top seven inches high, the brim three inches in front, and a circular flap behind, to fall six inches below the cape of the coat,” and also painted black. An interesting rule surrounding the caps was that members were not allowed to show up at the fire without it if the fire occurred after sunset. The Company also had Lanthorns (sic) and bed keys that were numbered and kept at specific members’ houses (Heart and Hand Fire-Company 1827).

•A look at a few of the Company’s members over the years helped shed some light on this company.

Thomas Hosterman

Thomas Hosterman, who's name was spelled Österman by his German forefathers (Shea 2019), was born in Halifax in 1790. A jeweler and silversmith originally apprenticing from Benjamin Etter in 1805, Hosterman married Etter's daughter Eliza on September 27, 1815.  He partnered with Nathaniel Parker in 1812-1813 under the banner Hosterman & Parker, after which he went into a partnership with Benjamin Etter's son, under the name Hosterman & Etter, and in 1817, he went into business with James Tidmarsh (Voss 2005), a member of the Hand in Hand Fire Company (Canadiana 1801). The family owned an estate on the Northwest Arm (Regan 1908), which he inherited, along with his sisters, in 1818, when his father died; and the family house stood until the 1950s (Shea 2019). The house was located between Herring Cove Rd. and Chocolate Lake, next to the brook that discharges into the Northwest Arm. He died on March 24, 1863, and was buried three days later at Camp Hill Cemetery.

Hosterman tenement house in 1936 (demolished in the 1850s). it was located by the Chocolate Lake stream where it crosses the Herring Cove Rd. © Mainland South Heritage Society.

William Machin Stairs

William M. Stairs was born on January 21, 1789, in Halifax, to New Englanders John Stairs and Joanna Stayner. William's mother died in 1793 and his father having returned to Pennsylvania to work, he was raised by his uncle John Stayner. As a young man, he found employment as a clerk in William Kidston's counting house (corner of George and Bedford Row) and became a small merchant on the waterfront. By 1813, he entered a partnership with Henry Austen, which lasted until 1818, and in 1824, he acquired Kidston's old building. He had a store on the first floor, while the family was living on the second floor. Over time, he began to specialize in hardware, and he grew a successful business, which eventually became Stairs & Sons, and subsequently, Stairs, Son & Morrow. He died in Halifax on November 28, 1865 (Sutherland, Stairs, William Machin 2003).

• Among other members of the company, Isaac Mansfield was listed as a “tin man” in the Nova Scotia Census Returns, Assessment and Poll Tax Records (Nova Scotia Archives 1793). He might have been born on December 6, 1786, and died April 26, 1850, aged 63 years. John Munro was born July 14, 1790, in Halifax and married Sarah Mongavan on December 5, 1817. He owned a store in Halifax. George Duncan was a businessman involved with the Acadian Iron Mining Association in the later part of his life, and William Foster was a merchant in Halifax.