One man helping another.

One town helping another.It's common practice today, social behavior taken for granted. But 140 years ago, not so much.On-hands assistance at the collective level was in infancy in the 1800s, especially in rural areas of horse trails, dirt roads and stagecoaches.But a major disaster gave birth to a noble concept."Help!"It was noon, Nov. 12, 1883, and something disastrous was happening in eastern Pennsylvania.A maid working in the U.S. Hotel, Main and Centre streets in Shenandoah, set something on fire. The fire quickly spread."The wind was blowing a hurricane ... the building was soon enveloped in flames, which communicated to adjoining buildings on the north side of Centre Street, then to the block on the opposite side of the street," said newspaper articles.It looked like the entire town would be devoured.Undermanned and in panic, people of Shenandoah sent a telegraph to Tamaqua and a few other places."Help! Our town is burning down!"Tamaqua's best and most able firemen dropped what they were doing and gathered together. These valiant men knew they had to get to Shenandoah right away in this era without cars, trucks or paved roads.Luckily, Tamaqua Perseverance Fire Company, organized in 1852, was located just steps away from the train depot."They just loaded the equipment on the train and went," says Bip Betz, fireman.Their life-saving mission, one that redefined the scope of firefighting in small towns of northeastern Pennsylvania, is known today as mutual aid.The concept was known as early as the 1830s when Philadelphia sent aid for a New York City fire. But in small towns with less resources, mutual aid wasn't commonplace.DestructionThe million-dollar fire was devastating to Shenandoah.It destroyed a large section of downtown, including the hotel, Odd Fellows Hall, the Academy of Music, the Herald office row, the opera house, and the Mining Herald and Saturday Evening News offices.More than 250 families lost everything. Fortunately, there were no reported deaths, but one young man, George Heston, attempted to jump on a passing engine and had both legs cut off.The town and its Columbia Hose and Steam Fire Company were so grateful to the men of Tamaqua that a formal proclamation was printed in gold leaf on Feb. 21, 1884.It read in part: "The Perseverance Fire Company of Tamaqua, Pa., came to the assistance of our fire department when our town was being consumed by the fire fiend."The efforts made by the said company to reach us in time to lend a helping hand in repressing the flames, and the arduous labor it performed are most commendable."Resolved, that while we earnestly hope and trust there may be no cause for our friends to ever require our service to perform similar work, yet, should the opportunity present itself, we would respond immediately to their call."The document was signed by town council and fire officials, acknowledging "that these bodies are sensible of the personal sacrifice." It was then presented to Tamaqua.Among others that pitched in at Shenandoah were firemen from Pottsville, Ashland, Girardville and Mahanoy City.Company growthBy 1875, Perseverance Fire Company acquired a steam fire engine drawn by hired horses and two hand-drawn hose carts, one with four wheels, the other, two. At the time, the unit also boasted 1,500 feet of gum hose valued at $6,500, according to records.The fancy new apparatus led to a revised name, Perseverance Hose and Steam Fire Company.It's written that Perseverance firefighters were men of distinction, prominent people of the day. They were known for a sense of refinement. Many belonged to an intellectual group called the Tamaqua Lyceum, a band of men who met to discuss and debate current events.Little is written about the Tamaqua Lyceum, but when the group disbanded, they donated their Matthew Newkirk Library, 1,500 books, to the men of Perseverance. The literature undoubtedly became part of Citizens Fire Company No. 1 when the company formed in July 1889, the result of a Perseverance reorganization.Records say Citizens Fire Co. consisted of 70 men who enjoyed one of the best-furnished parlors in the county.Citizens picked up where Perseverance left off.RichnessIn 1903, Citizens purchased a team of horses used in a side venture coal hauling. The horses were kept in service 11 years.Nine years later, the company expanded again, adding a horse-drawn chemical and hose cart and another team of horses.To meet fire protection demands of a growing community, the borough which shared firehouse quarters until 1968 approved construction of the present yellow brick building in 1914. The structure was designed so that borough council offices, police department and town jail occupied the west section.The firefighters operated out of the eastern portion with upstairs rooms available for meeting and socializing. Variations of that arrangement existed until the police department left the building in 1972.At that point, Citizens had the building to itself and inherited the town's original floor safe, with no money stored inside.Today it guards early documents and important paperwork, and Citizens Fire Company, now celebrating 125 years of service, has become an organization of distinction.Wealth isn't measured in dollars. And wealth isn't something found inside a floor safe. Wealth is much more than that.Wealth is knowing you're not alone, knowing others are there for you, and they care.Tamaqua's gold-leaf certificate from the people of Shenandoah is proof that true riches have nothing to do with money.You don't need to have a big bank account to be wealthy.If you have a neighbor you can count on, you're already rich beyond measure.