Fair Play Fire Company No. 1

405 East Main St. Established on Sept 15, 1841, the Fair Play F.C. No. 1 was organized by members of the old United Volunteer Fire Co. Their motto since 1841 has been “Help One Another”, which is still boldly proclaimed on their present apparatus. Eleven members of this company were killed in the Civil War, including Joseph Lanceski who was accidentally shot in Tennessee in 1864. The Ones moved into the former Trolley Car Barn on East Main Street in 1888 and soon added the 55 foot bell tower. This company was also the first in Indiana to purchase a yellow fire engine in 1969. The interior is not only a working firehouse but a museum as well. They run a yellow E-One pumper.

Atop the bell tower, sits “Little Jimmy.”

Peter Hoffman constructed this weathervane for the One’s in 1889 for $28.85. A “New Jimmy” was built by Don Felix of N.H. and placed on the tower after the original was damaged in a storm. Today the 1889 figure stands in a special case in the One’s firehouse.

Inside of the firehouse engine room is “Neptune” the Hose Carriage.

At Fair Play Fire Company No. 1 One of the oldest pieces of fire apparatus in the Midwest remains here today in Madison. In 1851, a local wagon maker, Ezra Greene, was contracted to build a four wheel spider hose carriage of Philadelphia design to be used by the Ones. Purchased for $450.00, “Neptune” was pulled by at least twenty men manning her ropes (up front) and her brakes (in the rear). Today “Neptune” still resides in the One’s engine room as she has for over 150 years.