History
In 1948 the Clay community saw the beginning of one of the finest fire departments in the country. It started back in November when Ken Brand was standing helplessly, watching Lyman Melvin’s garage burn down. He waited for the Liverpool Fire Department to arrive. The Liverpool Fire Department did arrive, but they stopped at the town line, telling Ken that they could not cross because they did not have the insurance coverage. As everyone watched the garage burn down, Ken said, “By God, tomorrow we will start our own fire department.” This was the beginning of Moyers Corners Fire Department. Ken went from house to house, looking for men interested in becoming members. They held their first meeting in a cow barn with approximately fifteen men, who all paid twenty dollar dues. After holding several meetings and a ‘public hearing’ with the Town of Clay, the search was on for a fire truck. As luck had it, a man was stopped at the gas station on the corner with car trouble. This man told Ken that his car needed to be fixed immediately; he was heading to a town outside of Buffalo to sell a used fire truck. Ken asked him, “Fire truck, what year?” The man replied that it was a 1922 American LaFrance. Ken asked him how much he wanted for it, and the man quoted five hundred dollars. Ken then asked him, “Will you sell it to us?” And the man replied, “I’ll sell it to anybody.” Ken ran home and called four of the members, who agreed to buy the truck, and then returned with Ken to drive the man home to Buffalo. They then returned with the American LaFrance. The men now felt that they were a true fire department. The new fire truck was housed at the gas station until a fire barn could be built.
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“This above all makes history useful and desirable: it unfolds before our eyes a glorious record of exemplary actions.”
—Titus Livius (Livy)
“The history of progress is written in the blood of men and women who have dared to espouse an unpopular cause, as, for instance, the black man’s right to his body, or woman’s right to her soul.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)
“The myth of independence from the mother is abandoned in mid- life as women learn new routes around the mother—both the mother without and the mother within. A mid-life daughter may reengage with a mother or put new controls on care and set limits to love. But whatever she does, her child’s history is never finished.”
—Terri Apter (20th century)