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Frederic Scott Seagrave
Manufacturer of fire
trucks
F. S. Seagrave, originally of Columbus,
Ohio, was a highly respected manufacturer of fire trucks (his
factory still stands on Walker Road). His dome-shaped mausoleum
serves as an  intriguing
monument to this American entrepreneur who chose to be interred
in his adopted city in the early 1900s.
In 1907 Seagrave assembled its first motorized
fire apparatus, shipping three engines to Vancouver. In 1910
the city of Windsor bought a Seagrave aerial truck and in
1914, bought a Seagrave motor powered pumper which was in
use until 1947.
Seagrave turned out hundreds of fire engines
for fire departments across Canada. When the Seagrave combination
truck purchased by the City of London was heavily damaged
in a train collision in 1913, the fire department thought
so highly of the vehicle that, instead of scrapping it, the
truck was sent back to Walkerville to be rebuilt.
For sixteen years, Seagrave produced air
and water-cooled fire engines but found himself in financial
trouble when rival American-LaFrance set up in Toronto in
1915. To save his company, Seagrave tried merging with Loughead
Machine Company in Sarnia and produced a line of heavy-duty
trucks. The move failed and the company locked its doors in
1923.
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For more information and rare historical photos visit walkervilletimes.com |
