Reliance Fire Company No. 3

The young men who served in Bethlehem’s Reliance Fire Company No. 3 were used to rushing to the aid of their neighbors.  Answering the call of the bell, meeting at the station located on West Broad Street and pulling the hand-pumped Reliance engine to the scene of a fire was second nature to them.  No less chaotic, but decidedly more civilized, their first annual ball was held at the Eagle Hotel on Main Street.  The ball was meant to raise funds and support for the Reliance’s services.  Clean and polished, the firemen sported uniforms, including their parade hats, proudly painted with the company’s insignia.  Most of them would spend the night filling ladies’ dance cards, spinning to waltzes and quadrilles.

By the time they hosted their first ball in 1866, the Reliance was well established as one of three fire companies in Bethlehem.  The company was organized at 38 West Broad Street on August 8, 1838.  Their first hand pumped engine was purchased from the Friendship Fire Company in Baltimore and shipped to Bethlehem along the Lehigh Canal.  In 1869 this engine was sold and replaced by one of the first steam fire engines in the area.  The company remained in existence throughout most of the twentieth century.  Two of Bethlehem’s other earliest fire engines, the Perseverance and the Diligence, can be seen on display at the Moravian Museum.