Founded in 1881 in Detroit, Michigan, Seagrave is one of America’s oldest fire apparatus suppliers, a fact they were proud to brag about in their advertising as early as 1906. Seagrave’s featured product line was their horse pulled ladder trucks with rotating ladders that could be raised in seconds by a team of two men and did not require the support of a building wall, a huge improvement over contemporary ladders.
In September 1902 Seagrave demonstrated their ladder to the Fire Chief’s convention in New York City where a ten year old boy raised the ladder to a height of 70 feet in ten seconds, a ladder that was then scaled by Denver, Colorado Fire Chief Roberts without support from any building or wall. The greatest advantage of the ladder was that the firemen were ready and able to jump quickly into action as soon as the ladder was raised instead of being exhausted by the raising of the ladder alone, according to Seagrave.
By 1904, Seagrave was advertising their now 85 feet tall trussed ladders and trussed truck frames as “the best Aerial yet produced”.
In 1906 the Seagrave Company proudly displayed an image of their expanding Columbus, Ohio factories. Note that Seagrave now staked their claim as “The Oldest Company in the Business” in their advertising.
Between 1906 and 1911 Seagrave began producing motor driven fire engines such as this combination hose, chemical agent, and ladder apparatus seen in an advertisement in Pacific Municipalities, a journal focusing on California communities. The Gorham Engineering & Fire Apparatus Company of San Francisco, California was apparently doing good business with the Columbus, Ohio produced machines with sixty one Seagrave motor units in service on the West Coast by 1911.
Seagrave touted the efficiency and long life of their motor apparatus units over a higher initial price tag than their competitors in these early teens ads. Notice how the Seagrave units quickly took on a familiar form for motorized fire trucks in only a few years, a form that the Seagrave units would follow for decades to come.
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