"For 10 years Gieseke or his uniformed
chauffeur toured the area in the car, but in 1927 the town needed a fire truck, and
Gieseke volunteered his Pierce-Arrow…."The city cut the car
in half, discarding the two back seats, and 'stretched' the frame to make room for a pump
that would kick out 750 gallons of water a minute . . . The body of a horse-drawn fire
wagon was placed on the back of the extended frame, giving Marshall's all-volunteer
department one of the classiest rigs around."
"It was used for 25 years before being retired in 1953 for more
modern equipment."
But the venerable old engine didn't retire immediately to green
pastures.
In fact, it was shunted around for nearly 20 years - "in several
garages, an airplane hangar and, for five years, outside in the rain and snow,"
according to the Parsons account. The wood and tin running boards rusted and rotted, the
tires disintegrated and various parts disappeared. It was stored at Marshall Airport for a
time, then was going to be junked. Carroll Berg, however, took it upon himself to save the
old truck and stored it in his garage.-It was about 1973 that Fireman Tom Hess decided to
take a stab at restoring it, and Irwin Stellmacher volunteered to help.
Stellmacher, 83 at the time, remembered in minute detail overhauling
the Pierce-Arrow's motor some 45 years earlier, and the vehicle was important to him
because it represented the days when craftsmen took pride in their work.
He rebuilt the magneto and generator, hand-tooling some of the parts. But the project
stalled until two experienced mechanics, Don Labat and Dave Marks, joined the fire
department, becoming a committee of two to refurbish the Pierce.
They soon had the vehicle completely disassembled with everyone in the
department busy scraping, cleaning, polishing. In fact, Labat's wife, Phyllis, mildly
protested the time given the project (something like 2,000 man-woman-child hours); her
husband's crafty answer was to invite her and their three boys to join the project. . .
plus other wives and children. Nighttime repair sessions became "family"
sessions.
Firemen dug into their pockets for $3,200 for expenses; Marshall
business firms donated the equivalent of another $2,000 in free labor and materials
(including $125 worth of gold leaf paint used for trim)
But there were crises.
For example, tires to fit couldn't be found. A wholsale house, however, suggested
writing a Japanese firm. The Japanese would be pleased to make a set of tires for
$540 plus $20 shipping, but when the tires arrived, the trademark read,
"Goodyear".
