The Firefighter List

I turned in the list of Albion firefighters from throughout our 225 (or so) year history … or at least, all the names I could find after a fairly exhaustive search. They’re to go on a plaque that will be displayed at the fire station.

I came up with 197 firefighters. I’m sure there are more, but it’s become a game of diminishing returns—at the moment I just don’t have time to pour over microfilms of 100 year old newspapers in the hopes of stumbling across one name (although that does sound kind of fun. I’m strange). A wintertime project maybe, depending on how my writing time goes. I hope there will be some light bulb moments out there, and more people will send names in.

Meanwhile, I also compiled AFD fire chiefs, and even managed to fill in some holes that were in my original list, published in Smoky Days and Sleepless Nights. Here’s what I have:

ALBION, INDIANA FIRE CHIEFS

1887-1888                   A.J. Denlar

1888-1894                   William E. Worden

1895-1997                   ?

1898                            J.O. Russell Jr.

1899-1903                   ?

1904                            Edward A. Kunkle

1905-1912                   ?

1913-1916                   Charles Callahan  (resigned 5/1/16)

1916-1930                   John Gatwood (nomination approved 6/5/16)

1930-1934                   ?

1935-1952                   Harry Campbell

1952-1954                   Byron K. Smith

1954-1959                   Harry Metz

1959-1963                   Robert Beckley

1963-1969                   Al Jacob

1970-1971                   James Applegate

1971-1973                   Edward Moorhouse

1974-1975                   Terry Campbell

1975-1981                   James Applegate

1982-1993                   Larry Huff

1994-1997                   Bob Beckley

1998-2001                   Kevin Libben

2002-2008                   Gregg Gorsuch

2009-2010                   Brad Rollins

2011-2012                   Tim Lock

2013-2015                   Steve Bushong

2015-2016                   John Urso

2016-present               Brad Rollins