ROCK ELM, WI – With settlement and businesses – the need for services for the inhabitants of Rock Elm also arose. Rock Elm featured one of the area’s earliest volunteer fire departments, and they were necessary. With several sawmills in the town, the possibility of spontaneous combustion from the sawdust and poor safety conditions, fire was an ever-present danger.
The first recorded mentions of the Rock Elm Fire Department are in the Pierce County Hearld in September of 1883, by December of the same year they were noted to have received a shipment of pails, and in 1884, the building of the fire hall began.
The local Ladies Aid Society donated a bell to the fire department, which was reported to weigh 200 pounds and cost $200 to purchase. They had two wells dug within the town should they need access to water. The group was made up of men from the town and was volunteer, with no record of how money was raised to support the organization.
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