Dunnstown Firemen Mark 65th Anniversary
Parade Set for 4:30 p.m. Saturday Oct. 4
DUNNSTOWN – It all started 65 years ago with a first meeting in the late Gibson Wise’s motorcycle shop along Woodward Avenue. A band of Dunnstown area men, 30 in all, saw the need for fire protection closer to home and went about establishing the Dunnstown Fire Company.
Their fledgling effort has grown to the full-fledged, fully equipped Dunnstown Fire Company of today, about to mark its 65th anniversary with a special celebration this Saturday.
Current company members have set up a daylong celebration from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., highlighted by a parade through the community at 4:30 p.m.
A check of the company history shows it formulated plans at its 1949 meetings in the old Wise motorcycle shop and purchased its current site, which had housed a greenhouse, in 1950 at a cost of $1,500. A building was quickly erected and the first meeting held there Nov. 13 of 1950.
1951 saw Lock Haven’s Hand-in-Hand Hose Company provide Dunnstown its old uniforms and the company continued to grow. In 1959 the company marked the occasion with a 10 year anniversary celebration at the Fallon Hotel in Lock Haven. Speakers included local attorney Allen Lugg who talked of the first fire department set up by Benjamin Franklin in Philadelphia.
Original 1949 fire company officers were John Roller, president; Hans Fritz, vice-president; Richard Tyson, financial secretary; Stewart Hartman, recording secretary; Oscar Kramer, fire chief; and trustees Frank Bowman, Fred Mayer and Dr. Robert Boyd.
Today the Dunnstown Fire Company executive officers are: Mike Fetzer, president; Jonathan Plessinger, vice-president; Brad Smith, recording secretary; Leslie Fetzer, financial secretary; Sharon Reeder, assistant financial secretary; Justin Baker, treasurer; Jonathan Plessinger, Chaplin; Thomas Moyer, historian; and Steve Plessinger, Charles “Hump” Smith and Sharon Reeder, board of directors.
The company’s current fire line officers are: Justin Baker, chief; Steve Plessinger, deputy chief; Mike Fetzer, assistant chief; Charles “Hump” Smith, captain; and Dan Barth, lieutenant.
