From Historic Houston - Glenwood Cemetery
Firemen’s Memorial – Died in Line of Duty – This monument honors Houston firefighters who died in the line of duty. Eight of them were interred between 1888 and 1905. The plaque lists the names of the 23 Texas City firemen who died in the S. S. Grandcamp explosion on April 16, 1947. Robert Brewster, Houston’s oldest living firefighter in 1888, was the model for this Carrara marble sculpture. In 1976 the statue was moved to the main fire station on Bagby where it remained for a few years. However, fire captain Raymond Boyer returned it to its original location in Glenwood Cemetery.
Houston Fire Fighter Newsletter March 2009 page 10
REMEMBERING OUR FALLEN FIRE FIGHTERS
by Scott Mellott, Retired
There are many places in the Houston area that serve as memorials to our deceased Houston Fire Fighters. In the future, I will be
telling you about these memorials. This month we are starting at the
beginning, the original memorial. This memorial’s home is
Glenwood Cemetery.
First, and you know how I am with history, I will give you some
information on this amazing cemetery.
Glenwood Cemetery is located on 84 acres at 2525 Washington
Avenue, a short distance from downtown Houston. The area, at the
time, was considered a rural area. Glenwood opened as a private
cemetery the summer of 1872. When it was first opened, it was considered a landscaped park which, because of the improvements in
the street car systems, saw many weekend visitors.
The most famous resident of Glenwood is Howard Hughes,
buried there in 1976. Other “notables” interned there are Ross
Sterling, Governor of Texas 1931-1932 and William P. Hobby,
Governor of Texas, 1917-1919. Another Texas Governor buried in
Glenwood is James W. Henderson. Henderson was the fourth governor of Texas from November 1853 to December 1853.
Also buried at Glenwood are Gene Tierney, a Hollywood actress
best known for her title role in the 1944 film classic Laura; and
Judge Roy Hofheinz, a Harris County Judge and a two-term Mayor
of Houston. Roy was also famous for co-founding the Houston
Sports Association, which brought major league baseball to
Houston and, of course with that, along came the Astrodome and
Astrodomain.
Prior to the beginning of the paid department, Houston Fire
Protection was comprised of volunteer fire companies. In 1888 the
companies were, Protection 1, Hook and Ladder 1, Liberty No. 2,
Stonewall No. 3, Mechanic No. 6 and Curtin No. 9. In May of 1888,
these companies bought Plot 98 in Section C of the Glenwood
Cemetery for 300 dollars. This plot was to be used for the members
of the department. In June of that same year, the Fire Fighters
ordered a stone memorial to be erected on the newly purchased
cemetery plot. On top of this monument was a life sized statue, a
likeness of the oldest living member at the time, Robert Brewster.
The statue stands 5 foot 2 inches and weighs 1400 pounds. It was
produced in Carrara, Italy and delivered to the Fire Fighters on
December 24, 1889.
In 1895, the City of Houston went from a volunteer department
to a paid department. Shortly after that time, the newly formed
Department took over ownership of the Fireman’s Plot. The monument was not officially dedicated until April 6, 1900. There are 8
souls buried there. The first, Volunteer Fire Fighter Henry Kitely,
died in 1888 and the last, Clarence Hartwell, died in 1905. There is
also a line-of-duty death Fire Fighter, Ed Thompson, who died April
29, 1899 buried there.
After the original dedication of the memorial, there were, as far
as history can tell, no organized memorial services to honor the Fire
Fighters buried there. So, as time marched on, the monument has lived in Glenwood through at least two major floods and without much notoriety.
The next event that took place concerning the Fireman’s Plot was 87 years after the monument was erected in Glenwood. For whatever reason, in 1975, the Houston Fire Department moved the monument to 410 Bagby, which at the time was HFD Headquarters. I was able to find that by the mid-1970’s the monument was badly needing repairs. Before the monument was moved, it was repaired and cleaned in preparation for it’s new home.
In the early 1990’s, a group of Houston Fire Fighters, including myself, formed a committee to facilitate the monument moving back to the Glenwood Cemetery. The move, included repairs, and a new foundation for the monument to stand on for generations to come. Memorial services where held many years there during Fire Prevention Week and that continued until the new Fire Fighter’s Pension office opened up along with the Memorial Gardens. The first memorial service/dedication was held there on March 9, 2001.
In closing, I hope that you will take time to go by Glenwood and visit this great Memorial to Houston Fire Fighters and look around the cemetery as well. When you visit, follow the signs to the cemetery office and they can point to it from their front porch or you can go to my website (www.houstonfirememorial.org) and download a map that has the “Spot” marked