The Brown County (Nashville) Volunteer Fire Department 1919 Ford Model T Firetruck was returned to the department on Jan. 31, restored by the Indy 500 chapter of the Model T Ford Club of America.
Corbin Parmer | The Democrat
Over the past few months, with help that came along by chance, a piece of Brown County history was restored.
The Brown County (Nashville) Volunteer Fire Department’s (BCVFD) 1919 Model T Ford firetruck, which was used by the department decades ago and has remained as a treasured relic since, was restored and returned to the station on the morning of Jan. 31.
BCVFD enlisted the help of the president of the Indianapolis 500 Chapter of the Model T Ford Club of America (MTFCA), Kenny Edmondson, to restore the Model T firetruck.
The Model T Ford Club of America was organized in late 1965 to bring together people who are interested in the Model T Ford and its history, evolution and innovative legacy.
It’s also the largest Model T club in the world. More than 100 chapters provide activities and community for Model T enthusiasts in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and South America, according to the website.
The Indy 500 Chapter of MTFCA consists of members from all over Indiana, especially around the Indianapolis area.
Contact was made with Edmonson last August when he and other members of the club rode in their own Model T’s through Nashville on a tour.
Edmondson said last week that members of the club regularly meet in warmer months to ride in their Model T’s all over Indiana, and sometimes the country.
One member owns a farm in Martinsville, which is used by club members as a meeting place to gather before setting off on a tour.
The club members in the tour usually end up in Nashville around the middle of the day, to grab lunch and check out some shops, Edmondson said.
Lacy Hazelgrove, a firefighter, paramedic and president of the BCVFD, said last week that she was standing outside the fire station after the crew completed training on the same day the club rode through town.
She happened to spot them riding through, and she said she decided to chase them down and see if they could help with restoring the department’s antique fire truck.
“I was like, ‘We should ask those guys, I bet they know what to do,’” she said.
“So, I followed them downtown, kidnapped three of them, and then the rest is history.”
Preserving history
Hazelgrove brought Edmondson and couple other members over to the department to look at the truck, which had many issues and had been inoperable for years.
According to Hazelgrove, the last time the truck was known to be driven was during the 1996 Spring Blossom Parade. Since then, because no one in the department knew how to restore it or maintain it, let alone drive it, it has sat in the BCVFD station, unable to start.
Edmondson said when Hazelgrove approached the group that day in August, they were excited to go see the truck.
“Well, I always like to see the fire trucks,” Edmondson said.
“There’s a number of them around still, which is amazing to me.”
Edmondson and the others came to see the truck and identify what was keeping the engine from starting. He told the BCVFD crew he would be glad to come back at a later date to get it running.
He came back and was able to get the engine running again, but he said there were other issues that needed addressed before it was road-ready once more.
Edmondson returned to the station with a trailer in the fall and hauled the truck to Indianapolis to do more repairs. He said he really began to work on it in December.
“I had to build a rear axle for it, it was completely stripped out and in bad shape. Once I got it all together, then I drove it, and the front axle was all bent and I had to replace it too,” Edmondson said.
He added that, despite all the work it takes, he enjoys reviving the retro machines.
“It’s a kind of a fun deal. I love bringing these things back to life,” Edmondson said.
The firetruck was in service for the department until its last run on Sept. 24, 1943.
For years after being retired from service, the truck had been a staple in the BCVFD’s town presence — on display at the Annual Fish Fry and driven in the Spring Blossom Parade.
Over time, it gradually degraded, and eventually was left to gather dust, awaiting the day Model T enthusiasts would enter town. Thanks to the restoration work done by Edmondson, it will be ready to for public view once more.
Hazelgrove said the department is excited to get the truck back into the parade and, if they can get the Fish Fry going again, they would also love to have it on display there.
The annual Fish Fry was canceled last year due to the price of fish.
There is also a motorcycle and jeep benefit ride put on by the department in September that they would like to include it in.
Edmondson said all that is left for the truck is warm weather to be able run it safely and teach the BCVFD crew how to drive and maintain it.
Hazelgrove said the BCVFD raised enough money through donations to cover the cost of the restoration and donate an extra sum to the MTFCA Indy 500 Chapter for their hard work and assistance.
The cost of restoration was $1150.90, according to Hazelgrove, and $500 was donated to the chapter.
She expressed gratitude to the community for donating and spreading word of the restoration project.
“None of this would have been possible without the donations that rolled in from the community,” she said.
“They worked really hard to help us hit our goal.”
Hazelgrove was also very thankful for Edmondson and the rest of the MTFCA Indy 500 Chapter for all their work on restoration and the assistance with making sure the prized truck’s future remains bright.
“We just really couldn’t have done it without them, and it’s an important part of our history, as the fire department,” she said.
By being able to look directly into the past, Hazelgrove said she can put the modern fire department’s struggles into a different context.
“It’s always cool to be able to bring something back to life. It shows really how far the fire service has come, and what they dealt with,” she said.
“And now our struggles, that we (have) today, it’s hard to really call them struggles. When you’re rolling up in an apparatus like this, wearing gear that is barely gear … we’re pretty spoiled now in this service for sure.”
