Tells of Bucket Brigade at Alamo Fire.

Tells of Bucket Brigade at Alamo Fire.
San Antonio Express,Sunday, Feb. 26, 1939.
By Fred Mosbach.
Ernest Holekamp of Junction, Tex., who is spending the winter in San Antonio, shaking hands with old-time friends, drew a mental picture of his first visit to San Antonio in 1867 when as a barefoot boy eight years old with his older brother, George, he drove along Commerce Street in a wagon drawn by five yoke of oxen and loaded with handmade cypress shingles to be delivered to the Steves lumber yard, which was then at the corner of Alamo Plaza and Blum Street, on the present side of the Joske Store.
"We drove in from Comfort," he said as he described the long tedious journey of some 50 miles. The Menger Hotel was then a two- story building with a brewery in the rear and along Alamo Plaza were a few shacks interspersed with vacant lots. Commerce Street was the principal thoroughfare and the only means of crossing the river over a bridge while there was a "ford crossing on Navarro Street, where the Lewis Mill stood, near the present site of Mill bridge. Houston Street was a lane known as Paseo bordered by truck gardens and did not take on the semblance of a street until Mayor James H. French had a bridge built over the river in the early 70's which was San Antonio's first iron bridge.
Holekamp returned to San Antonio in 1874 when as a boy of 15 he worked as a clerk in a general merchandise store of William Scherff, corner of Elm and Nolan Street, until 1879. There were a number of such stores several blocks apart, George Schroeder and Charles Stucke on Alameda Avenue, now East Commerce Street; Honore Grenet, Nacogdoches and Crockett Streets, where the Crockett Hotel now stands; John Duffey, Nacogdoches and Bowie; Scherff, Nolan and Elm; Christian Dullnig, Elm and Burnet Streets; Robert Bell, Avenue E. near Fifth Street, and Gus Uhl, Avenue E and Eighth Street, but of all these stores, Grenet's was the principal one with a force of a dozen or more clerks employed.
Opposite the Scherff store was the sash, door and blind factory of J. H. Kampmann, and Holekamp recalls the Kampmann steam whistle which used to blow at 7 a.m., noon, 1 p.m. and 6 p.m., by which the people regulated their time. "I was here when the first railroad train pulled in February, 1877, and was among the crowd at the old Sunset Depot on Austin Street to witness its arrival," said Holekamp.
"I also saw the fire that destroyed the Alamo barracks and stables, in which a number of horses and mules were burned. The volunteer fire department fought the blaze with a handpumper, the latest improved device in those days. This was operated on the same principle as a railroad handcar by eight men, four on each side, each four alternating in bearing down on the lever to draw up the water, which was then conveyed in a hose to the flames. Although the Alamo Ditch flowed through the property the heat was so intense the men could not get near the ditch and they had to get the water from nearby shallow well. A bucket brigade was also in action. This was a well-drilled organization as a branch of the fire department. The men were lined up in a row from the well to the flames and in this manner they passed the buckets full of water from one man to another and returned the empty buckets the same way to be refilled and again passed down the line. It was really a beautiful sight, the rhythmical operation of the brigade as the buckets were passed to and from up and down the line, showing that the men were skilled in their specialty.
"During the fire Ben Mauermann, one of the fireman, slipped off the wet roof of a two-story building where he was throwing water on the flames and fell to the ground, breaking a leg. Mr. Mauermann was one of San Antonio's leading citizens and always active in civic-enterprise. He was a leader in the fire department and was also an alderman-at-large in the city council. Another of patriotic ardor was Fritz Rummel, who owned a fine fast gray horse, and when there was a fire he would ride through the streets at breakneck speed and round up the firemen, who would hurry from their places of business to the scene of the blaze as the Alamo bell and the Milam bell were sounding the alarm."
In 1885 Mr. Holekamp married Miss Dora Muegge, daughter of the late J. E. Muegge, and they moved to Junction where he established a business which grew to a large general merchandise and banking concern. During this time he became an extensive cattle buyer and in 1894 he shipped 1,500 head to Oklahoma for grazing purposes. His last shipment was in 1907 and consisted of 2,200 head which he bought from the King, Kenedy and Driscoll Ranches in the Gulf Coast country.
In 1906 he organized the first bank at Junction under the name of Kimble County State Bank and served as its president a number of years until it was merged with another state bank. In 1927 Junction voted to be incorporated and Holekamp was elected its first mayor. Under his administration city waterworks and sewer systems were built and a volunteer fire department was organized. Holekamp has the distinction of having served on 18 grand juries and being named foreman on 14 of these. He believes in enforcement of all laws and says we've got good laws. All we need, he says, is good substantial officers to enforce these laws. If this is done he says, we will eliminate many crimes.
Holekamp comes from a pioneer family, his parents having landed in Texas with Prince Solms in 1844, and his mother was the first white woman in New Braunfels. He was born in Comfort on March 2, Texas Independence Day, 1859, and is therefore 80 years old. He is a member of the Old Trail Drivers Association. His wife died in 1927, leaving surviving four sons and one daughter, three of the sons living in San Antonio and one in Junction, while the daughter lives in Galveston. His father was a Confederate soldier in the Civil War.
Holekamp is still active in business and is also an ardent fisherman and hunter.

THE SECOND FLYING COMPANY OF ALAMO DE PARRAS Š1996,1997, Randell Tarin. All Rights Reserved.