fire truck. Their son, Roger, grew up
around the fire station because Harry
also maintained the truck. Roger
joined the department 1962, served 19
years alongside his father, and was fire
chief from 1979 to 1986.
At the dedication of the new Shipshewana Fire Station on June 1, 2002,
Roger remarked about the fact that
Shipshewana did not get city water
until 1967. With no city utilities, water
had to come from Shipshewana Lake
or the nearest lake or stream to the
fire. Yoder also told about a humiliating set back for the department. The
department’s first station was a one
bay frame building which was destroyed by fire in 1955. Hugh Easterday, a fireman himself had
stoked the furnace with coal
to warm up the station for a
firemen’s meeting that night.
Roger put it this way, “I guess
he really did get the place
warmed up; the firemen were
able to save the one truck
that the department had at
that time.” He went on to say
that, “As a child I remember
that truck as being an open
cab with only a windshield.
I’m sure many of the times
the firemen were wet long
before they arrived at the
scene of the fire.” In his closing remarks Yoder observed
that they are now known as
Firefighte