The Jay W. Stevens Disaster Service Unit was built in 1939 for the Portland
Fire Department. The vehicle was the first of its kind and was rededicated
as the Emergency Car in 1953.
The fire station at 55 SW Ash Street was constructed in 1950 as Engine 21’s
quarters and became Engine 1’s house in 1984. The Jay W. Stevens Disaster
Unit can be seen at the far right of the parked apparatus.
Dr. Charles Leale
(AP) The first doctor to reach President Abraham Lincoln after he was
shot in a Washington theater rushed to his ceremonial box and found
him paralyzed, comatose and leaning against his wife. Dr. Charles
Leale ordered brandy and water to be brought immediately. The
Army surgeon had been seated 40 feet from Lincoln at Ford’s
Theater that night in April 1865.
Dr. Leale, who was 23 and just six weeks into his medical practice when
Lincoln died, never spoke or wrote about his experiences again until
1909 in a speech commemorating the centennial of the president’s
birth.
Leale’s long-lost report of efforts to help the mortally wounded president,
written just hours after his death, was discovered late last month by
researchers in a box among correspondence of the U.S. surgeon
general at the National Archives.
Drawing of Lincoln’s Death Bed
Clara Barton (1821-1912)
The American Red Cross was established in Washington, D.C. on May 21,
1881, by school teacher Clara Barton, who became the first president of the organization. The Red Cross continues to be the nation’s premier emergency
response organization.
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Beemans chewing gum was invented in the late 1890s by Dr. Edward E. Beeman,
a physician from Ohio. The gum is made of pepsin powder and chicle, a natural
gum derived from a tropical evergreen tree. It was marketed as an aid to digestion
and releaving heartburn. Production of the gum ended in 1978 due to lagging sales,
but as part of a nostalgia campaign in 1985, the product was put back on the market
along with Clove and Black Jack chewing gums.
Beemans became popular with aviators because of the antacid qualities of pepsin. It
is considered the “lucky” gum of pilots.
