Sansome Hook & Ladder Company No. 3

Date Organized:  June 14, 1850

Montgomery Street at Gold Street, northeast corner.
Motto: “Though last not least,”

Foreman:
1850 1st Foreman, William Greene
1850 E. A. Ebbets - appointed as assistant engineer of the Department in the Spring of 1851
1851 J. L. Van Bokkelen

Apparatus:
1855 The truck used by this company is the largest in the State and carries fifty foot ladders.

Company disbanded March 1, 1860

* SANSOME HOOK & LADDER COMPANY, NO. 3, was organized June 14th, 1850, by Messrs. A. DeWitt, Florence Mahoney, C. L. Case, E. A. Ebbets, J. L. Van Bokkelen, George A. Hudson, William Adrain, H. A. Harrison, W. H. Hoffman, Wm. Green, F. A. Bartlett, R. L. Van Burnt, and others, residing in Sansome street and its vicinity,—adopting the name of that street as their own,—for the protection of the property on which they had chiefly organized. The truck used by this company is the largest in the State, and carries fifty-feet ladders. The company is one of the best organized in the city, and has intrusted to its charge the powder magazine, intended for blowing up buildings at fires in time of need, to use which none others are authorized. The motto borne on the truck, in celebration of the admission of California into the Union, “Though last not least,” has been well sustained. William Greene was first foreman, and was succeeded in the fall of 1850 by E. A. Ebbets, and on the appointment of the latter as assistant engineer of the department in the spring of 1851, J. L. Van Bokkelen was elected foreman, and has acted as such to this date. The company's house is located on Montgomery street, between Jackson and Pacific streets, and is constructed with carved stone front, brick walls, two stories high, with deep basement. The entire building cost $24,000; the lot is valued at $15,000; and the furniture, as magnificent as is to be found in any private dwelling, cost over $5,000,—making in all an expense of $44,000. A large library belongs to the company, which from the constant additions it is receiving, will doubtless be as extensive as any in the city.

The Sansome Hall, and the other handsome structures, which are already completed or in course of erection for the various companies, show how even a fireman's duties may be combined with pleasure and comfort. The fire department is always one of the chief features in public processions, and yearly celebrates its own anniversary by a general turn-out on the 22d of February. The universal prosperity and harmony between the various associations, are evidences enough of the excellence of the present government and laws of the department.
* Source: Frank Soulé, John H. Gihon, M.D., and James Nisbet. The Annals of San Francisco. 1855: San Francisco.