PORT JERVIS, NY – Port Jervis Fire Department members, along with city officials and members of the community, visited late past fire chief graves in multiple local cemeteries this week. The service of these 40 late past chiefs dates back to the department’s founding in 1858. Paying graveside tribute has been a tradition before each of the department’s annual Inspection Day Parades.

To date, the department has had 50 chiefs in all, including 10 living current and/or past chiefs. Many of these 10 chiefs took part in this year’s chief grave visits, and the reading of the name of each late chief. 

The names of all 50 that have served the department, and their terms of service, follow this article.

Note: JULY 10 Memorial Service: The department’s traditional pre-parade  Memorial Service will also take place in advance of the parade, Friday, July 10 at 5:30 p.m. at the Port Jervis Fireman’s Memorial on Pike Street. This memorial service will remember all late firefighters, with specific mention of five PJFD firefighters who have passed since last year’s service: William J. Talmadge, Russell J. VonSauers, Jr., Jeffrey M. Wehinger, Jerry D. Enright, and Robert G. Mason. This July 10 memorial service will also include the unveiling and dedication of a new memorial monument listing three PJFD firefighters killed since the department’s 1858 founding – all in the 1980s and while in service to others: Russell David “Chipper” Howell, Earl John Garrity II, and Frank Lawrence Schips, Jr.

Note: July 11 PARADE: Port Jervis Fire Department’s historic Annual Inspection Day Parade 2026 (PJFD’s 168^th) will step off at 2 p.m. on July 11, 2026. They invite and encourage all to come out and enjoy this afternoon together.

Port Jervis Fire Department Late Chiefs

Laurel Grove Cemetery, Port Jervis, NY: Jacob Brenner Brandt: 1858, Charles Wesley Douglass: 1859-1860, James Bertram Taynton: 1862, Stephen T. Roberts: 1863, Luther H. Beckwith: 1865, Luke Staggers Rosencrance: 1868-1869, William Edward McCormick: 1875, Charles Henry Terbell: 1876-1879 and 1885-1886, James McDougall: 1878-1879, Horace Greeley Lee: 1880-1882, Harry C. Nichols: 1887, Charles Ivory Terwilliger: 1888, Jacob Hauber: 1891, Claude Gaillard, Jr.: 1892, Charles C. Boyd: 1894, Abram Dorrance Horn: 1895-1898, Joseph Harding: 1899 and 1903 and 1908-1911, Peter C. Rutan: 1904-1907, Howard Wheat: 1912-1936, Frederick Charles Harding: 1937-1940

St. Mary’s Cemetery, Port Jervis, NY: Thomas Edward Birmingham: 1883-1884, Patrick J. Donahue: 1889-1890, John James Carey: 1893, James Lester Buchanan: 1942-1953, Robert Bruce Dunn: 1980-1983, Michael James Cicalese: 2002-2004

Cuddebackville, NY Rural Valley Cemetery: Franklyn John Gordon: 1954-1957, Donald Edgar DeVore, Sr.: 1972-1975

Sparrowbush, NY Hillside Cemetery: Roscoe Burrel Case: 1958-1959, Douglas Hamilton Moore: 1966-1967, John Richard Hosking: 1968-1971, John William Launt: 2000-2001, Donald E. DeVore, Jr.: 2004-2005

Matamoras, PA Pine Grove Cemetery: Charles F. Baumgardner, Sr.: 1976-1979

Waterbury or New Haven, CT Cemetery: Thomas Holt: 1861 and 1866-1867 and 1875

Lockport, NY Niagara County Almshouse Cemetery: Alexander Holmes Simpson 1864 

Honesdale, NY Glen Dyberry Cemetery: Leopold Fuerth: 1870-1873

Queens, NY Lutheran Cemetery: Anthony Lumpp: 1900-1902

Barryville, NY Montoza Cemetery: Robert Henry Miller: 1941

Winchester, VA Mount Hebron Cemetery: Fred Raymond Harding: 1960-1965

NOTE: VIDEO: Original video clips used in this video of reading of chiefs – courtesy of Rob Waligroski

https://youtu.be/ZPrEfMxQc1s