A98.19

Though credited to Johnson's Sacramento studio, this daguerreotype probably depicts a San Francisco fireman. The shield on his helmet reads "Pacific 8 M.R." While there was apparently no engine company 8 in Sacramento, there was one in San Francisco. According to "The Annals of San Francisco," "Pacific Engine Company, no. 8, was organized September 9th, 1853, to take the number left blank from the Monumental No. 8. Benjamin Oakley, jr., Frank Gray, D. O. Brown, and other citizens in the vicinity of Pacific wharf and Broadway, were instrumental in forming it. It is located in Front street, between Jackson and Pacific streets. The company, though laboring under many disadvantages from location and want of apparatus, have done fair service, and are now making efforts to procure a proper house and engine so much needed in that portion of the city (Source: Frank Soul_, John H. Gihon, M.D., and James Nisbet, "The Annals of San Francisco," 1855, San Francisco).