Ed Hawthorne, a retired assistant fire chief who bought the Niagara Steamer that was used in Nashua in the late 1800s.

Not long after he retired as assistant chief of the Newark, Delaware fire department, Ed Hawthorne began doing what many firefighters do when they hang up the turnout gear for the last time: Collecting things that have something to do with the fire service.

Such memorabilia comes in many shapes, sizes and forms, ranging from fire-scene photos, “portraits” of classic old apparatus posed just so on the apron of their firehouse, lamps made from those iconic oscillating emergency lights mounted on engine roofs and cowls, outdated street fire alarm boxes, perhaps a hand-operated bell or one of those vintage chrome-plated sirens that gets louder the faster the officer on the truck turns the crank.

Hawthorne, however, went big. Big, as in comparatively large in size, and big, as in the “wow” factor.

Decades after it was taken out of service, a casualty of the turn-of-the-20th-century trend of replacing hand- and horse-drawn firefighting apparatus with slightly larger versions propelled by these new-fangled internal combustion engines, Hawthorne acquired, from a man in Denver, a vintage Amoskeag Steamer whose roots, unbeknownst to him at the time, are firmly planted in the annals of Nashua history.

The steamer, produced by the Amoskeag Machine Company of Manchester, joined Nashua’s fleet of seven vehicles in 1896, at which time it was renamed Indian Head Steamer No. 3, then Nashua Steamer No. 3, and, finally, Niagara Steamer No. 3, according to Hawthorne and Nashua city directories from that era.

But all Hawthorne knew when he bought the steamer from the collector in Denver was that it was a gem, and definitely worthy of restoration, a plan that fit nicely with his longtime involvement in the Texas Fire Museum, a Dallas-based combination museum and restoration workshop that is now the permanent home of Nashua’s Niagara No. 3.

It won’t be long now before Hawthorne, with the help of fellow museum staff members James Edgemon and Gene Conway, will roll the well-traveled steamer from the workshop into the museum itself and set it up for display.

“We’re almost done … we’re very close,” Hawthorne said of the restoration process, which has been underway for months.

The final piece – replacing the steam and water pistons onto the steamer – is about all that remains to be done, he added.

Looking back, Hawthorne said it took him nearly 20 years to positively confirm that his steamer is the one that Nashua acquired in 1896.

His aha moment came while perusing Nashua native and author Gary Ledoux’s newest book, “Nashua’s Bravest: The History of Firefighting in Nashua NH,” which is available at Amazon and other booksellers.

“It wasn’t until Gary’s book came out that I was able to confirm that (the steamer) was in fact Nashua’s,” Hawthorne said. What did it was a photo in the book that he’d seen somewhere before, showing the Niagara, decades after it was retired from the fire service, being used by the Public Works Department to create steam to thaw sewer lines that froze up during cold snaps.

As far as Hawthorne – and this humble researcher – can determine, the steamer landed in the possession of a restoration expert associated with the Amoskeag Machine Company, who may have bought it directly from Nashua.

What Hawthorne is pretty sure of is that the steamer’s next owner was a man in Hardwick, Massachusetts, a town about 20 miles west of Worcester.

It’s believed the Hardwick man bought the steamer from a small, community museum, the name and whereabouts of which are unknown.

At some point, the Hardwick collector sold the steamer to the man in Denver, from whom Hawthorne purchased it some 20 plus years ago.

To view some great photos of the steamer in various stages of restoration, and how it appears now as the staff put the finishing touches on it, go to www.texasfiremuseum.org, and be sure to also check the museum’s Facebook page.

While we Nashuans, especially the history devotees and fire buffs among us, would rather our born-and-bred Niagara Steamer be housed here in town, there’s comfort in knowing it’s in caring hands as it begins its new life greeting future visitors to the Texas Fire Museum.

Dean Shalhoup’s column appears weekly in The Sunday Telegraph. He may be reached at 594-1256 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.