Walter Willisson Stephen kept this notebook in 1903 as a 12-year-old boy. The bulk of the volume consists of seventeen chapters relating to the Moberly, Missouri, Fire Department, its infrastructure, equipment, and activities, with particular focus on the rescue efforts of Company 7 that was led by three teenage boys. They extinguished fires in various buildings, like a mattress factory, the cotton exchange building, stores, saloons, and houses. At least two chapters refer to African American residents of Moberly, with one fire breaking out in a family's kitchen (p. 17) and another in a "small shanty" (p. 52). It is unclear whether these fires were entirely imagined or based on real events, but the tales include heavily dramatized elements, flourishes, and dialogue while reflecting early-twentieth-century firefighting practices and boyhood fascination with them. The first chapter opens with pencil illustrations of fire extinguishers, axes, and water hose nozzles. The inside front cover includes pencil drawings of three horse-drawn fire trucks, an American crest, and an airship.
Stephen kept tables of data relating to baseball players' statistics in the back of the volume, seemingly for games held in the following cities in Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee: Vicksburg, Mobile, Jackson, Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Shreveport, Little Rock, and Memphis. He made two pencil drawings of men playing baseball, and he included pencil sketches and doodles on the back inside cover of men, guns, animals, and geometric shapes.
Walter Willisson Stephen was born in September 1890 to William Oscar Stephen, a Presbyterian pastor, and Elizabeth Octavia Willisson Stephen (1856-1925), an author who wrote at least one novel in addition to prose and poetry for periodicals. Walter Stephen worked for the Monsanto Chemical Company for 38 years, "where he had been active in plant safety and fire prevention work." He died in 1958, and his obituary noted he "was deeply interested in fire prevention work, served for many years as chief of the Oxford Volunteer Fire Department, and was a charter member, and president for two terms, of the Southeastern Fire Chiefs Association. He was frequently called upon for speeches on fire prevention work at points across the United States and several times in Canada and had received invitations to speak abroad... A poet of note, his verse was printed in several publications, and he was a member of the Poetry Society of Alabama." He is buried in Anniston, Alabama.
