Franklin's Fire Hall Dog - August 29, 1940

Horace German published a touching tribute to Franklin's fire hall* dog, titled "Mehity Bell Is Dead." It appeared in his Review-Appeal column, "The Night Watch."

Mehity Bell was the beloved dog of late Franklin Fire Chief Leroy Collins.  According to German, "...a crowd of little children," and "...grizzly old men, and among the men were some not so old nor grizzly," gathered to see to it that the dog of "Leroy Collins, Fire Chief, now dead for months...was getting such a funeral as Leroy himself would have given her."

German commented, "I looked over the heads of little children sorrowing for a dog that had romped and played with them.....and...into the tear-streaked face of Owen Johnston..."

He continued, "And not a child in that crowd had not as a toddler been nursed up and down Third Avenue by Mehity Bell."

He concluded by saying "...there is a plot of weeds behind a fire hall* that from now on will be a flower garden kept trim and neat because of the presence there of Mehity Bell, Leroy Collins' fire hall dog.  May she rest in peace forever and ever and ever."

To read the entire column, "Mehity Bell is Dead," which was transcribed by Williamson County Historian Rick Warwick, click HERE.

*Franklin's original fire hall was located at 234 Public Square.