Kern County
Biographies
HENRY R.
SCHAFFNIT
HENRY R. SCHAFFNIT. - The chief of Bakersfield fire department, whose wide reputation for successful work in this important led to his selection for his present responsible post, belongs to a German-American family and is a son of Leonard and Emma (Miller) Schaffnit, natives of Germany and descendants of long lines of Teutonic ancestry. An uncle, Henry Schaffnit, an immigrant to America in early life, Leonard Schaffnit was by trade a cabinet-maker and trained to an unusual degree of skill in the occupation, besides being an expert mechanic, and it was not difficult for him to secure steady employment after he came to the United States and he worked for some years for day wages. When the west was still undeveloped and he was yet a young man, he crossed the plains to California in 1854 with a party of emigrants traveling with wagons and ox-teams, but after a short tour of inspection ended his residence in California at that period. After his marriage he lived in St. Louis, Mo., where his eldest child, Henry R., was born June 27, 1874. Shortly after the birth of that son, he took the family to Colorado and settled at Central City, where he built and for twenty-five years conducted the Washington House. His wife died in Denver in 1902 and more recently he has established a home in Los Angeles, his present place of residence.
Out of seven children comprising the parental family all but two are still living and the eldest of these, Henry R. received a public school education at Central City, Colorado, from which place he went to Denver at the age of fifteen years. Ever since then he has been self-supporting. As early as 1894 he became connected with the Denver fire Department, where an experience of six years proved most helpful to him in later labors along the same line. In company with George Hale he attended the exhibitions at Kansas City and Omaha and the Louisiana Purchase Exposition at St. Louis, where as captain of the life line and pompier work during the fair he led off the best crew in the United States, comprising a fine body of men personally selected by an inspection of the entire country. At the close of the exposition he returned to Denver, Colorado as Captain of Engine No. 2 under Chief Owens. Resigning from that position in 1905 he became chief of the new fire department at Goldfield, Nevada, selected by the Board of Underwriters. The occasion of his employment has been the need of perfected fire system. The task proved one of great responsibility and many difficulties, but he triumphed over every obstacle, surmounted every difficulty and succeeded in securing for the town a splendid system with headquarters in a new fire horse costing $20,000 and containing every equipment for the fighting of fire. January 2, 1911, he was transferred by the Board of Underwriters from Goldfield in order to enter upon similar duties at Bakersfield , where he has since labored with tireless energy and sagacious judgment.
The Bakersfield Fire Department at the present writing has three hose wagons, four engines, one chemical engine, one hook and ladder truck and an auto truck, also two large gas pumps and six electrical pumps, the water for which is supplied from an excellent irrigation system with ten-inch mains and six eight-inch laterals. at all times there is there is a pressure of thirty-five pounds in the plugs. The signal telephone fire alarm system contains forty-one boxes at the present writing, these being distributed with such care that no point is far distant from fire alarm call. Fifteen paid men are in the employ of the department, besides sixteen call men. Under the present chief improvements are being made constantly and effectively. Four thousand feet of hose have been provided and two new fire houses are being built. In the course of a few months six automobiles, combination hose, engine and chemical will be installed, the expenditure for all these new facilities amounting in all to $75,000 and in a short time Bakersfield will have a fire department brought to the rank of first place on the coast, this gratifying condition resulting from the wise use of the tax-payers' money on the part of the chief in charge. Through membership in the Association of steam engineers. Mr. Schaffnit keeps in touch with every department in his special work and is therefore thoroughly modern and up-to-date in his ideas. While living in Goldfield he was connected with Montezuma Lodge No. 30, F. & A. M., and since coming to Bakersfield he has joined the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks No. 365. His marriage took place in Denver and united him with Miss Hattie Schultz, who was born and educated in that city and by whom he has two sons, Robert and Peter. The family holds membership in the Bakersfield Presbyterian Church.
Transcribed
by Sally Kaleta.
Source:
"History of Kern County with Biographical Sketches," Wallace M.
Morgan, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1914, Pages 509-510.
© 2014 Sally Kaleta.
GOLDEN NUGGET'S KERN COUNTY
BIOGRAPHIES