Alexander Bonner Latta

Alexander Bonner Latta was born on June 21, 1821 at Clermont, Ross County, Ohio on a farm near Chillicothe. His parents were John Latta and Rebecca Latta. Alexander married Elizabeth A. Pawson, daughter of William and Hannah Pawson of Cincinnati, Ohio, on October 1, 1847.

A.B. "Moses" Latta was an inventor, principally in the field of designing and building railroad locomotives and fire engines. In his slightly less than 44 years of life, he helped to start no fewer than three manufacturing concerns. But by some accounts, he was neither a very skilled inventor nor

businessman, and the eccentricity of his locomotive and fire engine designs probably explain his mediocre career. Nevertheless, his 1852 partnership with another unsuccessful inventor, former locksmith Abel Shawk, started the company that would eventually become the Ahrens-Fox Fire Engine Company. Ahrens-Fox fire engines are still legendary as among the best ever made, in terms of both performance and endurance. Ahrens-Fox fire engines were

manufactured in Cincinnati, Ohio, from 1852 to 1977.

On March 2, 1852, a failed Cincinnati locksmith named Abel Shawk, and a moderately successful but highly-eccentric railroad locomotive builder, Alexander Bonner "Moses" Latta, and a successful iron-foundry owner named Miles Greenwood, polled their talents and their separate corporations to jointly unveil the world's first successful steam-powered fire engine. This demonstration was so successful that the City of Cincinnati contracted with

them to build a steam fire engine for them. Shawk's quick-steamed boiler, which could raise water in under 10 minutes, made the steam fire engine practical, while Latta lent his locomotive expertise to the steam engine, pump, and chassis. Shawk and Latta, along with Latta's brothers Edmundson and Finley Latta, formed the A. B. & E. Latta "Buckeye Works" to build this steam fire engine. Built in Greenwood's foundry, it was named the Uncle Joe Ross after the city councilman who had championed the steam fire engine's introduction. The world's first fully-paid and professionally-trained fire department was established in Cincinnati to man it, and city councilman and former volunteer firefighter Miles Greenwood replaced volunteer fire chief R. G. Bray as the city's first professional fire chief. The engine proved so popular that in 1854, the citizens of Cincinnati raised the funds to buy a second Latta &

Shawk steam fire engine, aptly named Citizen's Gift.

Latta and Shawk had a young German-born apprentice working in their steam fire engine factory. His name was Chris Ahrens. When the steam fire engine business was sold in 1863 to Lane & Bodley, a local machine shop, Chris

Ahrens became L&B's superintendent of fire engine construction. Five years

later, Chris Ahrens bought out the Latta fire engine business, renaming it C. Ahrens & Co. How and where did Latta come by the knowledge and experience to become a significant contributor to both the introduction of steam fire engines, and

the founding of the Ahrens-Fox Fire Engine Company? Who Was Who in America states that Latta's father died in some sort of accident (this is verified in Branch 3 history also) when Latta was just 5. As a result, after only a very

few years of formal schooling, Latta had to go to work in a cotton mill to support himself, his widowed mother, and at least two younger brothers, Edmundson and Finley Latta. (Branch 3 history states that Alexander was the

youngest child and that his brothers, Edmundson and Finley, were 3 and 5 years older than Alexander.) As a very young teenager, Latta landed a job in the Navy Yard at Washington, D.C., were he became an expert mechanic. Here

he met Cincinnati locomotive builder Anthony Harkness. Harkness offered Latta an apprenticeship in his locomotive works, and thus did Latta move to Cincinnati and embark on the career that landed him in the right place at the right time to found the company that became Ahrens-Fox. Upon moving to Cincinnati, Latta became foreman of a machine shop, and constructed for the Little Miami Railroad the first locomotive that was built west of the Allegheny Mountains. He invented and patented a series of improvements in railway appliances, a few of which he succeeded in

introducing. In 1852 he invented the steam fire-engine, which he constructed in nine months. In October of 1853, he constructed a second steam fire-engine, which contained several improvements and received a gold metal

at the Ohio Mechanics' Institute Fair in 1854. He continued to build steam fire-engines until 1862, when he retired from active business. In 1863, Mr. Latta introduced the manufacture of aerated bread in Cincinnati. He also

made improvements in oil-well machinery.