As the longest continuously active association in the New England States Veterans Fireman’s League since 1894, the Okos compete in eight summer musters from Maine to Connecticut. Their recent testing of the 1861 hand-pumped engine Okonmamakamesit at Redd’s Pond demonstrates the team’s commitment to maintaining competitive readiness, not simply displaying antique equipment.
Hand tub competitions require physical strength, coordination and teamwork. Teams pump furiously to generate water pressure that can spray streams hundreds of feet, continuing a sport that emerged when steam engines replaced manual pumpers for actual firefighting in the late 1800s. The Okos have earned the best competitive record among Marblehead’s hand-pumping teams through decades of dedicated training and participation.
While the Okos maintain an active group, they operate with a small core of dedicated members. Families like the Bartletts continue traditions spanning generations, but the team would benefit from additional participants to strengthen their competitive edge and share the responsibilities of maintaining equipment and traveling to musters across New England.
The Okos demonstrate that community traditions thrive through active participation rather than passive preservation. Their continued success in regional competition proves that historical practices remain vibrant and relevant when supported by committed participants.
Marblehead residents interested in joining a competitive team with deep local roots should consider the Okos. This tradition continues because people actively participate, not simply because it exists. To learn more, visit bit.ly/469NE1a.
Another cherished tradition, the Glover’s Regiment reenactors and their replica 18th-century camp at Fort Sewall, is on sabbatical this summer. By no means, though, is it taking a prolonged break during what promises to be a glorious, year-long celebration of our nation’s founding.
Indeed, as we roll toward the 250th anniversary of Independence Day on July 4, 2026, and with it the 50th birthday of the regiment’s harborside camp, its presence in our community takes on even more meaning and purpose than ever. Also, it could be argued, more relevance to current events and what we hope are (and remain) bedrock American values of equity and inclusion.
“Our primary mission is education, and we strive to fulfill that mission,” says regiment captain Larry Sands, a 35-year veteran of the troupe, who joined a small group of Marbleheaders during Gloucester’s June 21-22 reenactment of the 1775 Battle of Bunker Hill. Other recent 250th anniversary events in Salem, Lexington, Concord and Arlington have also drawn Marblehead reenactors and their supporters.
Noting the diverse makeup of John Glover’s original militia — which, virtually unheard of at the time, included free and enslaved Blacks, Native Americans and Jews, all “unified in their belief in a cause greater than themselves,” as popular historian Patrick K. Connell once wrote — Sands says there’s a lesson in that, too.
“I hesitate to call it DEI, but we were a diverse group,” he says. “And we enjoy the fact that we can display some of this history as it was back then, when it was not just old white men serving in the military.”
At a time when our military leaders in Washington seem intent on purging so-called “wokeness” from their ranks, and officers of color are summarily removed from positions of high command, that should qualify as more than a footnote to how America fought for and won its independence — and who did the fighting when the call to arms was sounded.
For Glover’s Regiment reenactors, the calendar ahead includes a minicamp in Fort Sewall Park this September, part of the Marblehead 250 festivities, and trips to other sites — notably where Gen. George Washington and his troops crossed the Delaware River, thanks largely to the heroics of his Marblehead oarsmen, and won the pivotal Battle of Trenton.
As always, regimental leaders welcome new recruits to their ranks, women and children very much included. Why not consider it this year, if you’re so inclined? For further information on Glover’s Regiment, go to gloversregiment.org. Larry Sands can be reached at captain@gloversregiment.org.
And if picking up a musket isn’t your thing, at least pause to salute — and support — those who do. They’re not only making history come alive. They’re making it fun, too.
