Rockwall was notorious for fires in it's first years as a county. In the county's infancy every able person would help extinguish fires, but that was not an efficiaent system. The first county courthouse was destroyed by fire in 1875.

The second Rockwall County Courthouse, which was constructed in 1878, was destroyed by fire in 1891, And in 1904 fire destroyed five downtown businesses and the post office.

About this time the citizens and Officials saw the need for an organized Fire Brigade and established the county's first Fire Department. The Fire department employed only one man, who maintained the fire equipment and tended the equestrian team that pulled the "Fire Wagon" or "Pumper". The Brigade was all volunteers, consisting of local businessmen who left their places of work, and private citizens who left their daily chores, who lent their assistance in fighting fires when signalled to respond.

The fire department had its first meeting hall on South Goliad Street on the square. The firefighters would fratenize by meeting to discuss fire-fighting tactics, and once a month they would gather to eat a meal at the meeting hall. The Photo below is one of those meetings. The fire brigade used horse-drawn equipment until 1930 when the first modern fire truck was built. Rockwall purchased its first factory-ordered and fire truck in March 1930.

James J Lowe erected the first brick building on the Rockwall courthouse square in 1867, located on the corner of Goliad and Rusk Streets. There he opened a mercantile with partner, Chauncey Allen, and they had the business from 1867 until 1899.

In 1875 Chauncey Allen hired the first known Mortician to work in Rockwall County. In the rear of their Mercantile coffins were built, bodies were prepared for burial and they had a horse-drawn hearse used for funeral processions. This portion of their business operated until the late 1880's when the men working for Allen and Lowe opened their own Undertaker and Coffin business in Rockwall.

Lowe also had a brickyard on his personal property where his workers manufactured the brick used in his building and in many of the early structures in Rockwall. The land he had was acquired from Terry Wade and was situated west of town, along the great fault of the ancient subterranean rock wall near the banks of the East Fork. The clay from the pits there made good brick when it was fired.

James Lowe was born 10 Feb 1834 in Alabama. He served in the Confederate States Army during the War Between the States in Co. K 8th AL Cavalry. After the war he moved his wife and three children to Kaufman County Texas. After his first wife died he married Rebecca Belle Tucker Shaw, widow of Rockwall's first Sheriff, Tom Shaw. They had 6 sons they reared in the large house they built on the corner of Goliad and Hiway 205, where the 7-11 is located today. His daughter, Lulah married Chauncey Allen, who became James' son-in-law and his business partner until Lowe's death on 24 Mar 1899.