Cuba City's organized fire company began in 1905 with twenty-four volunteers, according to the municipal history. Early equipment included a hose cart and ladder wagon; a bell summoned the men. In 1915 the department bought a Ford Model T chassis from Loeffelholz Bros. & Wagner for $800. J. J. Bass's blacksmith shop built the body for hose and tools. The vehicle had no enclosed cab. 23
The transaction connected Charles's firm directly with the town's fire equipment. It also combined the older trade and the newer machinery in one vehicle: a dealer supplied the chassis and a local blacksmith shop fitted the working body. Another truck was added in 1923. 23
Bartlett's memoir remembers Charles himself as a firefighter and connects his death with attendance at a fire:
“Charlie died following a fire he attended as a firefighter.” 20
The family's gravestone record gives May 24, 1923 as Charles Martin Loeffelholz's death date. Bartlett supports the year 1923. The medical cause, the particular fire, and the interval between that call and his death remain unknown. The memoir does not specify an injury or medical cause. 12038
The garage property history associates a later transfer to Albert Eustice and C. H. Bartlett with 1926 and describes the business as the Cuba City Motor Company. Its accompanying statement that Charles died that year conflicts with the family gravestone date and Bartlett. The distinction retained here is a May 1923 death and a separately reported later business transition. The transaction chronology remains unresolved: Bartlett also dates his own Ford-agency purchase with Eustice to 1922 and the sale of his half-interest to the following year. The property history may be describing a different transaction. 2022
The loss came almost immediately after Florette's birth. It left Elizabeth with an infant daughter and an older family whose full household history is only partly documented. The business photographs preserve Charles's working world; the later census shows the family that continued after him. 124