![]() ![]() Street gangs in New York were fluid in their membership and name as they merged and found new leaders. He closed his family's butchery business in the 1850s and opened a drinking saloon, known as the "Bank Exchange". ![]() Poole was a known gambler and a heavy drinker. He was also a known skilled knife fighter, as a result of his profession as a butcher. He was known for his brutal boxing style: "He was well known as being a notoriously dirty fighter, not averse to biting off noses, gouging out eyeballs, or beating a man to jelly." He fought in many fights that were considered illegal due to the brutality of bare-knuckle boxing. ![]() He weighed over two hundred pounds and was about six feet tall. William Poole was a large man for the time. The Bowery Boy would sit on the barrel until his own fire engine arrived however, fights over the fire hydrant would break out, and sometimes the Bowery Boys had no time to actually extinguish the fire. One of the strategies that Bowery Boys used to ensure that other fire engine companies could not put out the fires was once hearing the alarm sound a Bowery Boy would find the nearest fire hydrant to the fire and flip over an empty barrel over the fire hydrant and sit on the barrel, so it could not be seen or used. There were rivalries between the fire companies to put fires down in the neighborhood. These firefighting groups were closely tied with street gangs and were seen as a public service provided by those groups. Volunteer fire groups, such as the one Poole was in, were important for keeping fires under control. During this period in New York fires were a huge problem for the city. In the 1840s, he worked with the Howard (Red Rover) Volunteer Fire Engine Company #34, on Hudson and Christopher Streets, and started the Washington Street Gang which later became the Bowery Boys. Poole trained in his father's trade and eventually took over the family store. In 1832, his family moved to New York City to open a butcher shop in Washington Market, Manhattan. Poole was born in Sussex County, New Jersey to parents of English descent.
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