There were only private police until 1838 in Boston:
https://time.com/4779112/police-history-origins/
And only private firefighters until 1853 in Cincinnati:
http://www.fireserviceinfo.com/history.html
Ben Franklin offered America's first fire insurance. Privatized insurance and firefighters in Phili in those days:
https://www.investopedia.com/articles/financial-theory/08/am...
Edit:
> The duties of the Watch, as appears by the order, were to be performed in turn by the inhabitants; they were not "citizen soldiers," but citizen Watchmen, and having an interest in their work, no doubt did it well.
- A chronological history of the Boston watch and police by Savage, Edward H.[2]
Savage seems to indicate that the night watch was performed in turn by the inhabitants of the community, by order of the government, and there is no mention they were paid. This doesn't seem like a private service to me.
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Watch
2. https://archive.org/details/achronologicalh01savagoog/page/n...
Edit: also a much more significant factor only in densely populated areas
The idea that people who set bones and cure cancer should be included in this category is a more modern take, one that requires much more careful discussion of what should and should not be a "public service".
> people feeling entitled to a service they previously resented as soon as it's useful to them
I think we should expect people to prefer suffering and death with dignity, rather than greedily and desperately peering into the pockets of strangers, but that's just my take.
I think enforcing the law has been a government function from the times the first laws were laid down. Fire services were a private function, and this actually works fine in sparsely populated areas where fires are not likely to spread in temperate climates. The only reason fire services are public is because of the inherent risk to everyone that a fire poses in a dense, substantially flammable, city.
If a fire affects you and only you, then why not cover it under normal, optional, property insurance like every other disaster?
This is generally the model of government intervention I support - intervene when the actions of one group of people directly affect others. This covers regulation around rights of way, fire services, environmental protection, waste management, water supply, pandemic/disease control, police, and the military. It however does not cover supplying the personal necessities of life like food, shelter, clothing, medical care, entertainment, companionship, sex, fulfillment, etc.
These are fundamentally individual needs, and I therefore hold that meeting them should be an individual responsibility. Any cooperation to meet these needs should be strictly voluntary and consensual, not compulsory. I think this is where, to greatly simplify, "the left" and "the right" fundamentally disagree. For instance, in spite of the now well-studied and crushing effects of loneliness, it would be absolutely tyrannical for the government to mandate friendship. Similarly it is tyrannical for the government to mandate participation in public health care/insurance. Let people figure out how to meet their needs for themselves, and let them figure out how to cooperate voluntarily. Charity is exactly the virtue of helping those in need, but mandatory charity is indistinguishable from slavery.