User:PapaJohn1946

Rescue Hook and Ladder Company was organized, after a a destructive fire that ravaged our village, in the American Hotel in the Village of Haverstraw on February 18,1854. The formal organization of what was then known as The Union Fire Engine Company No.1 followed a meeting called on the evening of January 28,1854 at which time the need of fire fighting equipment in the Village was demonstrated by many of our progressive citizens

James Creney, Samuel Cosgrove, Samson Marks, John Begg, John Felter, C.P. Hoffman, J.D. Botwick, Jacob Allison, Alfred Hazzard, and Robert Smith issued the call. At the organizational meeting besides those mentioned, 36 citizens banded together and pledged themselves to protect their neighbors’ property at all hazards. The charter members of Rescue Hook and Ladder Co.1 were:

Asbury DeNoylles, James King, William Felter, John Jones, Daniel C. Springsteen, John Begg, J.W. Edwards, John Gains, Theodore Polhemus, Edgar Freeman, Edward Peck, Matthew Rose, A.E. Milburn, Jackson Rose, Jacob Allison, Lewis Mackey, Stephen Fields, Matthew Cooper, Denton Fowler, Bradley Keesler, James Creney, Samuel A. VerValen, Harmon Felter, John Felter, William R. Lane, Edward Felter, Isaiah Milburn, William Bedell, W.B. McLaren, George E. DeNovelles, Lewis Whittaker, Silas Mackay, Garrett Storms, Fred Glassing, Joseph Hazard, John p. Jersey, Theodore Fredrick, Abram D. Ver Valen, John Cosgrove, Philip Schoonmaker, Matthew Gurnee, Samson Marks

Soon after this volunteer company as organized purchased a truck useful in those days, but a crude affair compared with modern apparatus. In years that followed more modern equipment was secured. The old frame building on Middle Street gave way to a brick home through the activity of men of the village like William Bonnett, Alfred Carson, and their comrades.

Rescue Hook and Ladder continued to be an independent company until April 1859 when by resolution of the Trustees of the Village of Haverstraw, the Company was accepted into the Village Fire Department. In July of 1862 the company was re-organized and adopted a new style uniform, which prevail for almost seventy years.

A meeting of the company was immediately called and the following officers elected: Asbury Denoylles foreman; James Creney, assistant forman; James King. Secretary, J. W. Edwards, treasurer. and Lewis R. Mackey, Steward. A truck was purchased shortly afterwards. From 1854 to 1867 the truck was kept in an old shed located where the Methodist church now has its wagon sheds. It was afterwards moved to all old shed in Division Street, where it had its home until l870. Then it was kept for about six months in an old shed on West Front street, next to John D. Treadway’s present stable, and then moved to a long one-storied shed on the location of its present home, where it has remained ever since. Up to 1880 the company had had no permanent meeting rooms, holding its meetings here and there, wherever it could hire or beg a room. In 1880 the village erected the building it now occupies. From June 1853, to April 1864, no meetings were held on account of inability to get rooms. Its first fire service was on September 5,1854, at the burning of a barn near (Garnerville where it performed excellent service as a bucket brigade. Up to 1859 it had been an independent company owning its apparatus and accouterments. In that year the village fire department was formed and finding itself irretrievably in debt the company transferred everything it owned to the village and the village authorities assuming their debts fully initiating the company as a member of the fire department.

On account of internal troubles, the company was reorganized with Alexander Goldsmith as foreman and adopted their first uniform, consisting of blue shirt trimmed with red braid, white belt with red letters “Rescue” on the back, glazed cap and dark breeches, Previous to this time the only portion of a uniform worn was a heavy fire helmet. In the year I887 the old truck was sold to Grassy Point and a new one purchased. The new one was in service until 1899, when it was traded off and the present one obtained. When its house was built for them the company very handsomely decorated and furnished it, and in 1899 the rooms were redecorated and furnished, the old furniture being sold as relics to the members and new furniture purchased. Just as in the case with all similar organizations the company has had its ups and downs, both financially and in its members, the lowest ebb being reached in1898, when it had only fifteen members on its roll and made the annual inspection parade with only nine members on the ropes. Since then it has built itself up to its present membership of eighty –seven, one of the largest in that crack combination of fire companies”.

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