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This is the story of the Branchville Hose Company located in Sussex County, New Jersey. The volunteer fire company was established in 1910, fifteen years later it retired its antiquated hand operated fire equipment when a 1925 Brockway “Torpedo” Fire Truck was purchased. This fire engine survives today as the Branchville Hose Company prized antique. Fifteen years later a 1940 Mack was added to the roster. And seventeen years after that the fire company placed in service a red and white 1957 Ward-La France fire truck. In 1964 Dodge van was purchased to haul equipment for the fire department. Let’s take a look back and see how Branchville and its fire company grew from its humble beginnings to what it is today. Its fascinating history includes milk, fires and a railroad.
The very first firehouse was located the center of town and dates from the early 1900’s, it served Branchville as not only a firehouse, it also included a second floor used for Council meetings, Town Court, and Health Department.. It served Hose Company 1 until 1937 when the Fire Company moved to a newly constructed firehouse nearby. While all this was going on the Sussex Branch of the Lackawanna Railroad whose tracks had extended into Branchville from Netcong was operating both passenger and freight trains into town. Originally built as the Sussex Railroad, The Delaware Lackawanna & Western gained controlling interest of the railroad in 1945 and took over the branchline operations of the Sussex Railroad, the branch line was completed in 1869 into town, and it was the terminus of the railroad, the rail line never extended beyond Branchville. Why are we talking about trains, read on!
The Railroad brought great growth prosperity to Branchville, so much so it was expected to overshadow other towns in the area and become the industrial center of Sussex County. Over 40 new homes were built 1869 to 1871 alone. The little town was growing and would soon need fire protection, as stated earlier this would come about in 1910. Now besides the economic growth from industry, Branchville had become the hub for an ever increasing dairy industry; the production of Milk was the largest industry in the area by the end of the Civil War.
But tragedy would strike the town in 1882. The Sussex Manufacturing Company had a wooden mill dating from 1830; the interior of this old building was soaked with oil used in wool manufacturing. Around four o'clock in the afternoon of June 13th, a young boy was gathering up waste and began feeding it into a grinding machine. Some sparks flew from the grinder into some waste and caught fire. Workers seeing the fire began throwing buckets of water into the flames, but the fire spread too fast. Soon the mill was engulfed in flames and embers from the burning mill began to cause fires in surrounding buildings in town. The Lackawanna Railroad was contacted, an urgent telegraph message was transmitted from the train station, and soon a train of flatcars loaded with the entire Newton Fire Department was heading up the Sussex Branch, Firemen, horses and equipment responded into Branchville from the rail yard. Over two hours after the fire began, one of Newton fire Department steamer’s was pumping water drafting from a nearby stream, and soon streams of water were dousing the fire from numerous hand lines. Several buildings had already caught fire and collapsed, The Bowman Hotel was still burning, but a bucket brigade saved the Presbyterian Church from extensive damage. By the time the fire was placed under control around eight o’clock at night almost twenty buildings had been consumed by fire. Downtown Branchville, some of its earliest industrial buildings and homes had been destroyed. With the rebuilding of the town, the formation of Branchville Hose Company 1 took place. Branchville would finally have its own volunteer fire department.

Today, looking back to the days when the Lackawanna Railroad was the primary mode of transportation you can imagine the Branchville train station was a very busy place, Wagons and later automobiles from neighboring hotels and towns met trains here. Mail was sorted and delivered from the station; the important milk deliveries from surrounding creameries and dairies were shipped by rail to cities along the railroad from this location starting in 1863. But by the 1960’s the final days of rail service were coming to Branchville, new highways, automobiles and trucks, and the gradual closing of creameries in Sussex County had taken its toll. Once the contract to carry U.S. Mail expired in 1966, the last passenger train would depart Branchville. Now operated by the Erie Lackawanna Railroad it arrived, the locomotive ran around its train and pulled out of Branchville returning to Hoboken on July 10th, 1966. The old station and adjacent creamery now sat forlorn and abandoned. Years later the rusty tracks were pulled up and the train station that served the Lackawanna Railroad for 97 years was moved to another location nearby. In the severe winter of 1994 the 125 year old station collapsed under the weight of a heavy snowfall, and sadly it was torn down. But the empty location where the old rail yard and train station were located would come alive once more; the land where a fire alarm was transmitted (By the railroad) and the spot where the Newton fire Department responded from well over 120 years ago would soon be transformed into the new home of the Branchville Hose Company 1. Once again this location in Branchville would become an important link to the community, a modern four bay firehouse operated by Hose Company 1 was constructed where Lackawanna’s Branchville train station once stood, behind the firehouse at 1 Railroad Avenue just across a grassy path where the railroad tracks used to run is the former Sussex Milk and Cream Co. building, at one time supporting the important bustling industry, it now serves as an office building. So, as you can see, in a strange twist of fate the Branchville Fire Department, its railroad and dairy industry have all been reunited. But you have to do some industrial archeology to find all the history here. I had a chance to visit the firehouse, and look around at all the existing structures nearby. The fire company operates four pieces of apparatus; they have two Engines, a Ladder truck, and a Mini-pumper. Branchville Hose Company 1 provides fire protection for the Borough of Branchville, and to Frankford Township through a mutual aid agreement, both fire departments are dispatched simultaneously to all fire and rescue calls in the area. I included some images of the area with a then and now comparison and a photo of the Sussex Branch memorial that was placed in front of the firehouse, a fitting tribute considering all the history that took place where the firehouse stands today.