Resolute Hook and Ladder Company, No. 1 became the third volunteer fire company to organize after the Town of Morristown received its charter in 1865, effectively replacing the old Morristown Fire Association. The Board of Aldermen approved the formation of the company in June of 1869 with a roster entitled to 60 men. The organization began with thirteen members who voted to name the company, Resolute, rejecting the other nominees--Friendship, No-Name, Goodwill and Hope--in the process. Members chose a uniform consisting of an unadorned red shirt, black hat and black belt. This fashion was discarded in 1881 when the town mandated regulation blue uniforms for all members of the fire department regardless of company affiliation. Many of the names listed on early membership rosters were well-known in town. Business and professional men comprised the majority of members and that pattern continued well into the twentieth century. When an individual applied for formal membership, a small wooden box was put into use. As the box passed aroung the room, each member would send a ball through a slot in the box. A white ball signified a yes vote, a black ball denoted a nay. If three members voted no, the applicant was "blackballed" and denied entry to the company. Before securing their own quarters, the company met at the Court Street building used by the Independent Hose Company and then used the rooms belonging to the Morris County Brass Band. In 1870 the town purchased a lot at the corner of Speedwell Avenue and Water Street to build a brick firehouse. Despite Republican Party objections to a firehouse being built in close proximity to the Baptist Church (the church was then located on the opposite corner), the town moved forward with its plans. The company approved $350. for furnishings and when members moved into their comfortable new home on 1871Oct4, Morristown's Chief Engineer formally presented the company with forty keys to the firehouse. Resolute originally shared quarters with Niagara Steamer Company, No. 2, a group who disbanded in 1881 following a nasty scandal that impugned the company's reputation. Niagara Company would soon be replaced by Humane Engine Company, No. 2.
Resolute has always been Morristown's only ladder truck company. The town had actually contracted to buy a proper truck before Resolute had even organized. The need for a hook and ladder apparatus became apparent following a destructive fire that occurred in a multi-story building in April 1869. At the next meeting of Morristown's Common Council, members authorized the purchase of a hook and ladder truck to be built to proper specifications and delivered on July 1st by John Sickles of New York at a cost of $1,025. The truck was pulled by hand. The town purchased a second truck sometime during the late 19th century that would be drawn by horses. Resolute was the first company to own their own horses, keeping them stabled down the hill from the fire house on Water Street. When the company built an annex on to the fire house in 1892, at a cost of $3000, it included stalls for two horses. The horses, named Tom and Jerry and beloved by the town's population, carried the 7,500-pound apparatus to many fire scenes before they retired in 1912, replaced with motorized equipment. Built by Mack, the new truck had fifty horsepower and reached speeds up to thirty miles per hour.
At a fire scene a truck company is traditionally charged with four main duties: gaining entry to the building, searching for and rescuing victims, creating ventilation--often by means of force--so heat and smoke can escape and overhauling the building by taking down ceilings, doors or walls to insure that the fire is completely eradicated.
With the advent of a municipal fire department in the 1920s the town of Morristown focused greater funding and support upon its paid department. However volunteers and paid men continued to fight fires side by side and relations among the companies and the "Uniformed Fire Department" remained cooperative with little political interference. Most of the professional employees held membership in one of the local companies. Resolute Hook and Ladder Company continued to field up to fifty members, and maintained, with some revamping, many of the popular social traditions of the past.
The latter half of the twentieth century brought economic and cultural changes to American society that transformed our nation's landscape in extraordinary ways and changed the course of volunteer organizations like Resolute Hook and Ladder Company. The affordable automobile, the post-World War II building boom and the lure of the suburbs combined to drain urban areas of its younger, able population who might have filled the ranks as older members retired. Training standards also changed. Men who joined the companies in earlier years gained their expertise with hands-on practice--watching and working with experienced senior men at fire scenes. Rookies occasionally would travel to Newark or Jersey City for "ridealongs" where they might hone their skills. In Morris County structured fire training began around 1950 when a small group of local chiefs formed a county training association. By the 1960s, fire fighters attended specific classes and programs at area fire houses and continued to receive in-house training. Following the passage of the Federal Fire Prevention and Control Act of 1974 (P.L.93-498), the State of New Jersey began formalizing and thoroughly regulating training standards with comprehensive guidelines outlined in minute detail. When the Morris County Fire and Police Academy opened in 1974, it took over many of these functions.
Volunteer fire companies in many towns became victims of the times. By the mid 1970s, the urban applicant pool had significantly diminished and of those that remained, few were willing to commit to the time and training required. At the same time, political maneuvers in Morristown soured relations among the volunteer companies, the paid department and the town. Many volunteers felt marginalized. Combine these factors with the modern era when Americans ratcheted up the pace of their lives with little time left unaccounted for and the allure of the firehouse diminished.
As of 2008, the Resolute Hook and Ladder No. 1 Company is staffed with 30 members.
The materials in this collection document the professional, financial and social activities of one of the oldest fire companies in operation in Morristown today. These records provide insight in to the nature of volunteer firefighting in the late 19th and 20th centuries and also highlight the organization's place in the larger community. The personality of this company, composed in large part of professionals and businessmen, is occasionally evident within the collection. Early minutes and other existing records are straightforward with little exposition provided on matters affecting the inner workings of the organization. This company wished to leave no evidence of dirty laundry. Records of lavish entertainments and monetary assessments and costs to members reflected their comfortable socioeconomic status. Within the administrative structure, record-keeping was not always consistent and there are chronological gaps. In the years where there are separate files for company records and correspondence, the organization's president kept company documents while the secretary maintained correspondence files as he received the mail. Types of material included in the collection are minutes, roll books and fire registers, correspondence, subject files, membership applications, financial reports, bills and receipts and a small number of ephemeral items.
The records of Resolute Hook and Ladder Company, No. 1 are arranged in three series: I.
Series I.
Series II,
Series III,
This material is open for research without restriction under the conditions of the North Jersey History Center archives access policy. Records may be copied for use in individual scholarly or personal research, however, as with all materials in the History Center, researchers are responsible for obtaining copyright permission to use material from the collection. Material in the Resolute Hook and Ladder Company, No. 1 Records may be photocopied, but because this material is a permanent part of the History Center's collections, researchers are advised to photocopy with care, using only the edge copier for bound material.
Resolute Hook and Ladder Company, No. 1 Records were given to the North Jersey History Center of the Morristown and Morris Township Library by members of the company.
Resolute Hook and Ladder Company, No. 1 Records, 1872-1992. North Jersey History Center, The Morristown and Morris Township Library.
Arranged, described and encoded by Cheryl Turkington, Spring 2008