Horse Wagon - Palisade Hose Company 2
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Time Machine user George Browne sent in this further information: When I worked at the Jane Street firehouse in the late 1970s, there was a resident who lived at the dead-end of Jane S by the name of Freddie Klinky, Freddie was in his 60s at the time and he had lived all his life on Jane St. His father had been a member of the Palisade Hose Company when the FD was a volunteer FD and used horse drawn apparatus.
According to Freddie, the Palisade Hose Company did not have horses, but instead relied on delivery men from Macys, Gimbels, etc to use their horses to pull the apparatus. According to Freddie (and he is long gone), when the fire bell sounded, the delivery men would race to the fire house, disconnect the horses from their wagons, connect them to the fire apparatus and take it to the fire. Once positioned at the fire, the delivery men would disconnect and go back to their deliveries. According to Freddie, the delivery men were paid $5 each time they hauled the hose wagon to the fire (a nice sum of money in the early 1900s) It was up to the FD to get the apparatus back to quarters after the fire.
From the collection of the Weehawken Historical Commission.