Independent Hose Company No. 1 became the first company to organize after the Town of Morristown received its charter in 1865, effectively replacing the old Morristown Fire Association. A few local men first petitioned the town to form a hose company in January, 1867. That action was tabled by the Board of Aldermen, but a second request–drafted with the support of newly-appointed Fire Chief Richard Stites–met with the Board’s approval in August, 1867. In the typical flowery language of the day, a Jerseyman newspaper article described the event. "A few young men, ever ready to sacrifice time and money, to say nothing of the bewitching maiden, for the welfare of their fellow beings, met for the purpose of organizing a hose company. They were nineteen in number, but nineteen true, noble and unselfish men." Six other companies would follow the Independent’s lead and organize in nineteenth century Morristown. Of those six, only five would survive into the next century–Resolute Hook and Ladder Co., Washington Engine Co. No. 1, Humane Engine Co. No. 2, First Ward Hose Co. No. 4 and Board of Fire Wardens Co. No. 5.

The early history of this unit is remarkable for its panoramic views of community affairs and its detailed accounting of company activities. The members took the name, “Independent”, after rejecting “Pocahontas” and “Zephyr”. The town’s only fire apparatus, drawn by hand and purchased for $350 a few months earlier, was turned over to the rookie company. The carriage underwent a makeover a few years later when a committee chose to paint it carmine and lavender with gold striping. Not to be eclipsed when a new crane-neck carriage was purchased in 1878 from the New York firm of Clapp and Johnes, the order specified that it be painted the same lively shade of crimson and decorated with ornate gilding (funding for the carriage came from the Common Council, the sale of the old apparatus and private subscriptions). For most of the nineteenth century the town depended upon a system of cisterns for its water source to fight fires. Residents often utilized cisterns to catch roof water for potable use. Placed at various locations around the town, firefighters would arrive at a fire scene, uncap the cistern and insert the nozzle from the engine in to the opening to receive a steady stream of water. This system was abandoned when the Morris Aqueduct Company laid larger street mains around the Green beginning around 1900. 1913 motorized equipment had completely replaced the horse-drawn wagon.

The Independents were originally housed in a building on Court Street, where the Morris County Court House now stands. In 1870 the Council purchased a lot on Market Street and built new headquarters, where the Company has remained for more than 130 years. From the outset, they have shared these quarters, albeit separately in a sometimes odd arrangement, with Washington Engine Co., No.1. The Fire Company’s early roster shows its members were almost all Morristown residents, Protestant and primarily employed in business or as men of the trades. Occupations mentioned in an early roster included grocer, hotel keeper, confectioner, engineer, harness maker, sash and blind maker, cashier, clerk and surveyor. Rarely did a member list his profession as gentleman. Men who joined the Company regularly kept their membership for the remainder of their lives -- thirty, forty and even fifty years of service was not uncommon.

This was a group eager to bring glory to its company, and quick to take offense when its name was maligned as it was in 1871 following the 4th of July parade. In an article titled, "Morristown Disgraced", the New York Sun accused the young company of abominable behavior during the local festivities. The Sun pioneered the concept of the penny paper, usually sold in the streets by newsboys and devoted to sensational crime and human interest stories. The article claimed that members participated in racist behavior and that two thirds of the company was incarcerated in state prison. The piece was typical of the irreverent, exaggerated style of 19th century penny papers. Both The Jerseyman and the True Democratic Banner indignantly challenged the veracity of the account and defended their boys’ honor. But unhappy with what they deemed was a tepid response by the local papers, the men quickly offered a resolution requesting that the Common Council vindicate the conduct of the Chief Engineer and the membership against all such published insults. Time and again loyalty and dedication to the Company’s duties and reputation were paramount.

In the first ten years of its existence, the Company answered almost 100 alarms, including a rash of incendiary fires that occurred over the space of a few years around 1870. Covering these arsons in 1871, The Jerseyman newspaper reported that, "The Fire Fiend is still insatiable. It is evident that all the incendiaries with which Morristown is infested are not yet in State Prison." A long investigation revealed that Gibson Kent, a saloon keeper on Market Street and a member of Washington Engine Co., No. 1, was responsible for the mayhem. The Jerseyman disclosed that his motive was wholly mercenary. Kent would hire young men to set the fires, usually on Saturday nights. The newspaper account disclosed that, "after the boys had been paid off for their week’s work, and when the fire was over, drinking and carousing could be kept up at his place until daybreak Sunday morning." It was estimated that Kent would bring in between $100 and $200 in business with each criminal act.

While pride in the company’s name and mission is manifest throughout its history, occasionally doubts surfaced regarding the performance and conduct of younger members. Any evidence of neglect of duty or failure to adhere to the Company’s established moral code resulted in swift censure. One of the earliest actions taken to remedy this issue happened in 1884 with the appointment of a Committee of Instruction. Comprised of seasoned veterans within the unit, men were enlisted to mentor their younger associates so they might gain greater proficiency in their firefighting duties. Lamenting the state of youth is a human tradition, and the men of Independent Hose Company were not immune from complaining–albeit in a very gentlemanly fashion–that each younger generation was not adhering to the high standards and mores of yesteryear.

By the turn of the century, the volunteer companies had improved their equipment, their facilities and consequently the service they provided to the community. Fire Chief Wilbur Day reported in 1915 that 250 members in six companies served the firefighting needs of Morristown and Morris Township. The Independents had a porter on duty and a team of horses stabled across the street from the firehouse, and beds upstairs assured that members would be available 24 hours a day. Starting in 1892, the town installed the more efficient Gamewell Telegraphy Fire Alarm System by placing a bell in the cupola of the Morris County Court House and sixteen fire alarm boxes throughout the city, with each alarm connected to a signal telegraph at the fire houses. Previously a fire alarm would sound from church bells in the town. The Court House bell was replaced in 1923 when a new whistle atop the Vail Mansion---turned municipal hall--was put in to service. The whistle with its bovine-like timbre came to be known by firefighters and all who heard it as “The Cow.”

A highlight of the Independents’ annals are the many successful events and entertainments held throughout the years. These programs benefitted the company by furnishing occasions for old-fashioned networking among colleagues, politicians, influential citizens, other fire companies and the community at large. They also offered a grand social outlet, providing a means to companionship apart from work or family. The Company’s annual entertainment, traditionally held on Washington’s Birthday, was testimony to the organization’s collective literacy and wit. Stage sets, costumes and props were all utilized to amuse and delight the assembled guests. Members composed songs, sketches and vignettes using clever, facetious prose that poked fun at local citizens and institutions. One newspaper account gushing over their efforts said the Independents, "every year put up a new show of an absolutely original character. It is an event in this city and one who gets a ticket counts himself lucky." Great anticipation preceded these affairs, and the Company garnered admirable publicity, but over the years the entertainments were downsized, occasionally changed venues and finally died out.

The early records of the Independent Hose Company spill over with details of members’ participation in civilized socials and patriotic events. Nestled in among the accounts of fires and drills are announcements of strawberry and ice cream festivals, excursions and collations, presentations of the Company’s portrait to fellow fire companies and participation in the town’s first formal Memorial Day ceremonies–at the behest of the local Grand Army of the Republic post. Rifle matches, ice skating races and baseball games were regular fare among local companies. In 1876 the Company’s most famous honorary member, Thomas Nast, contributed a large sum to offset the cost of the Allentown Cornet Band’s performance at the local Centennial celebration. Gaudy decorations festooned the firehouse, and members marched proudly in the local parade.

With the arrival of the twentieth century the collations and games of quoits slowly gave way to clambakes and dinner dances and outings to Dodger baseball games at Ebbet’s Field in Brooklyn. A long discussion ensued in 1917 when the Company grappled with celebrating its 50th anniversary while the nation was at war. Members prudently decided that “all such gaieties should be abandoned” in the face of national adversity.

While company members and their equipment might be supplanted over the years, parades remained a fixture in the firefighting community. Beginning in 1868 the town has honored its firefighters by holding an annual parade in October. Across America, these festivities provided opportunities to display a community’s spirit, to educate the public and to highlight fire organizations, personnel and equipment. Minute details regarding proper uniform attire, arrangements and line up were carefully recorded and members solicited subscriptions to pay the costs. Numerous invitations to attend other towns’ parades arrived regularly at the firehouse and often those events were fully attended. In one report the Parade Committee proudly announced that the Company, "As it always does came out with flying colors and entertained its guests with a table well laden with all that heart could wish...and where the inner man was greatly refreshed. We did ample justice to the cause." In Morristown the 130 year tradition came to an end in 1999 when a lack of interest and funding forced cancellation of the annual event.

With the advent of paid firefighters in the 1920s, Independent Hose Company and other companies faced a subtle shift in the environment. Paid drivers had been a fixture among fire houses for some time. In 1916 the town budget provided $300 for drivers’ wages. George Nixon, the Company’s current, most senior member, recalls working as a paid driver before joining the Independents in 1933. However as the Fire Department budget grew, the Municipality continued to bear the cost of salaries with no analogous rise in authority over the volunteers. By 1924 the Town paid more than $11,000 in Fire Department salaries–a considerable increase in capital expenditures. As earnings escalated, so government’s voice grew more incessant regarding Fire Department matters. Traditionally the Chief Engineer fulfilled the role of liaison and conduit among volunteer companies and the administration, but in an effort to exert their prerogative, the Council attempted to appoint a paid chief of the volunteer companies in 1923. Although this effort failed to garner sufficient support, it was a harbinger of changing fortunes for the volunteer companies. Over decades their influence diminished as the Town focused its funding and support upon its paid force whose standing in the community grew.

The volunteers and the paid men fought fires side by side throughout the middle decades of the twentieth century. Relations between the companies and the “Uniformed Fire Department” remained cooperative with scarce political interference. Most of the professional employees held membership in one of the local companies. Independent Hose Company and its brethren organizations continued to field as many as fifty men for each outfit, answered between forty and fifty calls per year, and maintained or revamped many of the popular social traditions of the past. They continued their modified role as an active outlet for men--and later women--wishing to volunteer their time and effort to uphold an honorable community tradition.

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 Independent Hose Company and other volunteer organizations. 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 go to Newark or Jersey City and ride the fire trucks there to hone their skills. By the 1960s, fire fighters attended specific training classes at area fire houses and also received 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. Independent Hose Company was the first fire company in town to field a female fire fighter.

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, increased political scheming in Morristown served to sour relations among the volunteer companies, the paid department and the Town. Many volunteers felt marginalized. Combine these factors with the era of the 1980s and 90s when Americans began to ratchet up the pace of their lives with little time left unaccounted. In a society where time management has become a valued skill, where everyone carries a day planner and families arrange dates for quality time together, the allure of the firehouse diminished.

Independent Hose Company and Washington Engine Company Number One vacated the Market Street firehouse in December, 1996 when Town inspectors determined that the floors in the building could no longer safely support a modern fire apparatus. The Company’s 1993 Spartan pumper truck was removed to the Speedwell Avenue firehouse. Although the Town would like to sell the property, as of 2006 it was not on the market and both companies continued to use the building for their meetings.