My Tribute to the
McEwensville Volunteer Fire   Company
From Then .... ..........till Now
Although the Borough of McEwensville became a fully incorporated Borough in the year of 1857 this small town did not "officially" have a Fire Company till a century after it's formation.
History spoken by the townspeople, passed down through the years, tells the story of a Fire Company in the early years of the Borough's existence, a Company whose only piece of apparatus was a hand wagon upon which was a rectangular wooden vessel in which water could be hauled. A piece of equipment, with the tongue of the wagon so equipped that it could be drawn by a number of men. No one seems to know how long this Company was in operation, or if it ever did exist, but the stories tell that one year at Halloween some pranksters removed the wagon from the building in which it was housed, pulled it up along the Warrior Run Creek and lost it over the bank into the swimming hole. Therefore the " Fire Company" and it's first piece of equipment met an inglorious end.
Shortly after the Borough had celebrated it's Centennial,
at a meeting of the Community Club , on September 30,1957
the idea of forming and equipping a Volunteer Fire Company
was presented as a way of dispersing some of the funds made
by the Centennial celebrations. The members decided to
allocate $1000.00 for just this purpose.
No sooner had the gavel sounded ending the meeting of the Community Club and it's generous offer, till a new gavel sounded and a meeting to organize the Fire Company began. Chief Burgess- Harry Derr opened this meeting and as it's first order of business temporary officers were elected for the new organization, and the following persons were chosen: President- Frank Colley, Vice- Pres.-Roy Reynolds, Secretary-Charles Moyer, Treasurer-George Wesner. After the election the newly elected President presided over the meeting that followed. The members voted to accept the generous offer of the Community Club and the it was decided that more should be found out about the procedures necessary for the formation of a volunteer fire company. Frank Colley was elected to contact knowledgeable members of nearby communities and to invite them to the next meeting. Charles Moyer was asked to contact Attorney H. William Koch, concerning a petition and legal procedures in the forming of a volunteer fire company. It was also decided that the second Tuesday of the month would be the meeting night and that the meeting place would be at the Community Hall until the company decided to meet elsewhere.
In meetings that followed the name McEwensville Volunteer Fire Company was chosen, by-laws and equipment committees were appointed, a petition was presented to the courts requesting a charter and other procedures pertaining to the forming of a fire company. Goals were set including the purchase of a tank truck of approximate 1,000 gal capacity, acquiring a place to house the equipment, hopefully the school building when it became available, and the plan to build a dam where an adequate water supply could be obtained.
The hard working plans from the original members paid off and on February 11, 1958 Mr Koch presented the McEwensville Volunteer Fire Company with it's Charter. The by-laws were adopted and the Company was a reality. The first goal to be realized was the attaining of a of a new truck a 1957 Ford chassis upon which was mounted a 1200 gallon tank with a pump and necessary fixtures by which water could be drawn or forced. The second goal attained was the building of a temporary dam in the creek and the making of a road over which the dam could be reached. After classes ceased in the Academy building in 1958 the building became available to the Fire Company. Two large overhead doors were installed on the South end of the building the floors were concreted and the building was renovated for use as a fire house, the building that still houses us. A second tanker was acquired from civil defense, and even later an addition was added to the building to house a La-France Fire engine that was purchased from the West Branch Fire Company.
Over the years there have been many changes and additions to the original holdings of the fire company. A warning siren was installed and a phone call to a local number sent a member of the fire company to the community hall to set of the siren to alert the firefighters that there was a fire. In 1976 the Borough of McEwensville installed a public water system and the old dam on the creek was replaced by new shiny fire hydrants to hook up to throughout the town. In the early 1980's that tired firefighter who went to hit the siren button on the community hall was replaced by an electronic device, one that not only sounded the siren but set off pagers to alert each of the firefighters of an alarm. This was the year we became " Company 10" , the year Union County Communications became our dispatch service.
Over the years the membership of the company changed with the changes of the times. Even though McEwensville is by far not the largest company in numbers it had a very well trained membership that served it's community well. At the writng of this article 15 active members serve as volunteers, the members are all well trained to well within the standards necessary to service their community and to assist the other fire companies in the area as needed. Over the past several years the company has increased it's requirements in training for active membership and for holding offices, as firefighters. New apparatus has been purchased and updated with more effective firefighting capacities, also over the past several years the company's services have grown and changed by the addition of a
state certified QRS with medically trained personnel to assist local ambulance companies to provide quicker medical attention to the residents of the Borough of McEwensville and  nearby communities.
Oh.....by the way, about that old fire equipment that was supposedly dumped in the  creek......well several years ago some boys who were swimming at the old swimming hole, discovered a wheel protruding from the creek bottom, and with  some improvised tools they uncovered a hub, an axle and some coopered boards,   thus confirming the old stories really were true.

Written by La'Na Brown, 1997,with input from a
"McEwensville History "by George Wesner
It is with great sadness, that I must now report
the end of an Era in McEwensville!

In January 2000, the Officers and Members of the McEwensville Volunteer Fire Company, after careful consideration, voted to close the doors to the
McEwensville Volunteer Fire Company!

Over the past several years the membership of the company had declined.

Potential new members, the young people of our community, moved away or no longer wanted to volunteer. 

The members, that were active, were getting older and it became increasingly difficult for the few members that remained to maintain a safe level of Fire and EMS protection to the residents of the Borough of McEwensville, and nearby communities. It also became more difficult, for them, to do the added work needed to be able to continue to finance it's operation.
The Equipment was sold, the records stored, the legal details attended to and the  memories were safely packed away by a teary eyed few.
All that remains is the hollow shell of a building that once stood for the true essence of Community Pride and Caring!
I, for one, am proud to have been a part of it's History!
La'Na R Brown
1958-2000