Richboro
Pennsylvania
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Northampton Township Volunteer Fire Department
Long before the housing developments, shopping centers and industrial parks, Northampton Township was a community of farmers with the village of Richboro at its hub. The potential for property loss or death from fire was extremely low.
Even so, a group of concerned residents gathered in 1914 to charter a fire company to serve the township. They called this new company the "Richboro Fire Company No. 1".
Since its inception, the Company has grown into what is now the "Northampton Township Volunteer Fire Company" which serves a population approaching 50,000 residents. Today the Company responds to approximately 500 fire and rescue calls per year.
Many of the early history records have been lost to time. However we do know that before 1914, the Southampton Fire Company, formed in 1909, provided the Richboro area with fire protection. When residents needed assistance, Walter Yerkes and Walter Finney of Southampton would hitch two horses to their Pumper and rush it to the township line at Bristol Road and Second Street Pike.
There Stephen Gill or J. Milton Luff would meet then with a fresh team of horses, then drive the pump to the fire. There it would take several men to hand operate the pump.
By 1913, a series of bad fires made the Richboro residents realize that they needed a fire company of their own. Lloyd Wilson's farmhouse on Second Street Pike had burnt and so had John Gill's in the center of the village.
The residents really became concerned when a fire broke out in the chimney of the McCool's White Bear Hotel, now the abandoned Spread Eagle Inn. Walter Yerkes rushed the pump to Bristol Road where Milton Luff met him. Miraculously, the hotel was saved.
Soon after, a group of men met above the horse shed beside the Black Bear Hotel, which was located at the intersection of Second Street and Bustleton Pikes, the usual meeting place for village affairs. J. Milton Luff, Fred Turner, William Nolan, William and Joseph Cramer, Thomas BuBeck, George Cramer, Neal Knorr, Howard Hunter, John Bell and William Wendig Jr. were the first to organize a fire company for Northampton Township.
Even so, a group of concerned residents gathered in 1914 to charter a fire company to serve the township. They called this new company the "Richboro Fire Company No. 1".
Since its inception, the Company has grown into what is now the "Northampton Township Volunteer Fire Company" which serves a population approaching 50,000 residents. Today the Company responds to approximately 500 fire and rescue calls per year.
Many of the early history records have been lost to time. However we do know that before 1914, the Southampton Fire Company, formed in 1909, provided the Richboro area with fire protection. When residents needed assistance, Walter Yerkes and Walter Finney of Southampton would hitch two horses to their Pumper and rush it to the township line at Bristol Road and Second Street Pike.
There Stephen Gill or J. Milton Luff would meet then with a fresh team of horses, then drive the pump to the fire. There it would take several men to hand operate the pump.
By 1913, a series of bad fires made the Richboro residents realize that they needed a fire company of their own. Lloyd Wilson's farmhouse on Second Street Pike had burnt and so had John Gill's in the center of the village.
The residents really became concerned when a fire broke out in the chimney of the McCool's White Bear Hotel, now the abandoned Spread Eagle Inn. Walter Yerkes rushed the pump to Bristol Road where Milton Luff met him. Miraculously, the hotel was saved.
Soon after, a group of men met above the horse shed beside the Black Bear Hotel, which was located at the intersection of Second Street and Bustleton Pikes, the usual meeting place for village affairs. J. Milton Luff, Fred Turner, William Nolan, William and Joseph Cramer, Thomas BuBeck, George Cramer, Neal Knorr, Howard Hunter, John Bell and William Wendig Jr. were the first to organize a fire company for Northampton Township.