Our Hose Cart, which is the very first piece of firefighting equipment purchased by Milford, is still in its original condition except for a scratch or two.

Bob Sigafoos did an excellent job of researching the origin of the Cart, and reported his results at two of our meetings in 1983.

We share his reports with you, in their entirety:

“After sending letters to many people, I received a reply from Bill Wainwright of the Lehigh Valley Fire Museum. He stated, in his letter to me, that he was sure we had a Writ and Knox Hose Cart. I located Wirt and Knox in Lionville, PA and talked to a secretary by the name of Dottie. She said the Wirt and Knox Company used to be at 24 North Fourth Street in Philadelphia, and later moved to Lionville. In their move, they destroyed all their old records, so, at that time it was not known whether we had a Wirt and Knox Cart.

I sent pictures to Dottie, along with a description of the cart, and she verbally said it was a Wirt and Knox, manufactured sometime around 1900. She also sent me a newspaper article from the September 1980 issue of the Pennsylvania Fireman. The article was about a man who restored a Wirt and Knox cart. I called a Robert Herman in Leola, PA and talked to him. He said to bring the cart to him and he could give us, in writing, an approximate date of manufacture.

At the second meeting, Bob continued his report on the Hose Cart:

I took the Hose Cart to Bob Herman, Lancaster Carriage Company, Leola, PA, and after looking it over very closely, he said we do not have a Wirt and Knox. Our cart probably was made by a small manufacturer, made prior to the Wirt and Knox, and that they took some of the ideas and put them on their own carts. He thinks our cart was made between 1840 and 1870. Most of our cart is original, and has been kept that way through the years.