Jackson Hose Company No.3 was organized on September 10th, 1880.
The 21 charter members were: Charlie Abrams, Thomas Blakeney, DeWitt Conklin, Carlton DeGroat, Augustus Essner, Charles Gernand, Augustus Gross, George Latham, Thomas Matthews, Frank E. Outwater, Arthur Perry, George Powles, George Randolph, Winifred Richards, Charles Salters, Joseph W. Siebert, Conrad Snyder, Henry Strack, Philip Stumph, Casper Westervelt, and Edwin Youmans.
Jackson Hose’s certification of incorporation was filed with the State of New York on June 15th, 1881.
Their Quarters were located on Jackson Avenue at the “Bell Tower”. For years their quarters were the polling place for Nyack’s Election District No. 2.
The company’s first equipment was a relic of the New York Volunteer Fire Department, where it ran as National Hose No. 24. It was better know there as “Old Giraffe” because of its seven-foot wheels. The Jackson Hose men called it “Old Hickory” and it served well for many years in Nyack’s fire service.
Jackson Hose also had a costly parade carriage with which it won many prizes.
Early in 1883, Chief Dickey and Augustus Gross, foreman of Jackson Hose, went to Philadelphia to see about the new carriage for Jackson Hose, but whatever apparatus they saw they decided against. Order for the new carriage was given to A. Brown of Brooklyn. It cost $1000.
A celebration rivaling all celebrations of the Nyack Fire Department marked its arrival in December of that year.
Fire companies from Sing Sing, Peekskill, Haverstraw, Rockland Lake, and Spring Valley joined Jackson Hose and other companies in the Nyack Fire Department in escorting the new carriage through the principal streets of Nyack the evening of December 11th. Five Hundred firemen were in line. Colored “fire” waved by the firemen was from the laboratory of Dr. DeGraff, a local chemist.
Four hundred and fifty attended the ball and supper which followed the parade and members of the Nyack Cornet Band blew themselves hoarse.
“The firemen,” the Journal reported, “were supremely happy all night.”
The beautful carriage was destroyed in the incediary fire which gutted the Nyack Village Hall on July 19, 1909. Quarters of Jackson Hose and Jacskon Engine had been moved to the lower floor of the hall.
In December, 1880 the commissioners ordered extra hose for Mazeppa and Jackson Engine, and considered the purchase of two Babcock fire extinguishers for Orangetown.
Total cost of 800 feet of hose purchased by the commisioners in December, 1883, came to $637.50