Millburn is a great municipality in Essex County, NJ. I remember it well.
I have a few badges from here and they are a major part of my Municipal collection. The three badges pictured represent my twenty-second community in alphabetical order with this "M" being for Millburn.
A distant relative served on the police force in this town in the 60's. Unfortunately I never met the man, at least I don't remember doing so. I do recall my father making comments about nice the job in that community must be.
On Sunday's Dad often cranked up his old Hudson and we would take a ride through all those nice places that seemed light years away. We would go through Millburn, Chatham, and out to Schooley's Mountain. The ride took up an afternoon.
These places seemed like "frontier towns" when I was a kid, but that changed. I became an adult, I got a job, and they stopped making Hudson's. They also stopped making a couple of my father's other choice vehicles (Studebaker and Desoto).
The biggest change came with the construction of the Interstate Highway (I-78 and I-287) and "24." With these roads the small town became a suburb of Newark.
I lived in Chatham, and saw my driving time to work drop from thirty five minutes to fifteen minutes (My Chevy could fly). Once at work I established many friends and contacts that helped with the badge collection. The three above were all given to me by a fellow probation officer who definitely had the right connection. He donated them to my collection.
These are three nice badges. They are all early (1900 -1950) shields in good condition. The first badge is an Auxiliary Police (# 166). It is actually in excellent condition as the picture reveals.
The second badge is marked Special Police (#22). This item is of a design not common for N.J. police. It has twin pillars on the sides, with an eagle on the top. There are also four tiny stars on this badge.
The last badge is the officers shield. It is simply marked Police (#19). This badge, like the other two are marked with the name Millburn, NJ. All have the State Seal at center point and are plated to match the finish on the badge.
These items have been in my collection a good twenty-five years. It is nice to see them on a daily basis, and yes they do trigger some great memories.
