Freehold bids farewell to final
founding member of aid squad
FREEHOLD — You could define community spirit backed up by unselfish service by one name in the borough — Robert W. Searby Sr.
Searby was a member of a small group of special men from the old A&M Karagheusian Rug Mill — although they may not have realized it at the time — who organized the Freehold First Aid and Emergency Squad, an institution that still flourishes today.
Searby, 87, died Aug. 31 at The Manor in Freehold Township, just two days short of the first aid squad’s 61st anniversary. The squad became operational on Labor Day 1941. Searby was the last surviving member of that charter group of Freehold first-aiders.
In an interview for an article that was published in the Feb. 13, 2002 issue of the News Transcript, Searby said that community spirit was never higher in the Freehold area than in 1941, although the country was still in the clutches of the Great Depression, much of the world was engaged in war and the United States would be thrust into that war several months later in the Dec. 7 attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, by the Japanese empire.
"The squad was started at first to serve employees of the rug mill who were hurt on the job," Searby recalled. "However, many of the residents of the Freehold area and beyond were employed by the rug mill, so we decided to expand the squad to service the entire community."
In the beginning, as now, the all-volunteer squad was supported by donations from residents and local businesses, along with contributions from Freehold Borough and Freehold Township.
"I recall that we went from door to door during those early days to collect money," Searby said. "Today, we send out letters asking for donations. Also, the governing bodies of the borough and the township give the squad money each year."
Although the rug mill is long gone and has been turned into an apartment complex, the first-aiders who organized the squad built a legacy of service that continues to flourish after more than 60 years.
One person who worked alongside Searby in the rug mill is Sam Venti, 87, who worked at the mill from the early 1930s until it moved its operation of town in the early 1960s. Venti recalled that there was a felling of togetherness among many of those who worked at the old factory, one of whom was Searby.
"I worked on the same loom as a weaver with Searby and Matthew Bailey," said Venti, who was a neighbor of Searby’s on Parker Street for many years, going back to the days when they worked at the mill. "I got to know him well and he was a very nice guy. When you work as close as we did for that many years, you get to know each other pretty good, and working with those guys was a pleasure for me."
Searby started working at the Karagheusian rug mill in 1935 when he was 20 and left in 1957 when rumors that the mill was going to leave Freehold were rampant.
"After that, I worked for five years at the Hightstown Rug Mill," he said. "I then discovered that I could save the money I spent commuting by getting a job working for Nestle, which was practically in my back yard. I worked there for another 22 years."
Searby was born and raised in the Clarksburg section of nearby Millstone Township, but by 1940 he and the late June Nowack Searby had moved to Freehold to be close to his work.
"In the beginning I commuted from Clarksburg," Searby said. "But I was married and my wife didn’t like to be left alone when I was at work in the borough so we decided to move into town. I’ve lived in the borough for more than 60 years."
"He was the last of the Mohicans," Venti said, referring to the members of the first Freehold First Aid and Emergency Squad.