Branchville’s largest employer, Selective Insurance, can trace its roots back to the 1920s when a gentleman named Daniel L.B. Smith ran a small chain of grocery stores in Sussex County. After lending a horse and carriage to one of his friends who was an insurance agent, the horse got away and wrecked the carriage. D.L.B. didn’t want the agent to pay for the damage, but when the agent left town, he gave D.L.B. some policy declarations for farms and homes in the area. From there, the D.L.B. Smith agency set up shop in downtown Branchville.