USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Farmington > Farmington town clerks and their times (1645-1940) > Part 25
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One of the changes nearest to Miss Porter's heart was that ! several old houses at the corner of Main Street and Hartford Avenue, long fallen into disrepair, might be removed.
With contributions from her pupils, this was accomplished and the land purchased and presented to the town as a village park. A fund of $3,000 was left by Miss Porter in her will, the income to be used for the maintenance of the park. At the 1901 session of the Legislature, a special charter was granted empowering the trustees named in Miss Porter's will to carry out her wishes and administer the fund, to be known as the Village Green Association.
In 1909 Mr. D. Newton Barney made plans to build a memorial library. Land where the library now stands was pur- chased and cleared of its age-long accumulation of buildings and in July 1917, upon the completion of the present, beautiful building, the Farmington Village Green and Library Associa- tion acquired the library and the park. The library was named "The Sarah Brandegee Barney Memorial Library" in memory:
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of Mr. Barney's mother. Mr. Barney gave at that time suffi- cient shares of stock to endow and maintain the library. The former library, known as the Village Library Company, with $5,000 to its credit, turned this money and its books over to the new institution, and Mrs. Timothy H. Root continued in her position as librarian, serving in all, twenty-nine years.
A legacy of $3,000 was received from the estate of F. A. Ward and Mrs. Charlel Whitman left $1,000. Whitney Palache established a fund in memory of his son James Palache who was killed in World War I in France, the income of the fund to be used for the purchase of historical books or to promote the study of history. The Village Green and Library Asso- ciation later accepted a gift from the estate of Henry Martin Cowles of $1,000, to be at least equalled by the townspeople, for the care of the old cemetery on Main Street. A sufficient contribution from D. Newton Barney completed this fund and the town quit-claimed any right it might have in the Cemetery, to the Association, with the proviso that if at any time in the future, the Association should cease to exist, the Cemetery should revert to town ownership. In 1935 again through the generosity and foresight of D. Newton Barney the Stanley- Whitman house on High Street was endowed as the Farmington Museum, having been presented to The Farmington Village Green and Library Association by Austin Dunham Barney, who had made his home there.
Another public benefaction inspired by Miss Porter is the Farmington Lodge, purchased and maintained through pri- zate subscription from former pupils, for the benefit of friends who are ill or in need of rest. The privilege of staying at the Lodge was formerly through recommendation, but of late years, the time spent there has been put on a more business- ike basis and attracts older women seeking rest and quiet.
A second new town hall for the town of Farmington, to be ocated in Unionville, voted at a special town meeting held August 30, 1900, at Keene's Hall in Unionville, was the last traw in a series of irritating events, causing increasing dissatis- action between the two districts and culminating in an effort
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on the part of Farmington to cast her youngest daughter out in the cold. But more of that in due time.
The new town hall was to replace the Old Church property, used as a town hall since 1888 and which had burned in the winter of 1899.
A building committee was appointed to consist of six citizens named by the chairman of the meeting, and the selectmen. Thomas S. Rourke was chairman of the meeting and he ap- pointed Oliver A. Beckwith Jr., Adrian R. Wadsworth, John Clancy, A. A. Burnham, William A. Hitchcock and was him- self a member. The selectmen that year were Richard H. Con- don, Samuel F. Graham and N. O. Keyes. This committee was instructed to prepare plans and specifications which were to be auctioned to the lowest bidder at a sum not to exceed $10,000 and report at a future town meeting, all to be subject to ap- proval of the townspeople before letting a contract.
On November 26, 1900, the committee made report of their doings, the plans submitted by Richard F. Jones were thought the best and $10,000 was appropriated for the new town hall.
At the same meeting, in keeping with village improvement, it was voted to dispose of the town hearse and the building in which it was housed. Also, the application of the First Ecclesi- astical Society to remove the lock-up from its "present loca- tion" (on the Church Green) was granted, provided "such re- moval shall be without expense to the Town and that any in- jury to the building by reason of such removal shall be remedied and the building restored by the applicant or others in its be- half." The following May, a town meeting voted that " "per mission be granted to the First Ecclesiastical Society of Farm ington to close the street between the church building and the town clerk's office on condition that said Society shall withou expense or cost to the town lay out and build another road o street on its land parallel with such road, along the south lin of the Humphrey estate, east of Main Street the said nev street to be approved of by the Selectmen as to the characte and quality of its construction. Upon such road being so ap proved, the right, title and interest of the Town of Farmingto:
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in and to the roadway so to be closed is granted and released to said Ecclesiastical Society." The row of fine old maples be- tween the church building and the Porter Memorial show where the former roadway existed.
January 190I saw another result of the Village Improvement Society in the incorporation of the Borough of Farmington. The charter established borough officers, the right to lay a tax and laws and penalties for maintaining certain rights within the borough borders. The borough lines take in, briefly, that part of the town between the Farmington River and the ledge of the mountain east of the village, and from north to south, that part of the town between the Farmington Lodge on the south and the Country Club and Smith and Thompson proper- ties on Mountain Spring Road. The borough provides fire pro- tection with lowered fire rates, police, and street lights, side- walks and care of borough roads, for which the town pays the borough $4,000 per year.
The first warden of the borough was Adrian R. Wadsworth, with Charles Brandegee as the first clerk. Edward H. Deming has been warden for the past several years, with Harold W. Wells as clerk.
At a Special Town Meeting held in Keene's Hall June 6, 1901, a vote was passed ratifying and confirming the appro- priation of $10,000 for the new town hall in Unionville and appropriating an additional $7,500 for heating, lighting and furnishing the same. At a further meeting held May 14, 1902, a list of expenditures for the new Town Hall showed a total of $19,600, and the question of whether Mr. Beckwith should receive compensation for his services as chairman of the build- ing committee was discussed. The meeting adjourned to May 20, 1902, when an itemized bill showing additional cost of $173.83 was presented, making the total cost of the hall $20,050.34. After considerable discussion, with motions being made and lost in rapid succession, a motion made by Edward H. Deming, that the selectmen pay all bills, including that of Mr. Beckwith, over the previously voted $17,500 and amount- ing in all to $2550.34, was carried.
At the annual town meeting September 29, 1902, a vote of
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thanks and appreciation was given Mr. Beckwith for "faith- fully performed duties, greatly to the stability and thorough- ness of construction in every detail of said building and to the interests of the town" and that he be paid for his services as chairman of the building committee, on a per diem basis, to be arranged by one member of the board of selectmen, Mr. Beckwith and a third person to be chosen by both.
It was at the town meeting held September 24, 1900, that Maiden Lane was accepted as a highway by the town.
Also at that meeting the town voted its thanks to Alfred A. Pope for the work done at his expense on High Street and New Britain Avenue, and, with a further vote that the town would make such alterations in the layout of High Street and New Britain Avenue as the selectmen and Mr. Pope should agree upon, provided that Mr. Pope defray one half of the expense. The selectmen were also instructed at that meeting to "provide for the water in the street near the home of Chauncey Griswold on Depot Road."
The first vote for transportation of school pupils was at an annual town meeting held September 19, 1901. The motion was made by Henry W. Barbour, whose interest in schools was in evidence throughout many years.
In November of that year, the town voted to appropriate the sum of $600 to pay for proper drainage of surface water from School Street in Farmington through a conduit, to the lot belonging to Catherine Deming, to connect with a large drain there.
At the same time the limit of town indebtedness was raised to $20,000 with power to borrow to that amount from the Farmington Savings Bank, at four per cent interest.
On July 14, 1902, votes were passed to light the Town Hall and town clerk's office in Farmington with electricity, provided the cost would not be more than $600 per year.
September 29, 1902, a new layout of the Hartford Road was considered essential and Adrian R. Wadsworth, Thomas Collins and Hervey R. Crandall were named a committee to change the layout and location of Hartford Road from a point
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near the house of John Flood to a point near the house of Marshall Nott and secure a layout of moderate and easy grades.
Mr. Barbour also carried at this meeting a motion to trans- port, at town expense, the children from the Waterville, North- east and East Farms School Districts to the public schools of the town.
On this date, the town also voted to discontinue the Town Farm, as such, and to sell the farm, if possible, otherwise to rent. Later, Mr. and Mrs. George R. Sperry came to Farm- ington, rented the farm, sometimes caring for the town poor and remained there until the farm was sold and they removed to their new, present home on Farmington Avenue.
It was on motion of Charles Bill, that the sum of $200 was ordered paid to the managers of the West End Public Library, with a "further sum of $100 or less to be paid each year by the town treasurer to the Library Association as long as said Association shall remain a Public Library, free to all the inhabitants of this Town."
At the State Election held November 4, 1902, Judge Edward H. Deming was the unanimous choice for Judge of Probate.
In the intervening two years since the building of the new town hall in Unionville, plans had been formed for the division of the town, and to constitute the village of Unionville a town- ship. A special town meeting held February 16, 1903, found a record vote out, with 355 persons participating. The Resolution as offered by George Taft, read: "That the Representatives from this town, in the present General Assembly, are hereby instructed to oppose the passage of the Resolution now pending before the General Assembly for the Division of the town, or any similar or substitute resolution. And the selectmen are instructed to appear on behalf of the town and oppose the pas- sage of said Resolution and are authorized and instructed to employ legal counsel and incur other reasonable expenses for said purpose." The result of the vote was 352 in favor of the above Resolution to oppose the Resolution before the House, and three opposed. The Resolution on which the foregoing vote was taken read as follows:
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State of Connecticut. General Assembly January Session "A.D., 1903
"Resolution dividing the Town of Farmington and incorpor- ating the Town of Unionville.
"Resolved by this Assembly.
"Sec. I. That all that part of the Town of Farmington lying westerly of the easterly boundary line of the location of the rail- road of the New Haven and Northampton Company as now established, with the inhabitants therein, be and the same is hereby incorporated into a separate town with the name of Unionville with all the privileges, powers, rights and immuni- ties, and subject to all the duties and liabilities of towns in this state.
"Sec. 2. Said new town shall have and hold all the property of the Town of Farmington, except public records, now located within the limits assigned to it by this Resolution. Of the pres- ent debts and liabilities of the Town of Farmington, the new town shall assume and pay such fractional part as from the ! valuations shown by the grand list of taxable property of the Town of Farmington for the year 1902, it appears that the amount of taxable property of the town hereby created is of the whole taxable property included in said list, and shall pay all the sums expended and bills incurred by the old Town of Farmington, if any, in opposing the passage of this resolution. All the public buildings, credits and other property belonging to the Town of Farmington as the same exists at the time of the passage of this resolution shall be valued at its fair market value. If the value of the property passing to the new town under the provisions of this resolution shall exceed the value of the property remaining in the ownership of the Town of Farmington, the new town hereby created shall pay to the Town of Farmington one-half of the amount of such excess. If, on the other hand, the value of the property remaining in the ownership of the Town of Farmington shall exceed the value, of the property passing to the new town hereby created, then the Town of Farmington shall pay to the town hereby created one-half of such excess. "
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The balance of the Resolution had to do with the details of organizing the set-up of the new town.
The selectmen were later ordered by town meeting, to pay the sum of $500 to Joseph Barbour for legal fees charged in opposing this Resolution before the General Assembly.
The report of the Legislative Committee was lengthy. It was read by Senator Bailey, who reported that the rejection of the Resolution was unanimous. He said, in part:
"Farmington was incorporated in 1645. The population by the last census was 3,331, and if divided, Farmington would be left with about 1,350, and Unionville with about 2,000 -- nei- ther large enough to have a representative in the legislature . . . Against the division were 530 voters and taxpayers, .. . The committee was impressed with the weakness of the case presented by Farmington. Diversity of industries, which was one of the arguments for division, was one.of the things, which, in our minds, should make a successful and prosperous town. Claims were made of extravagance and an unfair distribution of town offices. .. . The Town Hall in Unionville, of which so much has been said, was ordered built at town meeting at which taxpayers of the Farmington end were present and they favored it .... People in Unionville generally own their own homes which makes them good citizens, and gives them a per- sonal interest in town affairs. ... The greatest grievance of Farmington has been the loss of town officials and representa- tives, and that that section is dictated to by Unionville resi- dents. This is a country of majority rule, and these objections should be no good reason for a change. If divided, Unionville would, in a sense, be deprived of representation as it would not, although a town, have the 2,000 population necessary to secure district representation in the general assembly."
The logical and friendly outcome of the whole matter, was a sort of "gentlemen's agreement," whereby Unionville would have the nomination of town treasurer and town tax collector, and Farmington would nominate the town clerk, with the republicans of Farmington nominating the first selectman and the democrats of Unionville nominating for that office, and the best man to win. There has been a consistant effort made in
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the intervening years, to share such committees as were elective, equally between the residents of both Unionville and Farm- ington. Out of this controversy grew, too, the decision to alter- nate town meetings between the two districts, rather than leave the possibility of holding meetings of interest to one community, always at that end of the town.
Business matters were fast being put on a more up-to-date basis. The selectmen were ordered to have the town report available one week before the annual town meeting, auditors were instructed to balance the books September first of each year and town officers were adequately bonded.
A committee of four leading citizens, consisting of Julius Gay, Edward H. Deming, Danford N. Barney and David R. Hawley was appointed January 20, 1904 to study plans for a new steel bridge with proper approaches to take the place of the "Old Red" covered bridge across the Farmington River in Farmington. The abutments were to be raised one foot, the roadway also raised to avoid flooding. The bridge specifications called for a five-ton bridge, not to cost over $3,900.
At the town election of 1905, Mr. Brandegee had a rival in C. W. Ruic, but won the election by a large margin. The select- men that year were William Gay, Charles G. Bill and Thomas Collins. This was Mr. Collins' first year as a voter and he was promptly made a selectman, at the age of twenty-two. He is now serving his third term as postmaster and has always been actively interested in the welfare of the town.
The selectmen ordered that year that the Western Union Telegraph Company "without delay, cause their poles to be removed back from the new macadam road at least fifteen feet from the center of the macadam surface."
State Highway Commissioner MacDonald appeared at town meeting June 20, 1908, to advocate repairs in the town road from the borough line to the West Hartford town line. A vote of thanks was passed at this meeting to Mr. A. A. Pope for the sum of $2,000 to pay for repairing the roadway from the Elm Tree Inn to the borough line.
By 1908, the cost of schools in the town of Farmington had risen to $13,085. The tax remained at thirteen mills and the
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amount borrowed for current expenses remained about $10,000, showing that with increased expenditures, the assessed value of property was rising. As an inducement, however, to further industry in Unionville, the assessors were instructed to lower the taxable value of some of the manufacturing plants in that district.
At the State Election November 3, 1908, with the Town of Plainville still in the Farmington Probate District, the former judge, Frank S. Neal, was defeated by Mr. Brandegee, by the vote of 569 to 174.
At a town meeting held October 5, 1909 a motion made by William Hartigan who owned Electric Park - then doing an excellent business because of the trolley road through the woods - to open and maintain the old Clatter Valley Road, was dis- cussed and finally tabled indefinitely. At the same meeting it was voted "that the Connecticut Institute for the Blind be and is hereby permitted to locate and maintain an institution for the Blind within the limits of the Town of Farmington." The Wollenberg house on Canal Street was purchased and used as a nursery for blind children, until its destruction by fire on the sub-zero night of January 24, 1935. The fire, which was started by spilling a can of wax, totally destroyed the large house. The blind children were safely removed from the building and housed with Farmington families until they could be taken to the Connecticut Institute in Hartford. Water used to fight the fire froze almost as it reached the ground. Chief Brogard of the fire department suffered for many weeks afterward as the re- sult of freezing his hands. While the blind children were here, Farmington people did many things to entertain them, and were responsible for games, trips to the shore in the summer, and extra good things to eat at Christmas and other holidays.
October 10, 1910, the town meeting voted to give Burnside Post, G. A. R. the use of the lower hall, Unionville, for the pur- pose of holding their meetings, free of charge. Here are col- lected many choice relics of the Civil War, with flags and en- gravings of men and battles of those years.
On September II, 19II an important special town meeting voted to quit claim such right as the town might have in or
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to the "Meeting House Green," to the First Ecclesiastical So- ciety. Although the Society had owned the various church buildings since the founding of the Society in 1708, it had not previously had title to the land. The "Meeting House Green" was bounded and mapped, and the map filed in the town clerk's office. In that deed the town clerks' office was excepted from the rest of the "Green," to remain property of the town, with land extending ten feet east, ten feet south and six feet west of the office, and to the sidewalk on the north.
October 9, 1911, it was "Voted that the Waterville and North east school Districts be and are hereby dissolved and the territory embracing said Districts within the territorial limits of the town of Farmington is hereby united with and shall become a part of Center School District."
We have no further record of the efforts of the townspeople to have the streets lighted with electricity, but evidently the matter had been attended to, with satisfaction to all, for at a special town meeting held Saturday February 17, 1912, a vote was passed "that the action of the Selectmen of the Town of Farmington during the past few years in annually paying to the Borough of Farmington and the Unionville Fire District, $ 500.00 each for lighting the streets of the Village of Unionville and Borough of Farmington is hereby ratified and confirmed." Another vote immediately followed authorizing such appro- priation annually.
This year of 1912 saw a great change in the town clerk's office. The ancient and not too satisfactory method of record- ing by hand gave way to modern ingenuity and Mr. Brandegee invested in and used a cumbersome and tricky machine which engulfed an entire record book. Unlike a typewriter, the ma- chine would not automatically advance the book a line at a time, and great concentration was needed in recording, that the book might be properly placed for each line. This was before the days of loose leaf record books, but properly used, was a great advance over individualistic handwriting.
During the year of 1912 residents of the town were stirred by acts of out-of-town contractors who were carrying sand away from the Round Hill, property of the town since the beginning
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of its existence. A misunderstanding on the part of Mrs. Ann Riley, who owned the land on which the hill stands, and leading her to believe that she also owned the hill itself, brought about a special town meeting, to authorize the employment of legal council with proper understanding of the steps necessary to prevent sand from the hill being taken out of town. Efforts were made December 10, 1914 by the Edward Balf Company to lease or purchase Round Hill. The voters present at the meet- ing listened to a reading of the vote at the previous meeting and voted to take no further action. The Round Hill land has changed hands many times since, but no further effort has been made to take sand out of town or to sell or buy it. It is for the free use of the townspeople so long as any part of the Hill re- mains.
In 1912 the West District Evangelical Mission purchased from twelve owners in that section of the town, the old brown stone schoolhouse situated in the highway. Deacon Hatch was the first school teacher there, with seven scholars. In later years a second school was built across the road from the old stone school and used until the consolidation of the schools. The old stone schoolhouse has been extensively repaired by John E. Knibbs and maintained by the people of that district who have fond memories of neighborhood gatherings, suppers, sew- ing bees and weekly prayer meetings held there, as well as their own or their parents' school days. The Reverend Noah Porter held weekly meetings there during most of his years as pastor. The older residents say that it is about sixty years since the school was used as such. Efforts to purchase the building have always roused a storm of protest in the district, as the building stands for so much of the community life in West District.
The matter of placing the lock-up in the First District was again taken up, in 1912, it being long considered an unsightly building. It was ordered removed to the Town Hall, out of sight in the basement.
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