USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > A History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, vol 1 > Part 28
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Taunton Fire Department .- For the remarkably long period of one hundred and twenty-nine years Taunton can point to an uninterupted or- ganization for fire protective service, so that today (1923) the firemen of Taunton may of right pride themselves upon their membership with our oldest continuous institution for public safety, linked closely with the ancient bucket brigades coincident with the beginnings of the town. The city possesses the date of the first organization of fire apparatus here, as shown from the record of a sitting of the Court of General Sessions of the Peace for Bristol county, that was held November 3, 1794, which reads as follows:
Whereas, a number of the inhabitants of the central part of Taunton, having represented to this court that they are endeavoring to raise money for the purpose of purchasing a fire engine, and suggested their buildings Have been imminently exposed to be destroyed by fire from the Gaol; and have solicited this court to assist them in the purchase of an engine as aforesaid, this court having taken into consideration the premises; also the circumstances of the Gaol once being saved from being destroyed by fire by the timely exertions of said inhabitants, even at the risk of them- selves,-it is therefore Ordered that the sum of twenty pounds be allowed to the inhabitants, and that the same be paid out of the county treasury, to be appropriated to the sole purpose of purchasing a fire engine to be kept in the vicinity of said public buildings.
In 1797 appeared the earliest references extant of a firemen's group in the town-a notice promulgated by the selectmen in 1797. And it was in that year that the first record of a fire here of any real proportions was
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made note of. in an announcement that appeared in a Boston newspaper, and signed by Dr. Foster Swift, in which he made reference to the burning of his barn and two horses. The modern period of the use of fire engines here was opened in 1847, with the arrival, on January 2, of the Oregon, which at first was housed in the old railroad engine house, then in a brick schoolhouse near by; the name of this engine being changed in 1855 to the more famous name Niagara. James M. Cook was the first captain. This engine's foremen up to the year 1879 were S. W. Robinson, Elisha Smith, James M. Clements, G. E. Dean, A. B. Thomas and D. F. Sprague. The reorganization of the Niagara Engine Company took place in 1857, on account of restrictions that were placed upon the company by a vote of the meeting of the fire district. The history of this company for the long period of forty years included faithful service on the occasion of fires, ob- servance of their annual parades and banquets, dancing assemblies and try-outs. Many years their meetings were held on Westminster, now Co- hannet, street.
The first steam engine in town, still in service as Engine No. 4, on Bay street, was built by the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company for the Niagara Engine Company; its cost was $3600, and it arrived here January 31, 1865. On January 1, this company was reduced to twelve members, and for the first time in this city an engine company commenced to receive pay. Steamer Niagara arrived October 11, 1873, its cost being $4250, its capacity five hundred gallons a second.
In their turn came hand engine Union No. 3, purchased of Jeffers & Company, of Pawtucket; and then a Hartshorne hook and ladder truck, that was stationed in the Franklin engine house on Leonard street; steamer Edward Mott, with a capacity of three hundred gallons. and steamer King Philip, these steamers having their first trials at Neck-of-land. On May 1, 1866, the district fire department was transferred to the city, and the chief engineer and six assistants were sworn into office. The city or central engine house was built in 1869, at the corner of Leonard and School streets; and the first four-wheeled hose carriage, Cohannet No. 1, arrived here October 19, 1870, and was stationed in the building.
The Gamewell fire alarm system was set up January 1. 1872. at a cost of $8000; and in August of that year, the Old Colony steam fire engine was purchased of Cole Brothers, of Pawtucket. It was two years later, in April, 1874, that the Firemen's Mutual Relief Association was organized, with Edward Mott as president, George F. Pratt vice-president, George N. Elmes secretary, Alden F. Sprague treasurer. Steamer Charles Albro, No. 4, was installed at Britanniaville, June 19, 1874, and the next year, May 28, 1875, Weetamoe No. 2, the second four-wheeled carriage here, was stationed at the engine house. A work of great significance to the city and to the fire department was completed in 1876, when the water works building was erected and the pipes laid. In July, 1877, the Pokanoket, the third four-wheel hose carriage, arrived from Pawtucket, and was stationed at the Weir Village house. William H. Paine was the foreman, John P. Staples assistant, John C. Chace clerk and treasurer. About this time hose carriage No. 4, costing $650, arrived, and was placed in charge of the Charles Albro Company, No. 4, in Ward 8. Following the Charles Albro Company's reel, the first horse-drawn ladder truck was bought, when Chief
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Mott was in office. The Bay street station was built in 1888; the Weir Village station in 1889, and the East Taunton station in 1899, when the first apparatus there was a one-horse machine and hose wagon, and Lieu- tenant Fred B. Carpenter was the driver. The Oak street station was con- structed in 1915.
The first of the motor apparatus here was a motor combination that was put into commission in May, 1912-Hose 10, a Pope Hartford combina- tion, with Archie Smith as the driver. The next wagon was Hose 5, at the Olney street station, when change was made from horse to motor drawn wagon; this was in 1913, and Alpheus Fountain was the driver. The same year, the chief's car was purchased. In 1914, Hose 2 was changed over to motor, and was driven by Thomas F. Sheehan. In 1916, there was in- stalled a Combination Engine 2, Ahrens-Fox combination-Combination 4 being driven by Frank Wood and Engine 2 by Frank Robinson. In 1918, Engine 9 was put into commission at East Taunton-a pumping engine that had been transferred from Hose 10, driven by Archie Smith. In 1919 were received Ladder Trucks 2 and 3, built by the Maxim Motor Company, of Middleboro. In April, 1920, Aerial Ladder No. 1 was placed in the central station, this completing the motoring of the department. The following-named were the chiefs from the first: Samuel O. Dunbar, 1846; Lovett Morse, 1847; A. E. Swasey, 1848; William E. Mason, 1849-54; Tisdale Francis, 1855-56; Abram Briggs, 1857; William E. Mason, 1858-60; Edward Mott, 1861-81; Abner Coleman, 1881-1900; Fred A. Leonard, 1901.
Of the many fires that have brought destruction to town and city, three stand out most prominently for the considerable area consumed, namely, that of September 23, 1838, when Doric Hall and twenty-five other buildings were destroyed, together with the town records; Novem- ber 27, 1859, when all the buildings on the south side of Main street were consumed, loss one hundred and fifty thousand dollars; May 7, 1873, when Jones Atheneum and many other buildings were consumed with loss of one hundred thousand dollars.
The essentials of the story of the police department have been pointed out in the municipal chapter.
Taunton Postoffice .- One of the attractive structures flanking Taunton Green is the government building, the postoffice, built in 1897 upon the site of the Crocker residence, which in its turn stood upon the site of the old Taunton Inn property. The postoffice has always been an indicator and gauge of the progress of town and city, and has partaken in the growth of the community since the year 1793. One hundred and thirty years later, or in 1923, the institution discovered that its business had run ahead of the capacity of the office, and a proposition, endorsed by the Postmaster Gen- eral and the Secretary of the Treasury, was being agitated for relieving congested conditions by means of an annex. During the century that had passed, the postoffice had been located as follows: In a building that stood on Main street, next to the N. H. Skinner Company's store; in a building that was at the north end of "Knotty Walk," so called, now the Taylor building ; in a structure that stood near to the Crocker house, west of Taun- ton Green; in the City Hotel building; in the building at the corner of Winthrop and Cohannet streets; in Dunbar's block, at the east side of Taunton Green; in Galligan's block, corner Broadway and Leonard street;
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in the Taylor building; and, in 1897, in the present government building.
The postmasters have been as follows, with dates of appointment: Nicholas Tillinghast, March 20, 1793; Samuel Hodges, July 17, 1803; James L. Hodges, Dec. 8, 1810; David C. Hodges, Sept. 9, 1826; Joseph L. Lord, August 19, 1829; Charles B. Vickery, March 23, 1835 (the appoint- ment was made presidential August 4, 1848) ; Abijah M. Ide, Jr., July 1, 1853; William Brewster, May 12, 1859; Joseph E. Wilbar, Dec. 18, 1861 : Abijah M. Ide, Jr., Jan. 15, 1866; Samuel O. Dunbar, April 22, 1869; Elias E. Fuller, March 26, 1873; William F. Kennedy, March 25, 1885; Sumner B. Sargent, 1893; William E. Dunbar, Dec. 1, 1897; John O'Hearne, Jr., July 1, 1914; Silas Dean Reed, Oct. 7, 1922.
The mounted route was established in 1884; parcels post, July 1, 1913; and special delivery in March, 1885. Hon. Silas Dean Reed, who received his appointment in 1922 as postmaster, was born in Taunton and had repre- sented his district in the Legislature, both as representative and senator. The assistant superintendent at this time, John P. Smith; superintendent of mails, Edward W. Burt; foreman, William H. Carter. There were six- teen regular clerks, three clerks at stations, four substitute clerks, twenty- six regular carriers, seven substitute carriers, two special delivery messen- gers, two screen wagon drivers, one rural carrier. There were three sub- stations, two at Whittenton and one at Weir Village. The postoffice at East Taunton was a separate institution.
During the calendar year 1922 the receipts from stamps and stamped paper amounted to $115,660; the total transactions in money orders was $693,748; letters and parcels received and dispatched in the registry division, 42,751; number of parcels insured, 29,823; number of parcels received and dispatched in collect-on-delivery, 11,976; number of letters and parcels re- ceived for delivery in special delivery service, 25,819; the amount received from sale of treasury savings certificates, $35,082.50; amount received from the sale of internal revenue stamps, $6095.54.
Street Railways .- General Manager James H. Murphy, of the Taunton Division of the Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway Company, a practi- cal man of affairs, who has spent his entire life in the street railway busi- ness from tow-boy all along up the line, struck one of the keynotes of modern street railway conditions when he stated that travel by that means, once so popular, has become a business proposition for transportation only ; and no longer is it principally a means of pleasure and diversion. It pro- vides a way of getting to work, to place of business, to school and the shopping district. The street railway in Taunton, with which he has been connected from boyhood, was at first known as the Taunton Street Rail- way, the company running their first horse cars over the first street railway tracks here September 23, 1871. At that time George C. Morse, many years a member of the Taunton board of assessors, was superintendent of the road, and W. C. Lovering was president of the board of directors. The horse cars began making regular trips between Whittenton and Weir Vil- lage Monday, September 25, 1871, and within a week they were carrying daily four hundred people. The Weir Village branch of the road was com- pleted November 10, 1871, and the street railway between Whittenton and Weir Village was formally opened November 11 that year, "turning on the center" at City Square. The local company was organized in 1871, with a
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capital of $40,000, and with the following-named officers: William C. Lov- ering, president; Henry M. Lovering, treasurer; Orville A. Barker, clerk; board of directors: Henry G. Reed, O. J. Barker, William C. Lovering, P. I. Perrin, H. M. Church, Charles Foster, H. N. Skinner, S. N. Staples. At the annual meeting these names were added : H. J. Fuller, John Seekell, G. J. Jones. Among the first drivers of the horse cars were James T. Leonard, William Paine, John McNamara, Joseph Lucey, William M. Do- herty, James H. Murphy. Mr. Morse continued as superintendent from 1871 to 1893, when the road was sold to John H. Beckley and associates, of Rochester, New York. Upon the reorganization of the company, Mr. Beckley was the superintendent, Sylvanus M. Thomas treasurer, Orville A. Barker clerk, and the board of directors consisted of John H. Beckley, Ira L. Otis, Arthur G. Yates, S. M. Thomas, George A. Washburn, O. A. Barker, George N. Elmes, Henry M. Lovering, H. F. Bassett. S. M. Thomas was attorney for the corporation.
In 1892 the company obtained the right to operate its road by elec- tricity, when George F. Seibel took charge as superintendent, Mr. Morse going to New York, where for sixteen years he had charge of the shop of the Rochester Car Wheel Company. Manager Murphy states that soon afterwards the road obtained the right to lay track through the towns of Dighton and Somerset to Slade's Ferry bridge, and then to Sabbatia park. Successively the road was thereafter controlled by the Boston and North- ern Street Railway Company, the Globe Street Railway Company, the Bay State Street Railway Company, and at present the Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway Company. The Bay State Street Railway Company was placed in the hands of a receiver December 12, 1917, and a new organiza- tion for the Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway Company, formerly the Bay State Street Railway Company, was announced at the office of the public trustees for the company, July 3, 1919. Prepayment cars in this section were first operated between Taunton and Brockton, November 13, 1917; and in August of that year the Bay State Street Railway Company had filed with the Public Service Commission a request for permission to operate one-man cars on fifteen of its routes. The one-man cars were given their first demonstration in Taunton, April 18, 1920. Meantime, in October, 1918, the street railway company had filed its new trolley fare and zone schedule with the minimum rate of ten cents in the city zones, with five cents in each suburban one.
Manager Murphy, of the local division of the road, first drove the tow- horse for the Taunton street railway at the Reed and Barton hill, in Whit- tenton, in 1884, and in 1888 he began driving with the horse cars. He took charge of the Dighton, Somerset and Swansea street railway in 1897, and in March, 1901, was chosen superintendent of the Taunton division; in 1913 he was appointed general superintendent of the Taunton, Fall River and Newport street railway, and in 1918 he received his present appoint- ment as manager of the Taunton Division of the Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway Company.
The East Taunton Street Railway Company, whose line connects the central part of Taunton with its eastern section and Middleboro, has been in existence a quarter of a century (1898-1923). The company was or- ganized in June, 1898, with M. A. Cavanaugh as president; L. T. Cava-
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naugh, vice-president; Joseph B. Murphy, treasurer, and James P. Dunn. Operation of the road was started December 23, 1898, between Taunton and East Taunton, and was extended in 1900 from East Taunton to Middle- boro. James H. Murphy, local superintendent of the Eastern Massachu- setts Street Railway Company's branch in Taunton, assumed the manage- ment of the East Taunton line April 16, 1923. The company at that time had an assessed valuation of $119,000. For twenty-four years the company paid 4.177 per cent. dividends each year (averaged). The directors owned about $60,000 of the stock, and $20,000 was owned by personal friends out- side of the city. The balance of the stock was owned by local people. The car house of the company is located at East Taunton, and the equipment consists of five closed cars and two snow plows.
The Norton, Taunton and Attleboro Street Railway Company was in- corporated in 1898, to operate a street railway between Taunton and the city and town to the north. The road was fifteen miles in length. The operation and business of the road were taken over by Taunton in 1919, and have been under municipal ownership since that time. The officers for 1923 were: President, Leo H. Coughlin, mayor of Taunton; vice-presi- dent, Elmer E. Lane, chairman of the selectmen of the town of Norton; clerk and treasurer, Robert W. Hewins, of Norton; board of directors: Leo H. Coughlin, Elmer E. Lane, Mayor George A. Sweeney of Attleboro, and William P. McDermott, chairman of the selectmen of the town of Mansfield.
Miscellaneous .- From earliest times of the colony, Taunton has al- ways been provided with its hostelry-resting place for travelers and abid- ing place for townsmen. The Taunton Inn of today has attained a high position among the hotels of the county, and is the culmination that the best that the inns of old and of the present might afford the travelling pub- lic. The Bristol County House, that stood on this very spot nearly a cen- tury ago, was noted as a terminus of the stage coach; Taunton Inn is where the automobile of the present rests en route-north, south, east and west. The old taverns, though comfortable and generous for their day, were sometimes disquieting places; the inn that has taken the place of the hostelry of old is regulated according to the better management of a new age of refinement and good taste. Taunton Inn was built in the year 1851; it has had a long succession of proprietors, but that of Edward A. O'Donnell at this hour has had no peer, and thereby the good repute of the house is not a mere boast. Bernard J. Connolly is the manager; E. A. O'Donnell. Jr .. treasurer. The Inn, with its attractive front and with balcony overlooking the famed Green of Old Taunton, where Christmas choirs have sung for years, and where noted speakers have addressed the public, is just as attractive and homelike as to its interior. The house has fifty rooms with bath, and seventy rooms without bath, a modern dining room, accom- modating one hundred and seventy-five people, a ballroom accommodat- ing one hundred and fifty couples, a ladies' parlor and lounging room, and a self-service cafeteria. On this site was that older inn known to travelers from all over the State as the Bristol County House. It was built in 1833 by Jesse Smith and others, and was burned June 24, 1848. Three years afterwards, the present inn was built. The Bristol County House, whose proprietors were Jesse Smith, William Monroe, Lovett Morse, David King-
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man, S. B. Robbins and Newell Towle, was a stopping place for the stage coaches that ran between Boston and Newport and New Bedford, before the advent of the railroad.
The earliest inns and their successors that we have record of in Taun- ton have been as follows: Richard Paull's victualling house, that was estab- lished on the present Main street, near Dean street, in 1640, was the first. Richard Paull was one of the first purchasers of Taunton (Cohannet), and his marriage with Margery Turner was the first to be recorded in this sec- tion. William Parker, who was the first keeper of the town's records, opened an inn on High street, about opposite the present St. Thomas Church, in 1644. Other innkeepers that soon started taverns and hostelries were as follows: James Leonard, the ironworks master at Raynham, in 1663; Thomas Harvey, in 1669; Edward Rew, in 1676; James Walker, in 1679; William Witherell, first proprietor in the present territory of Norton, in 1685; Robert Crossman, Joseph Tisdale and Nicholas Morey-all about the year 1700.
David Carver opened his inn at Neck-of-land bridge at about the time of the Revolution-the inn where Lafayette stopped. Then, in their turn and about contemporaneously with each other, were established the inns of Josiah Crocker, on the northwest side of the present city square; the Mc Whorter Inn, on the site of the Taylor block; the Weatherby Tavern, at the corner of the present Weir street and city square; the Foster Tavern, on the site of Templar Hall; the Taunton House, on the site of the present postoffice building; the Macomber Tavern, at the Neck-of-land; the "old yellow tavern" at Neck-of-land; Taunton coffee house, on the site of the old Taunton Bank, later called the Washington House, and that was de- stroyed by fire in December, 1849; "Brow's," on Tremont street, and the old inns at Weir Village, namely, Rhodes', Clark's and Shaw's.
Telegraph, Telephone, Gas, Etc .- The chariot of progress dragged and the procession lagged in Taunton before the days of the telephone. Then, when it did come, the main difference between the telephone's usefulness a half-century ago and today is that which exists between the offices of the first local manager, the late Abner Coleman, and the present manager, E. E. Mellen. Simplex was the old slogan, and multiplex is the guiding word of today.
The Southern Massachusetts Telegraph Company opened its office in Taunton in 1880. It was only three years after Alexander Graham Bell had made discovery of the "talking instrument," and but two years after the first exchange switchboard had been placed in operation, that a try-out of the new venture was made in Taunton. Abner Coleman, it is stated, was at that time the only practising electrician in Taunton, and at the same time he was the superintendent of the fire-alarm system, of whose installation he had had charge in 1872. He obtained the agency for the Bell Telephone system in this city, and at once a number of short lines were established between the residences of Captain Orville A. Barker, Abner Coleman and Silas D. Presbrey, M. D. Afterwards the lines were extended to the West- ville and Whittenton mills, to connect those plants, and later to the Staples and Phillips building at Weir Village. These short lines were taken over by the Southern Massachusetts Telephone Company, that had been organized in New Bedford, and the first local office was established
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in the Barker building. At that time, it will be remembered, the inventor, Mr. Bell himself, was living "from hand to mouth," and the outlook for this company or any other was a poor one. But in 1881 the company was paying its first dividends throughout the country, amounting in all to $178,500. The local agency succeeded proportionately. The first woman operator at the telephone switchboard in Taunton was Miss Alice Monks, in 1882. That year, Miss Mary K. Chase (Mrs. Ralph S. Deane) came to the office, and she remained there in the capacity of operator for twenty- one years, and had as her assistant Miss Fannie Bickford. Miss Chase was appointed manager of the office in 1886, and ten years later, in May, 1896, the company removed its headquarters to Court street.
The Blake box transmitter was the primitive one in use, which was afterwards replaced by the Edison transmitter. It was in those days that a telephone exchange was described as a "loud and frantic place, where employes were immune to all schemes of discipline." Charles Buffum was head lineman in the first years of the company, and Albert Holt and Thomas Strange were inspectors.
The Southern Massachusetts Company and the New England Tele- graph and Telephone Company were consolidated in 1890, and the entire business came under the control of the latter company in 1913. A trans- continental demonstration was made here at the Strand Theatre, June 23, 1916, under the auspices of the Taunton Chamber of Commerce, when James P. Whitters was president of the latter organization. The Taunton agency now has a half hundred operatives, and close to six thousand sta- tions. The Western Union and the Postal Telegraph companies have had their branches here since 1838.
The Taunton Gaslight Company was incorporated February 15, 1853, with a capital of $45,000, and the following-named board of directors were elected March 15, that year. Gardner Warren, of Boston; Samuel L. Crocker, W. W. Fairbanks, Albert Field, H. B. Witherell, William Mason and Lovett Morse, of this city, with Philip E. Hill as clerk and treasurer. The capital was increased in 1853 to $60,000 and in 1872 to $80,000. The first plant was situated on Franklin street, on the Lewis lot, the first gas holder there being of 50,000 to 75,000 cubic feet capacity. The sum of $1800 was paid for the lot. The capital stock at first was divided in 900 shares, at $50 per share; manufacturing establishments at that time were charged $3.35 per 1000. The Crocker lot of nine acres, on West Water street, with a river frontage of more than one hundred feet, was purchased in 1884, and the present works were built there in 1901, the holder having a capacity of 1,500,000 per day. W. W. Fairbanks was president from 1853- 55; Lovett Morse, 1855-56; Albert Field, 1856-68; John E. Sanford, 1869- 1907; Ezra Davol, 1908-11; William C. Davenport, 1911 to the present. Philip E. Hill was first clerk and treasurer. H. B. Witherell was clerk in 1855; William Meade from 1856 to 1869; Edwin Keith was agent and treasurer from 1855 to 1882, and clerk from 1869 to 1882; Henry B. Leach succeeded him as agent. treasurer and clerk in 1882, and Walter T. Soper, August 5, 1903.
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