History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 194

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1818

USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 194

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TAUNTON.

that the task of conquering the opposition was to be a serious one ; the friends of the measure, therefore, set at work to remove the obstacle by direct application to the General Court.

So well did they succeed in their endeavors that by Feb. 28, 1876, they had secured the passage of an act which permits any city which has accepted a water act by a two-thirds popular vote to contract debts and issue bonds for the purposes named in said act by a vote of the majority of the members of each branch of the City Council. To the untiring efforts of Hon. William C. Lovering the prompt passage of this act was mainly due, and a most important step it was in the history of the project, for had the City Council of 1876 failed, as did that of 1875, to authorize a water loan, the success of the scheme would have been in- deed doubtful. Happily for Taunton, however, a serious obstacle to its progress had been removed, and on March 1, 1876, the Board of Aldermen by a vote of five to three passed a resolution authorizing a two hundred thousand dollars loan, and two weeks later the same resolution received in the Common Council a vote of sixteen in its favor to seven against it.

It will be noted that this loan was not sufficient to permit the city to enter upon the construction of works as extensive as those suggested by the joint special committee in their report of December, 1875.

The work was now fairly in the hands of the Water Commissioners, and with the passage of the $200,000 appropriation by the City Council their duties really began. After some deliberation the services of Mr. George H. Bishop, of Middletown, Conn., were secured as consulting engineer. With his assistance the commissioners entered upon the work of preparing plans which could be executed for the sum placed at their disposal, and by April 24th they were prepared to advertise for proposals for furnishing and laying the main pipe and distri- bution and for the engines and pumping-machinery.

These plans included an open filter basin lying in the land of Alexander H. Williams, on the southerly side. of Taunton River, and separated therefrom by about one hundred feet of the natural bank. The length of this basin as finally constructed is four hundred feet, its width at the top one hundred feet, and at the bottom seventeen feet, and its depth twenty-three feet. It was expected that the river water would filter through the natural bank into this basin to the amount of 1,500,000 gallons per day. This basin or canal is connected with the pump-well located under the engine-house by a thirty-six-inch conduit, having the usual arrangement of screens and gates. In addition to this a thirty-inch wrought- iron pipe extends from the pump-well directly into the river, terminating in a double crib, built of two- inch plank. This end of the pipe is eight feet below mean low water in the river, and the space between the outer and inner erib is filled with small broken stone, but this pipe is for use in emergency only.

The engine- and boiler-house and the chimney are of brick with granite underpinning, and the chimney is one hundred feet in height.

There are three boilers sixty inches in diameter and sixteen feet long, and each contains fifty-four flues three and three-quarter inches in diameter.

At the appointed time the proposals offered were opened and the several propositions examined. It was then decided to be for the interest of the city to divide the whole work into two contracts, the one to embrace the entire distributing system, including hy- drants and gates laid and complete in the ground, the other to include the filter-basin, the engine- and boiler-house as described above, together with the engines and pumping-machinery, with all the neces- sary fixtures to make the same complete.

The proposition of R. D. Wood & Co., of Phila- delphia, to construct the distributing system accord- ing to the specifications, and guaranteed to stand a test pressure of two hundred pounds to the square inch, for the sum of one hundred and twenty-four thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars, was the lowest bid, and was accepted. The other contract, which in- cluded the pumping-station in all its details, was given to the Holly Manufacturing Company, of Lockport, N. Y., for the sum of sixty-two thousand dollars.

These two contracts were awarded, with the concur- rence of the City Council, on the 10th day of May, 1876.

Ground was broken for the filter-basin May 15th, and immediately afterwards the excavations were begun for the foundations of the engine, boiler-house, and stack.

Pipe-laying was begun July 10th, on Alder Street, by Mr. Chappell, on the part of R. D. Wood & Co., and was completed on the 9th of October following. The engine and pumps, with all their appurtenances, were completed on the 30th of November, and a pub- lie trial was had on the 2d day of December.

As before stated, the appropriation of two hundred thousand dollars required a modification in the plans suggested by the committee in their report of Decem- ber, 1875. The necessary reduction was effected by cutting down the amount of main pipe from twenty- four miles to sixteen, and by changing a portion of the twenty-inch main to sixteen-inch. As completed October 9th the distributing system included the fol- lowing territory : The twenty-inch force-main, start- ing from the pumping-station, followed the southerly bank of the river to a point opposite Dean's Wharf, here it crossed the river on the bottom to Dean Street, and continned in an unbroken line to the junction of Spring Street at the rear of the church green. At this point the main line was reduced to sixteen inches, and an eight-inch' branch was carried along Spring Street. The sixteen-inch became twelve-inch at the corner of Weir Street and City Square, and the twelve-inch was reduced to ten-inch at the corner of i Cohannet and High Streets.

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HISTORY OF BRISTOL COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

From City Square eight-inch lines reached ont north and south to Whittenton and the Weir, and sub-mains covered in large part the territory bounded on the north by Whittenton Street, on the east by Union and Summer Streets, on the south by Second Street, and on the west by Pine Street.

The public trial of the works, which was made De- cember 2d, was an unqualified success, and the men who "had always said that a system of water-works would be a good thing for Taunton" were out in full force. During the forenoon three streams at the Weir and three at Whittenton were thrown simultaneously in order to show the ability of the works to cover fires at two widely separated points at once. The princi- pal display began at 1.30 p.M., when six one-inch streams were thrown from hydrants on City Square. The number of streams was afterwards increased in answer to signals given on the fire bell, until at two o'clock fifteen one-inch streams were deluging that part of the city extending along Main Street from Cedar Street to the junction of Winthrop and Cohan- net Streets. Later in the afternoon a single three- inch stream was thrown from a special connection on the sixteen-inch main at the liberty pole. The day was a cold one, the mercury showing only eight de- grees above zero early in the morning, and after the trial the streets looked as if there had been a heavy snow-fall, and the buildings on which the streams had been thrown as if they had passed through a second flood. The total cost of the works as they stood on this day of the public trial was $203,936.83.

The loan of $200,000 had been negotiated on such favorable terms as to command a premium of over $20,000, so that with the works completed there was a balance in the city treasury of $16,000. And now in conclusion let us state as briefly as possible the condition of the works after seven years of growth and extension. The original filter-basin or canal did not meet the expectations of its projectors in the amount of water which it could furnish, and in 1880 an additional source of supply was opened by the Taunton Lunatic Hospital, the second State hos- pital for the insane in the commonwealth, was built under an act of the Legislature approved May 24, 1851, the State appropriating for the purpose the sum of one hundred thousand dollars, and at subsequent periods before its occupation ninety thousand dollars. The commissioners appointed to carry out the inten- tion of the Legislature were George N. Briggs, James D. Thompson, and John W. Graves. After a careful examination of several places it was decided to locate the hospital in what was then the town of Taunton. By a vote of the inhabitants of the town, and by vol- untary contributions of its citizens, the sum of thir- teen thousand dollars was placed in the hands of the commissioners for the purchase of the valuable and beautiful site upon which it was erected. Many of the leading citizens of Taunton took an active interest in its establishment and location, chief among whom construction of an underground filter conduit. En- gineer Bishop was recalled to give advice and super- intendence in this work. This conduit, its form and construction, is fully described in the fifth annual re- port of the water commissioners. It is of brick, egg- shaped in section, five feet two inches in height, and four feet in its largest transverse diameter. It enters the original filter-basin at the northeast corner, and follows the bank of the river up stream for a distance of eight hundred and sixty-three feet. The commis- sioners instructed Engineer Bishop to build this con- duit as near the river as safety would permit, so that as large a supply as possible might be received from this source, and accordingly the bank separating the river and conduit is nowhere more than thirty or forty feet in thickness. The cost of this extension was $15,512.23, and the supply, both in quality and quan- tity, gives abundant satisfaction. In the year 1877 | were Governor Marcus Morton and the late Samuel

seven miles of pipe, mostly six- and four-inch, were laid. In 1880 a second force main of twelve-inch and ten-inch pipe was brought from the pumping station into the city by way of Williams and County Streets, crossing the river on the Neck o' Land Bridge, and in 1882 the village of Westville was supplied through an eight-inch main along the line of Cohannet Street. And finally from the seventh annual report of the commissioners we learn that the original sixteen miles of pipe has increased to forty-two miles, that there are in the city 367 hydrants and 238 gates, that the number of private services taken from the mains is 2062, that there are in use 401 meters, and that the water rates for the year 1882 brought into the depart- ment $26,064.32, exclusive of hydrant service, which amounts to $9330 more, and that the total cost is set down as $422,224.66. The wildest enthusiast of 1875 did not dream of such a growth.

The officers of the water department have been changed to some extent since the beginning. Of the original commissioners, Parley I. Perrin is the only one now in office, April, 1883. At the conclusion of his term in 1879, Commissioner M. M. Rhodes de- clined a re-election, and was succeeded by Mr. Henry M. Lovering, who still holds the position. On the 16th of March, 1881, Commissioner Harris was removed by death, and his place was filled by the election of Silas D. Presbrey, M. D., whose term expires with the year 1884. In October, 1876, Mr. H. Frank Bassett was elected clerk of the board, and served with fidelity and ability in that capacity until July, 1879, when he resigned to engage in a manufacturing enterprise at Appleton, Wis. The office of clerk thus made vacant was filled by the election of William R. Bil- lings. The water commissioners at a regular meeting held Feb. 24, 1883, voted to appoint Mr. Billings as superintendent of the works, and this choice was formally ratified by the Board of Aldermen at its meeting March 7th, and by the Common Council at its meeting March 12th.

809

TAUNTON.

C. Crocker, the former being chairman of the first board of trustees, and the latter a trustee at the time of his death. The tract of land on which the hospital stands contains about one hundred and thirty-four acres, and is exceedingly well adapted to the purposes of such an institution. The grounds extend in a southerly direction from the buildings. The site has many natural advantages. A beautiful grove of more than sixty acres lies in front of the hospital, through which the avenue approaches the buildings. It adds much beauty to the landscape, and affords an agree- able shade to the patients through the warm season. In addition to the natural advantages of the location, much has been done to improve and embellish it, and at the present time it is one of the most beautiful spots in Taunton. In July, 1853, the first board of trustees was appointed, and in October of that year the first superintendent, Dr. George S. C. Choat. The buildings and property were delivered into the hands of the trustees by the commissioners Feb. 2, 1854, and in the month of April following the hospital was opened for the reception of patients. Since that time, during the twenty-nine years of its existence, more than eight thousand patients have been received and treated within its wards for their various mental diseases.

The hospital is situated on a gentle eminence at the extreme northerly part of the farm, and about one mile from the Green or business portion of the city. It is built of brick, three stories high. The building fronts south or a little west of south, and originally consisted of a central building and two wings on either side. The centre building is fifty-five feet in width, and projects in front about fifty feet from the wings. In this are the medical and business offices, reception- rooms, dispensary, apartments for the superintendent and his family and the other officers. It is surmounted by a dome which rises seventy feet above the roof, from which may be seen views of the surrounding country of great beauty. In the rear centre building on the first floor are the kitchen, bakery, store-rooms, and dining-rooms for the employés; on the second floor the chapel, library, work-rooms, and store-rooms for dry-goods; third story containing dormitories for the employés.

In the years 1873 and 1874, during the superin- tendency of Dr. W. W. Godding, the hospital was enlarged by building. two new wings, extending one hundred and thirty-three feet east, and the same dis- tance west from the extreme limit of the old building, making the whole extent of the completed building in a right line six hundred and thirty-eight feet. The new wards are very light, airy, and cheerful, with beautiful landscape views from the windows and ver -. andas. Since the building of the new wings very material changes have been made in the older por- tions of the hospital, some of the wards having been almost entirely rebuilt, which have rendered them more cheerful and pleasant, more light having been

introduced by increasing the number and size of the windows, and the ventilation has been much im- proved. As originally constructed the hospital was designed to accommodate two hundred and fifty patients, but by the addition of the new wings its capacity has been increased to five hundred and fifty.

There are at present nine wards for each sex, the patients being classified according to their mental state rather than social position, or the rate of board per week. Each ward or hall consists of a corridor with rooms on either side, which are occupied by the patients as sleeping-rooms, most of the patients being on the wards by day. The corridors are very light and pleasant, the light being admitted from one or both ends, while some of the halls have besides large bay windows. Connected with each ward is a dining-room, a wash-room with set wash-basins, a bath-room, and water-closet. The food is cooked in one centre kitchen, and taken in cars through the basement, and lifted to the several dining-rooms by elevators.

The out-buildings consist of a barn of ample ca- pacity for twenty cows and six; oxen, a piggery, a shed for storing farming utensils, a stable, a carriage- house, a laundry building, carpenter- and machine- shop, boiler-house, coal-house and bowling-alley. All except the piggery, shed, and bowling-alley are built of brick and in the most substantial manner, the carriage-house having been enlarged and coal- house rebuilt in 1880. The present laundry building was erected in 1878, the State appropriating ten thousand dollars for the purpose, for which sum it was built and furnished. It is eighty feet by thirty- eight. It is fitted up with all the modern appliances for doing laundry-work, and is considered one of the best laundries in the State. The boiler-house, erected in 1874, contains five forty-horse boilers to generate steam for heating and other purposes, all the build- ings being heated by steam, about twelve hundred tons of coal being consumed each year. A forty- horse power Corliss engine drives the machinery in the carpenter-shop and laundry.

In 1882, for the purpose of securing more conve- niences in the administrative part of the hospital, an extension was built to the rear centre, the State ap- propriating for the purpose twenty-seven thousand five hundred dollars. In this building the hospital has secured good store-rooms, work-rooms for the patients, and dormitories for the employés. Under it is an ample cellar. In the brick tower is placed an iron tank, with a capacity of eighteen thousand gal- lons of water, which seems a large amount, but is less than one-half what is used in one day. During the past ten years the capacity of the hospital has been nearly doubled by the erection of new buildings. All parts of the buildings are in good condition, the older portions having been repaired and reconstructed in a great degree. The hospital may now be called essentially completed, unless the State should decide to make further provision for patients by the erection

810

HISTORY OF BRISTOL COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

of detached buildings. This it is to be hoped will not be done, as the institution is now sufficiently large to secure the best results in the cure and treat- ment of the inmates.

The hospital, although a State institution, has been entirely self-supporting since first opened for the re- ception of patients. It has not only paid its current expenses from the income derived from the board of patients, but it has expended during the twenty-nine years of its existence, over and above what it has cost to support the establishment, above two hundred thousand dollars in the erection of new buildings, and in general repairs and improvements, for which the State has received the benefit in the increased value of the property. The expense of building the brick barn, stable, piggery, coal-house, addition to the carpenter-shop, and the reconstruction and repairs of the old wings and centre building have been paid for from the current income of the hospital. The whole ; amount which the State has appropriated to the hos- pital for building and all other purposes since the act authorizing its erection down to the present time is the sum of four hundred and seventy-one thousand five hundred dollars, which is less than one-half the present value of the property, and less than one-third of what the State has recently expended in building either of the new hospitals for accommodations but little superior in extent or comfort for the patients.

Thegeneral direction of all the affairs of the hospital, subject to the approval of the board of trustees, in whom is invested by law the management of the in- stitution, is intrusted to the superintendent, who is thus made the head of the institution, and is respon- sible to the trustees for the proper conduct of all its departments. To aid him in the medical care of the patients there are two assistant physicians, one having the care of the men and the other the women, the immediate oversight of the patients being con- fided to four superiors, two for the men and two for the women, who spend most of their time in the wards to nurse the sick, look after the general inter- ests of all, and to see that the attendants are attentive to the wants of the patients, and treat them discreetly and kindly. The personal charge of patients is com- mitted to the attendants, of whom there are two or more in each ward, the average number being one attendant to thirteen patients. The duties of attend- ants are responsible and arduous, and can only be discharged properly by persons who have peculiar natural qualifications for the work. Besides those who are in immediate connection with the patients there are various persons employed in other depart- ments of the hospital. A housekeeper, who has charge of the kitchen and stores and who superin- tends the cooking and distribution of the food; a baker; a laundrer; a seamstress, under whose direc- tion a considerable number of female patients are em- ployed daily in making up clothing for the inmates ; an engineer, who has charge of the steam-boilers, the

heating apparatus, and the water supply; and a farmer, who has charge of the farm and stock, which usually consist of about twenty cows and from four to six oxen,-the twenty cows furnishing about half of the milk used by the hospital.

The physicians of this hospital have kept abreast of the most advanced ideas in the treatment of in- sanity, and while due prominence has been given to the proper use of drugs and other medicines, and any new discovery which promises to be useful in the healing art is fully tested, no less attention has been given to the so-called moral treatment of the insane, of which mental occupation is made the leading feature, combined, when it can be, with physical labor, the purpose of which is to promote physical improvement, and to divert the morbid fancies and perverted ideas of the insane mind into healthy chan- nels of thought. Any measure which will promote this becomes curative. All cannot be reached by the same means and method, hence the importance of a variety of employments and occupations to meet all cases. For most of the male patients nothing has been found more conducive to mental health than labor on the land, and to that end effort is made to have as many of them work on the farm as are in a suitable condition, many, of course, being unable, by reason of physical or mental disability, to perform any labor. Others, who prefer it, work in the laun- dry, the boiler-house, the carpenter-shop, and about the house or grounds. Many of the women find con- genial employment in the large, pleasant, and airy sewing-room, while some, who are unfitted to go to the sewing-room, are employed in the halls in knit- ting and sewing under the direction of a special at- tendant. A considerable number of women work in the kitchen and laundry and in other general work about the hospital, while many of both sexes find employment on the halls and in the dining-rooms assisting the attendants. In these various ways thus indicated about one hundred and fifty are employed more or less constantly. Some others busy them- selves in doing fancy work, and a goodly number while away their time in reading the newspapers which are furnished them, and books and magazines from the hospital library, about ninety-five books being taken from the library each week ; still others amuse themselves by playing various games. During the autumn and winter months a variety of entertain- ments is provided in the chapel each week, consisting of gymnastic exercises, with music, exhibitions of views of home and foreign scenes with the stereop- ticon, accompanied by descriptive lectures on the lo- calities and objects represented, amateur theatricals, musical concerts, readings, social dances, and other entertainments as they can be secured, make up the list of exercises which afford mental occupation and direct. the mind from self and morbid fancies. Every Sabbath afternoon religious services are held in the chapel by the different clergymen from the city.

TAUNTON.

811

Much attention is given to out-door exercise, and when the weather is suitable the patients walk out daily. During the warm season they spend much time in the open air and in the pleasant grove, which, besides being cool and shady, is made attractive by the songs of birds and the nimble activity of the numerous squirrels, red and gray, which inhabit the woods, and are protected in their rights of eminent domain by all residents of the hospital.

The institution is managed by a board of five trus- tees, appointed by the Governor and Council, who hold their office for a term of five years, one trustee being appointed each year. One or more members of the board visit the hospital each week, and make a thorough inspection of the wards and other depart- ments, consider the discharge of patients, and any other business relating to the affairs or management of the hospital. The trustees serve without compen- sation, and give much valuable time to the careful oversight of the institution. There have been but three superintendents since the opening of the hos- pital. Dr. George S. C. Choate, the first superinten- dent, was appointed October, 1853, and resigned in April, 1870. Dr. W. W. Godding succeeded him, and continued in the position until July, 1877. Dr. Godding was succeeded by the present superintendent, Dr. John P. Brown.

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History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 194

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1818

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1818