USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Winchester > History of Winchester, Massachusetts > Part 20
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SAMUEL J. ELDER
2II
STORY OF THE WATER SYSTEM
and later in business on his own account. During the last thirty years of his life he lived in Winchester. He was a bachelor and had rooms in the Richardson Block above Edmund Sanderson's store, and he was for some years sexton of the Congregational Church. Always notable for the neatness and taste of his dress he was of a most social disposition and a welcome guest at all Winchester parties. He was extremely fond of children, and was continually taking groups of them horseback riding, boat riding on Wedge Pond, or, packed into a barge drawn by a pair of horses, on little picnics he had arranged. During his last years he was somewhat in need of financial help, and an annual benefit was organized for him by some of the young men of the town, who loved him for the sweet- ness and generosity of his nature. One was held on February 16, 1880 in the Congregational Church - a largely attended lecture by Rev. Dr. March of Woburn on the Holy Land-and "Uncle" Solomon, smiling and happy, was present. Within a fortnight he had died, leaving a memory long green in Winchester hearts.
So Winchester continued to grow, and to pass from the status of a village to that of a town. The people began to demand some of the conveniences and refinements of town life, and first of all a municipal water supply. The matter was broached in the town meeting of November 8, 1870, when a committee of nine, of whom the selectmen, S. W. Twombly, John C. Mason and John T. Manny were three, was chosen to consider what might be done to introduce water into the town. The committee turned out to be an inharmonious body, and after "considering" the matter for a year was unable to bring in any effective report and asked to be dis- charged.1
Another committee, this time of five men - O. R. Clark, D. N. Skillings, Moses A. Herrick, J. F. Dwinell and Thomas P. Ayer - was immediately appointed for the same purpose. This committee went capably to work, and was ready to report progress to the town meeting of March 25, 1872.2 It had been suggested that Winchester might arrange to buy water either from Woburn or from Arlington where water works already existed, or else find a sufficient supply
1 Woburn Journal, December 2, 1870.
2 Town Records, Vol. II, page 48.
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HISTORY OF WINCHESTER
in Wedge and Winter Ponds. The committee went so far as to get an act passed by the legislature to enable it to take water from these ponds. It was also in negotiation with both Woburn and Arlington, but could get no definite terms from either town for supplying Winchester with water.1
On August 3, the same five men, with Asa Fletcher substituted for Mr. Clark, who had moved out of town, were instructed by the town to bring in a printed report on the whole subject, with recom- mendations, estimates of cost and surveys of the various projects suggested. The committee lost no time. It called in engineers and contractors - Walter H. Sears of Boston and George H. Norman of Newport, R. I .- and took their views and their advice. Its report rejected Winter Pond as inadequate and Wedge Pond as too easily contaminated, argued in favor of an independent water supply instead of dependence on other towns, which might find themselves unable to furnish what Winchester needed, and sprung a bombshell on the town by advocating the creation of artificial reservoirs among the meadows and swamps that lay above the town on the high land we know today as the Middlesex Fells.2
The land in question lay in a long and rather narrow trough among the hills, which stretched roughly from the Stoneham line to the line now followed by the South Border road in the Fells. At its northern end lay Dyke's Meadow and the Long Meadow. Farther south, where the ground was hilly and rocky and the banks of the trough much more precipitous, was Turkey Swamp, so called from the wild turkeys which in olden times were numerous there. There was little or no open water to be seen, except in parts of Turkey Swamp in the spring, but the ground caught the rainfall from a con- siderable watershed in the rough country of the Fells and discharged a quantity of water through two brooks, Sawmill Brook at the northern end and Whitmore Brook at the southern end. The floor of this valley was underlain by rock and it was therefore well suited to serve as a storage reservoir for water - provided enough water could be found.
The engineers were sure enough water could be found. If a dam was built at either end of this long trough and the natural drainage
1 Town Records, Vol. II, page 95.
2 Woburn Journal, April 26, 1873. Town Records, Vol. II, page 124.
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STORY OF THE WATER SYSTEM
of the watershed to the east permitted to collect, they estimated that reservoirs would result that could furnish at least a million gallons a day throughout the year. It is not certain who first sug- gested this project. The report of the committee attributes it to "one of their number," modestly unnamed, but it was probably Mr. Herrick. The advantages of the plan, as the committee pointed out, were the wild and unsettled nature of the watershed, which made contamination unlikely, and the fact that the reservoirs would stand so high that almost every house in town could be served by gravity without any expense for pumping.
The report threw the town into a fever of controversy. Only recently divided into factions by the quarrel over the railway station, the people took sides with a renewed joy of combat. The conflict was waged not only in town meeting and in the press but in stores, on street corners and railway platforms, wherever a few citizens were gathered together. The opponents of the plan were scornful of it as a piece of pure craziness. Some of the older residents, mem- bers of families who had always lived here, could not contain them- selves at the thought of taking water from Turkey Swamp! "There's no water there," declared N. A. Richardson in town meeting (his father had owned part of the land under discussion), "except a little in the spring. Build your dam, and I'll guarantee to walk across your 'reservoir' anywhere on the Fourth of July, and not go over the tops of my rubber boots!" Another old citizen1 went up to the swamp and brought back to exhibit in the town meeting a glass jar of dark brown bog water in which several specimens of aquatic life squirmed unpleasantly. "That's what they want you to drink," he shouted.
The debates became acrimonious. The opposition called the committee names and got hot shots from Mr. Skillings in reply. It became a question whether the town would trust to the business sense of the committee members and the opinion of its expert advisors or listen to the voice of local tradition, which was that Turkey Swamp was good for nothing - not even for water. Mr. Skillings told the meeting that he would like nothing better than to be permitted to organize a private water company and take his water from this spot, if the town did not want to spend money on
1 Deacon Luther Richardson.
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HISTORY OF WINCHESTER
it. In reply Mr. N. A. Richardson, under the pen name of "Vietor," argued that Winchester did not need town water anyway; its wells and springs were sufficient, and that if it was to have it, it should take from Woburn the pure and limpid waters of Horn Pond instead of the "muddy drippings of Turkey Swamp. ... The committee has mistaken the quacking of a few water fowl for the real sentiment of the people."1
At the town meetings of June 30 and July 7, when these mat- ters were furiously threshed out, the voters fell in line behind the committee. They accepted the special act of the legislature which the committee had procured, authorizing the taking of the swamp and meadow land for the purpose of a water supply; elected D. N. Skillings, M. A. Herrick and J. F. Dwinell Water Commissioners, and instructed them to go ahead with the plans. But on August 2 the other side had its innings. The commissioners were instructed not to make any contracts for the present and to confer with the town of Woburn to see what terms might be offered for taking water from that town. The commissioners were unable to agree on any terms they thought satisfactory - it is probable that they did not try very hard - and the work of construction was pushed forward at the northern end of the tract of land secured, the Long Meadow. The town had already, on July 7, voted to issue water bonds to the amount of $100,000, a sum subsequently increased by $25,000.
The land which was to be flooded had first to be cleared of the trees, stumps and underbrush, and a suitable surface for the floor of the reservoir had to be prepared. This work was done under the direction of Asa Fletcher, one of the Water Committee.2 Most of the tree growth was small and scattered, but at the southern end of the meadow there was a stand of good-sized timber. Everything was cut down; the larger trees were cut up and sold for firewood, and the stumps, the small trees and the brush were piled and burned. The ashes and a certain amount of mud and muck were removed, and a surface nearly free from vegetation was obtained.
Meanwhile the dam was rising at the northern extremity of the meadows, where Sawmill Brook began its course down the hillside
1 Woburn Journal, July 19, 1873.
2 This was the man who, at his death some twenty years later, bequeathed to the town, the Asa Fletcher Fund, originally of some $54,000, the income of which is pevoted to the care of the poor of the town.
DAVID N. SKILLINGS
MOSES A. HERRICK
JAMES F. DWINELL
THE FIRST WATER BOARD
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STORY OF THE WATER SYSTEM
to the Aberjona. Mr. Sears, already mentioned, was the engineer in charge. He built a dam founded on solid ledge, with a central core of stonework set in cement, and a heavy wall of earth, water- proofed with a layer of clay. The face of the dam was curved; its width at the bottom was one hundred and thirty feet and at the top thirteen feet. The top of the dam was twenty-eight and one- half feet above the general level of the floor of the reservoir.
It had been hoped to finish the dam before winter came, but cold weather set in early in November and the completion of it had to be postponed till spring. However, the work was so far forward that the gate of the dam could be closed in December, and within six weeks thirty-five acres of the reservoir was flooded and the water stood twelve feet deep at the gatehouse, certainly far over the rubber boot tops of even the most confirmed sceptic. The dam was finally completed in September 1874. During the summer pipes had been laid in almost all the streets of the town, Mr. Norman of Newport, R. I. being the contractor.1 On September 20 water was turned on; service has been uninterrupted since that day. Mr. William T. Dotten was the first superintendent of the "High- land Water Works" as they were originally called. He discharged the duties of this responsible post for no less than fifty years, and on his death in 1925 his son, Mr. Harry W. Dotten, was chosen to succeed him. Father and son, they have had charge of the water service ever since its inauguration.
The expectations of the Water Commissioners, Mr. Skillings, Mr. Herrick and Mr. Dwinell, were triumphantly confirmed. The supply of water proved to be ample; the level of the reservoir rose in 1874 to nineteen feet, and the water was soft and highly palat- able. In the early years, some unpleasant taste and odor were occa- sionally noticed, and those who had objected to the use of this region for a reservoir were certain that "the muddy, swampy, nature of the soil" beneath the water was responsible. They were mistaken; the taste was due to the growth of fresh water algae in the water under certain conditions of temperature, and almost all reservoirs are sometimes so affected. At first no one knew what to do about it, but the chemists long ago discovered a simple way of treating the water so as to prevent the growth of the algae, and there
1 His daughter married Mr. Frederick H. Prince, then of Winchester, and was the mother of Norman Prince. See page 155.
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HISTORY OF WINCHESTER
are now no complaints about the quality of the water. The town owes a debt of gratitude to the far-sighted men who developed a system which furnishes water of such softness and purity at a cost far below that of most supplies.
As Winchester continued to grow it became apparent that sooner or later a larger amount of water would be needed. A new dam at the southern end of the natural trough was the obvious answer; that would flood the area long known as Turkey Swamp and more than double the amount of water available. The Water Commissioners were alert and persuasive. At the town meeting of November 20, 1880, in spite of obstruction from a party that still viewed Turkey Swamp with suspicion, they won the support of the voters for a motion to "purchase all the land needed for the South Reservoir and proceed to the building of the same."1 Mr. Sears was again called in as engineer, the land was bought, ditched and partly cleared - it proved to be a much more troublesome job than the preparation of the North Reservoir - and the dam got under way. The construction was similar to that of the North Dam, but the money appropriated by the town was exhausted before more than half the necessary work was done.
So the project remained unfinished for several years while the North Reservoir continued to meet all demands upon it. By 1890, however, the Water Commissioners felt that the matter could be put off no longer, and they asked the March town meeting to permit them to issue $60,000 worth of bonds to complete the work at the South Dam. Mr. Skillings was dead, but his son, D. Nelson Skillings, sat upon the Board, of which Mr. Herrick and Mr. Dwinell were still members. The meeting was chary of voting out so much money, and appointed instead a committee of fifteen to look into the situation. Like most large committees this one devel- oped a great disharmony of view, but the majority, much influenced by Mr. John R. Freeman, an hydraulic engineer of distinction, who was one of the committee, recommended that no money be appro- priated and no further work be done. Mr. Freeman held that the system would, before many years, be inadequate for the town even if completed, and thought it wiser to make arrangements to join the Metropolitan Water District at once.
1 Town Records, Vol. III, page 238.
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STORY OF THE WATER SYSTEM
But a strong party of townspeople were far from satisfied with this report, and when at the adjourned town meeting of April 21 the subject was thrown upon the floor they were heard from at once.1 One of those historic Winchester town meetings followed, in which floods of argument and oratory poured unabated over the puzzled voters. A group of die-hards, eloquently led by J. F. Dorsey, fought against the appropriation of any money, and coun- selled delay. The Water Board remained diplomatically in the background. Their case was ably presented by Henry A. Emerson, Arthur E. Whitney and Alfred S. Hall. Mr. Emerson was especially vivacious and earnest. His closing speech swept the meeting off its feet. It was "one of the grandest and most eloquent appeals the citizens ever listened to; the applause and stamping continued for some minutes in spite of Moderator Wilson's attempts to quiet it."2 The vote was 193 to 14 to finish the work at the South Dam.
That was accordingly done; it was found advisable also to build a smaller dam at the foot of Turkey Swamp to separate the shallower waters of what today we call the Middle Reservoir. Originally this upper part of the flooded area was covered so shal- lowly that the quality of the water was far from satisfactory. The dam runs from the western shore of the reservoir to the forest- covered promontory called the Gem; a causeway traverses it. It has raised the Middle Reservoir to a depth of some twelve feet, the South Reservoir at the gate-house is about forty-two feet deep.
With the completion of these two dams, the water system was fully developed. Advantage had been taken of all the watershed in the Fells that is available. The supply has remained adequate, though the population served has increased from 4,861 in 1890 to almost or quite 14,000 today. If it should in the future increase far beyond 15,000, additional water would no doubt be needed. The town already has an emergency connection with the Metro- politan District water pipes in Medford and Stoneham, and could take water from that source if necessary. Meanwhile the question of a possible addition to our own independent supply has been care- fully studied by a committee appointed by the town in 1930, of
1 Town Records, Vol. III, page 238.
:Winchester Star, April 26, 1890.
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HISTORY OF WINCHESTER
which James W. Russell was chairman.1 This committee reported that if the town preferred not to buy water of the Metropolitan District, by reason of the high rates charged, plenty of water could no doubt be had from driven wells on the Brooks estate, near the West Medford line.
The Winchester system, as it stands today, has cost the town $1,100,183.74, of which about $250,000 is chargeable to the original construction of the reservoirs. The three reservoirs, when full, contain almost a billion gallons of water; about half of this amount could safely be drawn down for use. The Middle Reservoir, much shallower than the other two, is simply for storage; water can be drawn from it into either the North or the South Reservoir, but no pipes are connected with it.2
In 1885 the town built a high service tank or reservoir near the North Reservoir to supply houses along Highland Avenue that stood so high that the pressure from the main reservoir was inade- quate. A windmill was first used to pump the water into the high service standpipe, but an electric engine now does the work. In 1903 another high service tank was built on Andrews Hill to supply the houses on that and Myopia Hill. This was replaced by a larger and higher cement standpipe in 1912. A third high service tank was built near the southern end of Highland Avenue in 1929. In its original location it proved too conspicuous an object to please the taste of the residents in its vicinity, and it was accordingly removed to a spot nearer the South Reservoir, where it is shielded from view by the trees of the Fells.
Winchester has been fortunate in the character of the men who have served on its Water Board; they have always been citi- zens of business acumen and public spirit. Among them we find the names of Charles T. Main, one of the country's foremost engi- neers, Lewis Parkhurst, Henry C. Ordway, Nathan H. Taylor, George L. Huntress, Arthur E. Whitney, Edmund C. Sanderson, Charles E. Kendall, Harold K. Barrows and Clarence P. Whorf. Of late years the commissioners have carried out a systematic and
1 See the committee's report printed in the report of the Water and Sewer Board for 1933.
2 See a historical sketch of the Water Works by Mr. Edmund C. Sanderson in the report of the Board for 1933, and in the Journal of the New England Water Works Association, Vol. XLVIII, No. 3.
VIEW OF THE SOUTH AND MIDDLE RESERVOIRS
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STORY OF THE WATER SYSTEM
intelligent improvement of the shores of the reservoirs to develop their natural beauty, to conserve the supply of rainfall on the water- shed and to purify and aerate the water that enters the reservoirs through the small brooks that flow into them. Mr. Whitney, chair- man of the Board until 1918, Mr. Sanderson, chairman ever since that year, and Mr. Kendall, long a commissioner, were all active in this work. The large plantations of young evergreens, in which Mr. Kendall came to take a special interest, have now grown to a size that adds greatly to the attractiveness of the forest-covered banks of the three ponds. More Winchester people should visit the reservation; too few of them are acquainted with its beauty.
A long time ago the reservoirs were planted with black bass, and for a number of years residents of the town had a restricted privilege of casting an occasional fishing line into them. But it was found that the privilege was too much abused, particularly by out-of-town visitors to the Middlesex Fells, and fishing is no longer allowed, in accordance with rules made by the State Board of Health. For a number of years this was a sore subject with the local Isaak Waltons, and the matter was exhaustively ventilated in many a town meeting.
Although the existence of a municipal water supply seems naturally to connote a system of sewers, Winchester was without the latter convenience until 1893. In that year, the construction of the Metropolitan Sewer system north of Boston being under way, the town appointed D. W. Pratt, H. C. Miller and F. V. Wooster a committee to "consider and report on a system of sewer- age for the town," to be connected with the lines of the Metro- politan system.1 The necessary engineering work, supervised by Mr. Pratt, was completed that summer, and at the next annual meeting the money was appropriated for beginning the construc- tion, which was promptly carried through according to plans made by E. W. Bowditch of Boston. The three gentlemen who had served as a committee on sewers were chosen as Sewer Commis- sioners and the system was in full operation by the fall of 1894. It has been extended by additional construction to the entire town. The Board of Sewer Commissioners which established the system
1 Town Clerk's Report of the meeting of April 10, 1893, printed in the Town Reports.
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HISTORY OF WINCHESTER
was continued until 1906; in that year the board was abolished and its duties transferred to the Water Board, which has since then borne the title of the Water and Sewer Board.
It is an interesting fact that so careful and accurate were the surveys of Mr. D. W. Pratt and those of Mr. E. W. Bowditch, whose engineering firm built the first sewers, that in no case has it been necessary to change the levels originally established.
It was not until about 1905 that a systematic plan for the sur- face drainage of the streets of the town was begun and carried to effective completion by the Town Engineer, James Hinds. Some arrangements for the drainage of the center, which was constantly receiving the run-off of the streets which mounted the hillside east of Main and Washington streets, had much earlier been made, but the disposal of surface water according to modern practice dates only from 1905, when work was begun on Bacon, Main, Washing- ton and Church streets.
The first bank to open its doors in Winchester was the Savings Bank, which was chartered on March 3, 1871. The original incor- porators were David N. Skillings, John T. Manny, A. K. P. Joy, Stephen Cutter and Henry B. Metcalf. It is recorded that some of the more cautious townsfolk regarded the bank as a very risky enterprise, and predicted that it would never accumulate as much as $10,000 in deposits. But though it began in a humble way in a single room in the old Wakefield house near the railroad crossing, it had within a year accepted about four times that amount, and was a strongly going institution. Mr. Skillings was its first presi- dent and Mr. Manny its first treasurer. After Mr. Skillings' death Thomas P. Ayer became its president; Mr. Manny remained the treasurer for many years.
By 1880 the savings bank was obliged to look for larger and more convenient quarters. It removed to rooms in the Brown and Stanton Block, which it occupied until 1892, when its highly solvent condition enabled it to build a home for itself - the brick bank building which still stands at the corner of Mt. Vernon Street and Winchester Place. The bank's deposits and resources have steadily increased since it was established. Today (1935) the deposits amount to $4,729,617.45. The presidents - since Mr. Ayer's
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THE BANKS
death in 1893 - have been James F. Dwinell, Stephen Thompson, Alonzo P. Weeks, David N. Skillings, Jr., Harry C. Sanborn and H. Wadsworth Hight. The treasurers since Mr. Manny retired in 1887 have been D. N. Skillings, Jr., Charles E. Redfern, Eben Caldwell and William E. Priest.
In order that the history of banking in Winchester may be presented as a unity, the story of the other banks of the town, past and present, will be given here. The second to be opened was the Cooperative Bank, which was incorporated in November 1893. Among the original petitioners for a charter were Lewis Parkhurst, John Challis, George A. Fernald, Edward H. Stone, John Lynch, Lewis C. Pattee, Howard D. Nash and N. T. Appolonio. Mr. Pattee was the first president and Thomas B. Cotter the first treasurer. Like the Savings Bank, the Cooperative began modestly, in a small room in the Lyceum Building. The growth in its business soon obliged it to move to the Lane Building on lower Church Street. In 1929 the Cooperative Bank was sufficiently prosperous to undertake the erection of its own building.
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