USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Nahant > Some annals of Nahant, Massachusetts > Part 26
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was placed in the cupola of the truck house, and this did valiant service. In this same year the newly installed water system was used by the fire department. This led to a reor- ganization in 1886. The old Dexter No. 1 was disbanded and two new hose companies were formed, the "Dexter" and the "Alert." A new hose carriage and hose were bought under a special appropriation.
This apparatus was all hand-drawn, although a harness is listed with the equipment of the Dexter hand engine. The use of horses came gradually, until finally all the apparatus was horse-drawn, and $300 a year was paid to near-by horse owners for each horse which was supposed to be kept available for immediate service. On the clang of the bell some one jumped for the horse and hurried to the machine to which he was assigned. The plan was worked out as well as it could be with call men and a couple of bells which might not ring loud enough. Later it became difficult to get horses, and this condition became more acute after the barge lines were given up.
In 1894 the "Nathan Mower Hose Company No. 3" was organized at Bass Point, named for an early Bass Pointer. In 1896 this company was accepted by the town and put on the pay roll of the fire department. This was the fifth fire company. In the former year the Dexter hose reel was placed at Bass Point, and a new hose wagon replaced it in the Town Hall, where another was added in 1895, replacing the second hose reel, which was located a year or two later at Hotel Nahant, near the Lynn line.
The Bass Point engine house was built in 1894 on land which the town report says was leased from the owners, but as it seems to be on a range road, doubtless the rent was nominal, as the town owns sixteen feet of land through to the water. This building has been changed and remodelled several times to reach its present appearance and condition. The year 1897 also saw the first of the fire alarm systems, with five boxes, and striking the town clock bell, the truck house bell, and two large gongs placed outside the Town Hall and the
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engine house at Bass Point. The alarm system was gradually extended until in 1911 there were nineteen boxes well located throughout the town. There are now twenty, another being added in 1922. In 1900 a new combination hose and extin- guisher was bought for Bass Point. In 1902 the department was reorganized again, with the system of call horses intro- duced. Then comes a strong suggestion for a central fire station near Mitchell's corner, probably on town land near Calf Spring. This location is advocated in 1906 because the newly arrived street car lines along Spring Road and the streets down town and toward Bass Point would more likely be passable in winter snowstorms. The difficulty with horses is a principal factor in the recommendation, as it carries the intention to keep horses on the premises, though perhaps using them for near-by town work. A report of the New England Insurance Exchange committee is printed with the 1907 town report to foster this plan. In 1874 the town voted $12,000 to build a fire engine house, so the central fire station idea was not a new one. No one seems to remember what became of this early proposal which was never executed. Very soon, however, the talk of motorized apparatus seemed to displace the central fire station question, and in February, 1910, came the first motor machine, which was at once found to be worthless and was replaced in the fall by another, located at Bass Point. The large fire engine and motor-driven pump was bought in 1918, and was the heaviest expenditure the town ever made for apparatus. This was placed at Bass Point and the one there was moved to the Town Hall. Hose companies 1 and 2 were discontinued. In 1919 the ladder truck was motorized, and in 1923 another piece of kit was made from a police ambulance chassis given up by the police department. In 1925 a new combination engine was pur- chased. In the meantime permanent men have been employed, with the number increased so that all the needed apparatus can move out as promptly as the alarms ring in, while the call men listen for the box number and report at the fires.
These improvements naturally have meant great increases
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in appropriations. In the 70's and 80's the expense stayed under $2,000 a year. In the 1920's the routine cost has averaged over $11,000.
The record of fires has jumped faster than the increased building, and appears to indicate greater carelessness or poorer construction. In the 70's and 80's only twenty-six fires are recorded in fifteen years, averaging less than two a year, with two years in which there were none. Since 1910 the average a year for fifteen years has been over thirty. This period is coincident with the introduction of the fire-alarm system, and after the placing of the twentieth box the fire figures jumped to new heights, reaching seventy-five in 1924. Long argu- ments claiming logic have been based on no firmer premises than these, but doubtless no one will try to say, the more alarm boxes the more fires, even though it has been true.
Perhaps the three most extensive fires were in 1896, 1897 and 1925. The first was on Great Nahant, when a fire started in the Longfellow house on May 18, while it was being pre- pared for summer occupancy. It spread from there to the adjacent Cunningham house, to the Blanchard house across the street, the Green house on Vernon Street, and the Russell house on Nahant Road. Other buildings were threatened and a few small blazes started. Attention was given to sur- rounding property so that much was saved that seemed doomed. Almost at once Miss Mary Russell gave $1,000 as a relief fund, which, with other additions, was set up as a Fireman's Relief Fund No. 1. Then in the next year was a fire at Bass Point, which took out eight houses and damaged five others. They were all small and the engineers' estimate of the total loss was $6,000. Following this a second fire- man's relief fund was set up, to which Carahar Brothers were perhaps the first contributors, which is still going and called Fireman's Relief Fund No. 2. In 1925 was the great Bass Point fire, which is mentioned elsewhere.
In all these considerable fires complaint has been made of small water supply. This is also heard in every other place experiencing large fires. Immediately comes pressure for
Breaking Ground for Valley Road Schoolhouse
Joseph T. Wilson with first shovelful; third at his left is Otis A. Johnson
*
Ellerton James and Senator Lodge About 1920
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more water mains and more fire apparatus. Both are impor- tant to a reasonable extent. But the insurance company statistics show clearly that the way to low fire losses and low insurance rates is through adequate building restrictions. Their action in holding rates rather regardless of improve- ments in fire-fighting capacity is evidence of the statistics. Yet frequently, to meet individual wishes, come efforts to lessen the building restrictions, which, for Nahant, are by no means as rigid as the average for carefully guarded towns. The individual should not succeed in setting aside public wel- fare, and citizens should view questions from the public view- point, and not from sympathy for one person or from any rather natural dislike for restrictions of any kind.
The police department started early, but in a very small way. Little sums were paid to several citizens for duty as police or constables. By 1870, $200 was used, paid out to seven men, none of whom received over $50. In 1871 Charles E. Gove, mentioned elsewhere, received $235 for police duty. In 1874 the appropriation was $1,000, and in 1875 one man served two hundred and fourteen days. The year 1878 was the first that any man was in police service for the entire year, and that man was Frank G. Phillips. He came from Kittery, Maine, in 1874. He stayed on the police force until 1904, was chief of the police for the last twenty years of this period, and retired to accept a position with the Massa- chusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Retiring from that office he is still a well-known citizen of Nahant. The same year (1878) is the first time mention in the town report is made of uniforms, and is the first year of any annual report of the department, which recorded fif- teen arrests. In the early 80's the selectmen's report tells of one day man and two night men. For a long time the police station was in the basement of the Town Hall, until in 1888 the extension on the rear of the building allowed better accommodations.
In 1891 a policeman is mentioned for Bass Point and for the Beach Road, the latter "to prevent shooting and racing."
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By 1893 the use of a horse and wagon is increasing, a sort of ambulance, and in 1899 the town bought a wagon but still hired a horse. In 1894, in the fall, four extra men were on by night for a time, on account of the presence in town of an incendiary, a fire fiend he is called in the town report. In 1896 a one-story addition was made on the Town Hall, pro- jecting toward the library building, for use as a department office and a court room. In this same year Thomas H. Larkin joined the force, succeeding Chief Phillips in 1904, and still serving in that capacity. Larkin is an old Nahanter, son of Martin Larkin, one of the good old Irishmen whom so many remember. In 1898 Larkin began to ride a bicycle on Long Beach Road. In 1901 the department consisted of the chief and five regular men, with numerous specials. In 1896 the old grammar schoolhouse was remodelled for the department. The basement contained the cells and the main floor was court room and offices. This same year the police were put under classified civil service. In 1915 the town bought a motor ambulance and in 1921 a motor cycle.
This succession of dates is not much of a story of this im- portant branch of the town's activity. But the year-by-year work has been faithful while offering little of special note. The nature of the evidence necessary for court action makes the work difficult and often brings unmerited criticism. People who have evidence too commonly refuse to appear and testify, but expect the police to act when they have no evidence and cannot secure it. Doubtless a hands-off order has sometimes been given them, and they chafe under it, for they are ready to do their part to make a clean town.
The judge of the local court, beginning in 1876, was Joseph T. Wilson, who served until his death in 1914. He was suc- ceeded by Walter H. Southwick, who is not an old Nahanter, though he can reckon almost a generation in town. Wilson was without legal training, but had no appealed case reversed, it is said, and was respected by the legal fraternity as a worthy occupant of such an office. Southwick is a lawyer by training, though devoting much time to business pursuits.
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Around Lynn a good story is told, which is doubtless em- bellished, but is worth repeating. In the early days of auto- mobiles, when horses were frightened by them, a Lynn man, now a well-known automobile dealer there, was thought to be too careless with his machine, and Larkin, on his bicycle, tried for long to apprehend him. Finally he did so, and the man was fined for driving over fifteen miles an hour, or whatever the old ordinance prescribed. The by-law was not invoked because of the speed on one occasion, but was used only because of alleged carelessness on several occasions. In the fall of the year the police had an outing down the shore somewhere and hired one or two of these new-fangled machines as a novelty for the trip. On the way back, as they neared the Lynn end of the beach, a thunder shower was upon them, and the early motor cars were without tops or other protection against the weather. An attempt to hurry the driver was met with the reply, "I can't do it. My father was fined for driving faster than fifteen miles an hour on this road." He put the car in low gear and the party was drenched. No doubt revenge was sweet, and, again, this story should be true, but is subject to denial.
The use of street lamps began about 1871 with an expendi- ture of $900 for lamps down through the "village," as it was then, mostly all below Summer Street. In 1872 lamps were put on Long Beach, and more were added through the years until the 80's saw Nahant streets well equipped with them. For a time the Long Beach lamps were used only a part of the year. In 1871 it was voted to use them only in winter, but after a year or two more the beach road was lighted through- out the year, except on moonlight nights. In 1889 appears the first appropriation for lamps at Bass Point, and by the selectmen's report this seems to be the first installation by the town in that section. It seems strange to old Nahanters that any description of these old lamps should be needed or interest- ing, but many people now here know nothing of them. A few iron lamp-posts may be found about town. They were sur- mounted by a four-sided lantern of large size, sixteen inches
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or so square at the largest part. Around the middle was a narrow band of four panes of glass with the street name in red letters. The illuminant was gasolene, or benzine, and the lamplighters went around in the forenoon and filled them, trundling a ten-gallon can of fluid in a cart and filling a small container from it. A short ladder hooked over a crossbar on the lamp-post. Late in the afternoon the circuit was repeated with a gasolene torch, which heated the burner, started vapori- zation and lighted the lamp. It burned until exhausted, which was usually before daylight. Later on, a horse and wagon were substituted, giving access to the lamp without any ladder. Two or three men were used for this service, and old Nahanters remember Peter Lane, Roger Killilae and Charles B. Johnson going about town for many years. In 1892 electric lights were placed on Long Beach and at Bass Point, and these were gradually extended throughout the town. At first these, and the other lamps, were lighted twenty nights a month, leaving the fair moon to do the illuminating for ten nights. Then the agreements included those nights of the moon when clouds obscured it, and finally they were used throughout the months, as now. Early days did not see all-night service, which is a familiar practice today. The electric lights, and electric service of other sorts about town, were in charge of John R. Killilae until his death a few years ago. He was a familiar figure, always ready to help a householder whose fuses were burned out, and to be found on the beach doctoring his lamps in the worst storms of the winter season. He was a son of Roger Killilae, and his brother, James H. Killilae, joined this same service. John was a member of the Board of Assessors for a time, as the list of town officers shows.
Early house lighting was, of course, kerosene lamps and candles. Some time in these early years of the town a system of gasolene lighting was developed, pumping air out through gasolene in a tank buried outside the house, whence it was forced back impregnated and suitable for use in special burners. Ten or a dozen houses in town used this kind of lighting. Then, when the Public Library building was erected, in the 90's, the
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trustees persuaded the Lynn Gas and Electric Company, which already had poles on the beach for street lights, to continue into town and furnish house lighting to this building. The town was to pay a part of the cost of installation, but almost at once came other demands for the service which made the venture profitable, while today it would take a long hunt to find houses not equipped with electric lights.
In 1908 gas for cooking and heating was piped to Nahant. In the years before electricity, gas was mostly used for light- ing, wherever it was available, but by the time it came to Nahant there was no demand for gas lighting, while other domestic service rapidly increased gas consumption, and pipes were gradually extended in every direction throughout the town.
In the matter of concrete sidewalks, the use of which was bewailed by those who loved the old country paths, very heavy expenditures were made in the first few years. In 1871 $11,600 was spent and nearly $11,000 in 1872. In the first five years, from 1871 to 1876, sidewalks cost Nahant $36,800. The town certainly plunged deeply, and the re- peated heavy appropriations indicate an approval of footings as dry and clean to footwear as such things can be. A black tar concrete was adopted from the beginning, and is still used, because it is as little affected by settlement or growing tree roots as any other material. The curbstones were always of rough split granite, until within a few years some cast concrete has appeared.
The highway department started with small expenditures, running $1,200 to $1,500 a year for several years until in' 1870 the outlay suddenly jumped to $4,900. These early 70's were the time of increases in town expenditures. People waked up to the possibilities of municipal improvements, and the year 1869 saw an increase in valuations of two million dollars, wholly on personal property. This allowed an increase in expenditures without a change in tax rate. The highways expenditures dropped in the 80's, while the town was economical because of heavy outlays for sewer and water
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systems, but otherwise has held a rather steady march up- ward, crossing $10,000 in 1913 and $20,000 in 1924. It would be interesting to enumerate the streets of the town and when they were built, but space will not permit, except for such early or interesting items elsewhere mentioned. Old Nahant- ers remember Walter Johnson as surveyor of highways, riding about town in his light-covered wagon, getting a little whiter in hair and beard as time went on. Few, if any, remember him also as the moderator of the first Nahant town meeting. Another long-time highway surveyor is Charles W. Stacy, who retired from the office a few years since. Stacy is a son-in-law of Byron Goodell, and Goodell has several descend- ants now living on Nahant, including a son, Arthur S. Goodell, and a daughter, the widow of Albert G. Wilson.
The first appropriation for any forester's department was in 1881, and it was called "Trees on Highways." Mention has been made of earlier interest in the work so long and well done by Tudor. The first town forester was George Abbot James who served in this office until 1908. The first forester's report was for the year 1895, although James had reported as a committee member in the previous year. In 1892 James was instrumental in getting a town vote to employ Charles Eliot, landscape architect and town planner, to advise on measures to beautify the community. His report is published in the town report for 1893, but he found too much that was bad, and it was impossible to execute his recommendations. A park committee of two years later, in its report written by James, suggests that the Metropolitan Park Commission take over the beaches and a large portion of Bass Point, and speaks of the harbor shore on Castle Road as belonging to the town as far as Black Rock. This appears to be an error, as the area named is now covered with houses. This report also mentions Curlew Beach as one open so long that the public could not be shut off from it. James gave ener- getically of his time and strength to this department, serving without pay, and deserving much credit for improvements and for maintaining the trees of the town in good condition.
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After twenty-seven years of service he retired, and almost at once Thomas Roland was chosen successor, serving until 1917, when Herbert Coles was elected. The State laws re- quired a forester and a tree warden in late years, and it always has been the custom for the selectmen to appoint to the latter office whoever was elected to the former position. This combines two offices which are bound to interlace under conditions like those at Nahant, and tends toward efficiency and economy.
It is apparent that the early 70's saw a tremendous increase in town expenditures. A look at the schedules and data given elsewhere will show how much. The reason why this jump occurred so abruptly is that 1870 was the tax dodger's year of discovery. Nahant was not blamable for any of this. If people chose to comply with the law and become residents, the town could not prevent it, and there is no indication of any easing of requirements or other encouragement offered to these would-be citizens. They were mostly from Boston, and some are represented in town today by children or grandchildren. The city of Boston sued some of them, with varying success. But all in all, Nahant's total valuation jumped $2,000,000 in one year. The tax rate dropped but gradually worked back as expenditures mounted, and the tax dodgers went away or obtained reductions in their assessment on personal holdings. One prominent man was assessed for $800,000, and then declared it was altogether too high and successfully sought ·a heavy reduction. A few years later he died leaving many millions, one of the wealthy men of his time. Another honestly stated one year that his assessment was too low, but after tolerating the increase for a short time protested and got a reduction to former figures. On his death he, too, left much more than ever his assessments included. The days of assess- ing personal holdings locally are over, and it is hoped that the present income tax methods inculcate greater honesty and fairer returns. Perhaps they do. It surely was true, under the old ways, that the workingman, with only a house and lot, was assessed for a far greater proportion of his total wealth
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than the wealthier residents, most of whose property was not in plain sight of the assessors. All of this was not trouble peculiar to Nahant, of course, but was a general condition provoking comment everywhere.
This chapter can close with an article written by Mason Hammond, published in the "Boston Evening Transcript" for July 5, 1893. On the previous day, the holiday, a group of Russian officers, including a Prince with some long name, were entertained at the Nahant Club, when an alarm of fire was sounded. "Willie Waters," the barge driver mentioned, died many years ago, and is not the present town clerk. The article exaggerates, to make a good story, but the description is accurate enough to be interesting, and witty enough to deserve inclusion here.
Nahant had a field day on the Fourth of July. There were pool, bowling and tennis tournaments, besides a baseball game, and Admiral Koznakoff, with the officers of the Russian warships, was in town.
But the real sensation of the Fourth, so far as it affected Nahant, was the fire. When there is a fire at Nahant all hands, with one accord, old and young, lame, halt and blind, turn out and rush madly to the scene of action, there to do as much damage as they possibly can in the shortest time. Not that they mean to, but because they can't help it.
When, several years ago, Goodell's stable was burned, which event marks an era in the history of Nahant, the hook and ladder truck, manned by a company of gentlemen in evening dress, came down the hill which leads from the Nahant Road to the water front on the west, at top speed, and never stopped till it reached the water front; and there were scenes equally interesting at the fire in Hervey Johnson's roof on the Fourth of July, 1893.
It was half past five in the afternoon. The house of the Nahant Club was jammed to overflowing. Croquet, tennis, bowling, - all were in progress. The Russian band was playing with all its might and main. The Russian officers were scattered everywhere about the grounds, talking to the ladies, watching the tennis, play- ing pool and struggling with the English language, when suddenly a loud clanging of bells brought everything to a stop.
At once there was a cry of "Fire!" and in one mad helter-skelter stampede officers, band, ladies, guests and children rushed across the lawn down to the Nahant Road. In this free-for-all, go-as-you-
Home of Senator Lodge
Looking inland, 1879
HE WON THE CASTLE ROAD FIGHT
THE SOONER WE GET RID OF LAWYERS THE BETTER
IF WE HAVE A FIRE IN A 5 STORY BUILDING WE - CANNOT FIGHT IT UNTIL IT REACHES THE IND STORY
CHIEF CROCKER FOR 32 YEARS WITH THE FIRE DEPT.
SAM SULKING WAS THERE
RINALDO POTTER
"IDAN" FINNERTY
I WISH THE CITIZENS WOULD PAY THEIR WATER TAXES-THE TOWN NEEDS THE MONEY
"CABBY" JOHNSON'S FATHER
ROBERT L. COCHRAN TOLD THEM SOME THING
H.C.L.
THE VACANT CHAIR
MODERATOR FRED A. WILSON
CHIEF LARKIN'S FATHER
Speaking Right Out in Town Meetin' at Nahant, Saturday.
Town Meeting Cartoon, 1917
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please run, Lieutenant Something-or-Other of the Russian fleet won "hands down," and the spectacle was presented of a tall man in scarlet breeches, a long brown coat, a white fur cap, silver belt and silver dagger, leading a motley crew of Russians and Americans down across the lawn of the Nahant Club. Once at the road the crowd paused and wavered, uncertain which way to turn. There was a slight tendency to rush down to what is known as "Irishtown," but suddenly up the Nahant Road came Willie Waters, driving a barge at top speed, and bringing the news that it was "Hervey's" that was on fire. Into this barge climbed all who could, and those who could not fell into the wake, and with Willie Waters and his barge in the lead, the entire company sped as one man to the fire.
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