USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Pittsfield > The history of Pittsfield (Berkshire County), Massachusetts, from the year 1800 to the year 1876 > Part 54
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By this line of roads, together with the Hartford and New Haven, from Bridgeport, a moderately direct route was thus offered from Pittsfield to the city of New York, which was of much value, especially when the Hudson river was closed by ice. Still it was seen to be very desirable that a road should be built from Pittsfield down the Housatonic valley, through Lenox, Lee, and Stockbridge Plain, to unite with the Berkshire at Van Deu- senville ; and, in 1847, Charles M. Owen and Charles C. Alger of Stockbridge, and George W. Platner of Lee, obtained for this purpose, a charter for the Stockbridge and Pittsfield railroad. Doubts, however, existed among the local capitalists, whether the road would be remunerative. The project lingered until 1848,
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HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD.
when Thomas F. Plunkett, accidentally meeting W. D. Bishop, president of the Housatonic road, mentioned that he thought the proposed branch could be built for twenty thousand dollars a mile, and that if the Housatonic company would take a perpetual lease of it at seven per cent. on the cost, the capital could be at once subscribed. The plan struck Mr. Bishop favorably, and an arrangement was soon effected. Ground was broken in 1849, and the road was opened for business in 1850. It is generally well built; but, as the cost was restricted to twenty thousand dollars per mile, the contractors, Messrs. Schuyler and Miller of New York, who were permitted to appoint the engineer, avoided expense by making curves and retaining high grades, at many points, where excavations would have rendered the road shorter, straighter, and more level.
CHAPTER XXIII. FIRE-DISTRICT AND WATER-WORKS,
[1795-1875.]
Old fire-department-Organization of fire-district-Purchase of fire-engines- Housatonic and Pontoosuc engine-companies-Greylock hook-and-ladder company-List of engineers-Steam fire-engines-Fires-Early water-works -Ashley water-works-Sidewalks, sewers, and main drains.
P REVIOUS to the year 1844, the only means provided in Pittsfield for protection against fire, were the rude box- engine purchased by subscription in 1812, with two others of a similar character, one owned by Lemuel Pomeroy & Sons, and one by the Pontoosuc Woolen Company ; which were stationed at the factories of their owners. All were of small capacity, and neither was supplied with suction-hose. At fires, water was passed in buckets through long lines of citizens, who, when occasion required, were aided by their wives and daughters.
Even this imperfect organization, and these rude appliances, were often of great service; and this early fire-department received many encomiums from the press, and from its official head. In 1844, however, it had become utterly inadequate for the needs of the town. Indeed, for fourteen years before that date, efforts had been annually made to induce the town to pur- chase a new engine; and as often defeated. As early as 1834, the old machine was reported in town-meeting not to be worth the cost of repairing. Its captain, Edwin Clapp, maintained that he could put it in good order at a small expense, and, being directed to do so, he made it able to do some further service. Nevertheless, it was a superannuated affair after all, and the town frequently suffered for lack of something better.
In 1844, the growth of the central village, and the additional amount of exposed property caused by the opening of the West- ern railroad, stimulated a renewed and determined effort to pro-
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vide an efficient fire-department. And when the annual proposi- tion to purchase a new engine came up in town-meeting, a little more strongly worded than usual, Thomas F. Plunkett, Henry Stearns, Robert Campbell, E. H. Kellogg, and George S. Willis were made a committee to consider the protection of the town against fire. And on the 29th of April, they submitted a report, in which they said :
The committee think it unnecessary to direct the attention of the town to the danger which hangs over its property from year to year, from the want of the necessary means of protection. Fire after fire, and loss after loss, remind us but too often and too painfully of the almost wanton indifference of our citizens to the subject. The commit- tee think that there is not another town in the state, of the size, and whose property is so much exposed as that of Pittsfield, which is guilty of failing to provide itself with security against fire.
The committee, therefore, recommended the organization of a fire-district, under the general statute enacted in the previous March. Under this law the town might establish the district, or it might be organized by its own inhabitants, under a warrant issued by the selectmen, upon the application of seven legal voters ; but the second course could not be pursued until a peti- tion for the adoption of the first had been presented and rejected in open town-meeting. For this reason, they appended to their report, a petition for the establishment of the district by the town, which was promptly rejected.
This action seems to have been merely pro forma, as a necessary preliminary to the alternative mode of procedure. The other votes of the town show that it indicated no spirit of hostility to the new project.
The committee reported, that while the fire-department would chiefly benefit the district, the whole town would, to a certain extent, enjoy its protection ; for all its citizens were joint own- ers in the churches, town-house, and other public property ; and the department would always proceed to any part of the town where it might be needed. And if it could not save buildings in which fires originated, might prevent them from spreading to others. It would, therefore, be only an act of justice for the town to furnish the land requisite for engine-houses, and pay six hundred dollars towards the purchase of apparatus. The town
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made the grant of land and money, increasing the amount of the latter to one thousand dollars.
With this encouragement, the center, east, and west center dis- triets, on the 3d of June, 1844, organized as the Pittsfield fire- district.
The territory thus incorporated is about two miles square, the park being nearly in the center. But its boundaries are very irregular, those of the school-districts having been arbitrarily fol- lowed, and having been originally fixed on the principle of equal- izing and distributing population and property in different dis- tricts rather than of centralizing them. Thus, sometimes a man's residence lay just within the borders of one district, while his farm naturally extended far into another; and the land followed its owner. Or, again, for the convenience of a family, their home was set off from the district in which it was originally placed ; and often, to aid a poor district, a wealthy farmer's land was set off to it from a richer.
At its first meeting, the fire-district taxed itself twenty-one hundred dollars; the town's grant being on condition that it should raise two thousand. The following committee was ap- pointed to report upon the proper number of officers for the department, and recommend candidates to fill them : Thomas A. Gold, E. H. Kellogg, Phinehas Allen, Lemuel Pomeroy, E. A. Newton, Jabez Peck, Richard C. Coggswell, Nathan Willis, Levi Goodrich, Merrick Ross, Oliver S. Root, Ezekiel R. Colt, H. H. Childs, Robert Campbell, George S. Willis, Jared Ingersoll, and S. H. P. Lee.
On the Sth of June, this committee reported the following nominations, which were confirmed : chief engineer, Levi Good- rich ;1 assistant engineers, Robert Campbell, Jason Clapp, Jared Ingersoll, George S. Willis, Henry Callender, and William G. Backus. Ensign H. Kellogg was afterwards added. Prudential committee, Phinehas Allen, Edward A. Newton, Ezekiel R. Colt.
1 Levi Goodrich was born at Wethersfield, Conn., in December, 1785, being the son of Josiah Goodrich, a cousin of Capt. Charles Goodrich, the noted early settler of Pittsfield, to which place, when Levi was six years old, his father also removed. In February, 1826, Levi Goodrich married Miss Wealthy Whitney, a daughter of the proprietor of the iron-forge at Taconic. Mr. Good- rich was an energetic and prosperous citizen, and was, throughout his life, after he reached the age of manhood, prominent in town-affairs. He died August 8, 1863.
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HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD.
Under the recommendation of the committee, an engine-house was built, on what is now School street, at a cost of five hundred and forty dollars. It was thirty fect square, and two stories high ; containing apartments for the two engines, and the hook-and-lad- der cart, as well as rooms for the meetings of the several com- panies.
Two engines, both made by Henry Waterman of Hudson, and as nearly alike as possible, were purchased at a cost of six hun- dred and eighty dollars each. The first, which afterwards became the Housatonic, was described as a seven-and-a-quarter-inch hy- draulion, complete, with suction-hose, drag-ropes, and the neces- sary tools. It was at first furnished with three hundred and twenty-eight feet of hose, at a cost of two hundred and twenty- eight dollars.
The Housatonic Engine Company was formed in October, 1844, the following names being signed to the by-laws :
John C. West, foreman ; Edwin Clapp, first assistant ; Martin Blunt, second assistant ; Thomas Colt, clerk ; James H. Anderson, Thomas G. Atwood, Julius Bannister, Henry P. Barnes, William W. Barrows, Daniel Bodurtha, Joseph H. Brewster, Henry S. Briggs, Horatio N. Brooks, Crowell Brooks, Leland S. Burlingham, George Burlingham, Matthew Butler, Only Carpenter, Horace Carrier, David Chapman, Joseph B. Cunningham, Henry G. Davis, Daniel J. Dodge, Joseph Gregory, Perry G. Holdridge, E. P. Little, H. M. Millard, Amasa Rice, Cyrus Shaw, Moseley W. Stevens, Frank E. Taylor, William H. Teeling, William M. Walker, William A.Ward, William H. Warren, Charles H. Watrous.
The company thus formed has had a remarkable permanence of organization. Several of the members who first manned its brakes being still actively connected with it; while most of the others were dropped from the rolls either on account of death or removal from town. Mr. West, after serving as foreman eighteen months, declined re-election, and was succeeded by Edwin Clapp, who is still in command. Thomas Colt then became first assist- ant, which office he held until his temporary removal from town in 1849, when he was succeeded by the present incumbent, Wil- liam H. Tecling. Daniel Sprong succeeded Mr. Teeling, and remained second assistant until, in 1875, he was appointed to the charge of the district's hose-tower and apparatus.
During all this period, the company has maintained unbroken
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HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD.
internal harmony; and never, in any excitement of active service, publie parades, or festive meetings, has offended public decorum ; while it has never lacked promptness, spirit, or efficiency, in the discharge of its duties. Its esprit de corps has been almost unparalleled even among firemen, and like its other good qualities has been due very much to its singular permanence of organiza- tion.
In the fall of 1844, the Western Railroad Corporation sent to Pittsfield the fire-engine " Union," to be stationed near its depot ; but it was not formally accepted by the district until after a sec- ond machine had been purchased; whence it ranks as number three.
The engine Fame, the mate of the Housatonic, was received in June, 1845, and was equipped like its companion ; the hose-car- riage being built by Jason Clapp & Son. William H. Power was foreman; but the company was disbanded in 1848, and a new one formed with the following officers : S. W. Morton, foreman ; Gordon McKay, first assistant; H. L. Pope, second assistant ; Charles Hurlbert, clerk; James D. Colt, 2d, assistant clerk ; Newell Bliss, treasurer. The engine and company now took the name of Pontoosuc. Mr. Morton continued foreman uutil 1855, and was followed in succession by John Lane, Charles Pitt, John E. Dodge, Wesley L. Shepardson, A. H. Munyan, George W. Smith, Edward Dunham, P. E. Morton, and Henry Hurlbert.
Owing to the destruction of the records by fire, it is impossible to give a list of the other officers prior to 1864. Since that date the first assistants have been E. B. Mead, Seymour Gardner, Benjamin Evans, George S. Willis, Jr., and Warner G. Morton. The second assistants,1 George S. Willis, Jr., Seymour Gardner, David Campbell, Anthony Stewart, Louis Blain.
The company has always been distinguished for dash and enthusiasm; and, in its latter, as well as in many portions of its carlier, history, it has rivaled the Housatonic in the excellence of its discipline.
In 1853, the railroad-company put in place of the old Union a better engine, which was first known as the Eagle, then the Taconic, and afterwards as the S. W. Morton. It is still in active service, and often fills a place which could not be supplied
1 By the later custom of the department, the second-assistant foreman, instead of the first, is ex officio captain of the hose.
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HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD.
by an additional steamer. It has been manned mostly by employés of the railroad, and other mechanics doing business near the depot ; so that the company has been subject to frequent changes. The records are preserved only since 1869, since which date the officers longest in service are Foreman Michael Fitzger- ald, First-Assistant Terrence McEnany, Second-Assistant Michael Doyle, Treasurer James Mannion, Clerk John Ready.
The Greylock Hook and Ladder Company has always been a valuable portion of the department, and has maintained a high character for discipline. Henry Groot was its foreman for many years, and until his removal from town. The records prior to 1867 are lost. Since that date, the officers have been: foremen, George Burbank, William Leslie, Benjamin Smith, Robert Fran- cis. First assistants, William Leslie, S. D. Milliman, Andrew Palmer, J. W. Fuller, H. H. Smith, R. E. Crandall, C. H. Hop- kins. Second assistants, Benjamin Smith, William Leslie, George W. Burbank, J. H. Granger, E. E. Cole, C. H. Hopkins, P. J. Roberts. Clerks, W. H. Coleman, E. E. Cole, F. H. Breck- enridge, Charles B. Watkins. Treasurers, S. D. Milliman, E. E. Cole, B. F. Robbins.
The following gentlemen have been
ENGINEERS OF THE PITTSFIELD FIRE-DEPARTMENT.
1844. Chief, Levi Goodrich; assistants, Robert Campbell, George S. Willis, Jason Clapp, Henry Callender, Jared Ingersoll, William G. Backus, E. H. Kellogg.
1845. Chief, Levi Goodrich; assistants, Robert Campbell, George S. Willis, Jason Clapp, Henry Callender, Jared Ingersoll, William G. Backus, Ensign II. Kellogg.
1846. Chief, Robert Campbell, assistants, E. H. Kellogg, George S. Willis, Phinehas Allen, Jr.
1847. Chief, Robert Campbell; assistants, E. H. Kellogg, T. F. Plun- kett, Phinehas Allen, Jr.
1848. Chief, Thomas F. Plunkett ; assistants, E. H. Kellogg, P. Allen, Jr., John C. West.
1849. Chief, Thomas F. Plunkett ; assistants, William H. Power, Phinehas Allen, Jr., John C. West.
1850. Chief, Gordon Mckay ; assistants, Abraham Burbank, J. C. West, Thomas G. Atwood.
1851. Chief, Gordon Mckay; assistants, A. Burbank, J. C. West, T. G. Atwood.
70
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HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD.
1852. Chief, John C. West ; assistants, A. Burbank, Thomas Colt, David Campbell.
1853. Chief, John C. West ; assistants, A. Burbank, Thomas Colt, David Campbell.
1854. Chief, J. C. West ; assistants, Thomas Colt, David Campbell, Robert Pomeroy.
1855. Chief, J. C. West; assistants, S. W. Morton, F. E. Taylor, Austin W. Kellogg.
1856. Chief, Seth W. Morton ; assistants, Frank E. Taylor, George S. Willis, J. L. Peck.
1857. Chief, S. W. Morton ; assistants, J. L. Peck, Daniel J. Dodge, C. Burnell.
1858. Chief, S. W. Morton ; assistants, JJ. L. Peck, William M. Walker, L. Scott.
1859. Chief, Jabez L. Peck ; assistants, William M. Walker, Leb- beus Scott, A. Burbank.
1860. Chief, J. L. Peck ; assistants, William M. Walker, L. Scott, Charles M. Whelden.
1861. Chief, J. L. Peck ; assistants, William M. Walker, L. Scott, C. M. Whelden.
1862. Chief, J. L. Peck ; assistants, William M. Walker, L. Scott, William R. Plunkett.
1863. Chief, J. L. Peck; assistants, Lebbeus Scott, William R. Plunkett, John Feeley.
1864. Chief, Lebbeus Scott ; assistants, William R. Plunkett, John Feeley, Henry Groot.
1865. Chief, Lebbeus Scott ; assistants, William R. Plunkett, John Feeley, F. F. Read.
1866. Chief, A. Burbank ; assistants, John Feeley, F. F. Read, H. Groot.
1867. Chief, Abraham Burbank ; assistants, John Feeley, F. F. Read, Henry Groot.
1868. Chief, A. Burbank ; assistants, John Feeley, F. F. Read, W. H. Murray.
1869. Chief, John Feeley ; assistants, William H. Murray, William C. Gregory, George S. Willis, Jr.
1870. Chief, John Feeley ; assistants, William H. Murray, William C. Gregory, Seth W. Morton.
1871. Chief, John Feeley ; assistants, William H. Murray, H. S. Russell, S. W. Morton.
1872. Chief, John Feeley ; assistants, S. W. Morton, H. S. Russell, George S. Willis, Jr.
1873. Chief, Jabez L. Peck ; assistants, George S. Willis, Jr., H. S. Russell, Seth W. Morton.
555
HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD.
For twenty-five years the Pittsfield fire-department, thus organ- ized, maintained a high reputation for efficiency : but the time came when the increase of property exposed to danger rendered it desirable, and the progress of invention made it practicable, to provide more powerful defense against fire. In 1865, Chief- Engineer Lebbeus Scott, recommended the purchase of a steam fire-engine; but no action was taken in the matter. And the same fate befell similar propositions in 1868 and 1870.
It was twenty-seven years since the town had granted a little aid in land and money for its own protection against fire. Mean- while, the fire-department had rendered valuable service outside of the district. Property beyond the fire-limits had vastly in- creased, and its safety would be greatly enhanced by steam fire- engines, even if they were located in the neighborhood of the park. It seemed, therefore, no more than just, that the town should contribute something to the expenses of the department : the next effort for the purchase of steam fire-engines, was made in that direction, in the spring of 1871. In that year, when the article relating to this subject was reached in the action of the town-meeting, a letter was read from Assistant-Engineer S. W. Morton, recommending its reference to a committee of leading manufacturers.
This suggestion was adopted, and the committee then appointed, reported at an adjourned meeting, calling attention to the fre- quent difficulty, at even moderately-protracted fires, of procuring men to work the engines; and stating that one steamer of the fourth class is equal in effect to three of the best manned and best managed hand-engines. They, therefore, recommended the purchase of two steamers of this class. These machines were to . be drawn by the firemen ; and the only expense anticipated, more than from the use of the hand-machines, was one hundred dollars yearly, for the pay of each engineer, and fifty dollars for the fire- men of each machine.1
The town adopted the report, and appointed Jabez L. Peck, Charles T. Barker, H. S. Russell, John Feeley, George S. Dun- bar, H. W. Morton, and Jarvis N. Dunham, a committee to pur- chase two steamers, with the necessary apparatus, at a cost not exceeding eight thousand dollars.
1 Finally, the steamers were provided with horses, and the engineers received a salary of one hundred and twenty dollars each, and the firemen eighty.
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HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD.
The Clapp & Jones Manufacturing Company of Hudson, N. Y., sent a fourth-class steamer to Pittsfield, to be used as occasion might require, until the committee should decide in regard to purchasing.
The committee made a very thorough trial of this machine, and in order to compare it with others of different manufacture, visited several cities and had a competitive trial at Pittsfield. The result was the purchase of both the steamers from the Clapp & Jones company : a decision the town has never found cause to regret.
The contract was for two fourth-class steamers, to differ in no particular, except that No. One was to be painted red, and No. Two blue, these being the colors adopted respectively by the companies to whose charge the engines were committed ..
On motion of Mr. Morton, the committee voted that No. One should be called the Edwin Clapp; and on motion of J. N. Dun- ham, the name of Pontoosuc was agreed upon for No. Two. The Pontoosuc company, however, changed its name to the George
Y. Learned, in honor of a liberal and popular manufacturer; and, at their request, the committee made a corresponding change in the name of its machine. The Housatonic company, while grate- fully accepting the compliment to its foreman, in the designation of its steamer, decided, as an organization, to adhere to the name which was associated with their honorable history.
The steamers were received January 19, 1872, and proved all that had been promised of them. They were immediately trans- ferred to the fire-district, upon which the vote of the town devolved their care and the cost of their maintenance. The expenditures under the town's appropriation were : for the two steamers, with one hundred feet of rubber leading hose for each, six thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars ; for three hundred feet of leather leading hose, nine hundred and four dollars and fifty cents; for expenses of the committee, one hundred and forty-six dollars and thirty-three cents; total, seven thousand eight hundred dollars and eighty-three cents. The district after- wards expended seven hundred dollars for the purchase of a hose- carriage for steamer No. Two; to which the company added two hundred and fifty dollars for the addition of ornaments. The No. One had already a handsome carriage, made by George Groot, a Pittsfield carriage-manufacturer.
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HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD.
The first active service of the steamers was at Lanesboro, February 27, 1872, when the coal-sheds of the Briggs Iron Com- pany, containing about three hundred thousand bushels of coal, were consumed. A violent gale blowing from the north-west, at that time, there was great danger that the furnace and the south village would be destroyed, as it is probable they would have been had it not been for the assistance rendered by the two Pittsfield steamers.
The efficiency of the steamers could hardly have been subjected to a more severe test than it was by this fire at Lanesboro. But their value for the protection of home-property was more fully proved by a fire which occurred on the 21st of the following March, on McKay street, which, but for their aid, would have probably destroyed some of the most valuable buildings on North street.
The first fire after the establishment of the fire-district was in September, 1845, and between that date and July, 1875, the department was called out, wholly or in part, by fire or alarms, one hundred and seventy-one times. Seven of these fires were outside of Pittsfield, and ten others were beyond the limits of the fire-district; thirteen occurred in the larger manufactories, or in buildings connected with them.
WATER-WORKS.
The township of Pittsfield, as a whole, is remarkably well watered by lakes, streams and springs, generally of great purity. But the soil of considerable tracts, in the central section, is com- posed, to a great depth, of sand and gravel, in which it is difficult to obtain water by digging, except where it happens to be under- laid by basins of clay or some other impervious earth, forming what is known, in the New England dialect, as "hard-pan." And where it is so underlaid, the result is often a swamp. In addition to this, in the districts where wells are easily made, the water is often so charged with lime that a thick calcarious deposit soon coats the interior of vessels in which it is boiled; indicating its unfitness for domestic purposes.
This scarcity of pure water, in some sections of the town, while abundant sources of supply lay near, led to a succession of efforts to diffuse it by means of aqueducts.
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HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD.
The first enterprise of the kind was that of Capt. Charles Good- rich.1 The next projectors of water-works were Simon Larned, John Chandler Williams, William Kittredge, Joshua Danforth, who were incorporated, in 1795, as " The proprietors of the water- works in the middle of the town of Pittsfield." This company contracted, in April, 1795, with Joel Dickinson, and David Black- man, to convey the water to the town in pipes; and, as the con- tractors were capable men, and gave security for the faithful per- formance of their work, it was probably done in the following year. But the company soon began to discover the difficulties of their undertaking; for, in 1803, we find them advertising for some person who will contract to repair their works and keep them in order, " for a fixed sum to be paid by each member of the company :" meaning, probably, that he should collect his pay of the water-takers. In 1804, the company had become so disor- ganized that a special act of the legislature was necessary to authorize any three members to call a meeting, and empowering the officers last previously elected to act until others were chosen.
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