USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Worcester > Town annual reports of the several departments for the fiscal year ending December 31, 1848/49-1855 > Part 18
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And allow me, gentlemen, in the first place, to congrat- ulate you and our fellow citizens, upon the general pros- perity,-the quiet and good order which, under the smiles of a kind Providence, we have been permitted to enjoy dur-
7
ing the year that has just closed ; and that we have experi- enced a most marked exemption from wasting sickness, and from fatal and destructive epidemics. The early approach of winter, and its continued and quite unusual severity, suspended at an unusually early season, almost all out door labor and occupations, and operated to deprive many of our people, dependant upon that species of labor, and ill able to bear it, of their sole means of subsistence, and has brought want and sadness into many families.
If the commercial and industrial pursuits of our people have not been attended with the thrift, activity and profit of former years, there has been nothing like general stag- nation, and notwithstanding the prevalence of a somewhat severe pecuniary pressure, very few branches of industry prosecuted to any considerable extent amongst us, it is be- lieved, have been suspended altogether, or pursued without some moderate profit. And as the onward progress of a city is not inaccurately measured by the increase and addi- tions to its buildings, which each year makes to those be- fore existing, I may add that, measuring our progress in this way, it may be said that the city has made, in this re- spect, very rapid advances,-perhaps as rapid as in any former year ; for though in point of number, the buildings erected the past year might suffer in the comparison, they probably would not, if judged of by their size and dimen- sions, or by the costliness of their structure ; and certainly some of the buildings erected will compare favorably with the best specimens of architecture previously existing in the city ; and nothing now appears to lead us to doubt that the present year will make additions to our buildings, equal or nearly equal to the average of the few past years. In this connection, it may not be out of place to notice the increase in the number of dwelling houses and stores and
8
warehouses, for the ten years ending with 1850. By a statement which I have procured from the Secretary's of- fice, it appears that the number of dwelling houses, stores, &c., returned by the assessors in 1840, and in 1850, were as follows :
1840.
1850.
Dwelling houses, 881
1972
Stores and Warehouses, 96
120
The increase of the valuation, is not the most certain criterion whereby to judge of the actual increase of the wealth of a city. It generally, however, affords some evi- dence in regard to it, and certainly it is a fact not improper to mention in this connection. The valuation of 1851 ex- ceeds that of 1850, as I am informed, by about one million of dollars. It is not probable, however, that the valuation of 1852 will show quite so large an increase over that of 1851, as considerable amounts of property heretofore as- sessed here, will probably, owing to the decease of the owners, be distributed and taxed elsewhere the current year. There are no accurate means of determining what has been the increase in our population the past year ; but no special reasons are known to exist, justifying the belief that it has been much if any less than the usual rate of in- crease during the few past years.
The number of deaths the past year, has been about the same as last year. The following table will show the num- ber of deaths in each year, from 1843 to the present time, as near as I have been able to ascertain them from the re- turns.
The deaths in the city, from May 1843 to May 1844,
were - -
- - 166
From May 1844 to May 1845, were -
- 227
From May 1845 to May 1846, were - 273
9
From May 1846 to May 1847, were - - 302 From May 1847 to May 1848, were - 387 -
From May 1848 to Jan. I, 1849, 8 months, when a change took place in the Registration Law, 295
From Jan. 1, 1849, to Jan. 1, 1850, - - 438
From Jan. 1, 1850, to Jan. 1, 1851, - - 381
From Jan. 1, 1851, to Jan. 1, 1852, - - 382
From this it will appear that, assuming the correctness of the United States census of 1850, which gives Wor- cester about 17000 inhabitants, and making a proper allowance for the different years, that the rate of mor- tality was considerable over two per cent upon the popu- lation in 1849, and that in 1850 and 1851, it fell slightly short of two per cent. The rate of mortality throughout the State, for the year 1849, was, as appears by the returns in the Secretary's office, 2.053 per cent upon the population.
This rate of mortality in the city, I doubt not, could and might easily be diminished, by the adoption of, and a more strict adherence to those simple rules of health, which we all recognize and acknowledge in words, but the prac- tical application of which is too often and too generally neglected. It would have afforded me satisfaction, and it was my intention at one time to have ascertained, if possi- ble, the rate of mortality, and the nature of the diseases, in two or three particular sections of the city, and to have instituted a comparison between them, with a view, if they should be found to vary, to determine whether any action having reference to this subject, and connected with reforms of a sanitary character, was possible, expedient, or necessary on the part of the City Government. But want of time, and the necessary statistics, has prevented the accomplish- ment of that purpose. There are a variety of other con-
2*
10
siderations connected with the health of the city, and the great subject of sanitary reform, which may demand, in the course of the year, some action on the part of the City Government, but which I will not detain you now to particularize or discuss.
Before, however, passing from this general subject of the progress, prosperity and condition of the city, and its pro- spective advancement, to matters more immediately con- nected with our duties the present year, allow me to throw out a suggestion connected with our future increase and prosperity.
Though our city, in years to come, is manifestly destin- ed and is quite sure to increase and prosper, holding out as it does such pre-eminent advantages in point of educa- tion, of healthfulness, and beauty of location, as well as of business and of means and facilities of transit and com- munication, yet no one can doubt that our progress would be more rapid, were our citizens, and especially those more particularly interested in, or owning real estate in the city, to manifest individually, if not unitedly, and by some sys- tematic concert of action, a somewhat more earnest and efficient desire to introduce and establish among us a still greater number and variety of mechanical trades and em- ployments, and additional branches of manufactures. In- creasing, as this would, our productive industry, our pop- ulation would be increased, and our prosperity promoted.
There are a great variety of industrial employments and trades, that we have not, which it would seem could be carried on in such a city as this, to very great advantage ; trades, many of which, like that of the shoe trade, would in an especial manner, afford employment to women and children, desirous of contributing to the support of the family by engaging in such occupations ; and certainly we
11
have not a few of this class, who would rejoice in such additions to the trades, occupations and business of the city.
As to those interested in the real estate here, who can doubt that they would be great gainers by such additions to the productive industry of the city ? For what is it that gives, what is it that has given, the present value to our real estate ? what but the immigration and settlement here of the artisan, the mechanic, the trader and the manufactu- rer ? who does not know, that it is they that have given these hills and valleys, many of them but recently vacant and unoccupied, save for purposes of agriculture, a large proportion of their present value,-indeed, almost all the value they now possess ? What is wanted, then, is an in- crease of this class of our population. Increase these, and we shall lay, firm and strong, new foundations for sure and permanent prosperity.
We have, it is true, no great abundance of water power, if you speak comparatively and with reference to other places ; and yet we have at Quinsigamond and in other parts of the city, considerable quantities of water power still unemployed and running to waste; and I may add, that we have the means of increasing this power, and add- ing largely to it, by the erection of additional reservoirs. Water power, in such a city as this, ought not to be suffer- ed to remain unoccupied, and it is to be hoped it will not long be. Though the times are somewhat unpropitious to some of our manufactures, particularly to those of cotton, yet there are many other departments of manufacture and of mechanic industry, requiring water power, which might be profitably, and I apprehend most successfully, prosecuted at those points of the city. I cannot doubt, therefore, that as it is most manifestly for the interest of
12
the land owner, as well as of many other classes of citi- zens, so it will be their pleasure, to use all honest, proper and laudable exertions to introduce amongst us new man- ufactures, new trades and new branches of industry, and thus add to the number of our people, increase and mul- tiply our manufacturers, our tradesmen and artificers, who constitute now so very large and respectable a portion of our population, and among which so many other classes, especially the professional, find such a liberal measure of patronage and employment.
The annual statement from' the Treasurer, which will be ready at an early day, will exhibit in detail the state and condition of the Finances of the city.
Up to the first of January, 1852, the receipts, as I un- derstand the Treasurer, amount, inclusive of a temporary loan of $3000, and exclusive of temporary loans paid off during the year, to about $85,000.
The amount received from taxes was about $80,000. The amount actually appropriated and assessed, including the county tax of $9,450,29, and the overlayings, was $87,765,58, being $6,75 on the $1000 of the valuation. The disbursements from the Treasury, up to the first day of January, 1852, amount, according to the statement of the Treasurer, to about $79,000.
The sum of $6000 remained on hand at that date, ready to meet the calls upon the Treasury for the salaries of city officers and teachers, for the quarter ending the first of January, and for other ordinary claims against the city becoming due at that time; and from such information as I have been able to obtain in regard to these claims against the city, now due, I think it probable, and the Treasurer is of the opinion, that the balance in the Treas- ury on the 1st of January, $6000, will be nearly if not
13
quite sufficient to meet them all, except said loan of $3000, and exclusive of unadjusted claims made by indi- viduals against the city for land damages, for alteration of the grade of streets, and excepting, perhaps, a semi- annual payment of interest upon a portion of the per- manent public debt of the city, amounting to about $1500. The amount disbursed up to that date, the past year, for
Schools, was about -
-
-
$9,500,00
School Houses, "
-
-
-
11,000,00
Salaries, -
-
-
-
1,950,00
County Tax, -
-
-
9,450,29
Interest,
-
-
-
-
2,500,00
Highways,
-
-
-
-
10,500,00
Paving,
-
-
-
-
6,000,00
Watchmen, -
-
-
1,850,00
Cemetery lot, bought at New Worcester,
1,855,00
Grading of same,
-
-
-
450,00
Tatnic Road, -
-
-
-
2,600,00
Sewer, Front street,
- -
-
3,000,00
Land and Aqueduct damages,
-
-
2,025,00
Extension of Aqueduct,
-
-
4,300,00
Paupers,
-
-
-
-
16,000,00
Lighting Streets,
-
-
-
1,350,00
Printing, Fuel, &c., -
-
1,000,00
The excess of expenditures over the receipts, I have rea- son to believe, will be not be far from $4,500.
This municipal year, it is true, has been a short one, but it should be borne in mind, that a very large proportion of the amount of expenditures in every year, falls into that portion of the year which was assigned, by the amendment to the charter, to the late city government, at its term of
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service. With the exception of the salaries of officers, teachers, and watchmen, and from say $500 to $1000, usu- allyexpended in the winter upon the highways, the expendi- tures are nearly all made between April and January of each year.
The Treasury will, the current year, be relieved, I trust, from some of the demands upon it, which pressed upon it the past year. There will be no sewers to construct the present year. The past year one was constructed under Front street, at an expense of about $3000. There has been expended the past year, some $1200 in the erection of a new stone bridge over Mill brook, an expenditure which was not anticipated when the annual appropriation was made, for the reason that the old one, it was supposed, could be made to endure for some years to come, by prop- er repairs. But it was found unfit for repairs, and a new one was erected. I am not aware of any new bridges of this costly character, that will be required to be erected the present year.
An expenditure has been made the past year, of $11,000 and over, in the enlargement of old and the erection of new school houses.
The present year may or may not call for expenditures under this head, but if in the judgment of the Council and the School Committee, such a demand should exist, the sale of the large brick school house on Main street, and of the small school house on Winter street, both of which, I think, should be sold, will produce a fund ade- quate to meet the wants of the city the current year, for school house purposes. The amount that may reasonably be expected to be realized from the sale of these two school houses, will be somewhere from $12000 to $15000. The late city government did in fact authorize their sale, but
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neither of them had been sold at the close of the munici- pal year.
The amount expended in paving the past year, has been some $6000, upon Main and Front streets. The paving upon Main street should, in my opinion, be prosecuted the present year, and perhaps the Council may be of opinion that something should be done upon Front street ; but if they should otherwise decide, the amount to be expended in paving the present year, might perhaps be considerably reduced from the expenditure of the past year.
No appropriation will be necessary the present year, for the purchase of lots for burial grounds. This year the city has expended some $1800 for that purpose. Undoubt- edly some expenditure will be necessary in the improve- ment of the one we have purchased, but it need not be a large one.
The County Commissioners have located a county road from Holden to Worcester, and provision will have to be made for the construction of it the present year. The cost of this road will be about $4500. This will be about $2000 only over and above what the city has expended the past year for the Tatnic road, also laid out by the Coun- ty Commissioners.
And then it will be necessary to make provision for the excess of expenditure of the past year, over the receipts. But notwithstanding these expenditures, I entertain the belief that all the exigencies of the present year may be met, without increasing at all the percentage of taxation.
The city debt remains, as I understand the Treasurer, about the same as represented by him the last year The debt, as appears by the Treasurer's Report of last year, was nominally $97,241,88, but it is in fact somewhat less, as some of the securities are upon time, and do not bear interest.
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This debt has accumulated mostly since 1838. It was then only about $9,500. It had increased in 1848, when the city was incorporated, to about $100,000. About $48,000 was for the purchase of the aqueduct. The balance, about $52,000, was the town debt proper, with some liabilities perhaps, of the centre district added. The large share of the debt originated in loans for building school houses,- the Summer st., Main st., Walnut st., and Pleasant st., school houses ;- though some of it grew out of loans to meet the deficiencies in the annual appropriations of the town for ordinary purposes. The school house on the com- mon was built mostly from avails of the surplus revenue.
In addition to the annual appropriations made by the town and the centre district, and to some $4000 of surplus revenue still on hand in 1838, the town accumulated a debt in the course of ten years immediately preceding its incorporation as a city, exclusive of that for the aqueduct, of about $52,000. As it may be interesting, and not wholly without use for purpose of reference, to trace the history of our finances and expenditures for a brief period, and learn how the public wants and necessities increased as population and business of the place increased, I have appended to this communication a statement, showing the amount appropriated and expended, and some of the main heads of expenditure in each year, from 1838 to the pres- ent time, including those of the centre district, aqueduct corporation, and school districts, the powers of all which are now merged in general corporate powers of the city .*
It will be for the Council to consider whether, leav- ing such portions of the permanent debt payable at call, as it should be thought the city, in the course of a few years, may desire to pay off, if any, it would or not be ex-
* See this Table, at the end of the Address.
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pedient to fund any portion of it with a view of reducing the rate of interest. Although the rate of interest is at present high, it is not improbable that at no very distant period, money might be had upon the scrip of the city, if issued in proper form, with coupons attached, and on a suitable time, at a rate less than 6 per cent. Of the ex- pediency of this, you will be the best judges; I throw it out merely as a suggestion.
The Thomas street school house has been completed the past year, and the Grammar school has been transferred to it. The whole building is now occupied, with the excep- tion of one room, by that school, and schools of other grades. The structure is one that does credit to the city. The cost of it will be some $13,500. The number of schol- arsnow accommodated in it, is about 450. The amount paid toward it the past year, is about $7,400.
A new school house of brick, in part from the materials taken from the old school house on Thomas street, has been erected the past year, on Pine street, and is nearly completed, the cost of which will be, exclusive of material used which was taken from the old house, about $1,600. A new school house has also been erected in the Munroe district, so called, in the southeast part of the city, upon Blithewood avenue, at an expense of about $1800.
The tornado of last summer unroofed the school house at Quinsigamond village, and though no appropriation had been made for this object, the catastrophe having occurred after the annual appropriations were voted, it was thought expedient by the City Council, in view of the early pro- spective demand for a school house with two rooms in that village, to erect an additional story to the building, which was originally of one story, and as the roof was off, and a considerable expense must necessarily be incurred in re-
3
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placing it, it was thought another story could be added, and another room provided, much cheaper then, than at a future day, which has accordingly been done. The whole cost has been about $1300. This school is now one of the largest out of the Centre district, numbering about 70 scholars as I understand, and bids fair to increase.
The amount expended upon the Highways, and for oth- er objects connected with them, has been somewhat larger than usual. This has exceeded the appropriation, which was only $7500.
The amount expended in the Centre district upon about 18 miles of street, is but very little larger than usual for ordinary repairs, being about $5096, against $4963 in 1850, expended for the same purpose. A large sum, $2400, has been expended in the outer districts, upon about 220 miles of highway. The remainder of the expenditure has been for specific objects, among which are the reduc- tion of the hill this side of New Worcester, three new bridges in the centre,-two upon Union street, and the new stone one above mentioned, upon Franklin street. I believe the streets and highways are very generally in a good state of repair. Undoubtedly, considerable work will be required to be done upon them the present year, but I apprehend that a somewhat smaller sum will be adequate to meet the wants of that department of public service the present year. There has also been paid out of this ap- propriation some $500, for the surveying out and marking by monuments, the boundaries and lines of our public streets and highways.
The survey has progressed so far as to include the streets in the Centre district, I believe, and some in the outer dis- tricts. A general report only, has been submitted by Mr. Valentine, the surveyor, and a more full and detailed report
19
is in preparation, giving all the facts that he has been able to collect, in regard to the original location of the lines, boundaries, &c., of the streets. Such a survey, though it can, of itself, have no binding force or efficacy as against the abutters, may and undoubtedly will be, a valuable doc- ument to place upon our files, to enable the city and the public to detect encroachments upon their rights, and to aid in the re-location of these streets, when application shall be made to the Commissioners, as it may in many cases be expedient to do for that purpose.
There are some improvements, that it seems to me should be made in the grade of Main street, at the south part of the city, to facilitate the travel passing in the direction of New Worcester. The grade of Green street, also, near Fox & Co's mill, may perhaps require some expenditure, for its improvement. I think it more than probable, that unless the city shall at an early day take measures to cause the grade of that part of Main street above mentioned, to be amended, the County Commissioners will be urged to direct specific repairs to be made thereon. A petition for that purpose is now, as I am informed, before them.
The County Commissioners located, upon appeal from the decision of the city, a town way in Tatnic the last year, and ordered it to be constructed by the city, which has been done at an expense of about $2600.
The Aqueduct has been extended upon Chestnut and Elm streets, at an expense of about $4300 ; and I have no doubt that it is the duty of the City Government, consid- ering the advantages it affords in the extinction of fires, to take measures for its extension still farther, the present year. The water jet and the hydrant-the system of a constant supply of water at high pressure-furnish, as experience here and elsewhere proves, the most effectual
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means ever yet attained for the extinction of fires ;- nay more, I can not but believe that the very fact that such a system is known to exist in a city, furnishes one of the best securities against the occurrence of fires. It is the most efficient preventive of incendiarism that we can have.
The Fire Department is, I am happy to say, in very ex- cellent condition. The difficulties which occurred in the early part of the year, were soon composed, and it has man- ifested, when called into service, its usual efficiency and promptness. By an ordinance passed the last year, the pay of those connected with that Department has been in- creased.
No one will, I think, be disposed to refuse a meet com- pensation to a body of men, whose duties are so onerous and responsible. The pay fixed by the ordinance, was thought to be no greater than was just and reasonable.
The number of fires the past year has been small. The amount of losses has been very inconsiderable. The state and condition of that Department, the number and des- cription of fires, will be fully detailed in the report from the Chief Engineer, which will be ready at an early day. If hose lofts and other accommodations for that Depart- ment should be wanted, as I apprehend they may be, you will cbtain from that document all the information neces- sary, touching this matter. In this connection, I beg leave to call your attention to the expediency of making an ap- plication to the Legislature the present season, provided the consent of the Fire Department is first had to it, as I doubt not it may, for an act authorizing the surrender of the cor- porate powers of the Fire Department, under its charter, obtained when Worcester was a town, to the end that they may be merged in the general corporate powers of the city. Such an act would remove all doubt as to the authority of
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the City Government to regulate this whole matter, by proper ordinances.
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