USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Worcester > Town annual reports of the several departments for the fiscal year ending December 31, 1862-1866 > Part 14
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Our Public Schools I believe now to be in a healthy and prosperous condition. Early in the year, develop-
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ments were made of a state of things in the internal condition and discipline of some of them, as unexpected as it was painful and humiliating. By prompt and decided action on the part of the Committee, public confidence, for a time shaken, has been restored, and our excellent School system will not receive any permanent injury, but rather benefit, from the severe scrutiny to which it has been subjected. No system or association can justly be held responsible for the individual acts of its mem- bers. Public Teachers, like all public servants, should be held to a strict responsibility for the faithful performance of their duties, but no care nor fidelity on their part can excuse or make amends for the habitual neglect, by parents and guardians, of their duties to the young under their charge. Eternal vigilance is as much the price of private morality and honor as of public liberty.
The appropriation for the Schools in 1863, was $38,000.00 There was in the Treasury at the commencement of year credited to this department, 4,143.39
Received from the School fund, - -
943.21
Total,
$43,086.60
The expenditures have been, for salaries of Teachers and Superintendent, -
29,019.59
Fuel, Books, Repairs, Rents, &c., 7,391.84
Furniture in new houses and other extraordinary expenses, -
1,424.71
Total, $37,836.14 There is due for Furniture for the Pine St. School House, about 1,400.00
The increase in the aggregate number of scholars who have been connected with the Schools during the year, is four hundred and seventy-two. A large number of children have been refused admittance to the Primary Schools for want of room.
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Large additions have been made to the School Houses of the City during the last year. A room in the base- ment of the Library Building on Elm Street, not wanted for the public use, has been fitted up and appropriated temporarily for a Grammar School for girls. A large and expensive House has been built in East Worcester, to accommodate six Schools of sixty scholars each. The lot, containing about 1500 square feet, was purchased of the Boston & Worcester Railroad Company for $1500, and has been enlarged by the addition of 3000 feet taken from the burial ground, the remains of the dead having first been removed with the consent of their nearest rela- tives and representatives. The building is now completed, and will be immediately occupied. The cost of the House has been about $12,000, and of land, building and furniture, about $15,000. Another substantial brick School House for two schools, has been erected on Mason Street, at a cost for land and building, of $5,619.49.
The last City Government, in providing these nine school rooms, designed to accommodate 540 scholars, has furnished almost twice as much new and additional room as all that has been supplied during the five preceding years. No new School Houses will be required during the present year. When, as will soon be the case, increased accommodations are wanted in the south part of the City, they can probably be more cheaply obtained by raising the roof of the Salem Street House and adding another story, than in any other way.
PUBLIC LIBRARY.
The Appropriation for the Library in 1863 was $2500. The expenditures have been $2,882.18. Three hundred and two books have been added to the circulating depart-
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ment during the year, by purchase, and 919 volumes to the Green Library, of which 613 were the gift of its founder, Dr. John Green. The Library has been open to the public during the year, 262 days. The whole num- ber of books loaned out, has been 58,082.
The grounds about the building have been handsomely graded, and a substantial bank wall has been built upon the west side of the lot. An unexpended appropriation made for this purpose in 1862, will probably cover the cost of these improvements.
In a communication from the Trustees of the Library to the City Council, it was represented that the large sky- light in the Green Library was in a most leaky condition, causing great injury to the books, and that from its frail structure and great weight, it was in danger of falling or being crushed in by the accumulation of snow and ice upon it during the winter. After careful examination and comparison of the various plans proposed to remedy these evils, it was determined to substitute a light tinned roof, finished within to correspond with the style of the Hall, in place of the heavy and ill-contrived glass dome, which by no care or skill of workmanship could have been made tight or permanently secure. By this - change the Library has gained in comfort and beauty, and still has ample light for all the purposes for which it is now used. The glass, which has been removed, and is to be sold, will go far to pay for the alteration.
THE FIRE DEPARTMENT.
The Fire Department has undergone little change dur- ing the last year, except in the increased power and efficiency of its apparatus. Fortunately, we have been able to retain unchanged the services of its able Board
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of Engineers. Nothing has occurred to mar the harmony which exists within the organization, and that mutual confidence which binds this to the other Departments of the Government. There have been only twenty-eight alarms of fire during the year, and the amount of prop- erty destroyed has been less than $25,000.
A new and powerful Steamer has been purchased and paid for, at a cost of $3500, and a new company organized to take charge of it. It has been temporarily placed in the building on Bigelow's Court, until a suitable lot can be found and the necessary building erected for its perma- nent accommodation. I am of the opinion that the interest of the Department requires that this should be done without much longer delay. An elegant and sub- stantial hose carriage has been provided for Hose Co. No. 3, at a cost of $450. One thousand feet of gutta percha hose, costing $1370, has also been purchased to equip the new steamer.
The City Council has recently passed an Ordinance reorganizing the Department and increasing the pay of its members. Hitherto the Firemen's year has commenced on the first of May, instead of at the commencement of the Calendar and Municipal year. Their pay roll is annually made up to that time. Each successive City Government pays the foreman for a year's services, of which eight months were rendered under a preceding Administration. While the accounts of every other Department are balanced and settled to-day, the City is in debt to the Firemen for their services since last May. By the new Ordinance this Department will be hereafter annually organized at the commencement of the year. The effect of the change, is to put the double burden upon us of providing means for the Expenditures of the
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past eight months, as well as for the entire year upon which we are entering. The change is manifestly a wise one, and we may as well bear the burden of it as· ungen- erously leave it for our successors.
The Appropriation for the Department was $11,000; for the Steamer, $3500-total, $14,500. The Expendi- tures, including the extraordinary items referred to, have been $14,827.60.
THE AQUEDUCT AND WATER SUPPLY.
The short supply of water in the Aqueduct at the commencement of the last year furnished cause for gen- eral anxiety for the safety of the City, and occasioned great complaints from those who had been deprived of its use. By the fortunate discovery of a new supply capable of being turned into Bell Pond, the quantity of water available for the Aqueduct has been largely increased. The dam at the outlet of the Pond, and the road on its northern margin, have been raised three and a half feet above old high water mark, increasing its capacity one-third. These improvements, including the purchase of the water-right, have been effected at an expense of $3,181.40. There is a large mass of floating vegetable matter, of a fibrous and spongy nature, cover- ing two or three acres of the surface of the Pond, which injures the quality, and by its slow but steady increase will eventually diminish the quantity of water. It is believed that this can be easily and cheaply removed when the roots are frozen together in the ice. I recom- mend that the City teams, and such of our poor as need assistance, be employed upon this work during the present winter when they are not engaged upon the Highways. The Pond is now four inches above its old
.
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high water mark, although not up to the height of the present dam. With the new and increased supply, new and pressing applications have been made for its use. The Aqueduct in its present condition is wholly inade- quate to satisfy this demand. If one quarter part of these applications should be granted, the present store would soon be exhausted, exposing the consumers to all the inconveniences of an uncertain supply, and the property of the City to the great risk from which it has been in a measure so happily rescued. Bell Pond will always be an indispensable part of any system of water works which may hereafter be adopted for the supply of our City, and these improvements, furnishing such valua- ble temporary relief, will in no event be lost, but will be so much gained towards the accomplishment of that one grand project which yet remains to be done, if Worcester is to maintain its position among the leading Cities of New England. The revenue from the Aqueduct during the year has been $2000, being an increase of $450 over 1862.
In order to anticipate the pavement of Pleasant Street, the Aqueduct has been extended through that Street from its termination at Ashland to the summit of the hill at West Street, a distance of 480 feet, at an expense of $780.70.
In compliance with the petition of a large and influen- tial body of our citizens, the last City Council caused a complete and reliable investigation to be made of the best source from which an abundant supply of pure soft water could be brought into the City. The surveys neces- sarily occupied and were continued through the greater part of the year. The report of the Committee, em- bracing the full and able report of the Engineer employed 3
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by them, is now before the public. Little or nothing remains now to be said or learned about the Lynde brook or Henshaw pond schemes, and with the information we now have, a comparison between them may be easily and satisfactorily made, or with the more expensive project
of raising water from Lake Quinsigamond. By the action of the last City Council, the question is to be sub- mitted to the people for their decision by a yea and nay vote, whether they will authorize the introduction of water into the City in the manner and from the sources recommended by the Committee. It is a question rightly left to the whole people of the City to decide. They have now all the information which is necessary to enable them to form an intelligent opinion upon the subject .* If that decision shall be in the affirmative, I recommend that immediate measures be taken to carry out their wishes, and that the work be undertaken at once, and prosecuted with as much vigor and energy as is consis- tent with its thorough and economical execution.
HIGHWAYS AND BRIDGES.
The Appropriation for the support of Roads and Bridges in 1863 was $11,000. There was an undrawn balance in the Treasury, at the commencement of the year, of $1,346.55, and there has been received for labor, sales of manure, etc., $2,303.45, making the total resources of the Department $14,650.00.
The Bridge and alterations in the Road at Quinsiga- mond, which were commenced in 1862, have been com- pleted, with the exception of the parapet wall upon the western side of the embankment, for which a wooden railing was substituted by the Contractor.
*The project contemplates and will involve no additional tax upon the prop- erty of the City. The revenue from the sale of the water will annually pay the interest and provide a sinking fund for the ultimate payment of the debt.
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This portion of the work has not yet been accepted by the County. Commissioners. $550 have been paid upon the contract, leaving a balance still unpaid of $150. The whole cost of this improvement, when completed, will be $5,708.
The causeway across Lake Quinsigamond has now stood the test of the action of the water, and of constant use, for more than a year, and remains apparently as firm and solid as the natural soil upon the adjoining shores of the lake; and will ever remain the noblest monument to the foresight and energy of those who projected and executed this important work.
The claim which was presented for the payment, by the County, of some reasonable portion of the cost of this causeway, has been allowed by the County Commis- sioners, and the sum of $5000 has been appropriated for the purpose. This sum has been received and applied to the payment of the Debt contracted in 1861, for the work done that year, and for which no provision had been made. ·
The construction of the Horse Railroad has rendered necessary large and unusual Expenditures upon those Streets through which it is laid. Lincoln Square has been raised and regraded to conform to the grade of the track, to the great improvement of this locality. The whole of Main Street from Southbridge Street to Web- ster Square, has been widened and reworked to accom- modate the travel, which has been driven from the old travelled way in the center of the Street. It will be fortunate indeed, if the effect of the frost upon the track does not render necessary still more expensive repairs by the City, during the coming spring.
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By an arrangement made with the Horse Railroad Company, Pleasant Street has been regraded and paved from Main Street to Oxford Street, the City and that Corporation sharing in nearly equal proportions the ¿ expense of the pavement. The work, with the exception of that part between the rails, was done under the direc- tion of the Commissioner of Highways, at a total cost of $2200. Of this sum, $1076.70 has been paid by the Railroad Company to the City. The contract contem- plates the extension of the pavement to West Street, during the present year. An additional location of the Horse Railroad has been granted through Trumbull, Park and Green Streets, to Vernon Square, upon liberal and satisfactory terms. It will be necessary for you, in order to carry out the conditions of this location, to provide means for the pavement of Trumbull and a small portion of Park Street.
A stone sewer, 355 feet in length, has been constructed through Crown Street, and a similar one through a por- tion of Ashland Street, 225 feet long, at the expense of the abuttors, and are now both the property of the City. A brick sewer has also been laid from Crown to Ashland Streets, through Pleasant Street, at an expense of $314.35. A gravel knoll, measuring nearly two and a half acres, has been purchased in the south part of the City, for the sum of $1200, for the use of the Highway Department. It will furnish an ample supply of sand and gravel for many years, and when reduced to the level of the adjoining streets, will probably be worth more than the original cost.
The total ordinary Expenditures in this Department have been $14,697.21.
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Repeated and earnest efforts have in former years been made by interested parties to obtain a new road across the tracks of the Norwich and Worcester Railroad Com- pany, near the Junction machine shop, and hitherto without success. The Railroad Companies have stren- uously opposed a road crossing their tracks at grade, while the City has as strenuously opposed its location under the Railroad. During the last year the County Commissioners have again had the subject before them, and have, it is understood, determined to locate the road, if at all, as desired by the Railroads, and to order the City to construct it. The bridge that will be required to cross the five Railroad tracks at this place, of sufficient strength to bear up the heavy trains that will pass over it, will cost several thousand dollars, to say nothing of the risk in building it, and the cost of ever after main- taining it. The law which gives the Commissioners power to order cities and towns to construct the ordinary town bridges which are required and adapted to the usual travel of our Highways, and to prescribe the man- ner of their construction, for new and obvious reasons, gives them no such power when the bridge is required for the traffic of the Railroad. In this case they can only make the location, leaving the parties to arrange the terms and conditions upon which it is to be built. A writ of certiorari will be taken out, if necessary, to carry the case to the Supreme Court, to save the rights of the City; meanwhile I recommend that our members in the Legislature be requested to use their influence to pro- cure the passage of a general law, to give to the County Commissioners or to a jury, the power to assess upon Railroad Corporations, as well as upon cities and towns, their respective equitable proportion of the cost of con-
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structing and maintaining the necessary bridges, when- ever a town way or road is located under a Railway.
MILL BROOK.
A suit has just been instituted against the City by William A. Wheeler, for damages to his estate on Thomas street to the amount of $10,000, caused, as he alleges, by the " City placing certain stones, timber and earth," " con- ducting certain large quantities of filth and rubbish," and " placing certain bridges and embankments" in the chan- nel of Mill Brook, whereby said channel has been ob- structed and filled up. The right of the City, and of the people who live upon the margin of this brook, to use it for the ordinary and necessary purposes of drainage and sewerage, and the absolute necessity in the nature of things that it should be so used, cannot be doubted. The wash and waste from all these hills always has flowed and must flow into the stream. The construction of the Blackstone canal, converting this brook into a navigable stream for boats, and concentrating business and inducing building upon its banks, caused the first radical change in its condition. Previous to this, all the water which is now retained in the immense reservoir at North Pond, flowed directly into the stream, causing every year re- peated floods, which are now of rare occurrence, and submerging the whole of what was then known as the meadow. Since the discontinuance of the canal, its chan- nel has been rapidly filled and obstructed. Every abuttor has exercised his riparian rights without regard to the interests of his neighbor or of the public. Buildings and structures of every kind have been built in and over this stream, and it has been made the receptacle for all the rubbish and filth from the section of the City through
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which it runs. The wash of the streets of the City has undoubtedly in former times contributed somewhat to fill up the channel of the brook; but this has of late years been in a great measure prevented by the system of sew- erage now adopted by the City. The water from the rains and snows which formerly poured over the unpaved surface of the streets, washing hundreds of loads of sand and earth into the stream every year, is now conducted into the sewers, and the whole of the solid matter caught in the numerous cess-pools, is thus kept from being carried into the stream. Millions of tons of earth and stone and other materials have been placed upon the soft and yield- ing surface of the meadow. The thread of the stream is the only portion that is not pressed down by this super- incumbent weight. Is it strange that the bed of the stream should be gradually lifted up by this process ? Formerly, in seasons of flood the water diffused itself over the whole adjacent land. The occupation of this terri- tory now confines it within the narrow banks of the stream .. The buildings and extensive grounds of the plaintiff prevent this overflow equally with the bridges of the City, or the dams of the mill-owners.
The condition of Mill Brook demands the serious con- sideration of the Municipal Government and of every citizen. Whatever can be done for its permanent im- provement by the Government and the property-holders acting in concert, and each sharing equitably in the expense in proportion to their interest, should be done ; but I cannot at present recommend the purchase and sweeping away of the Fox dam, the deepening of the channel of the brook through its whole course to the premises of the plaintiff, and the tearing away of the bridges, at the sole expense of the City.
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If the City is to be required to engage in this under- taking, I should recommend that application be made to .
the Legislature for an act enabling it to assess upon those whose property is to be specially benefitted by the work, some equitable proportion of its cost.
THE POOR.
A year of unexampled prosperity in all our business interests, would under ordinary circumstances have im- posed light burdens upon the public for the relief of the poor; but the absence of so many of our men in the army, necessarily leaving their dependent families with- out adequate means of support, and the high prices of all the necessaries of life, have rendered it impossible to reduce the expenditures in this department below the average of former years. A claim against the City for the sum of $392.61 in favor of the State Reform School, covering charges running back three years, has been paid and charged to current expenses. A judgment against the City in the case of Clark Elder, for $136.66, has also been paid. One hundred cords of wood for gratuitous distribution among the poor, has been bought at the low price of $5.50 per cord, and will tend to reduce the ex- penditure of the coming year.
On the first of April last, the Almshouse and Farm were placed under the care of Mr. John Farwell. A system of accountability in the receipts and expenditures of the establishment has been adopted to conform to the re- quirements of the Ordinances of the City, and to the rules of correct business transactions. The gross income of the farm during the year has amounted to $1,263.91, of which $1,014.85 has been paid into the City Treasury, being more than double the amount of the sales of either
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of the last six years, the balance being for hay and pro- · visions furnished to other departments. Seven hundred and twelve pounds of butter have been sold in addition to a full supply (468 lbs.) for the use of all the inmates of the house. The income from the farm has been largely increased during the year by sales of stock that had become unprofitable to keep, but former years which have shown as large purchases have not had a corres- ponding income from sales.
A tract of heavy wood land belonging to the farm has been brought to light, the existence of which was un- known to any one connected with the establishment, and which had not been entered upon or improved for ten years.
The average number of persons supported in the alms- house has been 26.
The total expenditures on account of the farm and almshouse during the year have been -
$3,716.21
The receipts have been 1,263.91 -
Net cost, - $2,452.30
The General expenditures on account of the poor not connected with the Almshouse have been - $8,232.60
Receipts from various sources, 1,345.89 -
Net expense, -
$6,886.71
The appropriation for the department was - - $7,000.00
Receipts from all other sources, -
2,609.80
Balance in the Treasury to the credit of the depart- ment,
- 2,538.09
Total resources,
- - $12,147.89
Total expenditures, -
- $11,948.81
The whole number of persons who have received as- sistance during the year has been 1561, of whom 208 4
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were in the City at large, and seventy-five in the Alms- house. One hundred and thirty-five belonged to other cites and towns, and eleven hundred and forty-three were strangers and aliens, and had no known residence.
The necessity of some suitable provisions for the pun- ishment and reform of habitual truants from our Public Schools and of other juvenile offenders, has long attract- ed the attention of philanthropic individuals among us. It was for this purpose that the almshouse was built in its present proportions, although for various reasons it has never been appropriated to this use. This class of child- ren has. of late years largely increased in the City. From the forbearance with which their petty offences have been treated, they are becoming bold and hardened in crime, and are now not unfrequently guilty of some of the gravest offences against society and the laws. The Westborough Reform School is full, and can receive no new committals. The common jail is an unfit place for them, although it has been necessary in some instances to sentence young offenders to it, when proper regard to the welfare of the community would not permit them to remain at large. The last City Council authorized the establishment of a truant and reform school in the unoc- cupied part of the Almshouse, and made an appropriation of five hundred dollars for the purpose. A competent teacher and overseer has been appointed, and the school will go into immediate operation. This institution will necessarily add somewhat to the expenses of this depart- ment of the Government, but I confidently predict, from my observations of the success of similar schools in other cities, and from the equal need that exists here, that it will become one of our most important and blessed chari-
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