USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Worcester > Town annual reports of the several departments for the fiscal year ending December 31, 1862-1866 > Part 2
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64
The income from the aqueduct during the last year has been about $1,700, and the expenditures about $1,- 500. There has been paid for pumping water from Gates' spring, $400, and for the use of the spring, $50. The use of this water, on account of its extreme hard- ness, and the substances contained in it, fills and cor-
19
rodes the pipes, and in the opinion of the commissioner should be discontinued. The number of water takers, or persons who pay for it, is 110, but the number who use it is much greater, as in many cases the landlord or owner of a building, pays for several tenants.
HIGHWAYS AND BRIDGES.
The appropriation for roads and bridges in 1862, was $17,500; of which $10,500 was for the ordinary work and expenses of the department, and $7,000 was for special and extraordinary work. The money re- ceived for sales of manure, labor, &c., amounted to $505.16. Bills receivable, $355.62. Total resources of the department, $18,360.78. The total ordinary expenditures (the month of December being estimated) have been $9,563.18, leaving an unexpended balance of $1,797.60.
Specific repairs upon the road leading to Paxton, ordered by the county commissioners, have been made during the year, at a cost of $1,182.50. This impor- tant highway, leading through a tier of northern towns with which there is no communication by rail, is prob- ably now the best constructed and most perfect road of its length in the state.
A substantial double arch stone bridge, ordered also by the county commissioners in 1861, has been con- structed during the last year, over the Blackstone river at Quinsigamond village. By the terms of the con- tract, the price to be paid was $5,670, and the work was to be finished by the middle of October last. There
20
till remains considerable work to be done to complete the contract, particularly in the alterations to be made in the road leading to the bridge. The sum of $4,970 has been paid to the contractors, leaving still due, when the work is completed, $600. As our predecessors have provided the means to pay for, as well as taken the responsibility of this important work, we have no occasion now to criticise, as it would do no good, the manner in which the contract was made or the work has been done, or to doubt, as many do, the necessity of so expensive a bridge at this place.
The causeway across lake Quinsigamond which was commenced in 1861, has been completed during the last year. The original estimate of the cost of this work was $15,000, of which something less than $6000 was expended in 1861. This sum, however, was borrowed, and still remains a part of the city debt. At the end of that year, it was supposed that a third of the filling had been accomplished. From want of experi- ence in works of this character, neither the magnitude of the undertaking nor the nature of the obstacles to be encountered in its prosecution were fully realized, perhaps fortunately so, until it was too late to think of abandoning it. Under the faithful supervision of the commissioner of highways, the filling made steady prog- ress until the 27th of June last, when the two em- bankments met at the surface, and Dr. John Green, the founder of our public library, made the first passage across. The amount expended upon this work during the year, has been about $20,000, which an appro- priation of that exact sum was made to cover. The
21
whole cost of the causeway and of the improvements in the road leading to it, has been $25,997.43.
Thanks to the courage of our predecessors, these very expensive works, so important, so long desired, and so often postponed, are now done forever, and their payment mostly provided for, and our people and future governments are relieved of the heavy annual burden of maintaining the old perishable bridges.
By a merely arbitrary and accidental line of division, the whole of Lake Quinsigamond, where it is crossed, lies within the territorial limits of Worcester. In view of the enormous cost of the causeway, its important character as part of a county road connecting the shire with several important towns, with which there is no other convenient means of communication, and the pe- culiar obstacle this lake presented to easy intercourse between them, my predecessor has filed a petition with the county commissioners, asking them to assume, on behalf of the county, a reasonable share of its cost. I shall, with your concurrence, do whatever may be in my power, in aid of this just and reasonable petition.
No unfinished work of any importance is left for us to complete, and I am not aware that any new enter- prise of magnitude will be urged upon you. If there shall not be, we may hope to see the expenditures of this department reduced to the average of former years.
Three hundred and forty-four feet of curb stones, and 67 yards of cobble paving, only, have been laid during the year.
A sewer 801 feet in length has been constructed through West street at a cost of $409, thus removing
4
22
a nuisance for which the city has been indicted and convicted. A portion of this sum has been assessed upon the abutters who use it, and whose estates are benefitted by the improvement, and will undoubtedly be collected.
Expensive alterations and repairs have been made upon the City Hall, amounting to about $1100.
In this connection I wish to call your attention to the necessity of something being done to protect our citizens from the dangerous slides of snow and ice from the steep slated roofs on Main street. Surely it is not unreasonable to ask, that those among us whose prop- erty derives so much of its value from the fostering care and protection of the public, should so use and guard it, that it shall not be a perpetual source of dan- ger to the unwary traveler, and of constant apprehen- sion for the lives of our children.
In 1860 a company was chartered with power to build a horse railroad and run horse cars through the streets of the city. The location of the road has been established, extending from a point on Lincoln street, nearly opposite Catherine street, through Main, to Webster street in New Worcester, with branches through Front street to the Western railroad depot, and through Pleasant to Crown street, with convenient sidings and turnouts. The capital stock has been sub- scribed, and the work is understood to be under con- tract to be commenced early in the spring. With proper restrictions against obstructing the ordinary use of our streets during the deep snows of winter, there is no doubt that the horse cars, incommoding no one, will be a great public convenience.
23
SHADE TREES AND PUBLIC GROUNDS.
Upon the petition of the last city council, the legis- lature passed an act authorizing the election in Janu- · ary, of three commissioners to have the sole care of the public grounds and of the trees growing thereon, and in the public streets of the city. At the state election, when more than three thousand of our citizens attended the polls, such was their indifference to the subject, that the act was accepted by a majority of 57 only, out of a total of 451 votes. It will be for you, if you shall think it worth while, to organize the board, by elect- ing the commissioners.
During the last year, carrying out his previously de- clared intention, Hon. Isaac Davis tendered to the city a deed of about fourteen acres of land, bordering upon Lake Quinsigamond, "for the purpose ( as ex- pressed by him,) of a public park, where our public schools and Sunday schools may hold their picnics, where individuals and clubs may have their boat houses, where skating parties may assemble, and where all the citizens may visit the lake and enjoy its beautiful ' scenery." I am not aware that the gift was encum- bered with any conditions save the right of way through it, and the obligation to build and maintain from one hundred to one hundred and fifty rods of fence or wall, costing perhaps about as many dollars. The gift was rejected by the last city council. This most beautiful lake is now, as it were, a closed sea to the inhabitants of our city. From the causeway alone, and nowhere upon its banks, is there a spot where they can approach
24
it without trespassing upon private property. If the generous donor should be induced to renew the offer, I should recommend its acceptance.
The city has now but its two parks, the old and new common. It is time that they had some more appro- priate names to designate them. The smaller or cen- tral one no longer answers the purpose of a " training field," for which such grounds were originally set aside, and for which they are now more needed than ever. The new common, objectionable as it is in some re- spects, is the only other park the city has or is ever like to have. A very moderate expenditure in draining the lowest part of it into an adjoining meadow, to which there is six feet fall, would make it as fine a parade ground as the Agricultural Park opposite. No intelli- gent farmer owning the land, would hesitate to make so obvious an improvement. The increased value of the crop would soon pay the cost. I do not recommend any appropriation for the purpose, but that the street commissioner, as the city teams from time to time during the winter months have leisure, and the poor want work and support, be authorized to attend to it.
THE POOR.
The city alms house and farm has now been under the superintendence of Mr. L. B. Drury, for a period of six years. During all this time, the admirable man- agement of Mrs. Drury, in the domestic and household affairs of the establishment, has received, as it has de- served, universal commendation. I regret to say, that
25
from some cause there is not the same general confi- dence in the management of its financial affairs, and in the skill, fidelity and devotion to his duties, of the superintendent. Documentary evidence exists, not sat- isfactorily explained, showing great irregularities, to say the least, in the manner in which the accounts of the farm have been kept.
Successive city governments have been lavish in their expenditures to promote the usefulness of this de- partment. The buildings are models of their kind, and for the purposes for which they are designel. Labor is always cheap and abundant ; stock, tools and manure are to be had for the asking and the hauling. During the last ten years, many of the greatest discov- eries in agricultural science and in mechanical art, have been applied to lessen the labor and increasethe pro- ductiveness of agricultural industry. Yet I can find no evidence to sustain the common assertion, that our city farm has much improved in fertility or productiveness, during that period. On the contrary, it has not kept pace with the farms of our progressive and intelligent farmers.
The number of persons supported at the almshouse has not materially changed for many years. In 1853 the average number was 30; in 1860, 31; in 1861, 33 ; and in 1862, 37. It is fair to suppose that under every adminstration the overseers have not permitted any of the products of the farm to be sold that could be advantageously consumed upon the premises, and that the home consumption has been, therefore, nearly uniform. The best evidence of the productiveness of the farm, then, will be found in the cash sales of its
26
annual surplus products. In 1853, during the admin- istration of Mr. Knowlton, and under the management of Mr. Harrington, these cash sales amounted to $523 .- 53. In 1857, the first year after Mr. Drury took the farm, they were 565.77. Four years after, in 1861, they were but $346.92; and in 1862 they have only been $388.38.
The neatness and general appearance of the farm is highly creditable to the superintendent and the city.
The expenditures on account of the alms house and farm during the year, have been ..
Cash receipts
..
$3.109.85 759.58
Net cost ..
$2,350.27
The general expenditures on account of the poor, not con- nected with the alms house have been ·
.. $6,888.10
Receipts from various sources .. .. ..
.. 2,360.97
Net expense .. .. ..
..
..
$4,527.13
The appropriation for the department was
..
..
$9,000.00
Receipts from all other sources
3,120.55
Total resources
..
..
..
..
$12,120.55
Total expenditures
..
..
. .
9,997.95
Unexpended balance ..
..
.
..
..
$2,122 60
..
..
..
The whole number of persons who have received as- sistance during the year is 1308, of whom 1243 were outside, and 65 in the city alms house.
The amount of food, fuel, clothing, medicines, &c., distributed among these 1243 applicants for relief, has been at its money value, $3,329.57, making an aver- age of $2,68 to each individual. The other, and nec- essarily much the larger part of the expenditure in this
27
department, was for the support of the alms house with its sixty-five inmates, for the support of patients in the hospital, for salaries, transportation and burial of pau- pers, and various other items of less importance. Any change which shall make the alms house and farm more self-sustaining, and thus leave more of our char- ity to be directly applied to the relief of those, who, needing aid, are yet not so unfortunate as to be com- pelled to, rely wholly on the public for support, will be a real reform, and gladly welcomed by the community.
There has been paid during the year, and charged to the current expenses, the sum of $1,099 for the support of paupers in the state lunatic hospital, cover- ing charges dating back as far as May, 1859, and through the intervening years.
There is still a demand against the city for $324.18 due to the state reform school.
HOPE CEMETERY.
During the past year, forty-four lots in Hope cem e- tery have been sold for the sum of $597. The receipts from the sales of these lots have been annually paid into the city treasury, amounting in the aggregate to $6,400, which will not fall much short of the total ap- propriations of the city for the purchase and prepara- tion of these grounds. The debt created on account of the cemetery, if it has been considered such, is now about liquidated. As it is neither expected nor desired that this property should be made a source of income to the city, I would venture to suggest that the usual
28
annual appropriation for this object be omitted, that the present lot account with the treasury be closed, and that henceforth the proceeds from the sales of these lots be created into a fund, to be expended, under proper limitations, by the commissioners, for the main- tenance and embellishment of this consecrated spot.
THE POLICE.
The organization of the police is of necessity the most delicate and most difficult duty of the execu- tive branch of the government. It can never perform satisfactorily the duties required of it while it is re- garded as the prize of the successful party in our local elections. To be more useful and efficient, the police must be a more permanent body, and to be more perma- nent, it must be so constituted as to command the general confidence of the public in the character and motives of those who compose it. With rare exceptions of persons possessing peculiar adaptation, experience and training are especially necessary to develope the qual- ' ities which form the valuable police officer. If my course at the outset shall seem in a measure to contra- dict these principles, it is because the practice of the past has left me so little foundation to build upon. The sympathy of all rightminds belongs to, and should always be with the officers of the law, and not with its trans- gressors. That it is not so, is often owing to the charac- ter of its agents and to the injudicious and even offen- sive manner in which their duties are discharged. It will be my aim to fill this department with men, in whom the public have full confidence that their own
29
bad example shall not neutralize the effect of their official labors ; who, while seeking and preferring suc- cess by mild and lenient measures, by example, by persuasion, by warning, are yet not averse nor afraid to resort to the severe penalties and punishments of the the law, when these only will be found effective. At all events, this department will not with my consent, nor that of its chief, be made a mere instrument to per- petuate itself in power, making the great public inter- ests entrusted to its care, second and subordinate to that selfish end.
The appropriation for the police in 1862, was .. $7,000.00
The earnings of the assistant marshals and the watchmen, paid into the treasury, were 1,491.55
Amount received for special services
75.32
Total
$8,566.87
The expenses were, for salaries of marshals and assistants $2,284.39 Pay rolls of watchmen 4,924.10
Of day and special police
464.11
Miscellaneous expenses .. ..
.. 284.07
Total .. .. .. .. .. $7,956.67
Leaving an unexpended balance of $610.20.
Seven hundred and fifty-five persons have been ar- rested and committed to the watch house during the year, and of whom 540 have been complained against in the police court ; 921 poor persons have been lodged and fed in the watch house. In 1861 the number was 2098, and during the five preceding years the average number has been 1700.
The police of the city, as now constituted, consists of a marshal, two deputy marshals, one of whom acts as captain of the watch, and ten watchmen. These re-
5
30
ceive their compensation from the city, and their fees on warrants and as witnesses are paid into the treasury. The ordinance of the city requires the appointment of two deputy marshals, neither of whom shall be captain of the watch. During a portion of the year there have
.
In been two or more persons employed as day police. addition to these officers, there are several constables, who are more or less intimately connected with the police office, whose compensation depends upon their activity and success in finding and arresting actual or presumed offenders, and in making complaints. This extraneous force, although highly useful and necessary at times, will not be relied upon by me, for the per- formance of the usual and ordinary duties which belong to this department.
THE FINANCES.
The appropriations for the year 1862 amounted to $145,250. But for the bold and business like appro- priation of $20,000 to pay for the causeway across Lake Quinsigamond, this sum, large as it is, would not have been unprecedented. Our proportion of the state tax was $35,838, and of the county tax $21,600, making the total amount assessed upon the polls and estates of the inhabitants of the city $202,688, being an increase of $63,400 over the assessment of 1861, and exceeding by 3 600 the highest tax ever before imposed upon the city, in 1857. The rate of taxation was $12 upon a thousand.
31
The other resources for the last year were :
Cash in the treasury January 1, 1862, .. .. · $5,712.55 Received from uncollected taxes of previous years about 3,000.00
Total ..
.. .. $8,712.55 ..
The income of the city from other sources does not vary materially from year to year.
There is now in the treasury applicable to the expenses of the current year about .. .. .. .. .. .. $8,000
The amount of uncollected taxes considered good and collect-
able is about .. . .
., .. $8,000
Total .. .. .. ..
..
..
.. $16,000
Fortunately for us and the city at the present time, when the support of the government in the prosecution of the war requires so much of the means, and draws so heavily upon the resources of individuals and the public, with the single exception of the steam fire en- gine (a wise and necessary purchase,) there are no unfinished works of any magnitude left for us to com- plete. Our predecessors in this respect have made clean work. It is our duty to balance the accounts as they stand, to provide means for present emergencies, and with wise and liberal forecast, make provision for the future.
The debt of the city, as stated by the treasurer on the 1st of January 1862, designated under the various items of city debt proper, public library debt, Quinsiga- mond lake causeway debt, Salem street school house debt, war debt, and high school medal fund, amounted in the
32
aggregate to $130,219.40. Of this sum the Salem street school house debt, amounting to $4,500, has been extinguished. The library debt has been reduced, by the payment of $4,000 due in December last ; and $6,769 of the war debt has been received from the state, and applied, as I understand, to the reduction of the debt of the city on that account. By these pay- ments, amounting to $15,269, the old debt has been reduced to $114,050.40. Adding to this sum $94,- 500 the amount of the war expenses of 1862, it will make the present debt of the city $208,550.40.
From this sum should be deducted so much of the sum of $30,000 advanced by the city, as state aid to the families of volunteers, as will be refunded from the state treasury. If the whole sum shall be allowed, the actual debt of the city will be about $180,000, to be increased by such fraction of the $30,000, if any, as shall be disallowed.
Gentlemen of the City Council :
I have thus presented to you such information as I have been able to obtain, relative to the present con- dition of our municipal affairs, and the subjects which will most demand your attention. The long experi- ence of so many of you in former administrations, and your intimate acquaintance with the wants and re- sources of the city, relieve me of much of that self- distrust which I should otherwise feel, on entering up- on my duties, and assuming such grave responsibilities. We have all the same object in view. Seeking your counsel, needing your indulgent support, I shall strive
33
to act with you in all measures designed for and tend- ing to promote the honor and prosperity of our beloved city, and may a kind Providence direct and bless our deliberations and our labors to that end.
x
1
ANNUAL REPORT
OF THE
SCHOOL COMMITTEE
OF
WORCESTER
FOR THE YEAR
1862.
The public schools in the centre district, prior to 1848, when Worcester assumed her municipal title and preroga tives, had a separate organization and were under the ex- clusive control of "the board of overseers of the schools in the centre district."
The suburban schools were at that time under the sole jurisdiction of another board,-the school committee of the town.
36
From 1839 to 1848 each of these boards made and pub- lished an annual report of the schools under its own super- vision. As one of these reports was designed for circula- tion in the centre district and the other in the suburbs, they were not published, as the annual reports of the several departments of the city government now are, in one vol- ume, but each by itself, a circumstance which seriously enhances the difficulty of now finding, after a lapse of thirty-three years from the publication of the first of the series, copies of all the annual reports of the two boards. Dilligent inquiry and a careful search extended through a period of more than two years have been rewarded by the discovery of a copy of every annual report of the " board of overseers of the schools in the centre district" from the year 1839, except the report for the year 1840, and of every annual report of the town committee except the one for the year 1842. These reports have been collected and substantially bound with other documents pertaining to the schools and the reports subsequently published by the school committee of the city, so that Worcester now pos- sesses a printed history of her public schools very nearly complete for the last quarter of a century.
The superintendent has made an effort to secure three complete sets of these reports, that he might retain one copy in the school department, and deposit one in the free public library and another in the antiquarian. The attempt, though not as successful as could be desired, has resulted in securing a second copy very nearly complete. Unless more of the reports of an early date can be found, the third will be very defective.
SUMMARY OF SCHOOLS.
Three new schools have been organized during the year,-one grammar school in Salem street, one subprima-
37
ry, with two teachers, in East Worcester, and one in Main street for the benefit of that class of scholars whose men- tal deficiencies and irregular attendance disqualify them for the graded schools, or whose moral defects indicate that they need the government and discipline of a male rather than female teacher. This school, as it is now organized, is a modified form of the adult school continued through the year.
The whole number of public schools in the city on the first of January 1863 is sixty-two, of which fifty are in the centre district, and twelve are suburban. All in the centre district but two,-the one recently formed for truants and scholars of irregular habits, and the evening school, are graded. The suburban schools are graded only in South Worcester and Quinsigamond. The school year in the centre district comprises forty-three weeks, in the subur- ban districtsforty. The evening school, which is in session only in the winter, is the only one in the city which is not kept through the year.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.