The history of Detroit and Michigan; or, The metropolis illustrated; a chronological cyclopedia of the past and present, Vol I, Part 19

Author: Farmer, Silas, 1839-1902
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Detroit, S. Farmer & co
Number of Pages: 1096

USA > Michigan > Wayne County > Detroit > The history of Detroit and Michigan; or, The metropolis illustrated; a chronological cyclopedia of the past and present, Vol I > Part 19

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The ordinance of 1861 was not fully carried out until 1864, and the first appointments of physicians as members of the board were made that year. The physicians, other than city physicians, appointed under the ordinance were as follows: 1864, J. C. Gorton, C. H. Barrett ; 1865, Z. Pitcher, C. Brumme ; 1866-1871, Z. Pitcher, William Brodie; 1871, D. O. Farrand, H. E. Smith ; 1872, W. A. Chandler, E. H. Drake; 1873, E. H. Drake, H. F. Lyster; 1874, C. C. Yemans, A. Borrowman; 1875, G. A. Foster, J. H. Carstens; 1876, T. F. Kerr, J. H. Carstens ; 1877, E. Leach, A. F. Hoke; 1878, H. A. Torrey, E. Leach; 1879, G. A. Foster, E. Leach, P. P. Gil- martin, and Duncan McLeod; 1880, D. O. Farrand, Morse Stewart, and John Flinterman.

An entirely new organization was provided by the law of May 26, 1881. Under this law three practic- ing physicians are appointed by the council on

nomination of the mayor; the first appointees were to serve for one, two, and three years each, and then beginning with 1882, one was to be appointed yearly on the third Tuesday of June, for a term of three years. These physicians, with the mayor, comp- troller, and president of the Police Board, con- stitute the Board of Health. The medical members of the board have been as follows : 1881-1883, D. O. Farrand, J. Flinterman, Morse Stewart ; 1883- 1886, T. A. McGraw, J. Flinterman, Morse Stewart; 1886, Peter Klein, Morse Stewart, T. A. McGraw; 1887- , W. Brodie, Peter Kline, Geo. P. An- drews.

In 1881 the board appointed O. W. Wight as the health officer, at a salary of $3,000 per year. Under his supervision the Health Department ob .. tained an efficiency never before possessed. He was succeeded in 1887 by S. P. Duffield. All burial permits are issued from this office, and full statements of the age of the deceased, cause of death, name of attending physician, and place of burial are required to be filed with the officer. Monthly statements of these and other facts pertain- ing to the health of the city are regularly printed and issued. The Health Officer has the aid of the sani- tary squad of the Police Department, and placards all houses where infectious diseases exist, using for cases of small-pox notices printed on yellow cards, for scarlet fever, red cards, and for diphtheria, blue cards. An oversight is kept of such premises as are placarded, and after the recovery or death of the patient, they are disinfected.

The scavengers and meat inspector are required to co-operate with the Board of Health, and legislation is hoped for that, if obtained, will secure pure ice, pure milk, proper ventilation, good plumbing, and freedom from obnoxious sewer-gas and coal-smoke.

In October, 1872, thirty-four acres of land in Grosse Pointe, on P. C. 641, were purchased for $6,000 of Fred, Ruehle for a city hospital, but the city made no use of the grounds until 1881. when a hospital twenty-six by seventy-six feet, one story high, was erected at a cost of $3,000. It was de- signed especially to accommodate small-pox patients. A dwelling on the property was intended as a resi- dence for doctors and nurses. The distance of the

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DRAINS AND SEWERS.

hospital from the city and the objection made by residents of the township to the use of it for small- pox patients caused the abandonment of the plan, and the property was rented for individual occupancy.

During 1885, an arrangement was made with the county to provide a more suitable site, with the understanding that the city would erect an appro- priate and commodious building for the care of patients having contagious diseases. Accordingly. on December 3, 1885, the county auditors purchased lots 4 and 5, on section 46 of the ten thousand acre tract in Greenfield, containing ten acres, at a cost of $7,000, the fencing, draining, etc., costing $2,426 additional.

Upon this property, which is on the west side of Crawford Avenue, about three-fourths of a mile beyond the city limits, the city erected a very com- plete and picturesque building at a cost, including furnishing, of about $14,000.

The building consists of six external octagon rooms or pavilions, each twenty-four feet in diameter, and six external square rooms, each ten feet across. These inclose two octagon rooms of the same size of those outside, with an intervening square room. All are separated from each other by solid wood partitions, but there is intercommunication through- out by means of doors large enough to permit the passage through them of an ordinary hospital bed. The roofs, or more properly the roof, is broken up into separates cones and is built of solid wood two inches thick, covered with tin. All of the hospital rooms are open from the double floor to the roof, and the apex of each room is provided with a ventilating shaft rising four feet above the roof, hooded to prevent the entrance of rain or snow. The bath rooms are in the center square room. The outside walls are five inches thick; the floors are double, and every room is so painted that the furni- ture can be removed and every part of it, including the ceiling, washed. The building is fireproof. The basement rooms all open into each other, and in the basement are the kitchen, laundry, bath rooms, etc., the ceilings of the rooms being the planed under surface of the floors above. The hospital will accommodate fifty patients without crowding.

In one corner of the grounds four hundred and fifty feet from the main building are three small houses, each 16x24 feet, built with the same care as the hospital proper, and furnished with water, sew- erage, etc. These are designed for the care of small-pox patients, while the main building will be reserved for those sick with other contagions, except in case an epidemic of small-pox should compel its use. These "huts," like the main building, can be thoroughly disinfected at any time.

Under contract with the Sisters of Charity, they have charge of the hospital, furnish all supplies

and receive $12 per week for each patient, the city and county sharing equally in the cost of caring for patients.

DRAINS AND SEWERS.

An Act of April 24, 1824, gave the council power to provide for the construction of sewers, but the desirability of building them seems to have been for many years an unsettled question. On March 12, 1827, a committee consisting of Lewis Cass, John Biddle, J. Kearsley, D. C. Mckinstry, P. J. Desnoy- ers, and John Mullett presented a lengthy report to the council, in which they said : " In regard to com- mon sewers, doubts have been expressed respecting their effect upon the public health, yet we are in- clined to think it would be expedient to make an ex- periment by establishing one in Woodbridge Street." In the light of facts that now exist, such a report signed by such persons seems curious indeed.

On May 1, 1827, it was determined to "make an experiment," and the council adopted the following :

Resolved, that the drain or ravine commonly called the River Savoyard, be deepened from the outlet into the Detroit River, through the farm of Governor Cass, to the line of the Military Reservation, with the consent of the proprietor of said farm ; and that a drain in continuation thereof be extended through the said reservation in the alley between Congress and Larned Streets to its easterly termination.

This plan was carried out, and the timbers from old Fort Shelby were used to form the sides of an open sewer which followed the course of the stream. At that time, even the ditches in the streets were made and owned by private parties; and on June 20, 1828, the council appointed a committee "to confer with the proprietor of the ditch leading along Bates Street to the great sewer, with a view to purchase the same for the use of the city." Old records show that the city expended $1,278, in 1828, in digging these open sewers or ditches. These primitive drains offended the eye and outraged the nostrils for several years.

But little real progress was made in building drains or sewers until May 20, 1835. A committee of the council then presented an elaborate report on the subject, and recommended the construction of what is known as the Grand Sewer. This was agreed to, and in December, 1835, the council offered a premium of $100 for an acceptable plan for draining the city between the Cass and Brush farms. A plan was adopted, and in 1836 the first under- ground sewer was built, at a cost of $22,607. It is still doing excellent service, and deserves its name of "Grand." Its route is from Beaubien Street on Fort to Randolph, through Michigan Grand Avenue to Bates Street, along Bates and Congress to Gris- wold, diagonally across Griswold to the alley between Congress and Larned Streets, along the alley to First Street, and down First Street to the river. It

DRAINS AND SEWERS .- SCAVENGERS.

is constructed of stone, having side walls eighteen inches thick, with a brick arch of two feet spring. The bottom is paved with hard-burned brick. It is four feet six inches wide and five feet high in the clear ; the average depth of the excavation is ten feet. In the main it follows the route of the Savoyard.

The sewer proved such a success that others fol- lowed, and from year to year the number has in- creased. For many years, however, there was no general system, and contractors were often careless, and ignorant of the first principles of drainage. It s a fact of record that during 1849 sewers in the First and Fifth wards, and on Randolph Street, were so constructed that, when nearly complete, it was found the water, instead of taking the direction desired, ran towards the locality sought to be drained. In 1856 the great sewer in Woodward Avenue south of Congress Street was built, and for months afterwards immense banks of earth remained in the street as monuments of the stupidity and mis- management of contractors and officials. Until 1857 all private sewers were built by individuals, of such materials and in such places as they pleased. The result was that many lots were without drainage, and others with only partial or defective drains. The city charter of 1857 remedied these evils by providing for a board of three sewer commissioners, to be nominated by the mayor and appointed by the council. They served without pay, and were origin- ally appointed for terms of three, four, and five years, and then for five years each. More of system was now introduced; all sewers, public and private, were placed under their control and built by their direc- tion, and no drain could be put in without their ap- proval.

Sewers are called public sewers when built by order of the Common Council and paid for by pub- lic tax for general drainage purposes. These are almost invariably built in the streets. Lateral sewers are usually built in the alleys, and are paid for by special assessment upon the particular lots bene- fitted, each lot paying according to the number of square feet it contains. The theory is that every lot is entitled to drainage; and on the petition of even one person, a lateral sewer may be built in order to drain his lot, and the adjoining lots must help to pay the cost. Persons desiring to connect a drain with a lateral sewer are required to pay $1.00 for the privilege of the connection, which is made, without further charge, by the Board of Public Works.

By Act of April 13, 1871, the city was authorized to issue $300,000 in bonds for the purpose of build- ing sewers, provided the citizens' meeting approved. Under this law, in 1872, $80,000 were raised by the sale of bonds, and the number of public sewers was largely increased. In 1874, on the creation of the Board of Public Works, the powers of the sewer

commissioners were transferred to that body. By Act of February 18, 1875, the council was again authorized to issue $300,000 in bonds for sewer pur- poses; and under the two laws of 1871 and 1875 bonds for building public sewers, to the amount of $397,500, were issued. Both public and lateral sew- ers are built of brick; the connections from houses are generally of sewer pipe, although wood is some- times used. The main sewers vary in size from 21 x 28 inches to 6 x 8 feet, and are from twenty to forty feet below the surface. Lateral sewers are generally of egg shape, and 15 x 20 inches.

The public sewer in Griswold Street, from Con- gress Street to the river, was built in 1877, by tun- neling under the street instead of excavating from the surface, and was the first sewer so built in the city. The method proved advantageous, as travel on the street was not materially interfered with, and it has since been generally adopted.

The total length of public sewers built from 1835 to 1887, is 95 miles, and the cost $2,366,329. The length of lateral sewers built since 1855 is 138 miles, and they have cost $684,000.

The superintendents of sewers were, 1852, C. Jackson ; 1853, Stephen Martin ; 1854, J. M. Davis, Matthew Oliver ; 1855, H. C. Moors; 1856, Isaac Finehart.

The members of the Board of Sewer Commission- ers were as follows : 1857, C. Hurlbut, A. Chapo- ton, James Shearer ; 1858, J. Houghton, C. W. Jackson, A. Chapoton; 1859, C. Hurlbut, W. Bar- clay, T. H. Hinchman ; 1860-1863, W. Barclay, A. Sheley, T. H. Hinchman ; 1863-1866, W. Barclay, A. Sheley, A. Chapoton; 1866, A. E. Bissell, A. S. Bagg, W. Barclay ; 1867-1871, A. E. Bissell, Wil- liam Barclay, A. Sheley; 1871, W. H. Coots, Wil- liam Barclay, A. E. Bissell ; 1872-1874, A. E. Bissell, Harvey King, W. H. Coots.

The following persons served as engineers of sewers: 1859-1862, E. W. Smith; 1862-1874, Thos. Ledbeter.

SCAVENGERS.

The office of scavenger was created by ordinance of 1852, which provided that a scavenger should be appointed yearly by the council.

By ordinance of 1855 several scavengers might be appointed, and they were authorized to charge eight cents a cubic foot for the cleaning of vaults and drains. In 1883 the legal charge was twelve cents. In 1864 that part of the business pertaining to the removal and burial of dead animals was first done by contract. Ordinances of 1863 and 1870 provide that, by paying one dollar and giving surety for faithful services, any proper person may be licensed by the mayor as a scavenger. They are under the direction of the Board of Health.

CHAPTER XIII.

WATER AND WATER-WORKS .- PUBLIC DRINKING FOUNTAINS.

WATER AND WATER-WORKS.

THE first settlers had no need for wells, engines, pumps, or reservoirs. The water along the shore was not defiled by sewers and refuse from shop and factory ; instead of containing impurities, it washed and whitened the sandy beach and was everywhere as clear as a diamond.

Each farmhouse had its single rough-hewn log or plank projecting into the stream, and barefooted maidens, morning by morning, "walked the plank," dashed a bucket into the river, and with the rope to which it was attached drew out the water for their daily needs. There were no assessors to inquire how many the family included. "Shut-offs" were unknown. The supply was literally "as free as air," and whosoever would might draw or drink.

As the settlement grew, buckets gave partial place to barrels, therefore the wharf was used, and when the " Bostonians " came they brought "rules and regulations." One of the earliest Acts of the Board of Trustees was the passage on July 16, 1804, of an ordinance requiring each person taking water from the Merchants' Wharf to pay one dollar in advance for the privilege of so doing. This did not please the French and on August 6, the ordinance was repealed. After the fire of 1805 the Governor and Judges concluded that it was not safe to rely alto- gether upon the river for a water supply, and they undertook to provide public wells. On November 29, 1806, an account was presented by George Huff for "smithwork done at the pumps," and on December 3 following the governor was appointed a committee " to cause the pumps to be stored and painted."

An appropriation bill, passed by the Governor and Judges on March 20, 1807, contains the following item : "For completing wells and pumps in the vicinity of the court-house and prison, $100 charge- able to Detroit Fund." Their records for March 28, 1807, state that the marshal is "authorized to complete the wells and pumps in the vicinity of the court-house by causing the said wells to be deep- ened, and walled with bricks or stones, and causing the said pumps to be put in complete order for use." One of the last named wells was on Jefferson

Avenue near Wayne Street. Wells were also pro- vided on the commons back of the town, in the region of the square now designated as the Campus Martius. The digging of wells in this locality gave great offence to the people. Both cattle and persons fell into them, and on May 7, 1808, the Grand Jury presented "the wells on the domain as a dangerous nuisance." In consequence of this action, on De- cember 15, 1808, the marshal was " directed to dis- pose of the pumps, stone and other articles which have heretofore been furnished for the wells on the commons." On March 7, 1809, W. McD. Scott pre- sented an account of $134.50 for expenses incurred in digging public wells, which was duly allowed. One of the wells with a pump was located on the north side of Jefferson Avenue between Bates and Randolph Streets. On February 3, 1819, Mr. Stead was paid $30 for repairing well and putting in a pump. It was worked with a windlass, and was in use for several years. In 1828 the city paid $2.37 for filling it up.

During these years water was frequently carried in buckets suspended from the ends of a wooden yoke, borne upon the shoulders. It was also hauled in barrels in the old two-wheeled French carts, and sold at sixpence per barrel. Two barrels were con- sidered a load, and from them, as the carts jogged over the rough, unpaved streets, much water was distributed along the way.

The erection of water-works was publicly sug- gested by the trustees of the city for the first time on February 25, 1820, on which date a notice was published inviting proposals, to be made before June I, for the exclusive privilege of erecting such works.

The first proposition, from John W. Tompkins, was received March 21, 1820. His offer was not satisfactory, and meantime the authority of the cor- poration to grant the exclusive right for supplying the city with water having been called in question, on June 1 H. J. Hunt was appointed to examine and report on the subject. His report was doubtless satisfactory, for further proposals were invited, and on July 27, 1820, the trustees voted to meet August IO, to receive them. The proceedings of the trus- tees do not indicate that any proposals were received

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WATER AND WATER-WORKS.

at this meeting, and on October 19 "$20 was ap- propriated towards expense of digging a well in Jefferson Avenue already erected near Dr. William Brown's."

The subject of water-works continued to be agi- tated, and on June 1, 1822, a meeting of citizens was held at the council-house to consider a proposition from George Deming for furnishing the city with water, and on June 4 they resolved that "it is ex- pedient to promote the enterprise of George Deming and his associates for supplying the city with water, and that upon equitable conditions we favor his having exclusive privileges for a certain number of years." The enterprise was " without bottom," or the resolution "leaked," for no water-works were obtained.

The next step in the history of our water supply was the passage of an Act on August 5, 1824, "authorizing Peter Berthelet to erect a wharf on the river Detroit in the continuation of Randolph Street and running to the ship channel of said river," pro- vided "that the said Peter Berthelet, his heirs and assigns, shall at all times during the existence of the above grant, at his own or their own expense, erect, make, and keep in repair, at some convenient place, at or near the end of said wharf, next the channel of the river, a good and sufficient pump, at which all persons who may reside in the city of Detroit shall be at all times free of wharfage or other expenses, entitled to take and draw water for their own use and convenience; and for that purpose a free use of said wharf shall be given, for carts, wagons, sleighs, or other machinery to be used in drawing and carrying away the water." The dock and pump were duly erected, and the pump remained until March 19, 1835, when it was removed by the City Council.

The pump, although an improvement, was still an unsatisfactory method of obtaining water, and occasioned much complaint. The same year that Berthelet's pump was authorized, the father of Jacob S. Farrand, Bethuel Farrand, having a friend en- gaged in the manufacture of pumps at Aurelius, Cayuga County, New York, learned of the condition of affairs, and conceived the idea of getting the right to erect water-works at Detroit. He came on foot to the city, and submitted his proposi- tion to the council on February 16, 1825, and on February 19 a meeting of citizens was held to con- sider his offer. It met their approval, and on Feb- ruary 21 the council appointed a committee to con- clude the contract. The next day they passed an "Act granting to Bethuel Farrand and his legal representatives the sole and exclusive right of water- ing the city of Detroit and for other purposes." Mr. Farrand went home, and in May, accompanied by Rufus Wells, he again arrived in Detroit. He at

once commenced operations, spending the summer in cutting and rafting tamarac logs from the Clinton River for the purpose of making pipes. Before the works were fairly established, Mr. Wells purchased Mr. Farrand's interest, and on March 31, 1827, an ordinance was passed "granting to Rufus Wells, or his legal representatives, the exclusive right of sup- plying the city of Detroit with water." A further ordinance, passed October 10, 1827, granted addi- tional rights.

The pump-house was located on the Berthelet Wharf. It was a frame building, twenty feet square, with two pumps of five inches bore. By means of horse-power the water was forced into a forty-gallon cask, located in the cupola of the pump-house, which was forty feet above the wharf, from where it was conveyed by wooden logs to the reservoir located on Randolph Street, at the rear of the lot now occupied by Firemen's Hall. The reservoir was sixteen feet square, built of white oak plank, two inches thick and six feet long, caulked with oakum; it rested on a frame of timber sixteen feet high, was covered with a shingle roof, and had a capacity of 9,580 imperial gallons. A few wooden logs conveyed water through portions of Jefferson Avenue, Larned and Congress Streets. All the arrangements were very primitive ; upon one occasion a wooden plug at one of the houses on Larned Street was carelessly knocked out, and the cellar was soon filled with water, and the reservoir nearly emptied, causing almost every pen-stock to fail. The company were required to put in service pipes, and for both pipes and water families paid but $10 per year in quarterly instal- ments.

After a few years, other parties became interested with Mr. Wells, and in June, 1829, as it was evident that works of greater capacity were needed, the Hydraulic Company, as the association was called, received from the city a grant of the south end of Lot 8,-the second lot from the southeast corner of Wayne and Fort Streets. On this lot they were to erect a new reservoir, and bore for water, the idea having gained prevalence that water could be had more easily from a well than from the river. On August 6, 1829, The Gazette contained this item:

The Hydraulic Company of this city are boring for water on the site of the old fort, the highest ground within the limits of the corporation. They have penetrated one hundred and twenty feet and are still going on with their labor.

After boring a hole four inches in diameter to the depth of two hundred and sixty feet, one hundred and forty-four feet of which was tubed with cast-iron tubing, the pebbles and quicksand accumulated in the pipe, and early in April, 1830, the project was abandoned. The chief engineer of the company, at this time, was Mr. Failing, who seems to have been appropriately named.

WATER AND WATER-WORKS.

The company now determined to again erect pumping works and resort to the river, and in view of the greater expense that they must incur, they sought to be relieved from furnishing service pipes and pen- stocks, to obtain an extension of the time during which they were to have the exclusive privilege of supplying water, and also to be released from the obligation of surrendering their works without com- pensation at the termination of their charter. After various meetings and excited discussions, their de- mands were granted, and in 1830 new works were constructed.

The reservoir, located on the Fort Street lot, was of brick, eighteen feet square and nine feet deep, enclosed with wood; it held 21,811 gallons. On August 4, 1830, the company commenced laying water-pipes from the river to Jefferson Avenue, just above the Mansion House; their new works went into operation at 2 P. M. on Saturday, August 21, 1830. A large crowd gathered at the engine-house to witness the letting on of the water. The water was distributed through wooden pipes of only three inches bore, which were put together with iron thimbles, and these pipes could hardly be called prophetic of the iron pipes nearly four feet in diam- eter now in use. Governor Cass, who was present, was called upon for a speech. Mounting a barrel near by, and casting his eye on the route of pipe, he began by saying : "Fellow-citizens, what an age of progress !" No one then thought his words sarcastic. The pumping was done by a ten-horse power engine belonging to the De- troit Iron Works, located on the southwest corner of Jefferson Avenue and Cass Street. The engine did double duty, supplying power for its owners as well as for the Hydraulic Company. In consequence of a defect in the boiler, during a whole week in November, 1831, no water could be pumped. At this time there were but two lines of wooden logs of three inches bore.

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The history of Detroit and Michigan; or, The metropolis illustrated; a chronological cyclopedia of the past and present, Vol I, Part 19

Author: Farmer, Silas, 1839-1902 Publication date: 1889 Publisher: Detroit, S. Farmer & co Number of Pages: 1096

Author: Farmer, Silas, 1839-1902
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Detroit, S. Farmer & co
Number of Pages: 1096