History of Champaign County, Ohio, Its People, Industries and Institutions, Volume I, Part 102

Author: Middleton, Evan P., editor
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: Indianapolis, B.F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 1196

USA > Ohio > Champaign County > History of Champaign County, Ohio, Its People, Industries and Institutions, Volume I > Part 102

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).

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The waterworks plant is only one of several utilities which the people of Urbana now enjoy. The invention of the telephone was followed a num- ber of years later by the introduction of telephone service into the city; the electric light followed later and finally the city expended more than one hun- dred thousand dollars in installing a public utility to take the place of the old slop buckets-and so was born the magnificent sewerage system and sewage- disposal plant, the finest in the state. The city also has a street-cleaning department which may be regarded as a minor public utility. The library is a public utility maintained by a tax amounting to about one thousand five hundred dollars a year. The cemetery has been a municipally-owned institu- tion since 1856 and costs the city from five thousand to six thousand dollars a year to maintain;

The streets and sidewalks are sometimes classed as public utilities and as such are coexistent with the life of the city itself. More money has been spent on streets and sidewalks than on any other public utility of the city. They are not usually considered in the light of public utilities, but in reality they are, just as much so as a waterworks system, sewerage system or electric- light plant. While paving has come within the past few years, yet the city has been expending thousands and tens of thousands of dollars on streets and sidewalks during the past hundred years. In fact, there is no public utility used so extensively, so often and so universally, as the streets and sidewalks.

The following pages are devoted to a discussion of these several public utilities of Urbana as they appear in 1917. All are owned by the city, with the exception of the electric-light and telephone systems. The city owns the gas mains, but not the wells from which the gas is piped. The city owns everything connected with the gas system inside of the corporate limits of the city, while the company furnishing the gas owns the wells and the mains to the city limits. The waterworks system is first discussed, followed in order by the other utilities just enumerated.

URBANA WATERWORKS SYSTEM.

It was forty years ago that a system of waterworks was established in the city of Urbana, although the subject had been discussed for several years prior to the actual installation of the same. In 1877. a group of public- spirited citizens of Urbana organized a company for the purpose of provid- ing the city with a waterworks system. While the need for a more adequate system of fire protection had been agitated for several years it was not until April 7, 1877, that a company was incorporated to build a waterworks plant,

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and it was nearly a year later before the plant was ready to be turned over to the city. The Urbana Water Works Company was incorporated on April 7. 1877. with a capital stock of one hundred thousand dollars, the incorp- orators being George M. Eichelberger, Dr. J. H. Ayres, Henry Fox, S. L. P. Stone, Matthew Weaver. R. R. Colwell, James Taylor, Frank Houston and Charles H. Ganson.

The city council on May 21, 1877. entered into a lengthy contract with H. P. Clough and T. J. McGowan, operating under the firm name of H. P. Clough & Company. the company to build the plant, dig the necessary wells. lay the mains and install all and such machinery as was needful for the con- struction of the waterworks plant outlined in the specifications. The city on its part agreed to give the company the use of the streets for a period of ten years, and pay an annual sum of six thousand dollars, one-half payable on April 1 and the other half on October 1. payments beginning in 1878, the stipulated amount to cover the rental of sixty hydrants. The city was to pay seventy-five dollars annually for each hydrant in excess of sixty. The company agreed on its part to begin actual construction in May, 1877, and have it ready to turn over to the city on or before November 1, 1878-and sell the plant to the city for the sum of seventy-five thousand dollars at any time the latter might decide to purchase it.

While there was a practical unanimity on the part of the citizens of the city in favor of the contract made by the council, that body ordered a special election for Monday, June 25, 1877. in order to give the voters the oppor- tunity to confirm or reject the proposition. Of the 857 votes cast, 822 were in favor of the proposition and only 35 opposed to it. At a meeting of the city council held a week later. July 2. 1877. the plans and specifications of the company were formally accepted and placed on file. However, it was soon discovered that there was a statutory provision then in force which pro- hibited a municipal corporation from entering into a contract binding itself for a period of ten years. Consequently, it became necessary to enter into a new contract with the company and this was done on July 31, 1877, the new contract embodying some features that had not been incorporated in the pre- vious contract.

The second contract, among its many provisions, stipulated that the com- pany should erect a power house which should be supplied with triplicate machinery and be capable of furnishing one million five hundred thousand gallons of water daily : lay seven miles of mains: install sixty hydrants, for which the city should pay one hundred dollars each per annum, and such additional hydrants as the city might demand at an annual rental of seventy-

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five dollars ; all public buildings to be supplied with water free, while the United States Rolling-Stock Company's yards should also have free water; the cost to private consumers not to exceed the rates charged at Cincinnati in 1876; and finally that the city might have the privilege of purchasing the entire plant at any future time for eighty-five thousand dollars, or for a sum which might be agreed upon by a commission appointed by the council and company.

AGAIN BROUGHT TO A STANDSTILL.

The delay occasioned by the change in the contract postponed the actual beginning of work on the plant until August 14, 1877. The construction had but fairly begun when another unfortunate turn of affairs again brought everything to a standstill. The McGowan Pump Company, of Middletown, Ohio, became insolvent and had to abandon the contract. The local situation at this time is summed up in an article which appeared in the Urbana Citizen and Gazette the week following the announcement of the inability of the com- pany to proceed with the work of construction: "Under this state of affairs the prospects were slim indeed. But just then there arrived on the ground T. T. Flagler, president of the Holly Manufacturing Company, of Lockport, New York, who stepped into the place of Mr. McGowan. There followed immediately a re-organization of the Urbana Water Works, with T. T. Flag- ler, president : J. H. Ayres, vice-president : H. P. Clough, secretary; L. C. Hovey, treasurer; Flagler. Clough, Ayres, James Taylor and Joel Read, directors : E. G. Wiley and Joel Read, trustees."

The re-organization of the local company and the resumption of the work by construction by a new company made it necessary to enter into a new contract. Accordingly a contract was at once entered into between the city council and the Holly Manufacturing Company. the latter agreeing to all of the propositions formerly agreed upon between the city and the Clough company. The time for the completion of the plant was extended to January 21. 18,8, and the plant was practically completed by the expiration of the specified time. The plant was subjected to a rigorous test by the contractors on January 29. 1878, and the city authorities expressed themselves as being thoroughly satisfied with the test. At the regular meeting the following week the city council formally accepted the plant on behalf of the city, and at the same meeting perfected plans for the formal opening of the system on the 22nd of February.

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NEW CHAPTER IN LOCAL MUNICIPAL HISTORY.

Washington's birthday probably never received a more enthusiastic cele- bration in Urbana than it did in 1878. An elaborate program was prepared for the occasion. The mayors and other officials of the neighboring cities were invited to attend the celebration and they responded to the invitation in goodly numbers. Promptly at one o'clock on the eventful day, a spectacular parade started to make the tour of the main streets. Although there was a drizzling rain falling it could not dampen the enthusiasm of the parade. Headed by a band, the parade started. A company of local militia followed the band and was in turn followed by the different volunteer fire companies of the city. more bands, civic organizations, carriages with officials, school children and other citizens. After the parade there was a display of the power of the waterworks plant which satisfied all skeptical persons as to the service that might be expected from the system. The day closed with an evening program in the city hall. J. H. Young presided and made the open- ing speech. and was followed by George W. Wilson, the state senator from this district. Other speakers included Dr. Thomas A. Cowgill, John F. Gowey. O. F. Lewis. David W. Todd, W. R. Warnock, G. Ellis and S. D. Clayton. The music for the evening was provided by several bands and a specially trained choir. And with the close of February 22, 1878, Urbana opened a new chapter in its municipal history.

For twenty years the company continued to serve the city and the service was uniformly satisfactory until the last few years of its second contract. This contract of the city with the Urbana Water Works expired August 6, 1800. and because of the poor service of the company the city refused to renew the contract. Shortly before the expiration of the contract the city council asked the company to make a demonstration of the full pressure of their plant. The showing was so unsatisfactory that the council felt that the city was not getting adequate service for fire protection, and consequently when the company's contract with the city expired on August 6, 1899, the council, as before stated, refused to renew it.

AN ANOMALOUS POSITION.

When the company notified the city on September 11, 1899, that if the rent was not paid by noon of that day, it would proceed at once to remove the hydrants used by the city, affairs reached a crisis. The city refused to

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pay the rent and on the afternoon of the aforesaid day the company, intent on carrying out its threat, began to tear out the hydrants around the public square. The city retaliated by having the company's representatives arrested and the courts sustained an injunction against the company removing the hydrants. On October 2, 1899. Judge Heiserman handed down a decision to the effect that the company had to furnish water as long as it occupied the streets and public grounds. Shortly afterward the city agreed to pay a satis- factory amount to the company for service rendered, but the final solution of the difficulty was not settled for more than ten years. On August 13, 1900, the city council and water company agreed upon a contract, although there was then an election pending on the question. The citizens of the city were seemingly about unanimous in condemning the contract entered into by the council and company. An ineffectual attempt was made to prevent the holding of the election on the question of accepting or rejecting the contract, but it was held on September 14, 1900, and the voters of the city rejected the contract by a vote of 202 to 93.

The city was now in an anomalous position. Its council had entered into a definite contract, only to have the same repudiated by the voters of the city a month later. The company appealed to the court for relief and on December 10, 1900. Judge Heiserman declared the election of September 14, 1900, void. The situation remained practically unchanged for three years- the city on its side refusing to meet the demands of the water company, and the company on its side giving only such service as the law compelled it to give. But the company could not exist long under such circumstances. On December 12, 1903, it went into the hands of a receiver, Robert W. Kirby, who filed a claim against the city in January, 1904, for water furnished by the company to the city from 1888 to 1904. The city refused, as it had in 1899. to meet the demand, on the ground that the water company had failed to live up to its part of the agreement. Kirby proceeded to file suit against the city in the sum of $4.500.75, this amount, according to his claim, includ- ing the additional rental due the company from the city and the interest on the accrued debt. The city replied to the suit by setting forth what it claimed was a justifiable cause for not paying the amount specified in the suit. In other words, the city's contention was that the company had not at any time prior to the termination of its contract on August 6, 1899, furnished the service which it had agreed to furnish per contract. The city did, however, acknowledge a just claim on the part of the company to $2,632, this amount being the rental from the expiration of the contract in 1899 down to the date of the bringing of the suit.

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Now followed a seven-year struggle during which time the waterworks plant was handied back and forth with a reckless abandon which augured ill for it at times. It was in court and out of court. but all the time it continued to supply water for the city. On January 30, 1904, the city filed a demurrer to Kirby's suit : on February 23. 1904, the following entry was made on the journal of the common pleas court of Champaign county :

Robert W. Kirby, Receiver rs. The City of Urbana.

Entry Orerruling Demurrers-The court finds the same not well taken and overrules them, to which the defendant excepts; and the defendant is ruled to answer the bill on or before March 20, 1904.

MUNICIPALIZATION OF THE PLANT.

The litigation which consumed the years between March 20, 1904, and May 11, 1910, at which time the city of Urbana finally purchased the water- works plant, is a story that need not be told here in detail. It is sufficient to state that the city finally decided to float bonds in the amount of $100,000 and purchase the plant from Kirby or his successors. With the purchase of the plant it was decided to make extensive improvements at once and to this end an additional bond issue of $31.500 was floated and subsequently combined with the original issue of $100,000. the bonds bearing four and one-half per cent. interest. The city retired $10.000 worth of bonds in 1916 and will retire $15.000 worth in 1917.

On May 17, 1911, the city council voted to sell $25,000 worth of bonds to purchase a new fire engine, to enlarge the engine house, and to lay new pipe lines. The bonds were issued in denominations of $500, $15,000 being payable on July 1. 1920, and $10,000 on July 1. 1930. interest four and one- half per cent.

Between the time of the purchase of the plant and 1914 the city was engaged in constant improvements on the plant. In 1912 a large pump was installed, with a capacity of 4,000,000 gallons daily, and a 160-horse power boiler and two years later another engine for the same size was installed at a cost of $5.500 and a second pump with a daily capacity of 2,000,000 gallons. At the present time the plant pumps about 1,000,000 gallons daily and, with a capacity of 6.000,000, it will be seen that the plant has ample capacity for many years to come. Two engineers and two firemen are employed at the · pumping station and one employee gives all his attention to the mains. The

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chief engineer is Sherman Lingrell. The superintendent of the plant is Lin- coln Burnham, who has been serving in this capacity since the city purchased the plant in 1910.

Since Superintendent Burnham has taken charge of the plant he has given it his entire attention and has gradually brought it to a state of efficiency which gives it rank as one of the best plants in the state in a city of this size. Seven years ago the station and mains were in very poor condition; the pumps were so weak they could not furnish the pressure, and the mains were in such a poor condition that they could not have stood up under the pressure if it had been forthcoming. The building has been enlarged, newly equipped, additional hydrants have been provided, old hydrants have been repaired and put in first-class working order, additional mains have been laid to the num- ber of 17,225 feet, and, in short, the plant is in first-class condition. The city may well be proud of its waterworks plant-a plant which is now easily worth $150,000.

The rates are as low as can be charged consistent with the service rendered. The average flat rate for a modern house is about sixteen dollars a year. The meter rate is 25 cents per 1,000 gallons, if an average of 250 gallons daily is used; each additional 250 gallons per day is at the rate of 10 cents per 1.000 gallons. The city has 28 miles of mains; five drinking fountains : eleven watering troughs; one hundred and eighty-seven hydrants; twelve driven wells; a one-hundred-and-ten-pound pressure for fires and seventy-pound pressure for ordinary purposes.

FIRE DEPARTMENT.

The days when Urbana had only a volunteer fire department have long since passed. The good work and deeds of bravery of the volunteer firemen are matters of history. The scenes connected with the old oaken bucket, the town pump, the town branch and the famous pine sticks are gone along with the men who used those primitive methods of fighting fires. Urbana had no waterworks plant until 1878 and up to that time all fire fighting was a matter of "main strength and awkwardness", as one old fireman explained it.

In the early days the bell in the court house was used to call the populace together to fight fires. When the crowd reached the fire the men formed in line from the nearest water supply to the fire and then the water was passed in buckets from hand to hand, the last man receiving it having the honor of throwing it on the fire. There was not such a thing as a hose in the village for several years after it was laid out, and the bucket brigade was the sole

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dependence of the village for fire protection. History does not record that the village suffered unduly from fires, despite its insufficient fire protection ; in fact, the most destructive fires the city has ever had have been since the present system of fire fighting has been installed.

The first hint of a fire company-an organization of men for fire fighting -is found in the year 1833. The town itself took the matter in hand in that year and bought a fire engine, which was promptly named "Champaign." A volunteer fire company, "Champaign Fire Company," was organized to take charge of the engine and it may be imagined that there was no difficulty in finding plenty of recruits. It is known that Judge William Patrick was one of the company, but the roster of the fire fighters has long since disappeared. The engine was operated by hand and in case the fire was of a serious nature most of the able-bodied men of the town got an opportunity to swing the handles of the affair. The introduction of the engine, crude as it was, marked a big step in advance of the old method of fighting fire. For twenty years the "Champaign" was the backbone of the fire department of the town and the main reliance of the villagers for protection against the devastating ele- ment.

The next chapter in fire protection history opens in the winter of 1854- 55. when the celebrated "Molunkee" Fire Company came into existence with the following officers: James V. Guthrie, president : T. G. Keller, secretary; John T. Zumbro, treasurer. This second fire company was followed in 1857 hy a third company bearing the name of "Young America."

The "Young America" company was outfitted in neat and attractive uni- forms consisting of a white flannel shirt, trimmed in red, regulation blue caps and black trousers. The first chief was Henry Nichtman. This company, as well as the Molunkee company and the Hercules company of 1867 (a hook- and-ladder company ), participated in celebrations where fire companies from all parts of the state competed for valuable prizes. All cities of the state had at least one uniformed fire company, the uniform, of course, being provided primarily for the annual occasions. Certainly they would have been illy suited to fire fighting. Many stories are told of the prowess of these old volunteer companies, of the fleetness of their best runners, of the number of feet of hose they could unreel and reel up in a given length of time, of their ability to climb ladders, ropes, trees, sides of houses, etc. In the course of time a romance has grown up around and about these heroes of other days, but they chiefly relate to their exploits at these annual exhibitions of their prowess. The local team was at Bellefontaine in 1857 and carried off the prizes. They also won prizes at Crestline, Ohio. In 1869 the State Fire-

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men's Association held their annual tournament at Urbana. Ten cities were represented.

The Young America and Hercules companies continued in existence until the eighties. At the time of their discontinuance the latter company was in charge of the colored men of the city, their headquarters being in the rear of the city building. The Young America company was located in a building on the site of the present city building. This company had charge of the steam fire engine which the city had purchased as early as 1866, although at first it was in charge of the Molunkee company, the engine being christened "Molunkee" in honor of an Indian whom tradition killed on King's creek in Champaign county. It appears that the engine was intended to be drawn by hand, but a few years after it was put in use the city purchased horses to draw it, and even hired one man to have general charge of the team. The team was used on the streets when not engaged in fire duties.

PAID FIRE DEPARTMENT.

The city installed a paid fire department in 1873 and five years later the waterworks system completely changed the method of fire fighting in the city. Among the first of the paid officers were the following: R. P. Wilkins, engineer ; John Pratt, fireman; Samuel Hedges, driver; S. J. Dixon, driver of hose wagon and captain of the engine house. After the opening of the waterworks system on February 22, 1878, the old steam engine -- Molunkee- was retired from service, and at the same time improved fire apparatus was purchased by the city. After 1878 only one of the volunteer companies con- tinued in existence, Young America, the city continuing to pay their hall rent and allow them two hundred dollars annually until 1885. In that year they were released on the ground that they were too much of an expense to the city.

In 1880 there were ten men in the employ of the department, five at each house, one driver, and four hosemen to each reel. A fireman was required to sleep at each house. At that time the city had about two thou- sand five hundred feet of hose in the engine houses-one house being in the city building in the first ward, and the other on Russell street near Gwynne street, in the third ward. The "steamer" was kept in the city building along with one hose reel, while in the other house was kept hose reels. The officers in 1880 were: Aaron Wiley, chief of fire department : S. J. Dixon, driver of hose reels: D. H. Brown, F. A. Hill, J. H. Pratt and Jack Cavanaugh,

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first ward hoseman; William McNally, driver of second ward hose wagon; Thomas Berry, Mathew Whalon, Walter Groves and James McNally, hose- men of second ward.

THE FIRE DEPARTMENT IN 1917.

The present equipment of the fire department is found in the two engine houses, one on East Market street (city building) and one on North Russell street, and consists of the following : Two hose wagons, two combined hose- and-ladder wagons, four horses-total value, three thousand five hundred dollars. There is no fire-alarm system, alarms being sent by the nearest tele- phone to the department. There is a bell at each engine house which serves in a manner as a fire alarm.

The department employs ten men in addition to the chief, the same num- ber employed in 1880-five regular firemen and five pipemen, the chief and the regular firemen being regularly employed on full time. The chief receives eighty dollars per month and the regular firemen, seventy dollars per month. The pipemen stay at the station houses at night and hold the hose at fires. For several years prior to June, 1917, they received eighty-five dollars a year (not a month), but in June, 1917, they made such a representation before the city council that they succeeded in having their yearly stipend increased to one hundred and ten dollars. The chief of the fire department is William H. Pindar : the regular firemen are Michael McGree, Gasper McIntire. John McGraw and James Doyle. Among the fire chiefs of former years may be mentioned Wilbur McDonald, Todd Rolls, Otto Buck, Noah Cromer, U. H. William and Aaron Wiley.

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History of Champaign County, Ohio, Its People, Industries and Institutions, Volume I, Part 102

Author: Middleton, Evan P., editor Publication date: 1917 Publisher: Indianapolis, B.F. Bowen Number of Pages: 1196

Author: Middleton, Evan P., editor
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: Indianapolis, B.F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 1196