USA > Ohio > Champaign County > History of Champaign County, Ohio, Its People, Industries and Institutions, Volume I > Part 103
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 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112 | Part 113 | Part 114 | Part 115
The present fire department is as efficient as it can be made with the present equipment. The city intends to purchase an automobile truck as soon as it has money to spare, and add other equipment so that the department may be brought up to the highest standard possible in its method of fighting fires. There is an abundant supply of water and one hundred and ten pounds pressure is available in an emergency. Insurance rates are as low as could be expected considering the protection afforded by the department. The present "fire zone," measured from the public square, covers three squares north, two squares south, one square east and one square west.
In 1916 there were forty-three fires recorded with a total loss of eight thousand three hundred and forty-one. The largest loss amounted to five thousand dollars and was sustained by W. E. Brown, clothier. There have been a few heavy fires in the city, but several individual establishments have
Digitized by Google
1037
CHAMPAIGN COUNTY, OHIO.
been burned without endangering adjoining property. The high-school build- ing burned to the ground on December 12, 1896; the Barlow & Kent Com- pany's plant was burned twice, March 14, 1891, and February 14. 1907. The worst fire of the first half of 1917 occurred in April and endangered the northwestern corner of the public square. The Hardware Supply Company on Miami street was completely flooded, the Knights of Pythias lodge lost all of their paraphernalia and other losses were sustained, making the total fire loss amount to about fifteen thousand dollars.
DISASTROUS FIRE OF 1901.
One of the most disastrous fires the city of Urbana has experienced occurred on Sunday morning, February 24, 1901. The fire was first seen in the Boston store about 3:15 in the morning and within a few minutes the fire department was on the scene ready for action. Within an incredibly short time the fire had spread, a bitter cold wind sweeping the flames along and fanning them into fury. The fire was got under control by the middle of the forenoon, but by that time the roofs of several of the buildings on the west side of North Main street from the Boston store north to the court house corner had fallen in and the rear portions of many of them burned out. · Strange to say the front part of none of the buildings was seriously dam- aged, but the rear portions of several were practically gone.
The main losses fell on the following firms and individuals: Boston Store. $18,000: Times-Citizen Printing Company, $15.000; J. K. Cheetham, bakery, $5.000; National Bank of Urbana, $10,000; W. M. Rock, office fix- tures. $150: Thomas Berry, grocery. $10,000; Julius Weber, barber, $1,000; Young Busser, $1,000; J. B. Hitt, tobacco store, $2,000. These major losses totaled $62,150, while there were minor losses estimated at $18,000, the total losses amounting to $80.150. No one was killed or injured during the prog- ress of the fire. although there were a number of narrow escapes. The cause of the fire was never exactly determined. The fire insurance companies refused to pay the insurance demanded by the company operating the store in which the fire was discovered. One of the first firms to have their rooms ready for occupancy was the bank, which resumed business in its old quarters on Monday March 11, 1901.
SEWERAGE SYSTEM AND SEWAGE DISPOSAL PLANT.
The city has been provided with a water system since 1878, but it struggled along for more than a hundred years without an adequate sewerage
Digitized by Google
1038
CHAMPAIGN COUNTY, OHIO.
system. Until 1911, when the first definite steps were taken toward provid- ing a sewerage system. there were only a few private sewers, practically all the waste of the city finding its way into private vaults. It is a wonder that the city escaped an epidemic of typhoid fever, but that it did so is more the result of good fortune than anything else. The question of installing a sewer- age system was brought to a climax when it was decided in 1911 to pave the streets. Everyone recognized that it would be the height of folly to pave without first putting in all the sewerage connections, gas pipes and all other pipes that future wants might demand.
An effort was made in 1905 to begin the installation of a sewerage sys- tem, but a lack of funds stopped the agitation at that time. The state board of health had approved plans for a proposed sewerage system and sewage- purification plant, but it was not until six years later that the plans took definite shape. The system as finally accepted provided for separate storm sewers and sanitary sewers in the city, this plan being much cheaper, as well as providing just as efficient service as if they were combined. It would have taken a disposal plant of twice the present size to handle all of the storm water as well as the sewage proper.
The plant was designed by A. E. Kimberly, of Columbus, Ohio, a gradu- ate of Massachusetts School of Technology, and recognized as one of the leading men of his profession in the United States. After the city council decided to install the system there was a great deal of discussion as to where the disposal plant should be located before it was finally decided to purchase six acres of the John Muzzy farm, about one and one-half miles west of the city. On May 17, 1911. it was voted to issue four thousand dollars worth of bonds to buy the six acres and a right-of-way between the corporation limits and the tract itself. Two thousand dollars of the bond issue fell due on July 13, 1914, and two thousand dollars on July 13, 1915.
On February 7, 1912, Carey S. Pratt, city engineer of Urbana, submitted plans for sanitary sewers for the city, but they did not include provisions for a sewage-purification plant. For this reason the board of health on February 15. 1912, voted to withhold its approval of his plans until they were changed so as to include a sewage-purification plant. A. Elliott Kim- berly, consulting engineer for the city, submitted plans on March 9, 1912, for sewage-purification works to be constructed in connection with the pro- posed sewerage system and they were approved on March 21, 1912.
With the approval of the plans the next step was to let the contract of the installation of the system. The contract for the construction of the sewer- age system was let to Boyd & Cooke. The contract for the sewage-purifica-
Digitized by Google
1039
CHAMPAIGN COUNTY, OHIO.
tion works was let as a separate contract to Cooke & Cooke, of Clintonville, Ohio, their bid being $37.077.05. The sewerage system as installed in 1912 had 13.7 miles of sewers and was constructed with a view of extending it to twenty-one miles. The main trunk sewer had a total length of 14.460 feet, beginning with an eight-inch pipe and increasing in size until it reached twenty inches. The last 2.970 feet were of twenty-inch pipe, all pipe being of vitrified tile. The laterals were of eight and ten-inch pipe, 56,300 feet being of eight-inch and 1,630, of ten-inch pipe. The main-trunk sewer car- ries the sewage in a southwesterly direction to Dugan creek, about four thou- sand feet from the corporation line of the city, and from thence it is conveyed to the disposal plant.
The complete system was turned over to the city on December 17, 1914, and has proved very satisfactory. Its total cost was $90,307.04. The con- struction of the work was under the direction of Emmett F. Sweetman, city engineer.
THE SEWAGE-DISPOSAL PLANT.
While the sewerage system was being completed work was begun on the sewage-disposal plant, the contract for which was awarded on April 24, 1914, to Cooke & Cooke for $37,077.05. The plant was to be completed by October 1, 1914, but it was not ready to be turned over to the city until June, 1916. The disposal plant as well as the sewerage system proper was designed by A. E. Kimberly. Raymond H. Smith, a graduate of the engineering depart- ment of Ohio State University. was the resident engineer in charge of the construction of the disposal plant. The sewage-disposal plant has been given a high ranking among the disposal plants of the country, not only because of its efficiency, but also because it embodies several features which had pre- viously never been embodied in similar plants. The plant proper consists of a screened chamber, two settling tanks, a sludge filter, primary-contact filters and a by-pass. The plant is designed to serve a population of 13.800 and a sewage flow of 600,000 gallons a day.
The plant, as above stated, lies about a mile and a half west of the city. The tract is two hundred and thirty feet by one thousand two hundred feet in size. The twenty-inch outfall sewer enters an uncovered rectangular, concrete screen chamber four feet by eight feet, and two feet in depth. A single screen, constructed of iron bars with free spaces of one inch, is pro- vided. The screen is placed at an angle of forty-five degrees with the horizontal. In cleaning, the screen is not removed, a rake being provided for this purpose. A weir, making possible the measurement of the sewage
Digitized by Google
1040
CHAMPAIGN COUNTY, OHIO.
flow, is placed in slots in the screen chamber. From this screen chamber the sewage flows through an open concrete channel twenty inches wide to the settling tanks. To provide for reversal of the sewage flow through the tank, this channel leads to both ends of the tank, the direction of flow being con- trolled by stop planks. The settling tank is of concrete construction, uncov- ered, and consists of a sedimentation compartment, rectangular in plan. beneath which are two circular sludge wells. The sedimentation compart- ment is fifty-four feet, four inches in length and sixteen feet in width, and has a depth from the flow line to the apexes of its false bottom of eight feet. The false bottom of the sedimentation compartment is built with two V-shaped sections, at the apexes of which are slotted openings ten inches in width extending the length of the compartment through which the subsidiary solids enter the sludge compartment below. Hanging baffles are provided, extend- ing across the ends of the tank to a point eighteen inches below the flow line. A submerged battle extends across the central portion of the tank to retard and distribute the flow.
The sludge wells are each twenty feet in diameter and have inverted conical bottoms, the apexes of which are at a depth of nineteen feet below the flow line of the tank. The gas produced by the digestion of the sludge escapes through rectangular openings extending through the sedimentation compartment directly upon the central portion of each sludge well. For the removal of the accumulated sludge, eight-inch castiron pipes leading from the apexes of the sludge wells to a valve box at the surface, are provided. There is thus available a static head of five feet to create a movement of the sludge. To provide means for lowering the sludge, should this become necessary, a system of two-inch water piping is provided at the bottom of the sludge well. For the present this piping is not used as no water pressure is available, but if necessary a portable pumping outfit can be provided.
The capacity of the sedimentation compartment is 34,000 gallons, which corresponds to a period of retention of 1.37 hours based on an ultimate sew- age flow of 600,000 gallons. This sewage flow will not be reached for a num- ber of years and in the meantime the tanks will provide a period of retention greatly in excess of the above figure. This slow movement of the sewage through the tank may or may not be detrimental to the quality of the effluent. The capacity of the sludge wells is such as to provide for four months accumu- lation of sludge on the basis of a deposition of .0035 cubic foot per capita per day. As has been stated, the direction of flow through the tanks may be reversed, and this will follow in its proper operation in order to provide equal cleposition of sludge in both wells. The sludge is removed from the tank at
Digitized by Google
1041
CHAMPAIGN COUNTY, OHIO.
intervals and discharged upon a sludge filter located near by. This sludge filter has a total area of one thousand square feet, being thirty-one feet, seven inches square in plan. The area is assumed on the basis of one-sixth of a square foot per capita tributary to the sewers. The filtering material con- sists of a layer of coarse sand nine inches in thickness, resting upon graded gravel of an average thickness of nine inches. The area of the sludge filter provides for the discharge of one thousand cubic feet at an application, or approximately forty per cent. of the storage capacity of one sludge well. With the plant operated at its capacity, therefore, sludge is removed every three months.
The settled sewage from the settling tank flows to a control house through a twelve-inch castiron pipe. The apparatus located in the control house is one of the latest in design. It was designed by the Meritt Hydraulics Com- pany and built by the Universal Cast Iron Pipe Company. It is probably the first of its kind to be built in the United States. The control of the sewage into the different contact beds is done automatically and needs no attention. By means of apparatus installed in this control house, the sewage is applied to each of the contact filters in sequence. The primary filters, of which there are four units, are of concrete construction throughout and are built as nearly watertight as possible. Each unit is 82 feet 6 inches by 104 feet in plan and has a depth of filtering material of 3.76 feet. The total area of the primary filters is 0.75 acre. The filtering material consists of locomotive or boiler cinders of a high grade, screened to a size ranging from three-quarters inch to one and one-half inches. The sewage is applied at the surface of each unit by shallow concrete channels extending along the dividing walls between the units. The sewage flows over the edges of these baffles at an elevation of about four and one-half inches above the surface of the filtering material. Small holes are provided in the floor of the channels to provide for a com- plete drainage after the bed has been filled.
Drainage from the filters takes place through central collecting con- duits which slope to the center of each unit. Laterals spaced eight inches on centres lead to this collecting conduit. By this means satisfactory drainage is secured. Main collectors conduct the effluent from the center of each unit to the main effluent drain leading to the outlet chamber. The design of the primary contact filters is such as to provide an ultimate rate of 800,000 gal- lons per acre. 213,000 gallons per acre foot, and a population tributary of 8.000 per acre and 2.130 per acre foot. The capacity of each unit, assuming 33 per cent. of voids in the filtering material, is 78,800 gallons, which corre-
. (66)
Digitized by Google
1042
CHAMPAIGN COUNTY, OHIO.
sponds to one cycle in 12.6 hours. The average period of filling with a sew- age flow of 600,000 gallons is three hours, and it is designed to provide a period of contact after the bed has been filled of one hour before discharging to the outlet by pass line.
The secondary contact filters are in their principal features similar to the primary filters. The effluent from any unit of the primary filters may be applied to either of the two secondary filters, and thus flexibility of opera- tion is provided. The secondary filters are each 82 feet 6 inches by 118 feet and have a depth of filtering material of 3.33 feet. The capacity of each of the secondary filters is equal to that of one of the primary units. The filter- ing material is of a high grade of cinders, washed and screened to a size ranging from one-quarter inch to three-quarter inch. The primary filter effluent is applied in a manner similar to that used in the application of the primary filters, and the effluent after a contact period is discharged by the operation of timed siphons. The capacity of the secondary filters, assuming 33 per cent. voids, is 79.320 gallons, and with a sewage flow of 600,000 gal- lons there will be a rate of application of 1,364.000 gallons per acre per day, or 409,000 gallons per acre foot. The population tributary is 13,640 per acre and 4,000 per acre foot. There may also be constructed any number of settling tanks as the increase of population may warrant. From the outlet chamber the effluent is intermittently discharged into Town branch, which passes the plant a short distance to the west. The invert of the main outlet · is at an elevation o.5 foot above high water mark of the stream, and it will therefore be seen that high stages in the stream will not affect the operation of the plant.
The disposal plant was formally accepted by the city in June, 1916, and has been in successful operation since that time. The superintendent of the plant is Arnold Crowl.
NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL GAS.
Gas has been burned in Urbana for more than sixty years, but from 1855 until 1890 it was all artificial gas, the first natural gas being piped into the city in 1801 from Mercer county, Ohio. Artificial gas was manufactured until 1910 and then discontinued. the city having used mainly natural gas since January 1, 1891.
The Urbana Gas Light and Coke Company came into existence in 1855. in which year it was incorporated under the laws of the state of Ohio by Nelson Rhodes, John D. Kirkpatrick, W. F. Mosgrove. I. A. Corwin and
Digitized by Google
--- -
1043
CHAMPAIGN COUNTY, OHIO.
William B. Moore. W. F. Mosgrove became the first president. In 1876 the company was reorganized. with the following stockholders: D. C. Spinning. president ; Charles C. Kiefer, Charles Kiefer, Jr., Joseph Light, George Light and Frank Spinning. The reorganized company had a capital stock of forty thousand dollars. In 1901 Joseph Light, a well-known man of Dayton, became president. He was at that time president of the Piqua Gas Light and Coke Company, and was superintendent and general manager of the Dayton Gas Light and Coke Company, making his home in the latter city. At that time Joseph E. Light was made resident manager and superintendent of the Urbana plant and M. F. Colwell became secretary. The Urbana Light Company took over the Urbana Gas Light and Coke Company, the artificial gas plant, on May 1. 1905. The company continued the manufacture of artificial gas until July 1, 1910, or, to be exact, ceased its manufacture on the night of June 30. 1910.
The story of natural gas in Urbana begins on August 5, 1890, when the council voted to float a bond issue of $250,000 to cover the cost of lease, piping and installation of the service in the city. The contract was let in three parts: . R. G. Kerlin. $27.795.58; Riverside Iron Works, Wheeling, $191,000; Jarecki Company, Pittsburgh, $4.665.41-total, $223,460.99. The gas commission leased seven hundred acres in Mercer county, Ohio, for ninety- nine years and took an option on as many more acres. Actual work began on September 1. 1889, and gas was turned on in Urbana for the first time on January 1, 1891. At that time there were only three wells drilled, but they had a total capacity of ten million cubic feet of gas. The main line from Mercer county to the regulator on Miami street was forty-four miles in length. and there were fourteen miles of pipe laid in the city at the beginning. The gas was brought from the wells in a six-inch pipe.
The city went into the gas business without realizing what it was going to cost and it was not long until it was seen that it had the proverbial "white elephant" on its hands. The records show that on January 31, 1892. the cost of building the plant and operating it up to that date amounted to $276.311.27; the receipts for 1801 amounted to $32.511.48 and the expenses for the same period amounted to $31,983.95. It is not necessary to follow the history of the gas question in detail during the next few years; it is one which does not leave a pleasant memory in the minds of the citizens of Urbana. By 1898 the city was ready to dispose of its interest in the gas field and its mains from the field to the city limits, but wanted to keep the reducing station and the mains within the city. A lessee was found in the Central Gas Com- pany. and on July 3. 1898, the citizens of the city voted by a majority of
Digitized by Google
1044
CHAMPAIGN COUNTY, OHIO.
three hundred and six to thirty-seven to ratify the lease and sell everything (except the mains in the city) pertaining to the gas system which had cost it more than a quarter of a million dollars. The city still owns the reducing station on Miami street and the city mains, while the Ohio Fuel Company owns the wells and the pipe line therefrom to the city limits.
R. S. Pearce was secretary and superintendent of the plant from the time of its installation until 1898. From July, 1898. to January, 1917, he was agent of the Central Gas Company, and since the first of the present year has served in a similar capacity for the Ohio Fuel Supply Company. There has been an ample supply of gas until the last few years, but during the extreme cold weather of 1916-17 the supply became very low. There are one thousand eight hundred and fifty consumers of the service, all within the city limits. The city has paid off all its gas bonds.
ELECTRICITY IN URBANA.
Every improvement in Urbana since 1890 has caused the taxpayer to make caustic remarks concerning the city's investment in natural gas. The city's experience in gas and water has been an expensive one, but now that neither utility is any longer a financial burden it is possible to look back over the years and wonder that a wideawake city could get into such a condition as Urbana got into in connection with its gas and water supply.
The question of the installation of an electric-light plant in the city came to the front before the ten-year water fight opened: if it had been postponed until 1899 the chances are that it would have been several years later before electricity would have been introduced. Certainly the water situation post- poned the paving of streets for several years and it is reasonable to suppose that it would have had the same effect on an electric-light plant.
The agitation for electricity began shortly before the city leased its inter- est in the gas business ( outside of the mains in the city) to a private com- pany. The first electric light plant was installed in 1895 by Edward Ellicott, of Chicago, who was acting in the interest of local parties. Shortly after it was installed and put into operation it was acquired by a local company oper- ating under the name of the Urbana Light Company. The officers of the company were: Frank Chance. president : Charles H. Ganson. vice-presi- dent : John C. Powers, secretary-treasurer : Frank Valentine, general manager. In 1898 this company sold the plant to the Dayton, Springfield & Urbana Electric Railway Company ( now the Ohio Electric Company), but in the following year the Urbana Light Company again became the owners of the
Digitized by Google
1045
CHAMPAIGN COUNTY, OHIO.
local plant. The officers of the company at that time were Clitus H. Marvin, president : John F. Brand, vice-president ; John C. Powers, secretary ; Thomas A. Edmonson, treasurer ; J. G. Barrett, general manager.
In 1905 the company erected a new plant and installed new and up-to- date machinery. The old plant was torn down and the new one placed on the old site. No change was made in the officers of the company between 1899 and 1913. In the latter year the local company sold out to the North- western Ohio Light Company, a foreign corporation with headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts. Lindsey Cooper is president and Charles A. Olson, secretary-treasurer. This company still owns the local plant and is now operating under a franchise granted in 1905 for a period of twenty-five years. The local officers of the company are William P. Hurd, district manager; Willis T. Augur, superintendent : C. D. Loudenback, cashier and office man- ager. Clarence Shrader is the chief engineer. There are eight local employees in addition to those mentioned.
The present equipment of the plant is in good condition. When the Northwestern Ohio Light Company secured control of the plant in 1913 it proceeded at once to install new machinery and equipment throughout and the plant is now as well equipped as any plant in the state in a city of the size of Urbana. The plant is valued at one hundred thousand dollars. The company has seven hundred and fifty consumers of light and power within the city. The largest individual user of the service is the W. B. Marvin Company which uses about forty-five dollars worth of current each month. The company has, in addition to the consumers in the corporation, about four hundred consumers outside of the city limits, most of whom are to be found in North Lewisburg. Woodstock, Mechanicsburg. Cable, Mutual and Catawba.
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.