USA > Vermont > Bennington County > Manchester > Manchester, Vermont : a pleasant land among the mountains, 1761-1961 > Part 10
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Frederick W. Cook October 23, 1889 William H. Bundy December 7, 1889 Charles K. Young March 31, 1893
John H. Whipple April 17, 1897
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Carl A. Mattison January 19, 1914 John H. Dimond December 28, 1922 Louis F. Martin August 16, 1935 Louis F. Martin, Jr. August 19, 1948 William C. Nawrath October 1, 1953
The name of the post office was changed to Manchester Center on November 15, 1886.
The third Manchester post office was established in 1871 in Bar- numville. Sixty people lived in Barnumville at the time and the post office also serviced thirty other families outside the community. Horace D. Baldwin was appointed postmaster July 10, 1871. Others were Julia Baldwin, May 4, 1882; Julia M. Baldwin, May 14, 1883; Julia M. Gleason, May 5, 1885. The post office was discontinued in 1894 and its business transferred to Manchester Depot.
The last post office established in Manchester was at Manchester Depot with John C. Blackmer the first postmaster. He was appointed July 6, 1874. Succeeding postmasters and the dates of their ap- pointment were :
Leonard Pettibone March 11, 1893
John C. Blackmer April 28, 1897 Charles A. Bourn November 20, 1907
Herbert S. King January 19, 1914
Charles A. Bourn December 4, 1922
Donald L. Mattison July 26, 1935
Lois W. Mattison (Acting) May 23, 1944
Donald L. Mattison June 8, 1946
On January 27, 1949 something new in post office service began with the establishment of a highway post office. One of the first routes in New England was established through Manchester. On these well-equipped vehicles mail is sorted en route as it was form- erly in railway mail cars before the cessation of passenger train service made the new project necessary. In addition to these high- way post offices, mail is also brought by ordinary trucking service.
Manchester's volume of mail, when divided among the three post offices, gives each a Second Class rating. They vary some, however, in the volume handled.
CHAPTER XII
Manchester's Utilities
§ Fire Protection
T HE first step in providing fire protection for the steady in- crease in valuable property in Manchester was the organization of fire districts as mentioned in the chapter on town govern- ment. Fire District No. 1, embracing the area of the Center and the Depot, was laid out in 1877. Fire District No. 2, contained in the present Village limits, was organized the following year. The next step was the organization of fire companies.
The Pacific Fire Engine Company, composed of the Pacific Fire Company and the Pacific Hose Company, was organized in Dis- trict No. 1 March 12, 1877. In 1880 it had about sixty members with C. A. Bundy as foreman, and in 1885 it had seventy volunteers. Any able-bodied Manchester citizen seventeen years of age could become a member by a majority vote after signing the bylaws and paying a $1 entrance fee.
The company had one Button hand engine with which water was pumped from the stream. In 1887 the tannery whistle was used for a fire alarm. The Center firehouse was originally by the river near the Colburn House and was moved to its present location in 1921. In January 1924 it caught fire and the roof burned off.
After the construction of the water system, the Pacific Engine Company resolved, on November 26, 1884, to transfer all rights, title, and interest in the engine house, engine, hose, and all fire apparatus as it existed to Fire District No. 1 of Manchester. No
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other entries appear in the records until March 9, 1896, when the company voted to buy a new hose cart to be kept in the Center fire- house. Any remaining money was to be used for uniforming a hose company provided one was organized within twelve months.
Some doubt was expressed as late as 1902 as to the necessity of continuing the organization, as hydrant service was available. But the company continued. It was reorganized June 15, 1907 with Harry L. Adams as secretary, a position he still holds under the present Manchester Fire Company. Earl Marsh was made chief en- gineer of the district in 1924. Maynard Carlisle was chief from 1932 until 1951 and Lynford Bourn has held the office since November 1951.
The Undine Fire Company was formed in Fire District No. 2 on January 2, 1877. The engine was named "Undine." According to records, the nine members of the hook and ladder company and nine members of the hose company grew to eighty-three. However, by October 18, 1884 thirty-three had left town or the fire district and five had died.
The organization was more complex than the Pacific Company, for in the years from 1876 to 1886 it was composed of Hook and Ladder Company No. 14 and Hose Company No. 14. Equipment included one hose cart, one hand engine, and one hook and ladder truck. Among its officers were:
First Foreman A. J. Hurd First Assistant Foreman C. F. Orvis Second Assistant Foreman George Swift Secretary A. J. Black
Hose Foreman E. H. Fowler
Assistant J. N. Hard Hook and Ladder Foreman H. Eggleston
Assistant Harry Gray
Pipeman Joseph W. Fowler Assistant John Boynton
Apparently a firehouse was built before 1885 though its location is unknown. Four sets of overalls were kept there for the use of members working around the place.
As the Village is located on high ground, no major stream for
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water supply is available as at the Center. Wooden cisterns, there- fore, were installed in the area, one of 1,000 barrels' capacity and others of 100 barrels' capacity. Some were furnished with water piped from a spring near Burr and Burton Seminary.
The Undine Company was always ready to go to Factory Point if help was needed. The Manchester Journal proposed :
It would be well if the telegraph operators in both villages would remain at their posts at the commencement of a fire in either village and thus give early word if help is likely to be needed. Either village is always ready to help the other.
There seems to be no record of when the present engine house was built or moved to its location. In a photo of buildings along the Village green the firehouse appears to be standing nearer the street, but the picture bears no date. Manchester Village bought a new fire truck in 1926 and various alterations were made in the firehouse to accommodate it. The roadway was also widened, a cellar put un- der the building, and a heating plant installed.
At a special meeting in November 1926 the Village decided an eight- or ten-man crew on permanent call should man the truck. Special telephone gongs were installed in their homes.
The two fire districts had always co-operated, so it did not take many years after the idea was broached to weld the two fire depart- ments into one organization. Town meetings from 1925 to 1931 voted $300 to maintain a force of paid firemen. In subsequent years fire protection payment was left to the discretion of the Selectmen until 1953, when the town meeting voted to authorize the Selectmen to establish and maintain a fire department as provided by state law.
Since the new arrangement has gone into effect, a Maxim 750- gallon pumper has been purchased; the fire alarm signal system has been improved; a new utility truck bought; and a more acceptable pay scale for practice and actual labor at fires set up. The streets in both villages have been named, which is a help in locating fires more easily. The next major item of improvement may be the construc- tion of more commodious quarters for housing apparatus.
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§ The Manchester Water Company
ORGANIZATION of the Manchester Water Company to supply Manchester adequately with water was undertaken to meet a demand for better fire protection.
In the early 1890s the community realized that the facilities of its two fire districts were not sufficient to provide proper protection for the steadily increasing amount of valuable property. This real- ization was probably deepened by a disastrous fire of December 23, 1893, which destroyed the business properties along the east side of Manchester Center's Main Street.
In the winter of 1894, John Marsden, a contractor working out of Utica, New York, came to Manchester and apparently saw the op- portunity for a successful business venture. He entered into a con- tract May 22, 1894 with Fire District No. 2 for the purchase of springs on Mount Equinox and rights of way which the District had acquired for the construction of a water system. In July of the same year he made a similar contract with Fire District No. 1 except for springs and rights of way.
The system was constructed in the fall of 1894 by Murray, Mars- den, & Company who imported Italian workers for the job. They were housed at the Depot near the railroad tracks where the Norcross-West marble mill was later located.
The agreement with the fire districts was to improve the springs as a source of supply, build a million-gallon reservoir for each dis- trict, and lay cast iron mains of not less than four-inch diameter. Another interesting feature of the contract was the feeding of the pipes from the springs directly into the distribution system rather than into the reservoirs. These would be filled with surplus from the mains, thus insuring a supply of fresh water in the pipes.
The Manchester Water Company came into the picture by pur- chasing all water contracts, rights of way, etc. from John Marsden and Murray, Marsden, & Company. The Water Company was formed October 23, 1894 with Henry W. Millar of Utica, New York, John Marsden of Utica, Mason S. Colburn of Manchester Center, J. W. Fowler of Manchester Depot, and E. C. Orvis of Manchester Village as Associates. The Water Company purchased the water system November 15, 1894 and secured some remaining rights from the fire districts in January 1895.
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Arthur Marsden, son of John Marsden, came to Manchester in April 1895 to install water services to customers. In 1904 he re- turned to Manchester and became superintendent and manager of the water system, replacing Si Hughes, who had been with the com- pany since its beginning as construction foreman.
The Water Company sought additional supplies of water on the Green Mountains in 1895 and in January of the following year water rights and springs were acquired. It was not until 1901 that pipe was laid and east side water connected to the Center and De- pot distribution systems.
The distribution has since been expanded as demand warranted. Pipe was laid to Richville in 1913, out the Barnumville Road in 1947, and up the Hicksville Road to East Manchester in 1949. The Frost spring was made available as a supplementary supply to part of the Depot and Richville in 1915.
Arthur Marsden retired from active participation in the company in 1943 when his son, Howard, took over. The Water Company is now the oldest corporation in the community under the same man- agement, spanning a period of sixty-five years.
§ Sewer Systems
As Manchester and its buildings continued to grow in size, the problem of waste disposal began to loom larger. Soil conditions in much of the town proved ideal with its gravelly nature for the in- stallation of septic tank disposal systems for individual homes. Many homes are still accommodated in this manner. But by 1900 enough people felt that some different system of waste disposal was necessary to warrant construction of sewer lines.
Private enterprise was responsible for the construction of various lines in Manchester Village which were later taken over by the Vil- lage. The first outlet was on open ground near the Battenkill, but this proved unsatisfactory and the outlet was extended directly to the river, resulting in direct pollution of the stream. Private sewers constructed about the same time at Manchester Depot and on the southern end of Bonnet Street at the Center were added sources of stream pollution.
In late 1935 Manchester Village began the construction of a modern disposal plant with the aid of federal money, money voted
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by the Village, and private contributions by Bartlett Arkell, W. B. Pettibone, and W. H. Wehrhane. The plant was located west of the Battenkill and south of the location of the former electric light plant.
The Manchester Depot Sewer Company issued 214 shares of stock at $10 each for construction of a sewer in that locality, and assessments were made for its maintenance. It has given consider- able trouble at times and empties right into the Battenkill. Fire Dis- trict No. 1 discussed its possible purchase in 1945, but considered it an unwise investment.
The sewer on Bonnet Street was constructed when there were only a few houses on the street. As new homes were built they were connected so that all residences south of School Street are served by it. B. J. Connell is the present treasurer and manager.
The 1946 town meeting voted to have the Selectmen appoint a committee to investigate and report on the feasibility of some sys- tem of sewage disposal and a disposal plant to serve Manchester Center, Depot, and Way's Lane. The committee submitted a report signed by Louis Martin and Leon Wiley with a map published in the 1946 town report. The layout of the sewer lines was designed by Henry W. Taylor, who was the engineer for the Manchester Vil- lage disposal plant. No figures were submitted with the report and no action was taken on it by the town.
The 1958 town meeting directed town authorities to seek federal and state funds with which to conduct a preliminary survey of a proposed sewage plant with its attendant facilities. The final step was a vote for a $230,000 bond issue for the construction of a sew- age system by the 1959 town meeting, later confirmed by a two- thirds vote at a special town meeting June 21, 1960.
There the matter stands with the prospect that soon Manchester may be removed from the roster of towns contributing raw sewage to its main streams.
§ Telephone and Telegraph
MANCHESTER'S unusual interest in telegraphy has often been at- tributed to the fact that the Rev. J. D. Wickham, headmaster of Burr and Burton Seminary, was a personal friend and correspondent of the inventor, Samuel F. B. Morse. At any rate, Manchester did not
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lag far behind the first commercial system which was set up in 1844 between Baltimore and Washington.
In 1846 Matthew B. Goodwin, jeweler and watchmaker, became the town's first telegrapher in a dwelling he built for himself and his business "two doors north of the Equinox House" or "one door north of the Bank, Manchester, Vermont." Goodwin was telegrapher for the "American Telegraph Company" and the "Troy and Canada Junction Telegraph Company." Shares of capital stock at $15 each in the latter company were payable at the Bank of Manchester or at various other Vermont banks. A message of less than fifteen words to Bennington cost twenty-five cents.
By 1871 L. C. Orvis, manager of the "Western Union Telegraph Company," expressed willingness to send emergency telegrams on Sundays from his Village drugstore. Orvis even needed to hire an assistant, Clark J. Wait. The Manchester Journal commented edi- torially on the surprising amount of local telegraphic business.
In the fall of 1878, the "Popular Telegraph Line" was established between Manchester and Factory Point by the owners, Paul W. Orvis, Henry Gray, J. N. Hard, and Clark J. Wait. The line soon lived up to its name, as local messages of moderate length could be sent for a dime and the company was quickly able to declare very liberal dividends on its capital stock.
In 1879 the same Clark Wait, with H. H. Holley of South Dorset, formed the "American Telegraph Line," extending from Manches- ter Depot via Factory Point and South Dorset to Dorset. Besides being most convenient, the line "soon proved a good investment for the owners." Telegraphers at the Depot at this time were Aaron C. Burr and Mark Manley of "Burr and Manley," dealers in lumber and dry goods.
Early equipment was very flimsy; the smallest gusts of wind top- pled poles, making communications impossible. But companies continued to spring up. By 1883 the "Battenkill Telegraph Com- pany" was in existence and Alvin Pettibone was its president. Op- erating in 1887 was the "Valley Telegraph Line," officers of which were E. C. Orvis, president; H. K. Fowler, vice-president and sec- retary; J. N. Hard, treasurer; F. H. Walker, superintendent; H. S. Walker, assistant superintendent. Two companies now had head- quarters with Clark J. Wait, who by then had his own drugstore at
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Factory Point-the "Northern Union Telegraph Company" and the "Western Union." Operators were Arthur Koop and Norman Taylor. Still existing on a "Northern Union" telegraph form is a typical peremptory message from Peru grocer J. J. Hapgood to Burton and Graves' store in Manchester-"Get and send by stage sure four pounds best Porterhouse or serloin stake, for Mrs. Hap- good send six sweet oranges."
About 1888 J. E. McNaughton of Barnumville and E. G. Bacon became proprietors of the "Green Mountain Telegraph Company," connecting all offices on the Western Union line and extending over the mountain from Barnumville to Peru, Londonderry, South Londonderry, Lowell Lake, Windham, North Windham, Grafton, Cambridgeport, Saxton's River, and Bellows Falls.
From 1896 until 1910 John H. Whipple was manager of Western Union at the Center in the drugstore he purchased from Clark Wait. The Village office of Western Union with George Towsley as man- ager and telegrapher continued in Hard's drugstore until 1905. During the summers, Towsley often needed the assistance of a com- pany operator.
These were the years when people flocked to Manchester not only to play golf, which had come into vogue, but also to witness the Ekwanok Country Club tournaments. New Yorkers were kept informed of scores by reporters who telegraphed fifteen to twenty thousand words daily to the metropolitan newspapers. This boosted local telegraph business and Manchester basked in all the free ad- vertising. In 1914 when the town was chosen for the U. S. Amateur Golf tournament, a representative hurried here from the Boston manager's office. In his wake came the District Traffic Supervisor and the cream of the telegraphic profession, ten of Boston's best, chosen for their long experience and thorough knowledge of golf. During that tournament alone, some 250,000 words winged their way out of Manchester.
The old Morse system was replaced locally by the Simplex mod- ern automatic method in 1929, when Ellamae Heckman (Wilcox) was manager of the Western Union office. During summers, busi- ness was so brisk that Mrs. Wilcox had two assistants and a mes- senger. She was succeeded by Clarence Goyette. Since that time the telegraph office has shifted in location from the railroad station at
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the Depot and shops at the Center back to the town clerk's office and drugstore at the Village. After being located for some years in the Village at the Equinox Pharmacy under the supervision of Mrs. Harry Mercier, it is presently located in the Hill and Dale Shop, Manchester Center.
The first known telephone line in Manchester was established in July 1883 between Burr and Manley's store at Manchester Depot and the Kent and Root Marble Company in South Dorset. This was extended the following year to include the railroad station agent's office and Thayer's Hotel at Factory Point. In November 1887 a line connecting several dwelling houses in Dorset was extended to Manchester Depot. Telephone wires from Louis Dufresne's house in East Manchester to the Dufresne lumber job near Bourn Pond were up about 1895. Eber L. Taylor of Manchester Depot recorded the setting of phone poles in East Dorset and Barnumville in his diary for 1906. These must have been for local calls strictly, as in May 1900 the "only long distance telephone" in town was trans- ferred from C. B. Carleton's to Young's shoe store.
A small single switchboard was installed in the Village over Woodcock's hardware store (later E. H. Hemenway's). George Woodcock was manager and troubleshooter; Elizabeth Way was the first operator; and a night operator was also employed. Anyone fortunate enough to have one of those early phones advertised the fact along with the telephone number in the Manchester Journal.
In 1918 the New England Telephone Company began erecting a building to house its operations on the corner of U.S. Rte. 7 and what is now Memorial Avenue at Manchester Center. Service run- ning through Barnumville and to Bennington County towns east of the mountains was in the hands of the "Gleason Telephone Com- pany" in 1925, but major supervision of telephone lines in Man- chester was with the New England Telephone and Telegraph Com- pany, which eventually gained all control. More aerial and under- ground equipment was installed as well as office improvements to take care of the expanding business.
In 1931 Mrs. F. H. Briggs, agent and chief operator, who was to retire in 1946 with thirty years' service, led agency offices in sales for the year with $2,490. William Hitchcock, who retired in 1938, was a veteran of thirty-four years' local service. Another veteran
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telephone operator was Edith Fleming Blackmer, who had been in the office forty years at the time of her death in 1960.
In 1932 Dorset received its own exchange, which made business easier for the Manchester office, but it was not until February 1953 that area service was extended to include Manchester and Dorset. This eliminated toll calls between the two towns. Within a month, calls were up seventy per cent.
§ Electric Power
ELECTRICITY plays such an important part in community life to- day that it is difficult to envision a time when current was not avail- able for daily use. Yet one has to go back only some sixty years.
The first mention of an electric plant in Manchester seems to be one installed in Reuben Colvin's and Houghton's gristmill on the West Branch in Factory Point. No records are available as to the date or extent of installation, but it may have been in 1896.
On June 14, 1900 the Manchester Journal reported that an elec- trical engineer was installing an electric light plant for Edward S. Isham at "Ormsby Hill." This was working by the end of August and giving satisfactory service.
In November 1900 surveying was done under John Marsden on the east mountains to ascertain if it would be possible to get suffi- cient water and fall to operate an electric power plant. Nothing came of it, perhaps due to lack of opportunity for water storage.
The next step was construction by the Manchester Light and Power Company of a plant on the west bank of the Battenkill south of Union Street bridge. This was nearly completed May 23, 1901 with a promise of lights by June 10, but the first light did not go on until September 28. It was at the end of the sidewalk in front of the Dellwood Cemetery cottage.
The first directors of the Manchester Light and Power Company were John Marsden, M. L. Manley, William F. Orvis, George Smith, and John Blackmer. The officers were John Marsden, president; John C. Blackmer, vice-president; George Smith, treasurer; and William F. Orvis, secretary. Marsden was manager of the company for ten years and manager of its successor company, the Colonial Light and Power Company, for one year.
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At about the time the Marsden enterprise was getting under way, the Vail Light and Lumber Company started construction of a chair stock factory on the site of the present Bennington Co-operative Creamery, intending to use its surplus power for generating elec- tricity. Manchester then had two competing power companies until 1904, when the Manchester Light and Power Company purchased the transmission system of the Vail Company. This was fortunate, as the Vail plant burned in 1905.
The Colonial Light and Power Company was succeeded by the Vermont Hydro-Electric Corporation, which in turn was absorbed by the Central Vermont Public Service Corporation. The latter now furnishes the area with electricity distributed from a modern sub- station at Manchester Depot which was put into operation February 19, 1930 and was improved in January 1942 by the installation of larger transformers.
For a time following the abandonment of the local plant, electric current for Manchester was brought in from the south with an emergency tie-in with the Vermont Marble Company system to the north. This was dispensed with several years ago.
The most recent power-producing facility in the area is a private enterprise of Dr. J. G. Davidson on the west side of Mount Equinox, where a lake of thirty acres holding 216,000,000 gallons of water has been impounded at an altitude of 2,179 feet. Some of the power is used for a C.A.A. peripheral communications station at the top of Equinox. This station has four receiving and transmitting towers 129 feet high, which enable planes to contact Logan International Airport at Boston, Massachusetts, for landing and other operational instructions. Lake Madeleine Dam was dedicated October 11, 1957.
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