Incorporation of the Borough of Willimantic
In 1833 the growth of the village seemed to indicate that the condition
of things might be improved by incorporation as a borough. A petition to
the legislature was accordingly presented, which contained the signatures
of the business men of the place. It was sent to the legislature at their
session at Hartford, in May, 1833. Stephen Hosmer was one of the
representatives of the town, and through his efforts, together with those
of other citizens, a charter was obtained, organizing Willimantic into a
borough. Mr. Hosmer was authorized to call a meeting of the legal voters
residing within the corporate limits for the purpose of completing the
organization by the election of officers provided for in the charter. The
meeting was held on the first day of July in the same year, and the
following officers were elected: Loren Carpenter, warden; Doctor Newton
Fitch, clerk and treasurer; Wightman Williams, Asa Jillson, Samuel
Barrows, Jr., William C. Boon, ' Doctor William Witter, Royal Jennings,
burgesses; Stephen Dexter, bailiff. A tax was levied and Thomas W.
Cunningham was chosen tax collector.
Under the charter a disinterested committee of three persons was to be
appointed once in five years, by the county court of Windham, to setoff to
the borough their fair proportion of roads in the town to keep in order
during the following five years. This arrangement after a time became a
source of dissatisfaction, as many of the roads to be repaired were
outside the corporate limits. By a subsequent amendment to the charter
this matter was remedied by assigning only the highways within its limits
to the borough. The regular election of officers occurs on the second
Tuesday in November annually. The borough officers in 1888 , were: John M.
Alpaugh, warden; William H. Latham, George Tiffany, James A. McAvoy, D. W.
C. Hill, Charles R. Utley, James. M. Smith, burgesses; Charles N. Daniels,
clerk and treasurer; Frederick L. Clark, bailiff; Charles B. Jordan,
collector; Albert R. Morrison, Samuel C. Smith, Jerome B. Baldwin, water
commissioners; Homer E. Remington, treasurer of water fund.
The history of the fire companies of Willimantic begins with the history
of the first company at Windham Green. Upon the petition of Samuel Gray
and others the legislature in May, 1814, granted to the " Center
District," the name applied to Windham Green, certain corporate privileges
which were improved in measures for protection against fire. Some
obstruction in the conditions or powers of the people under this and
subsequent acts prevented the accomplishment of the purpose desired in
that way, and a voluntary effort was made by the people, by which a fire
engine was obtained. In June, 1821, the corporate fire district purchased
of the private company their engine for $180, and July 2d, George W. Webb,
Henry Webb and Eliphalet Ripley were chosen fire wardens for the district,
with instructions to enlist a fire company. A company of twenty-four was
promptly formed. In addition, cisterns, wells, buckets and other appa-.'
ratus for working at fires were provided and an engine house built, which
stood in the vacant lot just back of the present Congregational church at
Windham. The original hand engine is still preserved as a curious historic
relic. In shape it is like a miniature rectangular coal barge, in
dimensions six by two and a half feet at the top, and five by one and a
half feet at the bottom, and a foot or more in depth. The body is mounted
on a pair of low wheels. The two pump levers move horizontally across the
top of the body, the handles running across them being long enough to
allow two men at each lever to work them. The body is mounted by a
cylindrical water dome, through which water was forced by two pistons
connected with the levers. Water was brought in buckets and poured into
the body at one end, whence it was drawn by the pump and discharged
through a hose which at first was only four feet long, with a. nozzle at
the end. Twenty feet of hose was afterward purchased. The engine was
provided with thills by which a horse could be used, but it was generally
drawn by hand. By vigorous working it could be made to throw a half-inch
stream fifty or sixty feet into the air. The original company disbanded in
1850, and then the engine was sold to the late Justin Swift, in whose
family it still remains.
As the growth of Willimantic increased the dangers from fire, some
organized means of protection seemed necessary. As early as 1830 movements
were made in that direction, but nothing was accomplished until after the
incorporation of the borough. In October, 1833, fire wardens were elected,
whose duty it was to direct the people who should volunteer to work at
fires. Apparatus was also provided for, such as ladders, buckets, etc. An
engine, similar to the Windham engine, was also procured. - A company
appears to have been formed at some time between 1830 and 1833, but its
organization and members are matters of uncertainty, as no records appear
to exist in relation to it. The number of fire wardens varied at different
times, being three, four, five and at one time as great as thirteen. In
1837 the number of members in the company was allowed to be increased by
ten. Certain privileges were allowed members of the fire company so that
the ranks were easily filled when vacancies occurred. The need of some
more effective means was felt, and by the logic of events in several
disastrous fires it was shown that the old engine was not equal to the
times, and the company seems to have become disorganized about the year
1850. The old engine was stored for a while, but in 18.58 it was sold,
together with the engine house and equipments. The engine house stood for
many years on the " Jesse Spafford lot," now covered by the Hamlin block,
and its exact location was on the northeast corner now occupied by W. N.
Potter's drug store.
From the dates last mentioned up to 1868 there vas no engine company or
engine for extinguishing fires in the borough. The need of some means of
protection was strongly urged, both by prudent minds and disastrous
events. Efforts had been made in that direction the previous year, but
nothing decisive had been accomplished. In the latter part of the year
1867 a committee was appointed to inquire into the cost of fire apparatus.
The committee was instructed March 5th, 1868, to buy a secondhand engine
which it had been ascertained was for sale at Greenville, Conn., for three
hundred dollars. - This was done. The engine was mounted on four wheels,
and was operated by levers at which about twenty men could work at once.
It was provided with suction pipe, and would draw water from a cistern or
well and discharge it through a line of hose. Various schemes for further
improvement were agitated, but no definite plan was settled upon until
November, 1872, when the borough ordered two chemical fire extinguishers
of the New. England Fire Extinguisher Company, at an expense of $1,600.
Meanwhile the Excelsior Hook and Ladder Company was formed, with Joel W.
Webb as foreman, and the borough purchased them a truck provided with
single and extension ladders, and other proper equipments. Two companies
were formed to operate the chemical fire extinguishers. The first was
called Fountain Fire Extinguisher No. 1, and the second, Fountain Fire
Extinguisher No. 2. John Crawford was foreman of the first, and Samuel
Hughes of the second. The original limit given to the membership of the
hook and ladder company was thirty, and that of each - of the extinguisher
companies was twenty. The limits of the former have since been increased
to forty, and each of the latter to thirty.
The fire department of Willimantic thus being organized, the election of a
chief took place July 15th, 1873. Dwight E. Potter was chosen to that
position. C. Seth Billings was made first assistant, Alex. L. Fuller,
second assistant, and John B. Carpenter, third assistant. These officers
were constituted the board of engineers, taking the place of the former
fire wardens in the management of the fire department. Mr. Potter served
with marked efficiency until the fall of 1880, when he was succeeded by C.
Seth Billings, who served until the fall of 1884. He was then succeeded by
Charles N. Daniels, the present effective chief engineer. Successive
members of the board of engineers since the first board have been-George
H. Purinton, Alex. L. Fuller, Joel W. Webb, George H. Millerd, H. L.
Edgarton, M. E. Lincoln, Charles N. Daniels, Charles E. Leonard, Thomas
Burke, Luke Flynn, Jr., and James Tighe.
In 1880 the Board of Fire Police was started, with -six members, viz., M.
E. Lincoln, Cyril Whittaker, Luke Flynn, Jr., C. M. Palmer, C. B. Pomeroy
and Roland White. Their duties are to protect property exposed at fires,
and to keep the crowd from interfering with-the firemen, and they are
empowered the same as regular policemen.
The chemical extinguishers did not prove satisfactory in their practical
working, and were sold at auction in 1874. Their places were supplied by
new hose carriages which were received in November, 1875, their cost being
5550 each. The companies now changed their names. No. 1 became Alert Hose
Company, and No. 2 adopted the name Montgomery Hose Company. John Tew was
the first foreman of the Alerts and Jerry O'Sullivan of the Montgomerys.
The supply of water from an elevated reservoir made the use of the engines
for throwing water unnecessary for the greater part of the village at
least. A Bucket Company was organized December 17th, 1877, as an
independent company. It was supplied with a truck, ladders and buckets,
the expense of which was borne by voluntary contributions from members or
individual citizens of the borough. John Leonard ' was its first foreman.
It entered the field with much enthusiasm and did good work, but after
about five years its energies began to flag, and the borough not taking
them under its control or patronage the company was disbanded in the
spring of 1884. About a year later they sold their apparatus to the people
of Windham Centre. Successive foremen of this company were Alex. Fuller,
Howard R. Alford and James Johnson, after the first already named.
Within the last two or three years the borough has built and fitted up
truck houses for the accommodation of its fire department, of which the
citizens may justly be proud. Three commodious and substantial buildings
have been provided. The house for Excelsior Hook and Ladder Company No. 1,
stands on Bank street, nearly opposite the rear of the Hooker House. The
truck house of the Alert Hose Company No. 1, is at No. 193 Main street,
and the truck house of Montgomery Hose Company No. 2, is on Jackson street
nearly opposite from the Roman Catholic church. In 1875 the borough was
divided into four fire districts, which number has since been increased to
seven. A code of alarm signals was at the same time established for making
known the location of a fire. The alarm was at first struck by the Baptist
and Methodist church bells only. In 1879 an electric alarm system, with
alarm boxes in suitable places was established in connection with a gong
on the Brainerd House, designed both to notify citizens of the. district
in which a fire may be and to signal for the starting of the mill pumps.
It is estimated that Willimantic has lost during the last quarter century
about $110,000 by fires occurring in the borough. We have not space here
to recount all the fires which have occurred in the history of this
village, but brief reference to two or three important ones may not be out
of place. A sad casualty of the kind was the burning of the old Potter
tavern on the night of January 8th, 1842. This house stood on the site of
the old National House, later the Revere House, and was managed by Niles
Potter. The flames, which it is supposed caught behind a door from a broom
that had been used to sweep up the fireplace-stoves were scarcely known
then-were well under way before discovered, but the fire company and the
villagers generally responded promptly to the alarm, and went to work with
a will. The old engine was brought into requisition, a double line of men
and women was quickly formed across lots down to the Willimantic river, or
to "the cove " which used to set in there, and water was passed in pails
and poured into the engine. In the building there stood an old fashioned
brick chimney, which leaned, but had been supported by the woodwork. The
latter burned away, and as Nathan Benchley, a well-known resident, was
carrying out an armful of things by the back door, the chimney fell upon
him with a terrible crash, crushing his life out instantly. And still
another tragedy was to be revealed. A little ten-year-old girl by the name
of Hutchins, who lived with Mr. -and Mrs. Potter as an adopted child, had
been sleeping with Mrs. Potter's sister Elizabeth. in an upper room. When
they were awakened by the alarm and smoke, the lady took the child, by the
hand and started for the stairs, let go of her hand at the narrow
staircase, told the little one to follow and rushed out, only to find that
the little girl, frightened or suffocated by smoke, had probably turned
back, and it was then too late to save her. Her charred remains were
afterward found in the ruins. Heroic efforts saved the adjoining property.
One of the most destructive fires that ever visited Willimantic occurred
on the night of March 4th, 1868. It started in what was known as Robert
Hooper's twin building, two small, onestory structures joined together and
standing on the lot next west of the present Franklin Hall building. A
deep snow lay
on the ground at the time, but the citizens responded promptly to the
alarm. No organized fire department then existed in the village, and no
apparatus was at command save what had been provided by the individual
enterprise of the cotton mill owners. A three-inch water pipe had been
laid from the Smithville Company's works down Main street to the post
office, through which power pumps at the mill could force water. The pumps
were started, but through some defect in the pipes the water could not be
brought to bear on the fire until the latter was well under way. The
flames rapidly communicated to the large wooden dwelling house of the late
George C. Elliott, which stood next west of the twins, and also to the
three-story wooden Franklin Hall building, owned by Messrs. Alpaugh &
Hooper, which stood next east. The old Presbyterian church on the west,
and the David Tucker house-now Chester Tilden's-on the east were only
saved by vigorous efforts and surprising good fortune. The Tucker house
was joined to the Franklin Hall building by a onestory apartment occupied
by J. Rand Robertson as a- jewelry store. Courageous persons on the roof
of the Tucker house kept it wet down as best as they could, and the stream
from the hydrant was turned alternately upon the jewelry store and the
west side of the Tucker house. The tin roof over the Robertson shop was a
great help, but it seemed as if nothing could save the Tucker house.
Suddenly Dwight E. Potter and William B. Swift, then popular young men
here, with reckless daring mounted the tin roof of the half burned jewelry
shop, and there, surrounded and almost licked by flame, they stood and
told the firemen where to turn their stream. " Young Potter " was
especially daring and helpful to the hosemen, closely watching the flames
and promptly directing e water upon each spot where they got a hold. This
bravery proved the salvation of the Tucker house, and it came out of the
struggle with only a badly scorched side. Even part of the jewelry shop
was saved, and some of the present shelves on the east side were there
then.
February 27th, 1876, occurred the most disastrous fire in the history of
Willimantic, of about the same extent as that of the Franklin Hall and
other buildings in 1868, but more deplorable in its results. Three large
buildings were burned, one of wood, including Starkweather's grist mill
and a flock mill (where the fire started), the next of brick, including
the Atwood Machine and the Conant Silk companies, the third a storehouse.
They stood on Valley street, in order from west to east as named, and the
present Bank street crosses about where the Atwood Machine Company's
building stood. There was no insurance on the flock mill's or the machine
company's stock. The buildings were insured. Mr. Starkweather never
rebuilt here, and both the Atwood Machine and the Conant Silk companies
removed elsewhere, to the regret of our citizens, as they employed many
hands. There was some delay in getting water at this fire, but the chief
difficulty, and the main cause of such a heavy disaster, was the lack of
sufficient hose to reach the fire effectively.
Another destructive fire occurred here February 26th, 1885. This was one
of the largest fires that had ever visited the borough. The Cranston
block, in the heart of the village, was burned and other adjoining
buildings badly damaged. The losses on buildings were estimated as
follows: Cranston building, $3,500; George E. Elliott's building, $10,000;
Kellogg's building, $2,000; McEvoy's building, $1,000. Losses on contents
were estimated at $7,600 in the aggregate.
The Willimantic Water Works are a development which may be said to have
begun with the efforts of the mill owners to protect themselves and their
surroundings from fire in the early years of their enterprise. The first
water pipe system outside of such private enterprises was a three-inch
pipe laid along Main .street from the Smithville Company's mills down to
the post office and up High street to the house of Robert Hooper, near
Valley street, about the year 1853. The expense was borne by the company
and the property owners along the line, and the company contracted to work
the pumps whenever the alarm of fire was given. The system proved
efficient, and as large a stream could be sent out as can be obtained from
any hydrant now in the borough. It is still kept in working order for use
in case of emergencies.
After many years spent in discussing and proposing various schemes for
supplying the village with water for the extinguishing of fires, a
contract was finally made with the mill companies along the river to
furnish power for pumping water through a system of pipes to be laid
through the principal streets, with hydrants at convenient points. The
mill owners were to be allowed for such service a rebate of one-half their
taxes to the borough. Much opposition to the plan prevailed for a time,
but it was finally put into execution with the decided support of the
people of the borough. September 13th, 1873, the borough voted to allow
the warden and burgesses to borrow money to lay the pipes. The work soon
after 'began and was continued, though opposition appeared at every step
and it was impeded somewhat by perplexing litigation, which, however, did
not succeed in preventing the execution of the plan. The system completed,
was connected with the force pumps of the Smithville, Windham, and Linen
companies, and the pressure attainable as 150 pounds to the square inch.
This system seemed to be all that was required for protection against
fires, but with the growth of the village a want soon became apparent for
a system of supplying water for household purposes. In 1880 Messrs.
Whiting, James E. and Willard T. Hayden applied to the general assembly
for corporate privileges as a water company, with the necessary rights of
entering upon property for the specified purposes, with the design of
meeting this growing want. Through the influences brought to bear by the
people of the borough, who were not in favor of water being supplied to
the village by a private company, the incorporation was not effected.
In July, 1882, steps were taken to consider the practical questions
regarding the establishment of public water works, and the idea became so
popular that the borough, at a meeting November 13th, decided to ask the
burgesses to petition the assembly for an amendment to their charter which
would allow them to undertake such an enterprise. In accordance with such
petition the amendment was granted at the May session of 1883. August
18th, 1883, the borough accepted the water charter by a ballot of 194 to
16. January 8th, 1884, George W. Burnham was elected water commissioner
for one year, E. B. Sumner for two years-,-and Henry N. Wales for three
years. The regular year begins January 1st. By a vote taken at a borough
meeting held July 9th, 1884, it was decided, by a vote of 277 against 42,
that public water works should be constructed to supply the village from
the Natchaug river. The commissioners were at the same time authorized to
issue bonds to the amount of $200,000 to carry out the plan. The bonds
were in due time issued, and bore date October -1st, 1884, being in four
equal classes, to run respectively fifteen, twenty, twenty-five and thirty
years, bearing interest at four per cent. per annum. The work was then
pushed forward. A dam and pumping station, and engineer's house were
erected at Conantville, about one and a half miles north of the village,
on the Natchaug, and a reservoir was built on Hosmer mountain, south of
the village. This reservoir has a capacity of five million gallons. More
than twelve miles of iron pipes have been laid through the streets. The
pumping capacity is two thousand gallons per minute. Water from the clear
Natchaug stream is thus driven to the reservoir, which is elevated several
hundred feet above the village, and thence it is led by pipes to the
village, having pressure sufficient to cover any building in the place
with a stream from a "line of hose. "The pressure is so great that in
dealing with fires no engines are necessary.
Back to: Willimantic,
Windham County, Connecticut History
Source: History of Windham County, Connecticut,
Bayles, Richard M.; New York: W.W. Preston, 1889 Back to: Windham County, Connecticut
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