CHAPTER XLVIII. OF PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS.-STREET LIGHTING. THE INTRODUCTION In glancing backward, it is interesting to note how short is the period of time covering the introduction into Amherst of a series of public improvements and conveniences which, unknown till recent date, are now accounted indispensable to the welfare of the town and its inhabitants. Street-lights, concrete walks, running water, sewers, a town hall, street-sprinkling, all these are, in Amherst, the products of the last quarter century. Up to the year 1873, Amherst had no system of public street-lighting. A few public-spirited individuals maintained at their own expense oil-lamps in front of their residences, which served but to accentuate the surrounding gloom. As the Amherst Gas company has been a prominent factor in solving the problem of street-lighting, it seems advisable to give a brief sketch of that organization in connection with this subject. The Amherst Record, under date of Aug. 6, 1868, announced that some months since a number of citizens had met and talked over the subject of introducing gas in the village. A committee was appointed to see if the trustees of the two colleges would introduce gas in the college buildings. At a meeting. held Sept. 4, 1868, a committee was appointed to canvass the village and ascertain how many lights would be taken. The business was placed in charge of C. L. Storrs. March 3, 1870, the Record announced that movements were in process to secure from the Legislature authority for forming a gas company in the village. March 23, of the same year, the General Court passed an act incorporating Edward Dickinson, W. S. Clark, H. F. Hills and others as the Amherst Gas Light company. So far as can be ascertained there was no organization effected under the charter. At a special town-meeting, held Sept. 13, 1873, the town instructed its selectmen to purchase lamps and lamp-posts, to be erected at their discretion in the center village, at a cost not exceeding $200. The selectmen announced, in their report for the year ending March 1, 1874, that they had put in ten lamp-posts and lamps. The latter were kept lighted every night except when the moon was bright. To quote from the report: "We find they are a great comfort to our policemen in their perambulations, and a convenience to the citizens outside, as well as to those living in the immediate center." The expense of the ten lights was $206.46; the selectmen recommended that six more be put in. Oil and gasoline were burned in these lamps. The next year, and for several years thereafter, the appropriation for street lights was joined with that for night police, and a part of the policeman's duties was to light, care for and put out the lamps. Aug. 19, 1875, a meeting was held at the office of W. A. Dickinson to consider the matter of introducing gas in town. Several thousand dollars were subscribed and a committee was chosen to circulate subscription papers. It was proposed to organize a company with a capital stock of $15,000. The necessary capital could not be secured and the project was given up for the time. Aug. 20, 1877, a memorandum of agreement was drawn up and signed by 14 persons, who proposed to form a corporation under the name of the Amherst Gas company, for the manufacture and sale of gas. The capital stock was placed at $5,000, divided into 50 shares. of $100 each; the number of subscribers to this stock was 17. An organization was effected Sept. 24, when the following officers were elected : Directors, H. F. Hills, L. D. Hills, J. H. Seelye, D. W. Palmer, W. A. Dickinson; clerk and treasurer, C. H. Mann. The directors met the same day and elected H. F. Hills president of the company. By-laws were adopted, and it was voted to buy of H. F. Hills land on College street for a station. At a meeting held Oct. 1, it was voted to employ N. H. Lee as superintendent. Work on the mains was begun immediately. The directors having carefully considered the matter, decided to use oil instead of coal as gas-producing material. The main pipe first laid was a little more than one mile in length. The gas was let into the main for the first time Nov. 1, 1877, and that evening there was a grand illumination of the straw hat factories. The works cost about $2,500, the mains about as much more. The oil-tank held 30 barrels of naphtha, the gasometer had a capacity of 32,000 gallons. In August, 1879, the company voted to extend its mains to College hall. July 12, 1880, it was voted to increase the capital stock $5,000, subscriptions to the increase being open only to those who were then stockholders. In September, 1881, it was voted to extend the mains north on Pleasant street. Feb. 27, 1882, the company voted to authorize its president and treasurer to make a contract with the town to furnish gas for street-lamps on such terms as they deemed advisable. The town, at its annual meeting in March, 1883, voted to authorize the selectmen to contract with the Amherst Gas company for gas for street lamps at a cost not exceeding $8 per post per year, the town to pay the expense of making connection with the gas mains. During the year next succeeding, thirteen oil-lights were changed to gas and five new lights put in at an expense to the town of $106.36 for making connections. The selectmen adopted the policy of making connections wherever petitioned for when the lamp-post was furnished at expense of the petitioner, if the public convenience would be promoted thereby. The town paid to the Amherst Gas company, for street lights, in 1884, $216.15; in 1885, $241.71; in 1886, $254.34; in 1887, $302.38; in 1888, $419.70. At a special meeting held April 17, 1888, the town voted to put in ten additional street lights, appropriating $100 to defray the expense. The selectmen, in their report for the year ending Feb. 15, 1889, stated that there were at that time 42 gas street-lamps, and that by agreement among themselves $16, the price of two gas-lights, had been allowed to North Amherst, and the Village Improvement society had maintained 20 street-lamps at that place. At a meeting held Nov. 10, 1884, the Amherst Gas company voted to increase its capital stock 60 per cent.; this vote was rescinded at a meeting held Nov. 9, 1885, and again passed, Nov. 14, 1887. A meeting of the directors was held Nov. 19, 1888, to discuss the matter of engaging in the electric light business. This was followed, Dec. 10, by a stockholders' meeting, when it was voted that the company would engage in the business of generating electricity for light and power if authority for so doing be granted, and the clerk was directed to petition the gas commissioners for that authority. In December, 1888, the selectmen granted permission to the Thomson-Houston company to erect poles and string wires in the town streets and ways, on condition that they should maintain, free of expense to the town, one arc-light of 1200-candle-power, to be located by the selectmen. The plant was put in in the spring of 1889. and the electric current was turned on for the first time April 13. The company furnished for several months four arc-lights without expense to the town. In January, 1889, the Amherst Gas company petitioned the gas commissioners for permission to engage in the business of electric lighting. The petition being granted, the company applied to the selectmen for a street franchise to erect poles and string wires. A similar petition was presented by the Weston Electric Light company. After exhaustive hearings the selectmen decided in May to grant both franchises. The Amherst Gas company voted, Feb. 9, 1889, to reduce its capital stock to $10,000. May 17, 1889, the treasurer was directed to arrange for an agent of the Westinghouse Electric company to come to Amherst and give estimates on the cost of putting in a lighting plant under that system. May 25, the company voted to buy the property of the Thomson-Houston Electric company if a price could be agreed upon, or to sell its own property to the latter company at an agreed price. June 11, 1889, the Gas company appointed D. W. Palmer, H. F. Hills and E. D. Bangs a committee, with power to buy the property of the Thomson-Houston company, or to contract with the Westinghouse Electric company and the Otto Engine company for an electric plant and power, also to contract for buildings for the same. At a stockholders' meeting held Aug. 5, the president was authorized in the name of the company to make a contract for an electric lighting plant of a capacity of not less than 300 lights of 16-candle-power each, at a cost not exceeding $8,000, and to lease land for a building near the gas-works. Sept. 2, 1889, at a stockholders' meeting, the Gas company voted to buy the plant of the Thomson-Houston company for $17,000. The plant as bargained for did not include the boiler, engine or arc-light dynamo. Sept. 4, it was voted to issue $15,000 in bonds, secured by mortgage on all the company's property. Sept. 16, at a stockholders' meeting, it was voted to increase the capital stock to $25,000, the 150 shares of new stock to be sold at auction and the proceeds used in paying for the electric light plant. The directors were authorized to issue bonds of the company to an amount not exceeding the capital stock, the proceeds to be used in the extension and improvement of the company's works and in paying the Oct. 7, the new stock was sold at auction, at $100 per share, the par value. Oct. 8, the Gas company voted to offer the town a system of incandescent lights of 25-candle-power, to burn, except on moonlight evenings, until 11 P. M., for $12 per light per year. Oct. 22, this proposition was again voted, with the added specification that 50 lights be taken, that if used until morning the price should be $16 per year, and that the company should give the town free of expense ten per cent. of the lights contracted for. funded debt. Oct. 26, the company authorized its president to build and fully equip a central station for electric lighting, having a capacity for a 1500-light apparatus. It was also voted to offer the town five 25-candle-power incandescent lights in place of the one arc-light, which the Thomson-Houston company guaranteed to maintain in return for its street franchise. The selectmen made the counter-proposition that the company should furnish seven 32-candle-power lights in place of the one arc-light; this was accepted by the company, Dec. 13. Sept. 29, 1893, the company authorized its president to make a contract for the rental of an arc-light apparatus. This apparatus was secured and put in, and shortly afterward the company made a proposition to the town to furnish nine arc-lights, to be located at different points in the center village, to burn from sunset until midnight, for six months, dating from Dec. 1, for $475. The selectmen accepted. the proposition, the new lights enabling them to dispense with 14 gas-lights. During the year 1893, the town'expended the following sums for street lighting At the center, including arc-lights for six months, $1,012; at North Amherst, $200; at North Amherst "City," $100; at South Amherst, $30; at East Amherst, $60; at Mill Valley $60. At a special town-meeting held April 21, 1894, the town authorized its selectmen to make a fiveyears' contract on behalf of the town, with the Amherst Gas company, for lighting the principal streets. The selectmen signed a written contract providing for 21 arc-lights at $90 each per year; they also made a verbal contract for 22 incandescent lights, for $450 per year, the latter to take the place of the gas-lights. The new incandescent lights were put in in June, 1894. During the year 1895, the town expended $2,807.96 for street lighting, of which sum $2,530.30 was paid to the Amherst Gas company. At the annual meeting in March, 1896, the town appropriated $2,900 for street lights, and a special appropriation of $400, or so much as might be needed, for putting in arc-lights on High, Gray and Pleasant streets. The Gas company's office, which was located for many year in the Savings bank building, was removed in March, 1896, to convenient and commodious quarters in Hunt's block. CONCRETE WALKS. While the matter of highways was one of the first to engage the attention of the settlers in Hadley Third Precinct, neither they nor their descendants for several generations gave time or labor to the construction or repair of sidewalks. Highways were a necessity, sidewalks a convenience. Doubtless there were individuals who, even in the earlier years of the settlement, built and maintained good sidewalks in front of their residences, but the town, as a town, gave them no assistance. There is no mention of public sidewalks in the town records until 1869; the town, at its annual meeting in March of that year, appropriated $500 for sidewalks, of which sum only about $70 was expended during the year. The following year $500 was appropriated and $511.28 expended. In 1871, the appropriation for sidewalks was $300, the money being spent in connection with the work upon the highways. During the year 1871, over $1,100 was spent by the town upon its sidewalks; the amount expended during the year ending March 1, 1874, was about $300. The first public concrete walks in Amherst were laid in 1876. The selectmen, in their report to the town for the year ending March 1, state that some enterprising, public-spirited person had offered to donate $500 for concrete walks if the town would raise and appropriate a like amount. The sum of $1,000 thus secured was to be used in paying one-half the expense of concrete walks, the other half to be paid by owners of property abutting on the walks where laid. The citizen to whom Amherst is indebted |