Theodore Hall McKenzie

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biography of Theodore p 96

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The Origins of the Southington Water Department Today, Southington, Connecticut is a successful community with a population of 40,776 and an established industrial base as well as a thriving retail sector. But even 125 years ago, when many Connecticut towns were still farming communities, Southington was a busy industrial village with large three story wooden factories housing companies such as Peck, Stow & Wilcox, the Southington Cutlery Company and the Aetna Nut Company’s rolling mill, among a number of others. Drinking water in town came from dug wells but those wells didn’t serve to quell the big fear of every factory owner: fire. Fires had leveled factories and mills across New England during those times and in 1881 a number of the leading citizens of Southington decided it was time to establish a reliable source of water for fire protection as well as for domestic use. A charter was granted by the state legislature in 1882 and 600, one hundred dollar shares in the new company were authorized. Three hundred ten of these shares were purchased by four local companies and 140 were bought by 22 local individuals. At a town meeting, it was voted to have the Town of Southington invest $15,000 in the remaining shares, but enabling legislation was required from the state Such an act was passed in 1883 but it contained a provision that the town would have the right to acquire the entire water works within 20 years at a price equal to the entire sum expended on the water works, plus 6% interest, less any dividends that had been paid Some years later, that provision became a deal-breaker. On March 28, 1883, a meeting of the newly elected directors of the Southington Water-Works was held and a board member and investor, Theodore H. McKenzie, shown in the records to be a “local engineer,” was appointed to work with a consulting engineer from New York to investigate possible sources of water supply In May of that year, the company’s directors met again and Humiston Brook was selected as a water source from the four alternatives presented by McKenzie McKenzie was then authorized to prepare plans and specifications for construction of the reservoirs and distribution system A general contractor was hired in July, 1883 and under Theodore McKenzie’s guidance, both a storage and a distribution reservoir were built and connected to the village of Southington by November 1, 1884 It is difficult to understand how a project of this size could be built in just about 18 months but it was, and parts of it still serve today. The budget for the project was $85,000 and in a detailed report to the Water- Works directors in November, 1884, it was noted that the project had been built – including the acquisition of land and water rights – for $85,999.33. T.H. McKenzie would continue his relationship with the Southington Water- Works well into the next century. Nick the blacksmith, in front of his blacksmith shop The use of horses for pulling heavy wagons meant that an on-site blacksmith was a necessary

The directors of the Southington Water Company and some Southington town officials in 1904. The gentleman seated at left (with goatee) is T.H. McKenzie, the engineer who designed and built the company’s first reservoir in 1883 and supervised the construction of the distribution system from the reservoir into the village He served as engineer until 1907. The Southington Water Company was purchased by the Town of Southington in 1911 after a 10 year legal battle that was finally decided by the Connecticut Supreme Court of Errors. A Southington Water Department Project in 1922 • President Warren G. Harding looks on as the Teapot Dome scandal erupts in Congress • An Army Air Corps pilot is the first to fly a plane coast to coast in one day • Maytag introduces the “Gyrofoam,” the first practical washing machine • Dozen of radio stations around the country begin broadcasting for the first time • The Ziegfeld Follies with Will Rogers is a big hit on Broadway In 1922, the world was beginning to move much faster and at the Southington Water Department there was a pressing need for some additional water storage capacity After an engineering study, it was decided to raise the level of the department’s Reservoir No. 2 by seven feet. During the construction, a now unknown Water Department employee recorded the construction on film and later made his own notes on the margin of each snapshot These photos are preserved in an album titled simply, “Water Dep’t Town of Southington.” The photos show how primitive construction of this type was just 87 years ago, at least by today’s standards Horses and wagons were used rather than trucks and the horses required the services of a blacksmith shop. A concrete plant had to be built on site. And excavation was done with a real “steam shovel,” noted to be a “5/8-yd Erie,” complete with an operator and a fireman.

ter-Works of Southington, Connecticut” in which he described in great detail the construction of the project in 1883 and 1884. The paper was published by the American Society of Civil Engineers in its “Transactions, 347 Volume XV – December 1886.” “The water is procured from Humiston’s Brook, a mountain stream having a drainage area of two and one-half square miles, mostly uncultivated, rocky land, with very irregular surface The rock is granite The water is impounded by an earth dam about four miles from Southington Centre and 530 feet above its level Another distributing reservoir is built three-fourths of a mile nearer the town and 343 feet above it, from which a cast iron-pipe is laid to the town.” “In the construction of many of the water-works for small towns in the New England States, but little attention has been given to the grades of pipes, and in laying the pipe the undulations of the ground without relieving the accumulations of air at the summits, and consequently the flow of water in the pipes is impeded; but the works described above have been constructed with the idea in view that money judiciously expended in engineering, planning and superintending was a good investment, and the results confirm that theory.” The Town of Southington Acquires the Water Works In 1901, the town, which owned 150 shares of the Water Works, decided to exercise its option under the provisions of the original 1883 enabling legislation, to acquire the Water Works entirely Once again, special legislation was enacted by the legislature that specified the creation of a Board of Water Commissioners, which would have all of the powers originally given to the directors of the water company in its charter. The purchase was ratified at a town meeting in April, 1901 but amazingly, the directors of the Southington Water Company refused to complete the sale Legal action was taken by the town the following year but it wasn’t until 1911 that the Connecticut Supreme Court of Errors finally decided the matter in favor of the town. On May 24, 1911, the town formally took possession of the water company. One of its first actions was to appoint Samuel H. Mackenzie as Superintendent and Engineer Mr. Mackenzie had taken over as Superintendent of the Southington Water Company from T.H. McKenzie in 1907 and would now continue in that position with the newly formed Southington Water Department The similarity of names of these two distinguished engineers seems to be simply a coincidence. [Correction: Samuel H = Theodore's son- E MacKenzie] Purchasing the Southington Water Company would mean taking on debt and to finance the purchase, the town sold 4-1/2%, 30-year bonds Those bonds sold at a premium of almost $3,600 and that, together with the $37,710 in dividends that the water company had paid the town as a shareholder over the years, formed the working capital for the new water department.