Documentary History of American Water-works

Southampton

Southampton, Massachusetts

Southampton was settled in 1732.

The first water system was operating by the 1820s using wooden pipes delivering water from mountain springs.

The Southampton Aqueduct Company was organized in 1865 by local businessmen. This company was reorganized as the Mountain Spring Water Company in 1900.

The town of Southampton was authorized in 1931 to buy water from the city of Holyoke, to purchase the Mountain Spring Water Company, or to construct its own water works. The town thereafter bought the Mountain Spring Water Company.

Water is provided by the Town of Southampton.

References
1900 Springfield Republican, May 18, 1900, Page 8.
Hampshire County. Southampton. The Mountain Spring water company of Southampton has attached the property of Noah H. Clark of Southampton for $500, in an action of contract. An account is annexed to the attachment, showing that it is the purpose to collect $212.40 on account, including interest. The items are charges for water taken in the past six years and distributed to citizens of Southampton. Noah H. Clark has a deed to half of a spring of water, and Silas Sheldon and another owned the other half, and in later years the heirs of these several parties have tried to control the water, and recently have formed themselves into a company under the name of "Mountain Spring water company," which company now brings suit. The hearing is put down for a week from to-tomorrow. F. K. Sheldon, A. R. Nimocks, A. A. Swift, I. T. Alstrom, and Mary Ranger now represent the Mountain Spring water company.

1906 Report of the Tax Commissioner of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for the year ending December 31, 1905
Page 215: Mountain Spring Water Company of Southampton, Massachusetts. Certificate filed in Secretary's Office, January 6, 1900.

1931 An act authorizing the town of Southampton to supply itself and its inhabitants with water. May 20, 1931.

2010 "Southampton Town History" from Southampton Master Plan Website
Page 5: Numerous springs on Little Mountain provided water for the village center. As early as the 1820's, wooden pipes carried water from the mountain springs to village homes. A group of local businessmen established the Southampton Aqueduct Company, the Town's first private water company, in 1865. The company reorganized and became the Mountain Spring Water Company and later the Mountain Spring Water Works, which provided the town center residents with water until 1931, when the town bought out the troubled company.