Documentary History of American Water-works

Hanover

Hanover, New Hampshire

Hanover was settled by Europeans in 1765.

The Proprietors of the Hanover Aqueduct were incorporated in 1805 by Nathan Smith, John Hubbard, Benjamin J. Gilbert and James Wheelock. This company built a system that was not successful and was abandoned and replaced with another system in 1820.

The Hanover Aqueduct Association was incorporated in 1820 by Benjamin I. Gilbert, Ebenezer Adams, Reuben D Mussey and Amos A. Brewster. This company built a system using wood pipes, but replaces them with lead about 1829. This system only served about 100 customers, but remained in service until about 1939.

The Hanover Water Works Company was incorporated in 1889 by Benjamin A. Kimball, Newton S. Huntington, William J. Tucker, Edward P. Storrs, Carleton P. Frost, George Hitchcock, Frank W. Davidson, Charles P. Chase, and Frank S. Streeter "for the purpose of bringing water into the village of Hanover to be used for domestic, fire, and other purposes." This company constructed a system that remains in use.

"In 1903 the College and the company became greatly alarmed at the report of a typhoid epidemic in Ithaca, New York, affecting 1350 persons out of a population of about 3000. In the United States, this was a period of growing awareness but still rudimentary knowledge of sanitary principles, and while some things were known about waterborne disease, the methods for treating water were almost entirely limited to filtration, and that technique itself was still being developed. It was true that Dr. Snow stopped a cholera epidemic in London by simply removing the handle from the Broad Street pump, but such a simple expedient was hardly applicable to a large public water supply, and disinfection had yet to be developed. In his consternation, Robert Fletcher turned to his old friend Allen Hazen for advice. Hazen, then involved in the design and construction of the largest filter plant in the world (in Washington, D.C.), promptly recommended that the entire watershed be purchased and that all human activity there be ended. This bold proposal for an existing public water supply was unprecedented. However, this advice was promptly taken, and by 1912 the permanent cleanliness of the watershed had been secured. Hazen always preached that in the case of water supplies, innocence is better than repentance. In 1973, Hanover's Board of Health adopted a special ordinance ending all unauthorized human presence within the watershed." (1995)

The water system is currently owned by the Hanover Water Works Company, Inc, which is jointly owned by the Town of Hanover (49%) and Dartmouth College (51%). The system is managed by the Town of Hanover. The town water web site includes a chronology of the water works systems.

References
1805 An act to incorporate a company by the name of the proprietors of the Hanover Aqueduct, December 28, 1805.

1820 An act to incorporate a company by the name of the Hanover Aqueduct Association, December 13, 1820

1880 "A Successful Aqueduct of Lead Pipe," by Robert Fletcher, Thayer School of Civil Engineering, Dartmouth College, from Engineering News, 8:411-413 (December 4, 1880)

1882 "Hanover, N. H." from Engineering News 9:189 (June 10, 1882)

1882 Hanover, from "The Water-Supply of Certain Cities and Towns of the United States," by Walter G. Elliot, C. E., Ph. D.

1888 "Hanover," from Manual of American Water Works, Volume 1.

1890 "Hanover," from Manual of American Water Works, Volume 2.

1891 "Hanover," from Manual of American Water Works, Volume 3.

1893 An act to incorporate the Hanover Water Works Company, March 31, 1893.

1897 "Hanover," from Manual of American Water Works, Volume 4.

1907 Annual Report of the State Board of Health of the State of New Hampshire for the two years ending November 30, 1906, by New Hampshire.State Board of Health
Page 46: Hanover.—The Hanover Water Works, installed in 1893, is an impounded water in a large artificial pond. The bed of the pond was a fertile valley, which was not cleared of vegetation before impounding the water. The water has always been colored, rich in dissolved vegetable matter, with occasionally some little taste and odor, though usually not offensive.
During the summer of 1906 the reservoir has been nearly full continuously, and the quality of water more constantly good than ever before •during the hot weather. The tributaries have been cleared and in part paved with stone; portions of the pond margin have been paved and considerable lengths of brook thoroughly cleared of all bushes and obstructing deposits. The sod of the original meadow long ago disintegrated, and the margins one foot from (below) full level line are clean and sandy.
The Hanover Water Works Company bought all the farms having houses within the drainage area, in March, 1903. Nearly all of these houses have been removed. One farm and house close to the eastern watershed line is still rented to a small family, but the location is such that it is not believed to be the slightest menace to the water supply.
A small beginning has been made toward reforesting the open spaces by setting out young spruces and pine seedlings.
So far as the cast iron mains have been bored into for connections they have been found remarkably free from rust. Lately a section of eight and six-inch main was taken up and lowered, and the interior of the pipes removed appeared' without noticeable rust nodules or any deposit.
The Hanover Aqueduct Association, a private corporation, furnishes a water that is used largely, though not exclusively, for drinking purposes. It is a normal spring water, the wells being eight or nine in number and dug to a depth of 10 to 20 feet, and yielding 4,000 gallons per day. There are very few individual wells in this locality.
There are about 100 taps in operation on this aqueduct. The main is two-inch lead pipe, and the service pipes are generally one-half inch lead; water served through pinhole gauges presumed to deliver 40 gallons daily.

1910 Annual Report of the State Board of Health of the State of New Hampshire for the Fiscal Year Ending August 31, 1910, by New Hampshire.State Board of Health
Page 79: Hanover.-- The Hanover Water Works, installed in 1893, is an impounded water in a large artificial pond. The bed of the pond was a fertile valley, which was not cleared of vegetation before impounding the water. The water has always been colored, rich in dissolved vegetable matter, with occasionally some little taste and odor, though usually not offensive.
The Hanover Aqueduct Association, a private corporation, furnishes a water that is used largely, though not exclusively, for drinking purposes. It is a normal spring water, the wells being eight or nine in number and dug to a depth of 10 to 20 feet, and yielding 4,000 gallons per day. There are very few individual wells in this locality. There are about 100 taps in operation on this aqueduct. The main is two-inch lead pipe, and the service pipes are generally one-half inch lead; water is served through pinhole gauges presumed to deliver 40 gallons daily.

1913 A History of Dartmouth College, 1815-1909, by John King Lord and Frederick Chase
Page 196-197: In the spring of 1821 an important move was made for the welfare of the village in the formation of the Hanover Aqueduct Association. A charter for a company under that name, with a capital of $5,000, was secured and the meeting for organization under it was held at Curtis's Hotel February 26, 18214 Mr. Gilbert, Mr. Olcott, Mr. Brewster and Professor Adams being prominent in the movement. The original water supply of the village had been wells and cisterns, but in long dry times these proved insufficient and more than once water had to be hauled from Mink Brook. In 1805 several persons united to bring water in wooden logs from a spring near the top of the hill east of the village and south of the present road, but the supply was inadequate and variable, and the logs decayed, so that it was determined to find a larger and more permanent supply. A half acre of ground was bought at the foot of the hill on the south side of Mink Brook in the Greensborough district about two miles east of the village, and the water, which oozed from the ground and which proved to be of unusual purity, was gathered in a well and furnished an abundant supply for many years. An inch and a half lead pipe was laid as a main to the village where the water was distributed through smaller laterals. But as the village grew the supply, in times of drought, was insufficient even for domestic purposes, and in 1880 more land was bought, the original lot having been previously enlarged, additional wells were sunk, and a two inch pipe replaced the first one. The character of the water is such that it forms an insoluble coating in the pipe, so that when the old pipe was removed, after being in use for sixty years, it was found, except for external corrosion, to be as perfect as when it was laid. Even after its enlargement the acqueduct was unable to meet the general wants of the village and a much more abundant supply was brought in from another source in 1893, though the acqueduct still is used for domestic purposes.

1995 "The Hanover Water Works Company: One Hundred Years of Service", by Edward S. Brown, Dartmouth College Library Bulletin (April 1995)

2002 Hanover Aqueducts, by Sean Smith

2009 Hanover Preps for Water Works Vote, Hanover Conservancy (May 9, 2009)

2009 Position Letter on Water Works Municipalization, Hanover Conservancy (Oct 22, 2009)

Water Company Lands, Town of Hanover

Records of the above companies are held by the Rauver Special Collections library at Dartmouth College.