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Pacific
States |
Oregon | Portland |
Portland was incorporated in 1851.
The first waterworks were built by John Cline, Robert Pentland, and Stephen Coffin in 1857. Pentland also built the first water works in The Dalles in 1862.
The works were sold in 1861 to Henry D. Green, his brother John Green, and Herman C. Leonard, who formed the Portland Water Company and built a more extensive system using 600 tons of cast-iron pipes Leonard purchased in New York City and brought to Portland on a chartered ship..
The City of Portland took
possession of the Portland Water Company on January 3, 1887.
The waterworks are currently owned by the City of Portland Water Bureau, which has a good history page.
References
1857 "Mayor's Message,"
The Weekly Oregonian, April 25, 1857, Page 1.
The water works constructed by Stephen Coffin, Esq., and others, is worthy
of the highest praise, and the projectors of the same, I trust, will reap
the reward the undertaking is justly entitled to."
1858 "Water
Pipes," by John S. Hawkins, New England Farmer 10:89
(February 1858)
I have laid about two miles of log pipe, to furnish the city of Portland
with water. The fountain head is not sufficient, and another pipe
will be laid down. I wish to know whether clay pipe wil do, and what
pressure it will bear. The pipe can be made here.
1858 "The Water Works," Weekly
Oregonian, August 14, 1858, Page 2.
Robert Pentland has purchased the "water works" granted by the City
Council to Caruthers and others. His purpose is to improve and
extend the same so that a bountiful supply of water can be furnished to
every house in the city at all seasons of the year.
1862 Oregonian,
April 19, 1862, Page 3.
Notice. We have this day sold to H. D. Green the property known as
the Portland Water Works, and all rights and privileges pertaining
thereto; and the said H. D. Green is hereby authorized to collect and
receipt for all bills due for Water rents from and after the 1st of April,
1862.
Robert Pentland, S. Coffin
Portland, April 12th, 1862.
1862 Morning
Oregonian, May 16, 1862, Page 3.
Notice to Takers of Water of the Portland Water Works.
1867 "Portland Water
Company," Sacramento Daily Union, October 18, 1867, Page 3.
The Portland Water Company, organized last spring with $800,000 capital,
and General George F. Shepley as President, will commence immediately the
construction of works to bring the water to the city from Lake Sebago, and
will probably have them completed and in operation next year. The
American Water and Gas Pipe Company of Jersey City, New Jersey, will
manufacture all of the pipe requisite, establishing a permanent branch in
Portland for the purpose.
1872 "Holly
Water Works," Weekly Oregon Statesman (Salem, Oregon), March
27, 1872, Page 4.
Meeting in Portland to hear President T. T. Flagler of the Holly Company.
1883 Portland, Engineering News, 10:184 (April 21, 1883)
1885 "The Water Proposition," The Morning Oregonian, June 19, 1885, Page 2.
1885 "P. F. Morey Hydraulic Elevator company proposal," The Morning Astorian, June 20, 1885, Page 3.
1885 "The City Council. The Morey water ordinance passes," and "The Morey Injunction," The Morning Oregonian, June 25, 1885, Page 9.
1885 An act to amend an Act entitled “An Act to Incorporate the City of Portland,” approved October 24, 1882. November 25, 1885.
1886 "The Waterworks," Morning Oregonian, December 11, 1886, Page 4.
1886 "Details of the Sale." Agreement Between the Water Company and the Committee," Morning Oregonian, December 14, 1886, Page 8.
1888 "Portland," from Manual of American Water Works, Volume 1.
1890 "Portland," from Manual of American Water Works, Volume 2.
1890 History
of Portland, Oregon: With Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of
Prominent Citizens and Pioneers, by Harvey Whitefield Scott
Pages 188-189: Water works. The necessity of a sufficient supply of pure
water for the city was
early recognized, and by the first charter the city was authorized to
build and operate water works. In preference, however, to carrying on this
work by supervision of the municipality, a water company was formed and
invested with power to conduct the business. Works were erected in
1851, the supply of water being from the springs in hills near town, which
were sufficient for all needs. Within a number of years the old
wooden works were superceded by a capacious and well constructed reservoir
of brick and stone on Fourth street. As the city increased in population
and the consumption of water became great, the springs failed to meet the
demand, and recourse was had to the Willamette, from which an increasingly
large proportion has been pumped, until it is now practically the sole
source. While in the Spring and Autumn the water of our river is
remarkably pure and wholesome, it is very liable to pollution from the
sewerage of towns from up the river, from the general drainage of the
valley, and in the Summer freshet of the Columbia by the sewerage of
Portland itself, as it is carried up the river by the backward-setting
current, sometimes caused by the rapid rise of the stream below. Moreover,
it is thick with mud during times of Winter freshets. The pumping
apparatus has been placed some three miles above the city, and the water
is drawn deep from the bed of the stream.
Some years since the reservoir on Tenth street was abandoned for a larger
one, built on Seventh and Lincoln streets, near the foot of the hill, at a
much greater elevation. The circle of buildings on the skirts of the
hills, still above the reservoir, is supplied from small reservoirs which
are fed by springs and located conveniently in the ravines.
Great efforts have been made to provide for bringing an inexhaustable
supply of presumably fresh and pure water from some one of the many
streams of the Cascade mountains. The enterprise which calls for an
expenditure of not less than $5,000,000 has met with temporary reverses,
but will not be much longer delayed.
After many years trial of the method of water supply by a private company,
it was seen that this was not the most economical. It was also generally
recognized that an article like water, an absolute necessity of life,
ought not to be subject to private monopoly. Accordingly, by
legislative act, in 1885, the city was fully empowered to provide water
works of its own. A committee was appointed by this act, consisting of the
following men, then residents of Portland: John Gates, F. C. Smith, C. H.
Lewis, Henry Failing, W. S. Ladd, Frank Dekum, L. Fleischner, H. W.
Corbett, W. L. K. Smith, J. Loewenberg, S. G. Reed, R. B. Knapp, L.
Therkelson, Thomas M. Richardson and A. H. Johnson. They were to be a
permanent body, with plenary power, and independent of all others, filling
vacancies in their number by their own act. Bonds to the amount of
$500,000 might be issued by them for purchasing or building works, and
laying mains and pipes. The plant of the old company was acquired with the
new reservoir on Lincoln and Seventh streets. Under the present management
it is intended to charge rates only sufficient to meet expenses. The
receipts for 1888 were $79,530.09 and disbursements, $78,524.85, including
$25,000 interest on $500,000 bonds. The management is efficient and
economical. Mr. Henry Failing is president and Mr. P. C. Schuyler, clerk
of the committee.
Page 536: Henry D. Green, In 1861, Mr. Green, in connection with his
brother and H. C. Leonard, purchased the Portland water works from the
original grantee, Robert Pentland. At that time the whole plant consisted
of less than one mile of small wooden pipe, and the source of water supply
was the small stream in Caruther's canyon, where a pump was located in the
saw mill at the foot of Mill street. Mr. Green at once commenced the
foundations of the present water system of the city. He was president of
the company and at the date of his death, the corporation had grown to be
one of the strongest in the city. The plant had been yearly increased to
keep pace with the growth of the city until over thirty miles of iron
mains, from three to thirty inches, had been laid within and without the
city. The three reservoirs now in use and the substantial pumping works,
with a daily capacity of 12,000,000 gallons were constructed under his
personal supervision.
Pages 631-632: Parker Farnsworth Morey. At Portland he entered into
a contract to put in a hydraulic ram elevator. A large amount of money had
been spent in a previous attempt to put in such an elevator, but without
success owing to beds of gravel below the surface. After great difficulty
Mr. Morey was successful on his contract, although the whole community had
predicted failure. Seeing that Portland was not supplied with elevators
and that he could be successful in such a business, he obtained sufficient
backing and organized the Portland Hydraulic Elevator Company, for the
particular purpose of supplying freight elevators. Mr. Morey has been,
since the formation of this company, and is now its vice-president and
manager. The success of this company is due almost wholly to inventions of
Mr. Morey, making a now perfect hydraulic telescope ram elevator. This
telescope elevator is necessary at Portland, owing to the fact that there
are several successive layers of boulders and gravel lying beneath the
surface. These layers of gravel make it extremely difficult to put in a
hydraulic ram elevator unless it be of a telescope pattern.
In 1883, through Mr. Morey's efforts, after considerable opposition,
Portland entered into a contract with the Elevator Company to furnish high
pressure hydrants for the extinguishment of fires. It was these hydrants
which saved Portland twice in one week from the fires at the Esmond Hotel
and Coloma Dock. These fires were both of incendiary origin. But for the
elevator hydrants either of these fires would undoubtedly have been more
disastrous than the Seattle or Spokane Falls fires. The hydrants in
extinguishing these fires more than paid the contract price for the whole
term of ten years for which they were put in.
The success of the Portland Hydraulic Elevator Company, under Mr. Morey's
management, aroused the hostility of the Portland Water Company. This
water company with its inefficient service and high rates are now merely
matters of the past. For years it had defied public opinion and had
escaped legislative and municipal control. It then determined to crush out
the Elevator Company.
In 1885, learning of the plans of the Portland Water Co., Mr. Morey
determined to carry the war into the enemy's country. Within a very short
period he had made a personal examination of the plan of bringing the
waters of Bull Run river into Portland. He made his estimates and plans
and proposed to the city of Portland for annual payments for twenty years
to supply all water, at sufficient pressure to do away with fire engines,
and for all municipal needs.
Immediately after the ordinance authorizing this contract had been duly
passed and approved, the water company obtained a preliminary injunction
from the United States Court restraining the city from entering into such
a contract. Pending these legal proceedings a special session of the
Legislature was called to elect a United States senator. Fifteen citizens
of Portland, seeing the feasibility of Mr. Morey's plan and that the water
company had received its death blow from Mr. Morey, organized themselves
into a water committee and obtained the necessary legislation to furnish
Portland with water, as a part of the municipal authority of the city. The
bill confirming this authority made it impossible for Mr. Morey's plan to
be carried out.
Mr. Morey's plan was that the city should pay him $40,000 a year for
twenty years. In return he was to furnish the city with water at
sufficient pressure so that the fire engines would have been discarded and
their places would have been taken by hose carriages. In addition the city
was to have for twenty years, without extra compensation all the water
necessary for all other purposes—sprinkling streets, flushing sewers, etc.
At the end of twenty years all water for said municipal purposes was to be
furnished free forever. The price of water to private consumers was made
about half of the rates charged by the water company and the common
council were given authority to reduce all rates so established. In
addition the city was given the right to purchase, within five years from
the date of the contract, all of the Morey Water Works by paying therefor
the actual cost, together with an advance of but six per centum on such
cost.
Had Mr. Morey's plan been carried out Portland would now be supplied with
water from Bull Run river. The water committee has done better than was
thought it would or could do. Without disparagement to its management,
which has been remarkably economical and efficient, still the fact remains
that sufficient time has elapsed to prove that Mr. Morey's plan, under his
management would have been far cheaper and efficient for the city and its
inhabitants than the water committee's will be even when Bull Run water is
brought to Portland.
Without detracting from the praise due to the water committee it is but
fair to say that undoubtedly but for Mr. Morey the Portland Water Company
would still be the only means by which Portland would be supplied with
water, and that the present abundant supply and low rates would not be in
existence.
1891 "Portland," from Manual of American Water Works, Volume 3.
1897 "Portland," from Manual of American Water Works, Volume 4.
1907 "Free
Water for All" from Bulletin of the League of American
Municipalities 7:119 (April, 1907)
The city of Portland, Oregon, has, perhaps, the only association of
citizens in the country which has for its object the procurement of free
water for all; that it, without the payment of what are commonly called
“water rents.’ It is known as the Free Water Association.
A petition signed by 1,400 of Portland’s citizens was recently presented
to the proper official asking for an amendment to the city charter which
would grant the wishes of the petitioners. If the amendment is submitted
to and passed by the people free water will be provided for drinking,
cooking, washing, bath and toilet in all houses, stores, workshops and
offices in the city, which have connection with the water mains. No limit
whatever is placed on the amount of water which may be used by any
consumer; Water for sprinkling, commercial and other purposes, not covered
in the free water clause, will be sold by the water department at meter
rates, which will necessitate the installation of meters over the entire
city.
Revenue to defray the cost of maintenance and operation of the water works
will be derived from a one mill levy upon all taxable property in the
city, in addition to the amounts which will be received for water used for
purposes not included in the free list.
1913 "Water Department," from Organization and Business Methods of The City Government of Portland, Oregon, Bureau of Municipal Research | also here | and here |
1922 The Municipal Water System of Portland, Oregon: Historical, Descriptive, Statistical, by Lawrence S. Kaiser, Superintendent
1928 History
of the Columbia River Valley from The Dalles to the sea,
Volume 1, by Fred Lockley.
Pages 284-285: Herman C. Leonard. "Returning to Portland my partner
and I decided to take over the Portland City Water Works. At that time the
water was distributed through Portland in wooden pipes, logs having been
bored out by hand. We bought the water works and I went to New York
City where I bought 600 tons of cast iron pipe and also pumping engines
for the water works. I found that freight rates were so high that instead
of paying freight I chartered a boat and started for Portland by the long
and hazardous trip around the Horn. We had good luck on our trip and
arrived in Portland safely. In 1876 we sold the water works to the City of
Portland. In 1892 we sold the gas works. As I am over ninety years
old, I have retired more or less from active business life and am resting
on my oars."
1930 “The Portland Water Supply,” by Charles E. Oliver, Pacific Engineer 9(4):3-6 (April 1930)
1930 History of the Water Bureau to 1930s, by Charles Oliver. Typescript in Portland Water Bureau Technical Laboratory.
1952 City
on the Willamette: The Story of Portland Oregon by Percy
Maddux | Also here
|
Page 36: The Pioneer Water Works, established by John Cline, Robert
Pentland, and Stephen Coffin, obtained a franchise in 1857 to give
Portland its first water system. Fir logs bored with a hole two and
a half inches in diameter were laid as water mains to bring water from
Caruthers Creek west of Seventh Street. When this source of supply proved
insufficient, a steam pump was installed near the foot of Mill Street.
In 1861 the franchise was sold to H. C. Leonard and John Green, who laid
5,000 new feet of logs, this time redwood ones brought from
California. In October of the following year they incorporated at
$50,000 the Portland Water Company. Then they built a pipe line from
Balch Creek near the Willamette Heights. A pumping station was
installed at the foot of Lincoln Street in 1869.
A new pumping station was established five miles south of the city in
1883. The water was brought to Portland from there in wrought iron mains.
Two years later the legislature authorized the city to purchase the works,
which was done on January 1, 1887, at a cost of $464,551 for the system.
Since the various places from which the city water had been coming had all
proved unsatisfactory, various other sources were considered. Finally the
decision was made - and a happy one it proved to be - to bring water from
the spring discovered by the civil engineer Talbot about thirty miles east
of Portland known as Bull Run.
Page 192: Washington Park. In 1894 the City Water Works
erected a reservoir in the park.
1962 "Portland," from Public Water Supplies of the 100 Largest Cities in the United States, 1962, US Geological Survey Water Supply Paper 1812, by Charles Norman Durfor and Edith Becker
1976 The
shaping of a city: business and politics in Portland, Oregon,
1885-1915, E. Kimbark MacColl
1978 Bull Run: A Reserve and a Water System: History of the Bureau of Water Works, Portland, Oregon, 1850-1978, by Sondra M. Pearlman, Portland: Portland Bureau of Water Works.
1991 Northwest
Portland Historic Inventory, Historic Context Statement,
Northwest District Association, August 1991
Page 9: In 1861, H. D. Green, John Green, and H. C. Leonard
bought out the small Portland water system, which consisted of one mile of
wooden pipe and a small pump at a spring at the foot of Mill Street. They
incorporated as the Portland Water Company in 1862. In the same year, the
city granted a franchise to W. S. Ladd and others to tap the waters of
Balch Creek. The Greens and Leonard purchased the western half of the
Balch claim in 1863. The Portland Water Company then laid pipes from the
Creek to the of the city in 1863-64. An aqueduct led Balch Creek water
around the base of the hills to a reservoir at Fourth and Market.
According to the editor of The Oregonian, the new water system gave "an
inexhaustible store of as fine mountain water as any city in the world"
(January 9, 1864). However, Balch Creek soon proved an inadequate supply,
and the company built a new pump in the Willamette at the foot of Lincoln
Street and a new reservoir at 7th and Lincoln streets in 1868.
1996 "Oregon Places: The Bull Run Watershed: Portland's Enduring Jewel," by Rick Harmon, Oregon Historical Quarterly 96(2/3):242-270 (Summer - Fall, 1995)
[2009] Portland's
Wooden Water Pipes: the untold story by Ica Coyne, Toni
Killough, and Aaron Peyton.
© 2017 Morris A. Pierce