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STORY • CIVIL WAR DOCTOR BROUGHT CLEAN WATER TO WALLINGFORD
— timeline — continued
1916 - Shortly after the Phelps School closed, the town bought the property and built the original Lyman Hall High School next door. The LHHS corner stone was laid and dedicated. Later this became the Robert Earley Middle School. 1916 - Wallingford Historical Society is founded with Marshal Kirtland Thomas as president 1917 - First class graduates from LHHS 1917 - Raoul Lufbery, former Wallingford resident, becomes America’s First ace of WW I with 5 kills, while flying in the Lafayette Escardrille, - American pilots flying for the French. 1918 - In 1918-1920, Wharton Brook Park was known as a traveler’s wayside; motorists could stop to have their cars serviced and enjoy a quiet picnic lunch. The park was the forerunner of the rest areas developed by the State Department of Transportation. In 1918 Wharton Brook was established as a state park encompassing land in both Wallingford and North Haven.. 1917/18 - Company “K” CT Guards train on the Choate football field 1918 - Daylight Saving Time is inaugurated 1918 - Major Raoul Lufbery, American Ace with 17 confirmed kills, is shot down, ending impaled on a picket fence. He trained many American pilots, including Eddie Rickenbacker, the ace of aces. 1918 - The “school district” system is discontinued, and a single Board of Education is selected. The School Visitors for each school become a thing of the past. 1918 - The Yalesville Book Exchange is established as a literary club. This was the predecessor of the Yalesville Library. 1918 - Armistice Day - the end of WW I 1919 - Arthur H. Dutton Grand Army of the Republic Post disbands 1919 - On Memorial Day, 22 red oaks were planted in Harrison Park in memory the men who died in WW I, along with Dr. Benjamin Franklin Harrison, who was a Civil War surgeon, & for whom the park is named. 1919 - Shaw-Sinon American Legion Post 76 is formed. (named for 2 young men killed in the “war to end all wars.” 1920 - An influx of Portuguese families moved to Wallingford folowing WW I. 1921 - Wallingford Steel opens - founded by Edmund Claiborne & Gilbert Boyd, Sr. 1921 - The Connecticut State Armory opens (now the Police Station) 1922 - The Putnam School of Wallingford is founded by Mrs. Mabel Putnam Morgan at 490 North Main & North Sts. It is for children ages 4-12 and it also offers boarding services. 1922 - At age 16, Richard Beaumont starts the Beaumont Farm Dairy, which lasted until April 1975. At one time, it was the largest dairy in town. 1923 - Wilkinson’s Theater opens on Center Street just east of Holy Trinity School, & west of the Dime Savings Bank. 1923 - The Yalesville Volunteer Fire Dept. is extablished with 25 members. 1923 - The Most Holy Trinity Church steeple destroyed by fire 1923 - Prohibition starts and the town’s many bars and saloons are forced to close, but there were speakeasys in some of the most unexpected places, such as on High Street.
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Civil War doctor brought clean water to Wallingford
From the field hospitals of the Civil War south, Wallingford physician Dr. Benjamin F. Harrison saw firsthand the importance of clean water and sanitation.
Upon his return to Wallingford, he led the charge in founding the town’s water division.
Bob Beaumont, town historian and chairman of the Public Utilities Commission, said a combination of things made Harrison want to ensure Wallingford had a municipal water supply; his experience as a sawbones in the grim battlefields—where disease and infection often killed soldiers if battle wounds didn’t—but also the changing demographics of Wallingford in the late 1860s. “The center of town was beginning to get somewhat densely populated,” Beaumont said, “and there were beginning to be issues with fouled wells due to septic systems of sorts that were not that effective.” The townspeople’s waste, at that time, was put into long, open trenches behind buildings, which flowed downhill to near the current location of the wastewater treatment plant, he said. Harrison started pushing for a town water works to ensure a potable water supply and improve sanitation around 1870. A water works formation committee was created in 1871.
Momentum had been building slowly, but really gained traction when the manufacturers in town joined the effort in 1880, after a particularly bad fire at the Wallingford Wheel Shop on North Cherry Street and Hall Avenue made them realize the importance of water for extinguishing fires. A municipal water utility was formally created by 1881 with the first bond issue. Pistapaug Pond was the original town water supply. Initially the water was untreated, Beaumont said, when it was shipped to the center of town. By 1926, the Mackenzie treatment plant was built at what would become Mackenzie Reservoir.
A photo illustration showing Dr. Benjamin Harrison, for whom Harrison Park was named.
Harrison’s life
Harrison, born in Northford in 1811, grew up on his father’s farm in North Branford. Despite his impoverished background, he was a quick learner and keen student, graduating from the Yale Medical School in 1836 at age 25. He began practicing medicine in Wallingford later that year and remained active for a decade. In September 1846, Harrison, then 35, embarked on a yearlong trip to Europe, spending the first six months studying in Paris and afterward traveling the continent. Harrison returned to Wallingford in October 1847 and resumed his practice until August 1862 when, at age 51, he received a commission from the governor of New York as surgeon of the Independent Corps, New York Volunteer Light Infantry, then in the field at Yorktown, Virginia. The next year, he was appointed chief medical officer of Davis Brigade, Terry Division on Morris Island, outside Charleston, South Carolina. A sketch of his hospital tent from 1863 shows clusters of A-frame tents surrounding his hospital tent along the rocky island shore. He continued with the regiment until his term of service expired in February 1864. Water continued on page 37
