Taking The Homes

Chronology of Events:

Before the arrival of the Water Works the area that would be taken over between 1898 and 1914 was about 80% wooded and 20% dedicated to farming. The community consisted of well over 100 people owning over 200 head of stock, living on 1836.2 acres of land. Additional land was taken in the 1920's for the Granville Reservoir. Watershed land continues to be added into the 21st century. The following chronology covers the period during which the community was effectively erased from the map (1898-1914).

1894: The City of Westfield (Massachusetts) was experiencing rapid population growth as the industrial revolution and easy access to rail transportation continued to broaden the city's manufacturing base. By comparison, Granville's business base was relatively flat given the fact that anything made in Granville had to be loaded on wagons for the ten mile trip to the nearest rail transportation (in Westfield). Despite ongoing overtures by nearby cities enticing them to leave, Granville's manufacturers loyally soldiered on but Westfield and Springfield were the places to be in the late 1800's.

Westfield's need for factory labor was met with an influx of immigrants and people leaving rural farm life. Meeting the ever-expanding need for water was a bigger challenge. Neighboring Granville was known for its abundant streams and clean water. The solution would have been painfully obvious to Westfield's three-man Board of Water Commissioners. Exactly when they dispatched the first engineers and surveyors to assess the possibilities is unknown but the wheels were moving by 1894 if not earlier. When rumors first came to Granville is also not known.

1895: On April 30, Chapter 342 of the Acts of 1895 authorized the City of Westfield to increase its water supply by the taking of land in Granville by eminent domain.

1897: Enoz W. Boise sold 25.6 acres of land on June 8 to Isaac Plumley, proprietor of a Westfield lumber and timber company. This sale is typical of several where owners sold their land in advance of the eminent domain action to entities involved in logging operations. In 1901 this land was taken from Plumley who presumably had cleared the timber by then.

1898: The eminent domain taking of land began on April 1 followed by more on August 8, with small tracts along Tillotson Brook totaling 15.9 acres, 8.7 of which were taken from Henry and Artemese Winchell. The balance was taken from Elvira Purchase and F.D. Lambson. This land would become the location of the intake reservoir, subsequently named the Winchell Reservoir. There is no clear record of what was paid for the land taken in 1898 however in 1909 the Water Works Annual Report indicated land had been taken to that point for less than $15 per acre.

In April 1898 Sidney and Mary Clark sold 32.5 acres to John McElligott of Granville, who likely owned a sawmill. Then in May 1898 Charles Ladd sold 47.0 acres to lumber operators Frank Hallbourg and Isaac Plumley.  These plots were then taken by the Water Works in 1901.

1901: The Water Works began taking land for watershed purposes and construction of pipelines in the area of Tillotson, Japhet, Dickinson and Munn's Brooks. These takings occurred on August 15 (James H. Andrews, Florence Gutierrez, William Hunt and George Loomis, accounting for 62.2 acres) and October 1 (Frank Hallbourg, Isaac Plumley and John McElligott, accounting for 136.5 acres). There was some confusion about how much of which land was owned by Andrews, Gutierrez and/or Hunt but it seems to have been sorted out. Of the Hallbourg and Plumley taking, 4.2 acres had been purchased by them from Christiana Rowley on September 5 and presumably logged between then and October 1.

1903: 35.8 acres were taken from "Florence Gutierrez or James H. Andrews."

1906: The Water Works began taking land around the eastern end of Wildcat Road near what is now Old Westfield Road. 45.2 acres along Old Westfield Road including a home and at least three barns were taken from Moses and Mary Provost for which they received $667.34 or $14.76 per acre including the buildings. 5.8 acres on Wildcat Road were taken from Michael Leahey including his dwelling, commonly referred to as the "swamp house." The Water Works Annual Report commented that the residents were "driven from the houses" which were promptly demolished.

The 1906 Annual Report reveals another interesting practice regarding the disposition of apples, hay, timber and other valuable resources and property on land that had been taken over by the Water Works. Some farmers were placed in the position of having to buy hay and apples back from the Water Works, likely from the very fields and orchards they used to own. The same was true of woodlots. This was especially true where a farmer's fields or woodlot had been taken over but the farm dwelling land had not; feed and heat were necessities. The Water Works also received income from the sale of houses: $30 from the "Hoag house" and $25 from one of the Provost's buildings.

The Annual Report also noted income from Water Works Superintendent Henry W. Sanderson, who was purchasing "junk" and "old iron" from his employer the Water Works. There is little doubt farmers were forced to leave behind many items that could not be easily sold or taken with them. But if one had the resources at hand to remove all that "junk" as part of one's job, well, so much the better. H.W. Sanderson seemed to be the right man in the right place at the right time. Records do not reflect what he did with these purchases from his employer but a reasonable guess would be that they were re-sold. What we might call "flipping" today. Or conflict of interest, but it was a different world in 1906.

1907: Henry Winchell, the first person whose land was taken in 1898, died on January 15, 1907 at the age of 74. His remaining 71.3 acres would be taken from his widow Artemese in 1909.

Land takings for 1907 totaled 199.7 acres, of which 84.6 acres were Benjamin B. Pendleton's family farm. Benjamin took the Water Works to court and in 1909 received $2705 for his 84.6 acres, more than double the average per acre his neighbors had received.

The balance of the takings were from farmers Michael Leahey, Peter Hendrickson, Christiana Rowley (widowed 1893), her son Fred Rowley, and Frank Hallbourg.

The Water Works paid the Town of Granville $53.91 in property taxes on all taken land.

1908: There were three rounds of land taking in 1908: March 2, July 1 and August 1, totaling 478.6 acres of which 160 acres were pastures and orchards. The largest parcel was 284.5 acres from Dustin Tice for $3000 or $9.48 per acre. The balance was taken from William Leahey, Lucy Brown "and others," Michael E. Arnold, and Harriet Frost.

The Water Works had taken note of the value of the timber on the taken lands and decided to plant pines and other indigenous growth in anticipation of what they called "quite a sizable income" to the Town of Westfield in the future. Two thousand white pine seedlings were planted and eventually a nursery was established on the former Leahey property. Timber continues to be harvested on watershed land into the 21st century.

The enterprising Water Works Superintendent Mr. Sanderson bought the hay from the former Pendleton farm for $25, apples for $10, "old iron" for $11.35, more hay for $6.00, and another $55 of something that was not described in the report. He also sold $10 of wood to his employer the Water Works.

The Town of Granville was paid $87.68 in property taxes.

1909: Land takings continued; 26.0 acres were taken from Wilbur S. Jones; 30.3 acres from J.J. Fowler; and 71.3 acres from Henry Winchell's widow, Artemese Winchell. The average price paid per acre was about $7.60.

The Water Works reported that to date they had taken 1073 acres from Granville residents including houses, barns, etc., at a cost of $15,843 ($14.77 average per acre). Some inflation calculators estimate the 2019 value of that $14.77 to be about $420.

400 acres had now been planted with over 5000 white pine seedlings. The Water Works enthusiastically reported that "many towns in Germany and France own forests from which they derive a regular yearly income and in one or two instances, the entire expense of running the community is paid and local taxes are unknown."

The ever enterprising Water Works Superintendent Mr. Sanderson purchased $20 of hay, $12.25 of "junk" and $1.00 of plank from his employer.

By 1909 the Water Works wanted to have an employee living on the taken land to keep an eye on things. For some unexplained reason the Rowley property and house on what is now Bruce Road had been taken and the family displaced but the house was not torn down. It still stands to this day, surrounded by watershed land. Could it have been the house used by the resident employee?

1910: Another 156.2 acres were taken for the watershed area: 63.9 acres from Nellie (Shoughrue) McDonald; 59.0 acres from William and Elizabeth Holcomb; and 33.3 acres from Flavia J. Allen. The Holcombs had purchased their land not long before the Water Works eminent domain take-over became public. Nellie McDonald had inherited her home from her father, John Shoughrue. Flavia Allen lived in Westfield at the time her land was taken.

The land takings now came to approximately1209 acres costing $18,043, just under $15 an acre. 17,500 trees had been planted over 20 acres and another 20,000 white pine seedlings were in the nursery at the former Leahey farm.

Superintendent Sanderson again purchased hay and apples from his employer. The Water Works had taken Nellie McDonald's farm in December 1910 so he decided to rent that from the Water Works for $12.00 for the coming year (1911).

1911: Northeast Granville land takings slowed for 1911. In Westfield the per capita water use for the water district was calculated at 126 gallons per capita. The Water Works encouraged citizens to use less water, noting that the average in other places was much lower. Superintendent Sanderson continued renting the former 60+ acre McDonald farm for $18 for1912. He also paid his employer, the Water Works, $4.00 for water and a sawmill.

1912: Land takings proceeded as follows: Feb. 1, Sarah Hollister, 168.5 acres; Mar. 9: Andelusia Noble, 22 acres; Nov. 4, Wilbur Pendleton, 137.6 acres; Mary J. Phelon, 155.7 acres. This brought the total lands taken to 1713.2 acres.

The Water Works Annual Report format was revised to display far less detail about income and expenses. Whatever ventures Superintendent Sanderson may have been conducting disappeared from the report. He appears only as a net salary expense line item.

In 1912 the Water Works recommended a site be found for an additional large reservoir to serve the water district. Northeast Granville was the logical place to build it, in view of the land already purchased and the ease with which it was taken. Legislation followed, authorizing work to begin in 1914. The dam was projected to contain 440,000,000 gallons of water and cover 60 acres, with a 450 foot long, 95 foot high dam, at an estimated cost of $300,000.

When the project was proposed it was noted that Tillotson Brook was one of the "best sources in the country" for water. It was also felt that the dam was necessary to contain water for at least 30 days, the time span that was believed to be necessary to kill typhoid germs.

The new project would spur a brief round of land takings in the early 1920's. The new Granville Dam would be completed in 1929.

The coming chestnut blight would have been noted in Northeast Granville, where chestnut trees were already being cut on the taken properties. In 1913 the situation would come to a head.

1913: The last takings for the project begun in 1898 occurred in October, 1913: 64.6 acres from Bridget Roach, whose father David had died in 19--; and 58.4 acres from Hubbard Hollister. This brought the grand total land taken, with homes, barns, etc., to 1836.2 acres.

The Water Works received authorization to cut all chestnut trees on the taken land due to blight.

1914: The completed collecting reservoir (Winchell Reservoir) now held 3,081,000 gallons and the distributing reservoir (Sackett Reservoir) another 1,701,000 gallons.

The Water Works sold the harvested chestnut timber for a net profit of $2000.

So ends the story of the community that once occupied Northeast Granville. In the Water Works Annual Reports it is a story of numbers: 1836.17 acres taken at a cost of $25,428.48, or an average of $13.85 per acre, with future income potential from harvesting timber. If anybody cared what happened to the families after their land was taken, it is not mentioned in the reports.

There are still a few homes that escaped eminent domain (for now), and a few more recently built homes on land that was not taken.

The only memorial to the blood, sweat and tears of the people who settled this land and lived on it for generations is the old Northeast Cemetery which has been closed to burials for over 100 years.