23 hours Ago By Jen Garofalo
Few articles of historical interest draw as much comment as did a photo online of a badly damaged vertical hand water pump. Surprisingly, many of the comments expressed recognition of the once common pumps, and quite a few responders had actually used them a time or two. My memory of the very efficient devices includes my Aunt Viola’s kitchen, which earlier had been the home of my mom and her siblings.
The fairly modern kitchen sink sported a nearly identical version of the one shown online. It was originally fed from a large cistern just off the front porch. Sometime in the 1970’s, municipal water was extended to the few homes along the remote stretch of Mount Tabor Road in Long Branch.
But before that, the water source was the cistern, fed by rain water, the fire company, or private water haulers. I believe attempts to dig or drill a well did not produce water. Although the memory is a little foggy, I believe water for drinking was boiled and kept in several glass jugs in the fridge.
When Aunt Vi married, her husband Augie did a lot of modernization to the old farmhouse. He found a way to install an indoor bathroom complete with a water heater. Then, water from the cistern was pressurized by electric pumps; but the old hand pump remained on the sink.
My wife’s family was born and raised above Broadford, in Dry Hill, which is both a name and a descriptor. Much of their water supply was from a cistern. My father-in-law, a coal miner, knew there was not much water in the ground under Dry Hill.
He cautioned several well drillers who ignored his knowledge and drilled hundreds of feet, never finding water. At some point municipal water was extended across the river into Broadford and Dry Hill. In Dawson, we had city water for as long as I remember.
But strangely, most, if not all the homes on North Dawson had dug wells. At my home place on McGill Avenue, our outside well was 26 feet in depth. It was lined with 24-inch terra cotta casing.
It was never out of water, and yes, it had a hand pump on the concrete cap. Another home I owned on the hill had a well in the basement. Our hand pump was used to water the flowers and the garden.
We did not have sprinkler systems then. The first lawn sprinkler I ever saw was in Amarillo, Texas, when we visited my Air Force brother in 1943. The front lawns, as I remember, were little squares, and the temperature was very hot.
Dad built a new house on Boyd Avenue in 1955-57. City water lines had not progressed down the brand new street. Dad had a well drilled, but the water was very poor.
That’s always a risk with underground water. Using filters, Mom and Dad used the water until new municipal water lines were extended on the street. Some of the dug wells still exist, but many were filled in during remodeling or rebuilding.
Aside from being a one time necessity, the old hand pumps provided ammunition for summer cooling splashes and countless water battles. Roy Hess Sr. is a retired teacher and businessman from Dawson.
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