Christopher Colles' Water Works

The earliest proposal to supply the City with water conducted underground through pipes was made by Christopher Colles just before the War of the Revolution.* On April 22, 1774, he proposed to erect a reservoir near the Collect or Fresh Water Pond where he had reason to believe that he could get an adequate supply of fresh water, and to distribute it through the streets by means of pipes made by boring a hole longitudinally through the trunks of small trees. The water was to be pumped into his reservoir from a well by a steam-engine, and to flow by gravity through the pipes.

When the proposition first came to the Common Council it was so novel that there was uncertainty as to its practicability and advisability. The Council therefore put the subject off and considered it for three months. When it came up for action on July 21, opinion was still divided; but the majority were in favor of the experiment and voted 8 to 2 to undertake it. At the same time, they voted to issue notes to the amount of £2,600 for the undertaking. Subsequent issues brought the amount up to £9,100.

These notes were about the size of the "shin-plasters" of the Civil War period, being about 21/3 by 4 inches in size. A specimen, of which we have a copy before us, bore on its face the following inscription:

* Colles was born in Dublin on May 9, 1739, and landed in Philadelphia, Pa., August 10, 1771. There is a biographical sketch of him with erroneous dates by John W. Francis in "The Knickerbocker Gallery," 1855, and there is a portrait of him by Jarvis in the New York Historical Society. Colles was a man ahead of his time. He conceived many ideas for which others received credit. As early as 1784 he petitioned to the Legislature to connect the waters of Lake Ontario with the Hudson river by a canal through the Mohawk valley. He died October 4, 1816. Francis is wrong in saying that he was buried in the old Hudson street cemetery (now Hudson Park). We are informed by Mrs. Robert W. de Forest, a collateral descendant of Colles, that his grave is in St. Paul's churchyard. See note on page 454.

On the back of the note was the picture of a pumping engine and two fountains.

It cannot be said that the Common Council proceeded with rash haste in this enterprise, for when Augustus and Frederick Van Cortlandt offered to sell to the City a site for the reservoir on the east side of Great George street, now Broadway, between Pearl and White streets, at the rate of £600 an acre, they personally went to the new well sunk on the property and tasted the water. One can almost imagine these dignified gentlemen going to that then remote spot on the west side of the Fresh Water Pond, adjacent to the marshy Lispenard Meadows abounding in bull-frogs and game birds in season; sipping the water from the new well like connoisseurs of some rare vintage, smacking their lips, looking at each other wisely, and finally pronouncing a favorable verdict. Concluding "the same to be of very good quality," they accepted the Van Cortlandts' offer and told Mr. Colles to go ahead with his work.

On August 29, 1774, the Common Council appointed a committee of eight members to superintend the construction of the works, and in November they contracted with Isaac Mann and Isaac Mann, Jr., of Stillwater, now in Saratoga county, to furnish 60,000 linear feet of pitch or yellow pine timber for the making of the pipes. The original contract, which is on file in the Document Room of the City Clerk in the Municipal Building, provided that the logs should be from 14 to 20 feet long and that onefourth of them should be 12 inches in diameter at the small end

of the log "exclusive of the sap thereof" and three-fourths 9 inches in diameter at the small end, and all should be "streight and free from shakes and large knots." The contractors were to deliver one-third of the timber on July 1, 1775, one-third on August 1, and one-third on October 1, and were to receive therefor £1,250.

While waiting for the timber for the pipes, Mr. Colles went ahead diligently with the construction of his well, reservoir and pump-house on a slight eminence just west of the present Tombs Prison and Criminal Courts building. The reservoir had a capacity of 20,000 hogsheads. The well was 30 feet in diameter. And the engine pumped 200 gallons of water 52 feet high per minute. After the war, Josiah Hornblower was paid £12 for "attending and examining and making report of the fire-engine for the water works about to be erected in 1775." The pump-house was a substantial structure, roofed with pantiles- curved tiles, laid alternately with the convex and concave sides upward — and the bills for iron-work, braziers' work, rope, etc., which the City had to pay after the war, indicate that all the works were built in a durable manner.

But while the water-works were being built, and apparently before any of the wooden pipes had been laid, the City was thrown into a turmoil of excitement by the news from Lexington and Bunker Hill. The work of construction, however, continued into 1776; but with the critical events of that year, the project was completely interrupted, never to be renewed. Mr. Colles with his family fled from the City and endured great privations, rather than submit to the British rule; and during the period of the war his water-works became totally ruined.

After the war, he returned to New York and soon after the Common Council assembled he presented a petition for the payment of moneys due him. His original memorial, dated October 27, 1784, is in the Records Room of the City Clerk in the Municipal Building. It has never been published and we give it herewith as a document of peculiar historical interest:

To the Honourable the Mayor, Aldermen and Common Council of the City of New York.

The Humble Memorial of Christopher Colles of said City Engineer Sheweth

That your Memorialist in the year 1774 presented a proposal to this honourable corporation for erecting works for supplying this city with water for the sum of eighteen thousand pounds.

That this honourable board after sufficient enquiry concerning the practicability of the design Resolved to agree with the said proposal & directed your memorialist to proceed in the execution of the work.

That your memorialist did accordingly proceed in the execution of the work & erected a Reservoir capable of containing twenty thousand hogsheads of water; dug, walled cover'd & completely finished a well of thirty feet diameter at the inside, from which he pumped by means of a steam engine which he also erected, Two hundred gallons of water, fifty two feet high perpendicular per minute, into the said reservoir.

That previous to the said resolve of the corporation your memorialist furnished them with an estimate of the expence of the different parts of the work, agreeable to which the part executed amounted to the sum of Three thousand six hundred pounds.

That the several sums advanced for the prosecution of the work amounted to Three thousand pounds, consequently, that there remains a ballance of six hundred pounds, One hundred & fifty pounds of which is due to different artificers for work & and the remaining Four hundred & fifty pounds is due to said Colles.

That your Memorialist in common with other citizens, friends of society & the interest of mankind, suffer'd the most poignant afflictions during the late war, & with the utmost difficulty procured the common necessaries for his family; & being now returned to the city, where he hopes to devote the remainder of his days in promoting the welfare of the city & country, he prays the corporation to use their endeavors to pay him the ballance above referred to, by which he may be enabled to support his numerous family in credit, & in some degree of comfort.

May it therefore please your honours, to take the premises into consideration, & grant him that Justice & Assistance, which to your judgment shall seem meet.

CHRISTOPHER COLLES

The Common Council did not at first act on this petition and on July 20, 1785, Mr. Colles begged the Board again to give him relief declaring that "his distresses are of such a poignant nature as to compel him to request some (tho' small) yet present

assistance." (Original in Records Office of City (Clerk, Municipal Building.) In August, 1785, the Council granted him £100 on

account.

On November 23, 1785, he appealed to the Council for £50 more on account. This petition gives an interesting indication of Mr. Colles abilities. He said that he was desirous of applying part of the money so as to enable him to support his family with credit," and to that end "he has erected a horse-mill and other works for the purpose of carrying on in this City the Manufacture of Fig blue, which manufacture he proposes to have carried on by his eldest son in case he shall be engaged in the prosecution of the Navigation of the Mohawk river." He said that he had already made and sold to grocers and others this product "which upon trial is proved to be fully equal in quality to any imported, altho' he can afford to sell it at less price."

The foregoing petition was granted and he was given the £50 asked for. Finally, on January 16, 1788, he consented to accept £150 in settlement of all demands. Meantime, the corporation had allowed him to use the room at the Exchange to give lectures on gunnery, drawing, mathematics, etc., which indicate that the delay and apparent penuriousness in paying him were not due to any underestimate of his character and abilities.

Projects of Ogden, Livingston and Rumsey

While the Common Council was still paying bills for the dead enterprise of Mr. Colles, it received successive propositions of a similar nature from other sources.

The first, dated March 24, 1785, came from Samuel Ogden. The original document, which is in the Document Room of the City Clerk in the Municipal Building, reads as follows:

To the Mayor, Aldermen and Commonalty of the City and County of New York in Common Council.

The Memorial of Samuel Ogden of said City

Sheweth

That as the late War hath totally ruined the Fire Engine and Water Works which were erected for the purpose of Supplying this City with Water, your Memorialist begs leave to propose to the Consideration of the Corporation the following proposals. That he will at the expence of Himself and Associates erect and