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ABSTRACT
This is the history of the founding of the Brunswick & Topsham Water District (BTWD). The first trustees of the District were uniquely positioned given their professions to form the District. Along with the Kennebec Water District, BTWD had direct knowledge regarding the spread of typhoid and made landmark cases for the acquisition of private water companies to form a public District. The histor y also documents other major acquisitions of the District and events such as floods and World War II that had a significant impact on the District.
History
History can be very compelling. It can offer insight into how we got to where we are and sometimes offer foreshadowing. So you can imagine the disappointment to those who take interest in the histor y of the Brunswick & Topsham Water District when they read the first report of the Trustees of the Brunswick & Topsham Water District:
The trustees of the Brunswick and Topsham Water District herewith submit their first report, covering a period of four years from the commencement in 1903-4 to the end of the financial year December 31, 1906. A history of the Brunswick & Topsham Water District from its beginnings and the subsequent doings of the Board of Trustees which includes the acquisition of the property of the Maine Water Company, the procuring of a new source of supply, the issuing of bonds of the Water District and a multitude of other business matters, would make a volume of such size that the Trustees have considered it advisable to publish few details. The chief purpose of this report is to show the financial condition of the District at the end of the first [sic] year's operation.
We decided to put the Trustees to the test and research those initial and subsequent years. Viewing worn microfiche and early New England Water Works Journals we were able to reassemble their amazing story. We offer it here for your ruminations.
Early Public Water Systems
The first water system appears to have been in Topsham. An article in the January 10, 1935 Brunswick Record tells the story of how a Civil Works Administration project started on the Main Street Hill uncovered remnants of a wooden pipe system. It was additionally...