In today’s paper, a Phoenix from 1858, a notice appeared requesting everyone to attend the village meeting next week in order to vote on incorporation of the village of Brattleboro.
Along side the notice was the full text of the state act authorizing incorporation. It describes the boundaries of the town, then outlines how the town is to be organized. I found it interesting to look back at our origins, so to speak, to see what we felt was the bare minimum required to operate Brattleboro on day one of incorporation.
In 1858, the positions deemed essential were as follows. The Act Incorporating The Village of Brattleboro called for the establishment of:
– One Town Clerk
– Five freeholders as bailiffs
– One Chief Engineer of the Fire Department
– One Treasurer
– One Collector of Taxes
There is the basic recipe for the town. Everything else was handled privately, or without need for government.
No paid employees for recreation, parks, library, planning, or listers. No government employees working on energy, development, or parking. No public works to speak of, nor a Town Manager. The only assistant mentioned was an assistant engineer in case the Chief Engineer was unavailable.
No police at all.
The village was allowed to start making its own by-laws, mostly for work on roads, street lights, and regulation of some business.
(I’m not to next week’s news yet, but I assume the village meeting voted to endorse the Act.)
And so town government began,
Freeloaders
Even with reading glasses, I keep seeing that as “five freeloaders for bailiffs”… : )
That's exactly what i was
That’s exactly what i was going to comment! At first (and second) glance I read it as “five freeloaders”…ha!
In 1876, we add a few things
In 1876, there was an amendment to the incorporation of Brattleboro (approved in 1872 by the state).
In it, Brattleboro adds a few needed items:
– The boundaries are adjusted slightly so that we’ll have to take care of the West River road.
– We add the ability to appoint a street commissioner, and to lay out streets and roads.
And then the bulk of the amendment describes adding a municipal water system – adding the ability to lay pipes, build dams and reservoirs, construct aqueducts, and take water from property owners if the need fits us.
We add a water commission and water department, and allow for charging fees for water.
So, after Town Clerk, Bailiffs, Taxes, and Fire prevention, it appears that Water was the next big ticket item for the town to take on. We also see glimmers of a Department of Public Works on the way, but much of this work was still considered to be private responsibility.