Willimantic's 1893 Charter as a City - Part 2
 by Pete Zizka
2-25-2023
At the very end of December, 1892, a borough meeting was held in the Washburn Block (today’s photo) in order to consider the proposed City charter and to decide whether it should be endorsed as the committee had written it almost two years prior or whether it should be amended. At 1892’s end, Willimantic was a borough of 10,000 people and the general consensus was that it had indeed outgrown its present form of government. But nothing good came easily in Willimantic. What would replace the present form of government now became the focus. Local businessmen who had formerly been pushing for a city charter now objected to several of the charter’s sections. One of the reasons for the objections that started to be raised was that once printed copies of the proposed charter (consisting of 52 pages) were distributed, people could see for themselves all the changes being proposed. For example, the new charter proposed to enlarge the borough’s limits which would lead to increased taxes for those living within the new area but would also give them access to many improvements to be made by the city. Other parts of the charter that were troublesome to folks dealt with the organization of the police department, the makeup of the city government (especially the interaction between the legislative and executive branches) and the division of the new city into voting districts. Newspaper articles called for people to take their time in reading over the proposals and not to hurry a vote. In January, 1893, the Charter Committee opened a public hearing so that anyone wanting to propose amendments to the charter could be heard. Only six of those in attendance offered amendments. Again, the contentious part dealt with the legislative body/bodies that would be created. The committee had been proposing two legislative bodies, as was a time-honored custom in Connecticut and were not open to amending that. Allen B. Lincoln presented evidence showing that an overwhelming number of American cities, from the largest (such as New York and Chicago to those with populations averaging around 8,000 maintained but one legislative branch. An interesting sideline is that now, several newspapers around the state were offering the “advice” that Willimantic “should not follow old-fashioned systems and get into line with modern ideas”. On January 29 1893, another borough meeting was held for the purpose of considering the city charter. Only 25 people attended. At the meeting, Allen B. Lincoln now read letters from the mayors of several small Connecticut cities, many of whom supported the plan of one legislative body. He went on to say that the charter should provide for a board of public works. A few days later, the Charter Committee once again met to take final action on the proposed amendments to the charter. They decided that the charter would be presented with very few changes and would be “recommended for adoption”. At the next borough meeting, the report was adopted. The next step took place when the Charter Committee asked Superior Court Judge John Hall to prepare a petition for a city charter which would be presented to the General Assembly. Ex-Town Clerk Thomas Kelley was to prepare the final working version of the charter. It was felt that Kelley’s, “fine penmanship will make the city charter of Willimantic the finest written document that the present Legislature will get a look at”. At the end of April 1893, a deputation of prominent Willimantic Citizens boarded the ’morning train to Hartford in order to petition the Connecticut General Assembly’s Committee on Cities and Boroughs to grant Willimantic a city charter.  The delegation included borough officials, warden Charles Carpenter, water commissioner Walter G. Morrison, attorney Edwin Sumner, lawyer Andrew Bowen and civil engineer Robert Fenton, along with Connecticut  Supreme Court Justice John  Manning Hall, Willimantic Linen Co. Agent General Eugene  Boss, representing the Willimantic Electric Light Company and  postmaster Charles,Daniels.  Hall was the city charter deputation’s spokesman and presented arguments to the Cities and Boroughs Committee favoring a petition as ‘passed by a recent  borough meeting. (to be continued)

 

 

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