Willimantic's 1893 Charter as a City -
Part 1 by Pete Zizka 2-18-2023 |
The first ever meeting of the city of Willimantic’s Common Council
occurred on December 19, 1893. As with so many other initiatives, the
transition from borough to city was a difficult, often contentious
process. Anyone keeping up with local news outlets or online chat sites
will know that many residents bemoan situations in which they feel that
local improvements or projects are taking too long to either get started
or get finished. As a student of Windham-Willimantic history, I’d have
to say that the citizens of 100-plus years ago must have felt the same
way but to an even greater degree. Let’s focus on
how Willimantic became a city.
Prior to becoming a city, Willimantic was a borough of the Town of
Windham and as such, it was governed by a Warden and a Court of
Burgesses. Our background will begin with events of 1890 but it is
important to note that even as a borough, Willimantic had been graced
with several municipal benefits. By 1873, both police and fire
departments had been organized. (Today’s photo shows the Police
Department outside their Church Street lockup.) In 1885, a municipal
water system went into operation and by 1890 most of the borough had
access to the sewer system (but no treatment plant since the sewage went
right into the Natchaug River). For a few years prior to 1890, there had
been on and off talk about organizing a city government for Willimantic.
In December, 1890, at the urgings of many local businessmen, a borough
meeting was held for the purpose of discussing whether or not to
petition for a city charter for Willimantic. A large number of citizens
attended and the great majority were in favor of applying for a charter.
Attorney James Lynch began the meeting by presenting formal resolutions
in favor of obtaining a charter and then spoke at length about the
advantages that would be derived from having a city form of government
as opposed to a borough. He was immediately followed, however, by
another attorney, John Hunter, “who made a lively attack on the
proposition”. It was noted that a “lively” discussion followed. Many
local businessmen spoke in favor of the proposition and finally Judge
John Hall asked that a charter be written up and submitted to the people
of Willimantic who would then vote on it. After a period of questions,
several resolutions were adopted with only one dissenting vote (John
Hunter). The first resolution instructed the Borough’s Warden, Julius
Pinney, to “give public notice, as required by law, that a petition
would be presented to the next General Assembly, for a City Charter for
said borough”. The next resolution required the Warden to appoint a
committee of fifteen electors of the Willimantic borough to draft a
charter that would be presented to the General Assembly. The committee
would be required, “to do all things necessary to secure passage of said
Charter” and that included selecting members from different political
parties. The committee was instructed to print a thousand copies of the
charter, “to be circulated among the citizens at least two days before
the meeting”. By the next day, Warden Pinney had selected the fifteen
committee members from among the borough’s leading citizens. After
several months of work, the Committee members realized that the draft of
a proposed charter would not be completed before time expired for the
introduction of new business in the House of Representatives. And so a
petition was circulated asking the General Assembly to grant the borough
a city charter. A draft proposal had been written up and circulated but
disagreements among committee members (as well as disagreements among
members of the community) stalled the process for almost two years. At
the heart of the disagreement was the question of what type of
legislative body would run the city. Charters from several other cities
were cited. Several charters continued the use of a Board of Aldermen
and a separate board of councilmen as well as a mayor. The general
feeling in Willimantic seemed to be that there was no need of two
legislative bodies. Towards the end of
December, 1892, some civic leaders, among them Water Commissioner George
Burnham championed the original proposed charter, saying it had been,
“prepared with great care by an able committee” and that continued
attempts to make radical changes to it could overthrow the whole
project. go to part 2 click on photo for larger version
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