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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