The Young Man Who Gave Port Townsend Water
While town officials debated for years, one enterprising citizen took matters into his own hands and built the city’s first private waterworks system.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
One of Port Townsend’s enterprising young men is Mr. Harry Tibballs, Jr., who has just completed a work which is gigantic for one of his age. For a long time the question has been asked by nearly all newcomers: 'Why do we not have waterworks?' In the meantime, Mr. Tibballs had a well dug on his premises on the hill, reaching a depth of 116 feet, to test the water supply. A steam pump was erected over it, and during the summer months, the pump was kept going without diminishing the amount of water. Mr. Tibballs went immediately to San Francisco and ordered a pump of the most approved pattern, along with the necessary pipes. A reservoir 80 feet long and 30 feet wide, with a capacity of 250,000 gallons, was built about 400 yards from the well. This was connected by a main pipe four inches in diameter, laid down Harrison and Washington streets to Water Street. With fifty-five revolutions of the engine, the pump developed a capacity of 10,000 gallons per hour. A good-sized stream was thrown over the Central Hotel, and connections will be made through all the principal streets, providing water to businesses and residences at reasonable rates.
“For a long time the question has been asked by nearly all newcomers: 'Why do we not have waterworks?'”
This 1885 story captures the early frontier scramble to build critical infrastructure through private venture rather than public policy—a precursor to the 'move fast and break things' approach that still defines how Seattle and its surrounding regions grapple with rapid development and essential services.
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