website watertownhistory.org
ebook History of Watertown, Wisconsin
When There is Work to be Done ‘tis Folly to Play
1886
Written
and contributed by Ben
Feld
There
was a time when almost no one in Watertown was seriously concerned with air
pollution. During the winter, and to
some degree during the rest of the year, smoke emanated unnoticed from at least
one chimney of each house giving evidence that some kind of fuel was being
burned in the dwelling, invariably wood or coal.
Smoke
houses smoldered in many backyards, giving off a somewhat pleasant smell of
burning apple or hickory smoke mingled with the aroma of bacon, hams, sausages
and, a bit more rarely, that of fish, caught in the Rock River.
Here
and there wispy clouds of white smoke drifted from the chimneys of fireplaces
where fires burned to enhance the gemutluchkeit of a family gathered hear the hearth to watch
the flames distilling the colors of a hundred autumns from the maple and beech
logs. Smoke, in moderate amounts, was
often deemed a pleasurable spin-off of burning fuels.
Not so
pleasurable were the black clouds of coal smoke which emanated from the smoke
stacks of the trains which all too frequently passed through Watertown spewing
smoke and cinders over the lines of newly hung clothing in hundreds of
backyards.
But
smoke was one of the inconveniences the people had to live with; if one wanted
to be warm, one burned fuel; if one burned fuel, smoke would be produced. The dream of a smoke-free city in the winter
time was about as fanciful as the dream of going to the moon.
And so
it followed that, since the citizens of Watertown wanted to be warm during the
cold winters, fuel must be burned to produce heat, and if fuel was to be
burned, either wood or coal had to be made available.
In
Watertown, in 1886, three firms were vying for the privilege of supply
coal. Beese
and Knoll were handled coal from their yard opposite the Chicago, Milwaukee,
St. Paul Railroad Depot, William Gorder did business near the Northwestern
Railroad Depot, and John McGolrich dispensed coal
from his yard on Washington Street. Each
one claimed to be supplying coal which provided more heat per ton than any
other coal -- an unprovable claim.
Even
had it been provable, the quality of the coal varied greatly from carload to
carload and the supplier who sold high quality coal one month may inadvertently
be selling a poorer grade a few weeks later.
Ultimately,
the only thing a coal supplier could guarantee was the service he offered -- prompt
delivery of the coal, reliability in arriving at the appointed time, leaving
the delivery area neat and clean, and the friendliness of the personnel. All of which placed a good bit of
responsibility on the driver of the delivery wagon.
Early
one mid-winter morning in 1886, a load of coal was sent out from one of the
coal yards. As was frequently done with
the reporting of incidents which might embarrass an individual or business
establishment, names were omitted from the only account of this discombobulation
carried by a Watertown newspaper. We
have no way of determining if the load of coal came from the yards of Beese & Knoll, near the Chicago, Milwaukee & St.
Paul railroad depot, from William Gorder’s yard at the Chicago, Northwestern Railroad depot,
or John McGolrich’s [McGolrick]
yard on Washington Street; nor do we know the name of the central figure in
this brouhaha. He is identified only as
“the young man”, or “the teamster”. One
would imagine he was grateful to have been so vaguely singled out.
This,
the first delivery of the day, one load to the city hall, was just a short
distance from the coal yard and the unloading facility was one of the most
convenient in the city so the expectation that the teamster would be able to
make two or three more deliveries that day was reasonable. Some deliveries were not as easy as this
one. There were places at which the
entire load had to be shoveled into buckets, (usually leather buckets), hoisted
on the shoulder of the deliveryman and physically carried to the coal bin. But at the city hall it was much more
convenient. Here the coal bin, being
just inside the “coal window”, and that window being in a wall next to a
convenient alley, all the teamster had to do was secure one end of a coal chute
to the delivery vehicle, shovel the coal into the chute, and hear it rumble
down into the coal bin.
And
this the teamster did, unloading the coal in just a few minutes, strenuous
though the job was. And since he was a little
ahead of the usual schedule, when he finished the job he stopped to chat, to
“shoot the b---”, to “chew the fat”, to “bat the breeze” with anyone
available. And available at this time
was the deputy marshal carrying a pair of handcuffs, which intrigued the
teamster; intrigued him to the extent that he soon found he had succeeded in
handcuffing one hand to the other.
No
problem. Just ask the deputy marshal to
get out his key, the key which would unlock at the handcuffs, and set free the
innocent prisoner. But the deputy marshal, it was quickly learned, had no key!
No
problem! Get the key from the city
marshal. But wouldn’t you know it---the
city marshal was out of town for the day!
No key was available anywhere.
Big
problem! What to do? After trying every solution offered by the
bystanders, (who were thoroughly enjoying the teamster’s predicament) they
resorted to the only viable solution -- file the cussed manacles off! A practical but time-consuming solution, it
was discovered, but what else were they to do?
And so
they proceeded to file -- and file -- and file.
They filed for two hours. And two
long hours were made no shorter for the teamster by the knowledge that the
dispatcher back at the office was expecting him to appear any minute to take on
another delivery. Two long hours made no
shorter by the clever remarks of the spectators who gathered to see the
fun. This was the most entertaining
thing downtown Watertown had seen for weeks!
Everyone was joining in, offering their “helpful” suggestions and making
wise, astute observations. Would that
the clever remarks of the crowd had been recorded for posterity!
Finally,
just in time for his
The
teamster’s charitable friends predicted that henceforth he would steer clear of
all such articles which were in no way related to his job.
Good
advice for anyone.
History of Watertown,
Wisconsin