How Fredericton moved from buckets to fire hoses, creating a system of running water in the process

Since1993, Laurence Corbett has been gathering information on the history of Fredericton's water service. And now, he has enough for at least two more books.

But for now, he's startedby releasing one.

"I had so many questions, even after I retired, I wanted to do something cerebral," he said.

In 2022, the retired cityengineer went to Woodstock with his wife, Dawn, to renew their passports. But while waiting for the office to open, the pair found themselves studying the older architecture in the town, noticing that while some houses predated 1880, most did not, as the town had suffered a numberfires before that date.

He also found the property that supposedly held the first pumphouse, but it was abandoned and didn't havea sign or plaqueexplaining its significance.

Like Woodstock, Corbett said Fredericton has a similar history of fires and a similar number of heritage buildings all dating to the period after the installation of the first pumphouse.

This story is detailed in the prologue of Corbett's book, Fire, Disease, and the Pump House: What Had to Happen Before Fredericton Had Running Water, which was released late last week.

"Fredericton was called the city of fires, with a fire every Saturday night," he said.

These fires would sometimes burn down whole blocks, and neighbours would show up to help, bringing buckets and ladders and helping to remove people's valuables for safekeeping, Corbett said.

The community eventually formed a bucket brigade, usinga personal or public well, a stream or river. Homes were legislated to have a fire bucket at the ready, and a fire warden was appointed to direct the brigade for each community. Later on, manual fire engines were purchased and six or seven public fire wells were dug.

It's an issue that was being faced everywhere, said Corbett, as communities tried to find ways to introduce a system of running water, something that was definitely needed.

Corbett said in Fredericton, streets were dusty and also had deposits of manure and urine from horses. And when it rained, roadways were both wet and muddy.

There was also an issue with the water supply, he said. Typhoid fever, a waterborne disease, was the worst and three to six people would die each year, with 20 sick people on average for every death.

When the town finally agreed a pumphouse was needed, Corbett said three different studies were done on it.

He said there were important names behind the work. George Fenety was a big one. In late 1881, he sat down and researched and released a 44-page pamphlet that explained how the town would pay for it and proposed a schedule.

Well-known engineer Henry George Clopper Ketchum did a lot of work trying to figure out if an aqueduct was the right solution, said Corbett.

It was N. Henry Crasts,a Boston engineer, who suggested the idea of a Holly system, which was ultimately used for the first pumphouse built in 1883.

The Holly system, which involved placing a pump near a river that pumped continuously, worked for another 20 years as a safer water source and a way to more efficiently put out fires, until more purity was needed.

Corbett said he hopes his book will recognize the interesting people involved with bringing running water to Fredericton, but he also wanted to acknowledge the heritage of the little pumphouse "as much as we do those buildings that exist because of it."