MEMOIR OF DANIEL TREADWELL. 357 



Beacon Hill Reservoir." And again, in 1871, then in his eightieth year, in an 

 article in the Daily Advertiser : " It is to be hoped the present panic concerning 

 a water famine in Boston will not pass away without teaching the people the 

 temerity of trusting to a single source of supply, especially when that supply de- 

 .pends upon a complicate system of tunnels and reservoirs, pipes, pumps, engines, 

 and gates distributed through twenty miles, and requiring the constant attention 

 of competent engineers and faithful operatives." That these warnings were not 

 without reason, it may be remembered that in the following November, during a 

 severe frost, the whole supply of water for the city was for several hours cut off. 

 The reservoir was empty ; the possibility of a conflagration caused great alarm, 

 and the fire-engines were hurried to the wharves. Fortunately no fire then occurred ; 

 but during the great fire of November 9th and lOlh, 1872, Avhen the supply of 

 water from the mains was insufficient for the great demand, and many engines 

 stood idle, the city reservoir, which might have done good service, was empty. 

 Three independent sources of supply, and as many lai'ge mains, with the pumping 

 station for the high service, have since been constructed, and the Beacon Hill 

 Reservoir safely dispensed with. Those at South Boston and East Boston, as origi- 

 nally intended, are still kept full in case of accident to the supply mains. 



In 1827, attention was drawn to the construction of railways in New England. 

 The first railway charter in Massachusetts was granted on the 4th of March, 1826, to 

 the Granite Railway Company, for the transportation of granite from the quarries 

 in Quincy to tide-water in Neponset River. The company combined the management 

 of the quarries with that of the railway, and among its first business operations was 

 the furnishing of stone for the Bunker Ilill Monument. The road is still in opera- 

 tion. About the same time numerous routes for railways were surveyed, — the 

 Boston and Lowell, Boston and Providence, and that to Albany. On all these roads 

 the transportation was to be by horse-power. This was the method already adopted 

 in England, and in this country on the Baltimore and Ohio, and the Mohawk and 

 Hudson ; all the discussions as to their construction were based on this plan.* 

 Railways in England and in the United States had all been constructed with double 

 tracks; they were considered indispensable. 



* By the charters of the Massachusetts roads, any person had the right to use them who should comply with the 

 rules of the directors; but as they had, by the charters, full control over " the transportation of persons and property, 

 the construction of wheels, the form of cars and carriages, the weight of loads, and all other matters and things in 

 relation to the use of the road," individual rights were lost. 



