114 HISTORY OF THN COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER. 



The streets, which are macadamized and kept in good repair, were first 

 lighted with gas on the ist of December, 1856. The pride of the town 

 is her water works — the Campfield — so-called on account of the reser- 

 voir, which is located on an eminence that was undoubtedly the camp- 

 ing ground of the soldiers of a revolutionary fort stationed near by. The 

 water furnished by these works is of a pure quality and in unlimited 

 quantities, pumped from the Peekskill Creek, which takes it rise in Put- 

 nam County and flows over a clear gravel bottom down through the 

 mountains, supplied by tributaries from innumerable springs. The works 

 are situated in a romantic ravine about two miles north of the village, 

 from whence, by ponderous pumps, worked by the power of the water on 

 turbine wheels, the supply is forced to a reservoir of 26,000,000 galloons 

 capacity, at an elevation of 376 feet above tide water. The water fur- 

 nished by these works, for all practical purposes, is absolutely pure, the 

 microscope having failed to detect impurities in any portions submitted 

 to its tests, while it possesses the peculiar property of cleansing steam 

 boilers from rust, and leaves no deposit in evaporation. The pressure 

 varies in different parts of the town from 100 to 175 lbs. to the square 

 inch, and forces water through a one inch nozzle thirty feet higher than 

 the tallest steeple. In case of fire the danger now is in doing more 

 damage with the water than will be accomplished by the flames. Fire 

 protection is afforded by 7 5 hydrants so placed that, with few exceptions, 

 all the property in the village is reached. The works were completed in 

 1875, and in all respects, viz. : economy in construction ($141,000), 

 quality and quantity of water and substantiability, they will ever remain 

 as an enduring monument to the Board of Water Commissioners under 

 whose supervision they were constructed from plans submitted by Chas. 

 E. Fowler, Esq., the engineer. The Board consisted of Reuben R. Finch, 

 George W. Robertson, Chas. F. Southard, Wm. S. Tompkins, and Gil- 

 bert T. Sutton. The following named gentlemen constitute the present 

 Board: Geo. W. Robertson, Ardenus R. Free, Chas. F. Southard, Wm. 

 S. Tompkins and John Halstead. 



Superintendent — Chas. R. Swain. 



The town is well situated for purposes of education, furnishing, as it 

 does, facilities for communicating daily and almost hourly with the great 

 city of New York. There are two union free school districts in the 

 town. The amount expended, the pupils taught and the number of 

 teachers are about the same in each district, and the schools are efficient- 

 ly and economically managed, the annual expense in each school being 

 about $5,000. A principal and seven assistants are employed in each, 

 and the average daily attendance in each is about three hundred. 



