in 
NORTH SHORE BREEZE 
Manchester's Sewerage Plan Approved 
State Board of Health Puts Its O. K. on the Town's Proposition 
To Handle Its Sewage. 
In a letter to the Committee on 
Sewerage of the Town of Manches- 
ter, the State Board of Health has 
set forth its views on the proposed 
new system of sewerage for the town. 
The letter is as follows: 
“The state board of health  re- 
ceived from you Feb. 26, 1913, an ap- 
plication for advice as to a proposed 
system of sewerage for the town of 
Manchester as described in the report 
and shown upon the plans of your en- 
gineers presented therewith. 
“These plans provide for the col- 
lection of the sewage of the more 
thickly settled portions of the town 
into a receiving basin to be located 
on the northerly side of the Glouces- 
ter branch of the Boston & Maine 
railroad, between Church and Beach 
streets, whence it is proposed to pump 
the sewage through a cast iron force 
main 14 inches in diameter and about 
9500 feet in length to a settling tank 
of the Imhoff type on House Island, 
from which the sewage will be dis- 
charged into the sea off the southerly 
end of the island at a point where the 
depth of water, according to the coast 
survey charts, is about 42 feet at low 
water. 
“You have also asked advice as to 
the discharge of the sewage directly 
into the sea in the same general lo- 
cality without settling tanks on House 
Island. 
“The board has caused the local- 
ity to be examined by one of its en- 
gineers and has considered the report 
and plans presented. The quantity of 
sewage to be disposed of will depend 
very largely upon the care used in the 
const:uction of the sewers and the 
connections therewith, and it will pro- 
bably be several- years before the a- 
‘mount will reach 300,000 gallons a 
day. It appears that the question of 
disposing of the sewage upon land 
within the limits of the town by any 
of the methods available for that 
purpose has been carefully considered 
but that no suitable location for this 
purpose has been found. The plan of 
disposing of sewage by discharging it 
into the sea has also been considered 
and recommended by your engineer 
and, in the opinion of the board this 
method of disposal is the best that 
it is practicable to adopt. 
“The location of the proposed set- 
tling tanks on House Island would add 
considerably to the cost of the work, 
and there would be likely to be a no- 
ticeable odor about such works. It 
would be best, in the opinion of the 
board, in the beginning at least, to 
omit the construction of these tanks 
and discharge the sewage directly in- 
to the sea as pumped from the reser- 
voir. If the quantity of sewage should 
increase or floating matter should ever 
be noticeable in the neighborhood of 
the outlet, settling tanks could be pro- 
vided, if necessary, though it is pro- 
bable that a satisfactory removal of 
suspended matters could be effected 
by screening at the pumping station 
without danger of causing objection- 
able conditions at any point. In the 
design of the works at the reservoir 
and pumping station, provision should 
be made so far as practicable for the 
future screening of the sewage in 
case further treatment should ever be 
13 
found desirable. The plans of the 
works provide for a reservoir having 
a capacity of not less than 100,000 gal- 
lons. It is desirable that the size of 
the reservoir be as small as practicable 
in order to avoid decomposition of the 
sewage therein, and a capacity of less 
than 100,000 gallons should be ade- 
quate for the purpose for several 
years. 
“The location of the outlet now pro- 
posed in the deep water outside of 
House Island appears to be a satis- 
factory one, but it is possible that 
by eliminating the tanks on House 
Island the location might be changed 
somewhat and a saving thereby ef- 
fected in the cost of the force main. 
Before locating the outlet definitely, 
the board recommends that suitable 
surveys and soundings be made, to- 
gether with observations of the move- 
ments of the currents, in order that 
the force main and the point of dis- 
charge may be as favorably located 
as tacticable for the economical and 
satisfactory disposal of the sewage.” 
50th Anniversary 
of Their Wedding 
Vir. and Mrs. Torrey Informally Celebrate Event In Hudson, N. H. 
Receive Shower of Post Cards, Bouquets and Presents. 
(Reprinted from Nashua, N. H., Telegraph of April 16, 1913) 
Mr. and Mrs. Joseph A. Torrey of 
Manchester-by-the-Sea, who have 
spent the winter in Hudson near the 
family of their son-in-law, Prof. C. L. 
Norton at the corner of Ferry street 
and Campbell avenue, observed their 
golden wedding anniversary Wednes- 
day in an informal manner. 
Both are of Puritan stock, and 
their ancestors have played an im- 
portant part in the early history of 
Massachusetts and some of its cities 
and towns. Mr. Torrey is a a native 
of Salem, Mass., and his wife of 
Manchester-by-the-Sea. They trace 
their ancestors back in this country 
to 1624 and 1626. Mr. Torrey is 
sixth in descent from Capt. William 
Torrey of Weymouth, who was also 
an ancestor of ex-President William 
H. Taft. The original home of John 
Balch, one of the antecedents of Mr. 
Torrey, built in Beverly in 1638, four- 
teen years after he settled in this 
country, still stands at the corner of 
Balch and Cabot streets in Beverly 
and is a landmark to which the city 
points with pride. The 200 acres of 
farm land part of the extensive tract 
then owned by Mr. Balch, is where 
the magnificent and large plant of the 
United Shoe Machinery Company 
now stands. 
The Torrey family history 
that Mr. Balch in company 
says 
with 
Roger Conant and a few other settlers 
formed a settlement which was in 
1826 called Salem, and which later be- 
care a prosperous city. 
Mrs. Torrey traces her lineage with 
pride back to Jeffrey Parsons of Cape 
Anne, Gloucester and Salem. A large 
possession of land, owned by him in 
Gloucester, is now called Fisherman’s 
Field, a public breathing plot and park. 
Mr. and Mrs. Torrey were married 
in Manchester, Mass., April 16, 1863 
by the Rev. Geo. E. Freeman. Dur- 
ing Mr. Torrey’s éarly life he taught 
school in Salem, but later went to Bos- 
ton where he was engaged in the fur- 
niture business under the firm name 
of Parsons & Torrey. He carried 
this on successfully for a number of 
years and entered the insurance busi- 
ness, retiring in 1895, returning to 
Manchester where he took up a per- 
manent residence. To their union one 
child was born, Mrs. C. L. Norton of 
Hudson, wife of Professor Norton of 
the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- 
nology, who is president of the As- 
bestos Wood company on Bridge 
street, Nashua. 
They were the recipients of a 
wealth of post cards and beautiful 
bouquets of choice flowers from their 
many relatives and dear friends, some 
of whom called upon them and ex- 
tended congratulations. 
