The Electric Commission could have gotten a federal loan to install electricity to River Rd.
The Rural Electrification Act of 1936, enacted on May 20, 1936, provided federal loans for the installation of electrical distribution systems to serve isolated rural areas of the United States.
The funding was channeled through cooperative electric power companies, hundreds of which still exist today.[1] These member-owned cooperatives purchased power on a wholesale basis and distributed it using their own network of transmission and distribution lines. The Rural Electrification Act was one of many New Deal proposals by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to remedy high unemployment during the Great Depression.
If you look carefully at two of these photos you can see wooden railings which were placed where the West Branch of the Souhegan crossed River Rd. It was wet on both sides, thus the Willow Arch.
All the photos in today's posting are of River Rd. When I lived there I thought River Rd began at the intersection of Old Country Rd and Joy Ln. However I think it's logical to have it begin at Highbridge. So, when I said there was no electricity on River Rd in 1952 I meant the portion from Joy Ln to Gibson Four Corners. The first time I heard my father refer to Gibson Four Corners I was confused. I couldn't picture it in my mind. It's a typical intersection of two roads. If it had a 4-way stop, the name would make more sense. Back to electricity, we had a Catch22 situation. We wanted electricity so we could use power tools to build a house. The Electric Commission of New Ipswich which bought power from a private company in Greenville would not deliver electricity to a house lot a mile away from the nearest powerline unless there was a house there already. So we built the house with hand tools. Then my father & I dug the post holes for 1 mile's worth of utility poles all the way to Gibson Four Corners (4 ft deep 1.5 ft in diameter).
The pole holes were a snap compared to the 3 wells we dug, 2 went down 22 ft and 1 was 12 ft because we hit granite. There was an old well next to the foundation hole of the old Reynolds house. We also redug the old well a well and the foundation hole. The water in the old had a high count of E. coli, not potable. Looking back we should have left the massive central chimney in place and built a new house around it. We dug the pole holes because the Electric Company was going to charge us for that. I think we could have won in court if my father had wanted to make an issue out of it.
The Electric Commission could have gotten a federal loan to install electricity to River Rd.
The Rural Electrification Act of 1936, enacted on May 20, 1936, provided federal loans for the installation of electrical distribution systems to serve isolated rural areas of the United States.
The funding was channeled through cooperative electric power companies, hundreds of which still exist today.[1] These member-owned cooperatives purchased power on a wholesale basis and distributed it using their own network of transmission and distribution lines. The Rural Electrification Act was one of many New Deal proposals by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to remedy high unemployment during the Great Depression.
If you look carefully at two of these photos you can see wooden railings which were placed where the West Branch of the Souhegan crossed River Rd. It was wet on both sides, thus the Willow Arch.
All the photos in today's posting are of River Rd. When I lived there I thought River Rd began at the intersection of Old Country Rd and Joy Ln. However I think it's logical to have it begin at Highbridge. So, when I said there was no electricity on River Rd in 1952 I meant the portion from Joy Ln to Gibson Four Corners. The first time I heard my father refer to Gibson Four Corners I was confused. I couldn't picture it in my mind. It's a typical intersection of two roads. If it had a 4-way stop, the name would make more sense. Back to electricity, we had a Catch22 situation. We wanted electricity so we could use power tools to build a house. The Electric Commission of New Ipswich which bought power from a private company in Greenville would not deliver electricity to a house lot a mile away from the nearest powerline unless there was a house there already. So we built the house with hand tools. Then my father & I dug the post holes for 1 mile's worth of utility poles all the way to Gibson Four Corners (4 ft deep 1.5 ft in diameter).
I'm sure it wasn't hard to dig those holes. We don't have many rocks in our New England soil.
The pole holes were a snap compared to the 3 wells we dug, 2 went down 22 ft and 1 was 12 ft because we hit granite. There was an old well next to the foundation hole of the old Reynolds house. We also redug the old well a well and the foundation hole. The water in the old had a high count of E. coli, not potable. Looking back we should have left the massive central chimney in place and built a new house around it. We dug the pole holes because the Electric Company was going to charge us for that. I think we could have won in court if my father had wanted to make an issue out of it.