From The Connecticut River Valley in Southern Vermont and New Hampshire: Historical Sketches by Lyman S. Hayes, Tuttle Co., Marble City Press, Rutland, VT., 1929, page 335:
OLD VILLAGE WELLS AND AQUEDUCTS OF BELLOWS FALLS
In the autumn of 1903, when the foundation for the present brick village building between Rockingham and Canal Streets were being laid, upon the same location where the frame building had stood since the summer of 1869 devoted to the purpose of a. village hall and fire department headquarters, the workmen found an old and deep well under it. The walls of the well were still in good condition, although debris had fallen into it to above where the water had originally stood. It was from fifteen to twenty feet deep. In order to make the foundations of the new building of the most substantial character, the well was filled up and every trace of it removed. Considerable speculation was indulged in at the time as to the history of the well, and who had probably used it in former years.
It was dug in 1799 by Quartus Morgan, who in 1798 had bought and become the proprietor of the old historic "Morgan Tavern" which was located on the opposite side of. Rockingham Street, and which still stands there, the oldest building in the village. It was recently favorably discussed by the U. S. government as a site for the new post office building. I t was occupied by the Bellows Falls post office in 1805, when Mr. Morgan was posttmaster. The well was dug in 1799 across the "road" for the use of the hotel and it soon become the principal water supply of all the residents in that section of the village. For many years it was known as the "Town Well" and in the last years of its history had a large well house and a long chain with a bucket on each end, [336] running over a drum operated with a crank. When one bucket ascended, full, the other one descended. Many residents of 50 years ago remembered seeing this well, and the house over it, and recalled going there for water. Until 1848, when the first pipe was laid from Minard's Pond, but few families in the village had the luxury of running water in their residences.
The next hotel of the village was built, sometime previous to 1826, on the location now covered by the block where Fenton & Hennessey's furniture store is. Its ell and barn extended as far south as the School Street stairs. In the yard was dug another well almost in the center of the ground now covered by the Boston Store building. Over that well for many years was a large wooden pump with a long handle. In front of it was a long trough into which the water was pumped for the animals, and buckets for the use of the hotel were filled by hanging them on the spout of the pump . A picture of the old building in the History of Rockingham shows the pump and its surroundings clearly.
Traditions of the Hapgood family state that Solomon Hapgood was the first village resident to bring running water to his dwelling. His residence was on the west side of Westminster Street, on the north corner of the present Hapgood Street, where the home of John E. Babbitt now is. Mr. Hapgood's aqueduct was made from pine "pump-logs," later changed to freestone from the quarries near Cambridgeport.
In 1822 a corporation was formed to lay a pipe and bring a supply of water from the large spring near North Westminster, and it supplied a dozen Or more families many years. It was first laid with freestone [337] cut about two inches square and twelve or fourteen inches long, bored lengthwise, and the sections were connected by lead thimbles. This was later replaced by lead pipe. A few sections of this old freestone pipe are still treasured by citizens as souvenirs of a most primmitive water-supply aqueduct. There are two in the town clerk's office.
The first pipe from Minard's Pond, the present water supply of the village, was laid in 1848 by a private corporation, chartered under the name of the "Bellows Falls Water Company." The pipe was only four inches in diameter as it left the pond, reduced to three as it entered the village. Water was first used from it in 1850. The works were purchased by the village in 1872, the price paid being· $22,000. The village at once relaid the pipe by an eight-inch one, which was in turn replaced by the present one twenty inches in diameter.
Early in the history of the use of the pond as a water supply a dam was built on the east side increasing the storage capacity. In 1904 this dam was relaid and raised five feet higher, again increasing the supply and making it adequate for many years to come. The pond now covers an area of 43-1/2 acres and has an estimated capacity of 125,700,000 gallons. Frequent analysis of the water by the state laboratory has always shown it to be of remarkable purity, and this has been proven by the average good health of the citizens.