Miscellaneous, Who's Who in Bainbridge - Herman C. Newell

Who's Who in Bainbridge

Herman C. Newell

Bainbridge News & Republican, April 7, 1938

 

"Water, water everywhere", but principally in the village of Bainbridge is the chief pastime of Herman C. Newell, at present clerk of the village water board, and for eight years an active member of the group...Because he has made the village water system and its proper functioning his hobby, as well as one of his jobs, Mr. Newell can enlighten any questioners on almost any phase of the important task of furnishing approximately 1,300 residents with pure drinking water...

 

He reveals that, in the entire village system, there are about 12-1/2 miles of pipe carrying 65,000 gallons daily to village residents for domestic use alone...Explaining a few details of the work of the board, Mr. Newell says there are about 69 fire hydrants in the village which must be tested every spring and fall, besides four "dead ends" or places at the end of streets where the water cannot circulate, which must be "blown" every two weeks...

 

Bainbridge supplies its 465 water renters with the best water from the standpoint of health of any town in this vicinity...It is, however, a little too soft for long pipe wear...Twenty-five years is about the average length of life of an ordinary local service pipe...

 

Claiming Masonville as his birthplace, Mr. Newell  has acquired a wide acquaintanceship with persons and places throughout this locality...

 

Attending school in the town of Allegany, Bennettsville, "Peck's District" and Bainbridge, farming in Masonville and clerking in a grocery store in Binghamton were the forerunners of his merchandising career in Bainbridge, first in the general store of C.M. Priest, and later in his own grocery store...

 

Deserting his "store keeping", he represented the International Milk Products Company of Cooperstown first in Boston and later in Scranton, selling butter, cheese and commercial ice cream...Before returning to Bainbridge to stay, he also represented the John L. Morgan Company of Binghamton covering the territory between Binghamton and Albany...

 

The romance of the road faded in 1914, and Mr. Newell purchased the J.L. Anderson shoe store, taking over the insurance department of the same organization a month later...In recent years, however, he has devoted most of his time to insurance alone and to the water board...

 

Other town and village governing groups have received his counsel...Stating that he "can't remember" how long he served on the village board, records prove that he was trustee for eight years and mayor for one...So, whether trustee, insurance agent, mayor, salesman, store owner, member of the Danforth Hose co. or of the water board, still Mr. Newell has had experience enough in all to know what makes the wheels of Bainbridge community life go round...