By Danny Crownover [The Vagabond]
Gadsden’s first public well was located at what is now Broad and First Streets — on the bluff overlooking the Coosa River — according to the legend handed down by the earliest settlers here.
The well was sunk there in order to provide water for both man and beast, long before there was much of a village in the area or any thought of such a place as Gadsden.
Six stage lines ran through here from Atlanta, GA and Jacksonville, AL, and the small acreage on the bluff known as Emma Sansom Park was used as a hitching and camping ground.
Later, a log hotel was built by General D.C. Turrentine at the corner of First and Broad; it was the accommodation of travelers in those pioneer days.
In the late 1830s and early 1840s — and in fact, in later years, too — that first public well was the central point around which the village began to grow.
When steamboats started to ply the Coosa in 1845, the popularity and importance of that old stage stop grew in proportion, and eventually, the town centered most of its activities there.
It began to spread westward when the railroads through Gadsden were being planned in the 1870s.
As the business section crept toward the west, it became necessary to sink wells in the middle of Broad Street at the Third, Fourth, Court and Fifth Street intersections for fire protection.
Then when the first courthouse was built in 1870, the city built a well on the Court Street side. Practically all of the business houses and many residences in the older part of town depended upon it for water.
In the rear of every store, there was a bucket of water from that well. It was cool and refreshing and was preferred to any in the city, except the water from wells at a number of private homes.
Many owners boasted of their well water and some claimed they had the best. When the water works was built in 1885, they were reluctant to give up the use of well water at first, but gradually, they found out that most well water in Gadsden was contaminated with pollutants.
It was difficult to convince them that the wide prevalence of chills and fever the year round was due to polluted water nonetheless.
The building of sanitary sewers and the gradual disuse of wells, however, eventually proved that city water from the river was the best and the safest.
There was also a bored well on the plaza in front of the courthouse. It was declared a menace to health and sealed up in 1927 — but only after a long and vigorous protest from many who believed that the water had some medicinal value.
