Water and drought in 1887 Norwood
NORWOOD HISTORICAL SOCIETY
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1887 — Water is Scarce


As reported in November, 1887, in the Cincinnati Times-Star:

    "The question now troubling the minds of Norwooders is the scarcity of water. There are more dry cisterns than wet ones, and the selling of water by the barrel is now quite an industry out that way." (This was seven years before the village created its own water system, so residents had to get their water from collected rainwater, private wells or springs.)

    "This is cleaning-out-cistern-time all over the three suburbs. Everybody is praying for rain." (Although we no longer worry about filling our cisterns, one-hundred and twenty years later (2007), and the lack of rain has turned our lawns brown and put our trees and plants under severe stress!)

    "Notwithstanding the seriousness of the drought throughout this "neck of the woods," it was amusing to see the flash of the numerous lanterns the other evening when the villagers discovered that a regular old-fashioned shower was falling. It is useless to say that all water spouts were in first-class working order in time to catch what little rain fell."

    "When a thing is pretty bad you can generally find something a little worse. Norwood people pay fifteen cents a barrel for water, but people at Pleasant Ridge go us ten cents better for that necessary commodity."

    "The rain came as a blessing to every resident of the Norwoods, and was a welcome Thanksgiving gift."

    "There is water and lots of it in Duck Creek now. It was dry all summer."


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