Adjourned annual town meeting held at Central Hall

1. George Eliot Sill presided.
2. The full agenda of this meeting:

• Reading of the call for the meeting and result of the election.
• Reports of the town officers.
• Setting mill rate for the upcoming fiscal year.
• Consideration of the salary of the superintendent of public schools
• Final report oof the Old Town Farm Committee.
• Formation of a committee to advise on establishing a manual training school.
• Resolution requesting the Board of Selectmen investigate whether the Town of Hartford should contribute to the expenses of the orphan asylums and beneficent societies in Hartford.
• Resolution accepting and publishing the report of the superintendent of public schools.
• Resolution authorizing the town treasurer to borrow money, at the direction of the Board of Selectmen, to cover the ordinary expenses of the town.

3. Two items were raised that were determined to be out of order:

• A resolution removing restrictions from property, purchased by Philip Doherty, at the corner of Asylum and Hopkins streets.
• A resolution providing for high school students who wanted to “take only one study.”

4. The meeting was adjourned.

The final report of the old town farm committee confirmed several points that have so far not been found in the Courant:

• The committee had named the park “Sigourney Square.”
• The committee commissioned the installation of sewers on Ashley Street and on May Street.
• The Board of Street Commissioners and the City Surveyor had approved the layout of the sewers.
• The committee complied with an order from the Court of Common Council to install curbs and gutter stones on the four streets around the park.

On May 18, 1895, the Courant reported that work was underway on improvements to Sigourney Square Park.

1. As the consolidation of the Town and City of Hartford approached, concerns about the authority of the Board of Selectmen to act came up three times:

• On setting a mill rate for the coming fiscal year, “ex-Selectman Robert A. Griffing asked if the tax was to be laid for a year or until the operation of the consolidation act. It was explained that the tax was to be for a year.  Griffing then moved that the tax be 3½ mills.”
• On the pending sale of the nine building lots, “The common council of the city will probably take such action as may be necessary to legalize the collection of about $19,000 still due under contracts on bonds for deeds which the committee have issued, after receiving part payments for the lots named in the bonds.”
• On future maintenance of the park, “your committee can do nothing more int eh way of improving that square, since the Legislature has placed all the parks and public squares within the city in the hands of the City Park Commissioners. It now becomes their duty to take charge of Sigourney Square.”

2. Also today, the Hartford Board of Aldermen and Court of Common Council met this evening to consider accepting Sigourney Square as a municipal park.

On December 9, 1895, the Board of Councilmen will accept Sigourney Square as a city park.

1. On the resolution to consider the establishment of a manual training school:

• Patrick McGovern opposed it, because education “should be for the mind and the heart and there the duty of the taxpayers should cease. He did not believe ‘in training children to be prize fighters.’”
• Everett S. Geer supported it, because “8 per cent. Of the high school scholars went to college. What became of the 92 per cent.?”
• The resolution passed.

2. The students who wanted to take only one course of study were considered “irregular.”

On December 9, 1895, the Board of Councilmen will accept Sigourney Square as a city park.

1. “Four of the 193 lots were set aside for opening May street on the west side of the ”
2. “Mr. Burr stated that the sale of the old farm had furnished funds to buy the new farm and erect the new almshouse.”

“Councilman White introduced a resolution for an ordinance providing that the fiscal year in all city departments be identical; referred to the ordinance committee.” – The implication being that different municipal departments operated on different fiscal years.

1. Alfred E. Burr was editor of the Hartford Times.
2. George Eliot Sill was a local lawyer.
3. Robert A. Griffing was a local politician and businessman.
4. Patrick McGovern was a prominent local politician and businessman. At this point in time, he was not a US citizen:  his naturalization papers, filed March 11, 1870, had not been completed due to a clerical error.  This error would be discovered and corrected in July 1924, by which time he had served on the Hartford Board of Aldermen, served in the State Senate, and been the chair of the Republican Town Committee for over 20 years.
5. Everett S. Geer was a local publisher who, along with his brothers, published Geer’s Hartford Directories.

Unattributed.  “Last town meeting,” Hartford Courant, October 29, 1895, page 10.