WELL, WELL, IT WAS
THE OLD TOWN WELL.
ACCIDENT TO WAGON REVEALS
LONG-HIDDEN LANDMARK.
Supplied Part of Kansas City With
Water 44 Years Ago, When
There Were No Meters
to Watch.
When a heavily-laden wagon broke through the asphalt paving at the corner of Tenth and McGee streets yesterday afternoon and the rear wheels sank into a hole to the hubs little damage resulted. There was a general outpouring of reminiscences, however, from old-timers who witnessed the accident that made the incident an interesting story, for the hole into which the wheels sank is what remains of a well from which the pioneers of Kansas City obtained their drinking water in the early '70s.
Of the history of the old well, J. F. Spalding, president of the Spalding Commercial college and a pioneer of Kansas City, said:
"That hole is the old well which was sunk by Thomas Smart forty-four years ago. Smart purchased the forty acres of Ninth and Fourteenth streets and laid out an addition to Kansas City. There was a lack of good drinking water on the hill and Colonel Smart dug the well at the corner of Tenth and McGee. It was eighty feet deep and contained the finest of water. The settlers of the new addition used the water from the well for years. Finally it was abandoned and partly filled. Later it was cut down when the hill was graded for the old Tenth street cable line. Still later it was covered with an old stone slab and the pavers went right over it. I had almost forgotten about it until I saw that wagon break through there and then I recalled it at once. It was one of the city's landmarks in her infant days."
The hole caused by the wagon disclosed the walls of the old well. The pavement covering it was not more than three-quarters of an inch thick and the wonder is that it did not give away under heavy traffic before.
