Transcribed for the internet
by Emma Thornburg Sefcik
5/7/2010

The Hartford Day Spring
Thursday, July 3, 1947
By Don F. Cochrane

       The furor is waning.  Echoes of the resounding clash between civic sentimentality and current practicality are fading into that limbo where all human controversies ultimately find repose.  A new waterworks well in Ely park has been driven.

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The current generation of Hartfordites seems ill informed as to the origin of Ely park.  Only two members of the village council, custodians of the park by virtue of their official positions, remember its donor, Horace M. Olney, first citizen of the town in his day.  It is understandable that the sentimentality of oldsters who not only knew the donor but saw the park developed from its beginning is not fully shared by today’s residents who perforce do not share their memories.  A brief resume of all that has gone before may clarify the recent divergence of opinion.

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It was in 1895 that the late Mr. Olney gave to Hartford what is now the west half of the park.  The deed under which the village council of that day accepted it stipulated that it should forever be maintained as a public park to be known as Ely park in memory of the donor’s mother whose maiden name was Ely; that it should not be used as a playground, and that any improvements should be ornamental and “of quality” in character.

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Business men of that day entered into the spirit of what they deemed a valuable gift, worthy of perpetuity. They and other private citizens brought from adjacent woodlands a variety of saplings selected to present a majority of trees native to local forests, and set them in the new park.  There was no water system then and the tree planters during ensuing seasons formed almost nightly brigades to carry water in buckets and attend their saplings.  Most of the trees survived, although many have since fallen as victims of nature’s fury or have been felled to give others opportunity to attain mature growth.

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Soon after the turn of the century Mr. Olney purchased what is now the east half of the park, removed a row of frame store buildings that had become rookeries, banished a lumber yard and deeded the vacated area to the village as an addition to his original gift. At his death around 1924 he left an endowment fund to provide in part for the future upkeep of the park.  For years Ely park was maintained as a beauty spot that was the pride of the villagers and won the generous plaudits of visitors.  As memories dulled and both the spirit of generosity and local pride waned the original stipulations as to its use became less respected and the park more neglected.

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Older residents who not only knew Mr. Olney but respected him as a friend and citizen have regarded his original intent as a sacred trust.  They have at various times opposed use of the park for inimical to that intent.  They opposed the sinking of the waterworks well as not within the scope of the donor’s wishes.  A well, they contended, is not an ornament, within the meaning of the deed’s restrictions, although the building ultimately erected to shelter it can be made either ornamental or unsightly.

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The village council’s view of the contentious issue has seemed to be that the park is public property; that the village has been crisscrossed with sanitary sewers until few sites remain that meet the state health requirement inhibiting waterworks wells within 200 feet of a sewer; that a new well is a public necessity and the sinking of it in Ely park rather than at any of the other approved sites will avoid laying extensive connecting mains and effect a savings of approximately $5,000 which sum admittedly does not grow on municipal bushes.  That is the cold, practical business view of the project, sans sentiment  -  and perhaps sans a full measure of respect for the wishes of a deceased donor.  The cold, practical view has prevailed. The well has been sunk.  Some of the money thus paid could be well used in rejuvenating the park and again making it something akin to what its donor envisaged.

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While the well controversy raged we heard one citizen make the rather derisive query:  “Horace Olney, whoinhell was he?”  Well, ladies and gentlemen, he was the farsighted citizen of yesteryears who, with pride in his home town, generously gave Hartford the park and sought to make it something worthy of perpetual upkeep and continuous enjoyment by citizens of his home community long after his own mortal remains had returned to dust.  Mr. Olney was first friend to Hartford citizens of his day and hoped to be just that to generations that should follow the one in which he carried his full share of responsibilities and rendered a generous measure of public service.  That is exactly who he was, and we have recited here only a fraction of what he did for Hartford and its people. 

The original Hartford Day Spring article was submitted in 2006 by Tom Norden (HHS 1960)
 

This photo was found among the “Old Time Photos” in a box that was donated to the History of Hartford in 2009 by Sinclair Graphics, formerly known as the Hartford Day Spring.  After reading the above “Origins of Ely Park” and viewing the photo, this may be the planting of the original trees in Ely Park.

Notation by Emma Thornburg Sefcik

The fountain postcard dated March 9, 1933

     Since the first planting of trees in Ely Park, composition of the park has changed significantly.  The postcard above shows the beautiful fountain that once adorned the park.  The following are excerpts from Bud Davis' book, page 312-316, Paw Paw River Times and People, Vol 1 regarding the beauty of Ely Park:

. . . in 1929 a committee formed to install a memorial fountain.  A year later they reached their goal and a fountain was erected in the center, very close to the front (Main Street).  The whole fountain was of marble and cost over $3,000. Huge goldfish swam in its depths, and at night colored lights played on the jets of water bursting in the air over the fountain.
     At the dedication ceremonies, the Hartford-Lawrence band played, and various dignitaries spoke.  the committee placed a bronze plaque on the fountain honoring the memory of the Olney family members. At the base of the fountain they placed a receptacle containing a list of the contributors to the fund, as well as a history of the park and the fountain project.
. . . in the summer of 1930, the new fountain, full of fat goldfish, shone in the morning sunlight.   I sat on the edge and looked at the water while my dad checked the geranium planters around it. 
     The park was a show place.  Two raised flower beds were tilted toward Main Street.  In one he arranged plants to spell out Ely Park.  In the other he spelled out Hartford.  In addition to this there were huge round beds of geraniums and also what I remember as being called cannas.  These were spiky blooms in yellow and red.  With the grass mowed like a carpet, the park was an altogether inviting place.  My mother said that when we were little kids Hartford's young mothers, on a warm afternoon, would take their children to the park and wheel them around to brag on the new tooth that had appeared or the new word that had just been learned.
     The summer day when my dad and I went to the park he checked and weeded all the flower beds. By now in mid-morning the park caretaker, Lewis Spaulding, had been setting out the tall sprinklers.  They had a little harp think on top and revolved lazily, making a  "tchk, tchk, tchk" sound as they turned. Even today the sound of such a lawn sprinkler brinks back summertime and Ely Park in my memory.
     When my mother's family moved to Hartford (she was a teen-ager), the town was still encouraging citizens to subscribe for a tree when would be a perpetual memorial to the citizens of the town.  Mind you, each tree had to be watered with buckets which were carried from Main Street.

In 1940, Hartford built a new concrete bandstand in the center of the park.  Twenty-by-twenty feet, the platform is still used by Memorial day orators, as well as the yearly Hartford Strawberry Festival. 

The postcard below shows the  WW11 Memorial in Ely Park honoring Hartford service men and women. 

As a child growing up in the 1950s-1960s, I remember the foundation, but not the fountain.  As I recall, at that time, the fountain and fish had been removed and the large cement enclosure was only a large flower bed, as shown in the March 9, 1963 postcard to the left. 

In 1985, the Vietnam Memorial was unveiled in Ely Park.  Click here for the newspaper story and photo.