How many remember the old town well? I remember it in the middle of Main Street, across from Stockgrowers State Bank and the Maple Hill Central Office. It looked pretty much like the photograph when I was young. This photograph was taken on the south side of the well looking north. I don’t know whose photograph this was originally, but Arlene Wright, Post Master at Maple Hill, took orders for copies and my paternal grandmother, Mabel R. (Jones) Clark, who was the central office operator for 43 years, ordered one.

In the September 4, 1887 Maple Hill News Items in the Alma Signal, there is the follow mention: A town well is being dug in the center of Main Street very near Dolley’s Store. It will be a large convenience for those doing business in our new town.

I would assume the well pictured is that same well. The Maple Hill Central Office did not have its own dug well but instead had a cistern which caught rain water from the roof of the dwelling. Therefore, all drinking water had to be carried from the town well across the street to the Central Office. I remember carrying buckets of water for my grandmother to use for drinking and other uses. Many others also got their drinking water from the town well.

As a teenager, I remember the Maple Hill Boy Scouts rebuilding the stone wall with the help of scout master Richard Andrews. If I recall correctly, the wall had been damaged when George Crouch accidentally ran into it—-please correct me if you remember differently.

I don’t remember when the well was filled in and paved over. It must have been in the 1960s. Does anyone know? Do you have other stories about the town well? Do you have other photos of the well that you could share on this site. Let’s all contribute!!