Village symbol recalls Cary’s beginnings
Any official document from the Village of Cary bears a simple, blue and white symbol. Although not officially adopted by the village, the image of a water pump and well house is printed on business cards, fax forms, letterheads—even the weekly e-mailed newsletter.
The symbol pays homage to a bygone era in Cary.
“It was a meeting place for the farmers, a trough for watering horses,” said Shirley Bean, member and administrative assistant with the Cary Historical Society.
Formerly, it stood directly across from what is now the Tracks bar. Alongside the bar, visitors in town could hitch their horses. The original wooden pump had a water trough for horses to drink from. The silver pump that stands underneath the kiosk today is a cast of the former, functional one. The kiosk was constructed to mimic the old well house.
The original pump, colloquially known as the Old Town Pump, was removed in 1925 when West Main Street was paved.
“What’s there today is the best replication,” Mayor Tom Kierna said.
According to “Cary Me Back,” a book on the history of Cary, when the pump opened in 1895, the Crystal Lake publication The Nunda Herald said, “The well house erected over the town pump is very neat. It is not only attractive but suitable and convenient place to store the Village Hose. The test of the hose and force pump on Saturday was very satisfactory.”
Along with the pump, the well house appears in Cary’s symbol. Although not exactly matching the original’s silhouette, it includes key details like the pointed top, the slatted sides and the archway entrances.
In 1912, 17 years after its opening, the Village of Cary installed a water system and improved the well house. The village added a water fountain for drinking and installed running water to fill the horse trough.
After the pump and well house were demolished in 1925, Cary residents wanted it back, even though they were getting pumps in their homes and no longer needed it to gather water, Bean said.
Shortly thereafter, “they put it back in because the people wanted it,” she said. “People wanted to see it there, it was just for people to see.”
Since celebrating its centennial in 1993, the village has used the same symbol on all official documents.
“When the village refurbished and rebuilt the pump, we incorporated it in conjunction with the 100-year anniversary,” Kierna said.
“It’s a neat thing to see and then to know the history of it,” Bean said. “It’s a wonderful, historic thing.”
—By Michelle Stoffel, Triblocal.com reporter; photo from the “Cary Me Back” book
