BIO: S. A. Gailey, Tillard Pen Pictures, 1911, Blair County, PA 

Contributed April 2003 for use in the USGenWeb Archives 
by Judy Banja <jbanja@comcast.net>

Copyright 2003.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/blair/
_________________________________________ 

               Pen Pictures of Friends and Reminiscent Sketches
                               by J. N. Tillard

            Altoona, PA: William F. Gable & Co., Mirror Press, 1911 

                       Superintends Our Water Department

           S. A. GAILEY Does Other Things Besides Drawing His Salary -
          Long Association With Official Duties Permits Him to Foresee
                 Needs of Municipality and He Acts Accordingly

LIKE most other municipal affairs the Altoona city water department has come up 
through tribulations. There is always a certain percentage of every community 
who are "forninst" under general principles and there are many others who oppose 
the progress and development of any department of local affairs at almost every 
stage of the game because they honestly believe that it is being mismanaged and 
that the money spent upon it is being misapplied. There are few cities in the 
world of the size of Altoona that are located so near the division of a great 
water shed such as the divide caused by the Alleghany Mountains where within a 
few miles of the city limits the little rivulets that have their source in the 
mountain springs start their journey to the sea on widely diverging lines. 
Within a stone's throw of each other, one spring empties its contents ultimately 
into the Atlantic Ocean by way of the Chesapeake Bay, while the other travels to 
the Gulf of Mexico by way of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.
  This being the case we are so near the sources of supply and the streams are 
so small that the water problem dissolves itself into a problem of conservation 
and development, an elementary fact that it has been very difficult for a large 
number of people to understand notwithstanding its simplicity. There has been a 
good deal of hot air in times past both among the public at large and the 
members of the local legislature and a very popular gallery play was the 
statement that "water should be free as air." This proposition may have some 
force when the consumer can dip it from a boundless river or even a free flowing 
stream, but when you come to store it or pipe it or pump it, or even dig a well 
and hoist it by anything so primitive as an old fashioned sweep, there is an 
element of cost and labor involved, and even the farmer's wife who dips it from 
the spring has to pay more in labor than the city housekeeper who draws it from 
a spigot on any floor of the dwelling.
  Air floats freely and is taken into the lungs without any conscious effort, 
therefore the analogy does not have much force and even the old joke about the 
man of the house hustling around to procure the water if his better half would 
gather in the other necessities may lose its point under certain conditions, as 
water brought to the point where the units of a complex community can use it may 
be and generally is, a costly matter. A besieging army need not divert rivers 
anymore to cut off the water supply from the besieged, but simply cut the pipe 
line and famine ensues. The water question in every large community resolves 
itself into questions of impounding or pumping and most of the time only one 
method is available. The flat country city has nothing to do but pump from the 
nearest available river or lake and then filter the product. The hillside city 
has the advantage of a pure supply brought to its homes by gravity, but will 
soon reach a point in its growth when the little stream at the top of the 
mountain will only supply its needs by impounding the flow of the entire year, 
the most of it coming during the spring freshets.
  The Altoona water department early in its history got a firm grasp on the 
possibilities and limitations of the situation and acted accordingly. The 
opposition to their methods have sometimes been fierce and unreasoning, but they 
have steadily adhered to their plans with the result that presently there will 
be no community in the world in possession of a more satisfactory water system 
that this city. The creation of a small board of commissioners was a great thing 
for the city and fortunately the personnel of that board has been of a calibre 
that measured up to the situation, and they have in no way demonstrated their 
wisdom more than by keeping in place year after year the efficient 
superintendent, S. A. Gailey.
  He has not been kept there without all sorts of schemes being laid for his 
removal by those who wanted his place for themselves or friends, or those who 
may have personally disliked him or were filled with the jealousy that 
unaccountably develops in the breasts of many people who dislike, on general 
principles, to see a public servant keep his place for a series of years no 
matter how efficient or faithful he may be. The water department is today one of 
the city's most valuable assets because Mr. Gailey has been continuously on the 
job until he is perfectly acquainted with every detail of the plant, and there 
is no waste or lost motion because of his comprehensive grasp of the situation 
from the fundamental problems of the possibilities in the way of impounding to 
the location of the remotest service pipe.
  He has been water superintendent for so many years that the present generation 
of men and women can scarcely remember his predecessor, and the department as it 
now stands is largely the work of his hands, as all the management of detail has 
been left to him and he has not failed in the performance of his responsible 
duty. Many years ago, before he was elected to the post he now occupies, he was 
engineer for the old Vigilant Fire Company and thoroughly learned the needs of 
the municipality in this direction, so that when he assumed the responsibilities 
of his office he was ready for the work as it then confronted him. It was a 
rather small job in fact at that time, but Mr. Gailey was endowed with the 
capacity for bigger things and the work was never hampered because of his 
inability to keep up with its expansion. He kept abreast of the times, regarding 
his place as a profession worthy of his best efforts and not a mere political 
snap, with the drawing of the salary attached, as the chief end in view.
  As the city grew, he always foresaw the needs of the situation in time to 
provide for them and no section of the city ever suffered because of any neglect 
or incompetence on his part. He had initiative enough to create when creation 
was necessary and make the greatest possible use of limited means. Instead of 
hanging on to his job by his eyebrows, or by grace of some political pull, he 
was always big enough to command the situation and was never dependent upon 
subordinates in any particular, but could handle all the work of his department 
to the last detail if it were necessary.
  He has not only been a good public official but a good citizen as well in 
every particular of his private life, and accordingly commands the respect and 
esteem of his fellow citizens aside from his official capacity.
  Notwithstanding whatever attempts may have been made to displace him, he 
pursues the even tenor of his way, discharging his duty from day to day whether 
his attitude happens to be popular for the time being or not, and the results of 
his work generally prove so valuable as to silence all criticism in the end. He 
is still in the vigor of strong manhood and is a long way off from the "has 
been" class, and the chances are that the city will continue to profit by his 
skill and experience for many years to come.

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