Charles Edward Mellor

Charles Edward Mellor (1886-1960)

My grandfather was born in Huddersfield, England, on August 10, 1886. He and his mother Mary Ann, father John and two sisters, Mildred and Ethel, moved to New York City in 1895. His first job at age 16 was as a water boy during the construction of the New York City subway, the first underground portion opening in 1904. Water, something we often take for granted, would become a major focus of his life.

Charles studied civil engineering and would go on in 1907 at age 21 to work for 50 years for the recently opened New York City Board of Water Supply on Wall Street in Manhattan. He played a role in the major effort to bring water from the Catskills to New York City to satisfy needs of a booming population.

Even after his retirement, the office would call him to ask questions, because of his expansive knowledge of the New York City water system. This great man I knew from birth to age eight as “Grandpa.” The extended family and friends spent summers together at a cottage he built on Coventry Lake in Connecticut. Briefly during the last year of his life in 1960, he lived with my grandmother Anita in an apartment in our family’s new house in Vernon, CT.

I knew my grandfather as a putterer. He was always doing something or another in his workshop or around the cottage. Fixing things. Starting new projects. Going from one project to another. Of course MY favorite project was the bow and arrow sets hemade for all five of his grandchildren. The cousins delighted atshooting arrows all summer. He also made toy boats to amuse us while swimming in Coventry Lake.

He was a bit of a perfectionist, and he did have a temper when things didn’t go his way. I remembered hearing what must have been very colorful language he learned as a child from his Yorkshire roots.

Charles Mellor was buried in the Kensico Cemetery, not far from the Kensico Dam, which was constructed for the New York City Board of Water Supply project. The reservoir behind the Kensico Dam is still a major and vital source of water for New York City. From my grandfather I learned the value of water. It certainly is not something to be wasted!