1910 ~ The Village Ordinances for Springville, New York.

 1910 ~ The Village Ordinances for Springville, New York. 

I had fun looking through this book and thought I would share some of the Ordinances with you ...

Ordinance 1 ( this is only part of it) No person, shall within the limits of said Village, keep or maintain any disorderly or gambling house of ill fame.  No Person shall take part in or join, aid or abet any riotous or tumultuous assemblage upon the streets on in doorways or stairways adjacent thereto or loiter about such places.  (Geez, you need a dictionary to figure out some of those don't you) No, person shall use or engage in any profane, vulgar or obscene language or conduct in upon the street or public places. (guess you have to keep all those words for your house only) No person shall, on Sunday, nor upon any other day, between the setting and rising of the sun, make or contribute to the making of any loud noises, or fires, or discharge a gun or be guilty of any loud halooing or yelling or blowing trumpets, beating on fences boards, buildings or rattling any sticks or bones, oh and no ball playing or any other games on Sunday.... HOLY MOLY.... If you violated this ordinances, you shall for each ofence forfeit and pay the sum of $10 for the use of the Village.

In 1910, you could purchase a nice coat or a suit for $10.  A dress would run anywhere from $2 to $10.  Coffee was 25 cent a pound, Bread was 10 to 15 cents, so that was a large amount of money!

Part of the ordinances for sidewalks read in part as follows.... No person shall ride, drive or leand any horse, team, cow, or other animal on sidewalk, except a dog.  No person shall slide upon any sidewalk or sleigh, sled board or other contrivance. No person shall by selling or advertising goods upon the streets, attract a crowd and obstruct the sidewalk.  No person shall construct any sidewalk, except under the supervisior, and on accordance with the direction of the street commissioner.  Again these could all be a fine if you did them....

Ordinance # 3 is the best....Every person operation a motor vehicle on any of the public streets or alleys of the Village shall drive in a careful and prudent manner and at a rate of speed not to exceed 15 miles per hour.  Now at the time the Model T could go up to 45 miles per hour, you could get 20 t0 30 miles per gallon, started with a crank.  Just to give you idea. No person shall race or run any horse or team or engage in fast driving or trail of speed in or upon any street, lane, or alley in Village. No car, engines or trains shall stand upon any street crossing longer than five minutes at one time.  No person shall cause, authorize or permit any horse, cattle, sheep, swine or other animals to run at large upon the streets or alleys or public ground.  the same fine would be applied if you did so.

Ordinance #5 read in part.... no person shall swim, or bathe in open water, exposed to the public, within the boundary's of the Village.  Now we laugh at some of these, but if you think about it... for there to be thee written ordnances, there must have been someone doing these things.   No person shall willfully or maliciously break, tear, injure, remove or deface any building, fence, awning, sign board, tree, etc in the Village, including inciting or inducing dogs to flight, anywhere on the streets or plubic places.   

How funny these sound now, but how will the rules we have in place now sound in 100 years.... who knows?