{
 "page": "delaware-ohio-springs-water-sewers-and-bathrooms-history.html",
 "url": "https://www.openshowerco.com/delaware-ohio-springs-water-sewers-and-bathrooms-history.html",
 "title": "Delaware, Ohio: the sulfur spring, the water works of 1889 and the sewers of 1902",
 "record": "kb-wave-eleven-2026-09",
 "generated": "2026-09-08",
 "how_to_read": "Every sentence on the page traces to one of these claims. status \"verified\" means two independent publishers state it; \"single\" means one named publisher, named in the page's sentence; \"conflict\" means the documents disagree and the page prints both.",
 "claims": [
  {
   "id": "C1",
   "claim": "The City of Delaware says Moses Byxbe laid out a town on the east bank of the Olentangy River in the spring of 1808, changed his mind a few days later, and platted the town on the west bank instead.",
   "status": "verified",
   "quote": "laid out a town on the east bank of the Olentangy River",
   "sources": [
    {
     "publisher": "City of Delaware, Ohio",
     "title": "History of Delaware (About Us)",
     "url": "http://web.archive.org/web/20211105090535/https://www.delawareohio.net/about-us/history",
     "published": "undated"
    },
    {
     "publisher": "O. L. Baskin & Co., Chicago",
     "title": "History of Delaware County and Ohio (1880), pp. 202, 247-249, 302, 340, 342, 366, 368",
     "url": "https://archive.org/details/historyofdelawar01olba",
     "published": "1880"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "C2",
   "claim": "The City of Delaware dates its own beginning to May 9, 1808, when Byxbe filed the plan of the town of Delaware.",
   "status": "single",
   "quote": "the “plan of the town of Delaware,”",
   "sources": [
    {
     "publisher": "City of Delaware, Ohio",
     "title": "History of Delaware (About Us)",
     "url": "http://web.archive.org/web/20211105090535/https://www.delawareohio.net/about-us/history",
     "published": "undated"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "C3",
   "claim": "The 1880 county history records that Judge Henry Baldwin, one of the town's original proprietors, presented the sulfur spring with four acres of ground to the town at a public dinner on Saturday, July 3, 1824.",
   "status": "single",
   "quote": "he presented to the town the sulphur spring, with four acres of ground",
   "sources": [
    {
     "publisher": "O. L. Baskin & Co., Chicago",
     "title": "History of Delaware County and Ohio (1880), pp. 202, 247-249, 302, 340, 342, 366, 368",
     "url": "https://archive.org/details/historyofdelawar01olba",
     "published": "1880"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "C4",
   "claim": "Ohio Wesleyan University says Elliott Hall was built in 1833 as a hotel called the Mansion House, to accommodate guests to the nearby Sulphur Spring.",
   "status": "verified",
   "quote": "called the Mansion House, to accommodate guests to the nearby Sulphur Spring",
   "sources": [
    {
     "publisher": "Ohio Wesleyan University",
     "title": "Historic Sites (History & Traditions)",
     "url": "https://www.owu.edu/about/history-traditions/historic-sites/",
     "published": "undated"
    },
    {
     "publisher": "O. L. Baskin & Co., Chicago",
     "title": "History of Delaware County and Ohio (1880), pp. 202, 247-249, 302, 340, 342, 366, 368",
     "url": "https://archive.org/details/historyofdelawar01olba",
     "published": "1880"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "C5",
   "claim": "The 1880 county history says the old Barber cabin was torn down when the spring was improved and bathing houses were built close to the water, which invalids patronized.",
   "status": "single",
   "quote": "bathing - houses constructed in convenient proximity to the waters",
   "sources": [
    {
     "publisher": "O. L. Baskin & Co., Chicago",
     "title": "History of Delaware County and Ohio (1880), pp. 202, 247-249, 302, 340, 342, 366, 368",
     "url": "https://archive.org/details/historyofdelawar01olba",
     "published": "1880"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "C6",
   "claim": "The 1880 county history says the hotel was bought by the citizens and presented to the Methodist Episcopal Church for school purposes.",
   "status": "single",
   "quote": "it was purchased by the citizens and presented to the Methodist Episcopal Church",
   "sources": [
    {
     "publisher": "O. L. Baskin & Co., Chicago",
     "title": "History of Delaware County and Ohio (1880), pp. 202, 247-249, 302, 340, 342, 366, 368",
     "url": "https://archive.org/details/historyofdelawar01olba",
     "published": "1880"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "C7",
   "claim": "Ohio Wesleyan University dates its founding to 1842 and calls Elliott Hall the oldest building on its campus and the oldest collegiate Greek Revival building in Ohio.",
   "status": "single",
   "quote": "the oldest collegiate Greek Revival building in Ohio",
   "sources": [
    {
     "publisher": "Ohio Wesleyan University",
     "title": "Historic Sites (History & Traditions)",
     "url": "https://www.owu.edu/about/history-traditions/historic-sites/",
     "published": "undated"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "C46",
   "claim": "The 1880 county history says the Mansion House waters were salubrious and the locality as healthful as the more famous Saratoga Springs.",
   "status": "single",
   "quote": "as healthful as those of the more famous Saratoga Springs",
   "sources": [
    {
     "publisher": "O. L. Baskin & Co., Chicago",
     "title": "History of Delaware County and Ohio (1880), pp. 202, 247-249, 302, 340, 342, 366, 368",
     "url": "https://archive.org/details/historyofdelawar01olba",
     "published": "1880"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "C47",
   "claim": "The 1880 county history reprints a chemist's 1848 analysis of the spring water, which recommended it for a list of ailments including liver enlargement and dyspepsia.",
   "status": "single",
   "quote": "calculated to remove glandular enlargements of the liver",
   "sources": [
    {
     "publisher": "O. L. Baskin & Co., Chicago",
     "title": "History of Delaware County and Ohio (1880), pp. 202, 247-249, 302, 340, 342, 366, 368",
     "url": "https://archive.org/details/historyofdelawar01olba",
     "published": "1880"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "C8",
   "claim": "The Ohio State Board of Health published a paper in 1889 saying the town of Delaware had a water supply from no distinct source, and that water for domestic use came from rain or from wells, with the addition of water from the sulfur springs.",
   "status": "single",
   "quote": "a water supply from no distinct source, the water for domestic use being derived",
   "sources": [
    {
     "publisher": "Ohio State Board of Health",
     "title": "Fourth Annual Report of the State Board of Health of the State of Ohio (1889), 'Water Supply and Drainage of Delaware' by S. E. Allen, M.D., pp. 309-316",
     "url": "https://archive.org/download/annualreportofst1889ohio/annualreportofst1889ohio_djvu.txt",
     "published": "1889"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "C9",
   "claim": "The same 1889 paper says the majority of wells in Delaware were shallow, averaging about twelve to twenty-six feet deep.",
   "status": "single",
   "quote": "the depth averaging from about 12 to 26 feet",
   "sources": [
    {
     "publisher": "Ohio State Board of Health",
     "title": "Fourth Annual Report of the State Board of Health of the State of Ohio (1889), 'Water Supply and Drainage of Delaware' by S. E. Allen, M.D., pp. 309-316",
     "url": "https://archive.org/download/annualreportofst1889ohio/annualreportofst1889ohio_djvu.txt",
     "published": "1889"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "C10",
   "claim": "The 1889 paper states that Delaware had no regular system of sewerage, and that its drains and ditches carried off surface water and house slops that were not thrown into vaults or onto the ground.",
   "status": "single",
   "quote": "Delaware has no regular system of sewerage.",
   "sources": [
    {
     "publisher": "Ohio State Board of Health",
     "title": "Fourth Annual Report of the State Board of Health of the State of Ohio (1889), 'Water Supply and Drainage of Delaware' by S. E. Allen, M.D., pp. 309-316",
     "url": "https://archive.org/download/annualreportofst1889ohio/annualreportofst1889ohio_djvu.txt",
     "published": "1889"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "C11",
   "claim": "The 1889 paper calls the Delaware run an open sewer draining a large part of the town, with vaults and barns on its banks.",
   "status": "single",
   "quote": "The Delaware run is an open sewer, draining a large part of the town.",
   "sources": [
    {
     "publisher": "Ohio State Board of Health",
     "title": "Fourth Annual Report of the State Board of Health of the State of Ohio (1889), 'Water Supply and Drainage of Delaware' by S. E. Allen, M.D., pp. 309-316",
     "url": "https://archive.org/download/annualreportofst1889ohio/annualreportofst1889ohio_djvu.txt",
     "published": "1889"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "C12",
   "claim": "The Sanborn Map and Publishing Company's February 1885 map of Delaware summed up the town's water facilities as indifferent and counted eighteen public cisterns.",
   "status": "single",
   "quote": "WATER FACILITIES, Indifferent. 18 Public Cisterns",
   "sources": [
    {
     "publisher": "Sanborn Map and Publishing Co. (Library of Congress)",
     "title": "Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Delaware, Delaware County, Ohio, February 1885, sheet 1",
     "url": "https://www.loc.gov/item/sanborn06674_001/",
     "published": "1885-02"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "C13",
   "claim": "The 1889 Board of Health paper says the people of Delaware had voted the previous fall to give a franchise to Moffett, Hodgkins and Clarke of Watertown, New York, to build and maintain a system of water works.",
   "status": "verified",
   "quote": "last fall by popular vote gave a franchise to Messrs. Moffett, Hodgkins & Clarke",
   "sources": [
    {
     "publisher": "Ohio State Board of Health",
     "title": "Fourth Annual Report of the State Board of Health of the State of Ohio (1889), 'Water Supply and Drainage of Delaware' by S. E. Allen, M.D., pp. 309-316",
     "url": "https://archive.org/download/annualreportofst1889ohio/annualreportofst1889ohio_djvu.txt",
     "published": "1889"
    },
    {
     "publisher": "B. F. Bowen & Company (J. R. Lytle, editor)",
     "title": "20th Century History of Delaware County, Ohio and Representative Citizens (1908), p. 118, section headed WATER WORKS",
     "url": "https://archive.org/details/20thcenturyhisto01lytl",
     "published": "1908"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "C14",
   "claim": "The 1889 paper records that river water was rejected because it would be muddy in the spring freshets, deep-well water because of its probable hardness, and that the works were sited on the west bank of the Olentangy three miles north of the city to draw ground water.",
   "status": "single",
   "quote": "to locate the works on the west bank of the Olentangy",
   "sources": [
    {
     "publisher": "Ohio State Board of Health",
     "title": "Fourth Annual Report of the State Board of Health of the State of Ohio (1889), 'Water Supply and Drainage of Delaware' by S. E. Allen, M.D., pp. 309-316",
     "url": "https://archive.org/download/annualreportofst1889ohio/annualreportofst1889ohio_djvu.txt",
     "published": "1889"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "C15",
   "claim": "Lytle's 1908 county history says the mains were laid and the plant completed the year after the franchise, and that the water was turned on and the system accepted and approved by the city on October 30, 1889.",
   "status": "verified",
   "quote": "the system was accepted and approved by the city on October 30. 1889",
   "sources": [
    {
     "publisher": "B. F. Bowen & Company (J. R. Lytle, editor)",
     "title": "20th Century History of Delaware County, Ohio and Representative Citizens (1908), p. 118, section headed WATER WORKS",
     "url": "https://archive.org/details/20thcenturyhisto01lytl",
     "published": "1908"
    },
    {
     "publisher": "Sanborn Map Company (Library of Congress)",
     "title": "Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Delaware, Delaware County, Ohio, March 1911, sheet 1",
     "url": "https://www.loc.gov/item/sanborn06674_005/",
     "published": "1911-03"
    },
    {
     "publisher": "Ohio State Board of Health",
     "title": "Sixteenth Annual Report of the State Board of Health of the State of Ohio for the year ending October 31, 1901: 'Report on a System of Sewerage and Sewage Disposal for Delaware', pp. 110-112, and Appendix II, water supply of Delaware, pp. 441-442",
     "url": "https://archive.org/download/annualreportofst1901ohio/annualreportofst1901ohio_djvu.txt",
     "published": "1901"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "C16",
   "claim": "The Sanborn map of October 1890 describes a Holly system with a pump house three miles north of the City Hall, water flowing from the Olentangy River through a gravel bank into a large well, fifteen and a half miles of water pipe in the city and 206 double hydrants.",
   "status": "single",
   "quote": "Water flows from Olentangy River through gravel bank into large well.",
   "sources": [
    {
     "publisher": "Sanborn-Perris Map Co. (Library of Congress)",
     "title": "Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Delaware, Delaware County, Ohio, October 1890, sheet 1",
     "url": "https://www.loc.gov/item/sanborn06674_002/",
     "published": "1890-10"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "C17",
   "claim": "By 1901 the Board of Health counted nineteen miles of mains reaching about ninety percent of the population, 902 services of which 776 were in use, and an average daily use of 421,000 gallons.",
   "status": "single",
   "quote": "There are 19.0 miles of mains in, giving some 90 percent of the population",
   "sources": [
    {
     "publisher": "Ohio State Board of Health",
     "title": "Sixteenth Annual Report of the State Board of Health of the State of Ohio for the year ending October 31, 1901: 'Report on a System of Sewerage and Sewage Disposal for Delaware', pp. 110-112, and Appendix II, water supply of Delaware, pp. 441-442",
     "url": "https://archive.org/download/annualreportofst1901ohio/annualreportofst1901ohio_djvu.txt",
     "published": "1901"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "C18",
   "claim": "Lytle's 1908 history counts about twenty-two and a half miles of water mains and 256 fire hydrants, and says three quarters to four fifths of the water served to the people of Delaware came from four bored wells 225 feet deep.",
   "status": "verified",
   "quote": "about 22½ miles of water-mains have been laid, and 256 fire hydrants",
   "sources": [
    {
     "publisher": "B. F. Bowen & Company (J. R. Lytle, editor)",
     "title": "20th Century History of Delaware County, Ohio and Representative Citizens (1908), p. 118, section headed WATER WORKS",
     "url": "https://archive.org/details/20thcenturyhisto01lytl",
     "published": "1908"
    },
    {
     "publisher": "Sanborn Map Company (Library of Congress)",
     "title": "Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Delaware, Delaware County, Ohio, March 1911, sheet 1",
     "url": "https://www.loc.gov/item/sanborn06674_005/",
     "published": "1911-03"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "C19",
   "claim": "Lytle's 1908 history reports a period claim that no case of typhoid fever in the city had ever been traced to the water supply.",
   "status": "single",
   "quote": "not a case of typoid fever in this city has ever been traced",
   "sources": [
    {
     "publisher": "B. F. Bowen & Company (J. R. Lytle, editor)",
     "title": "20th Century History of Delaware County, Ohio and Representative Citizens (1908), p. 118, section headed WATER WORKS",
     "url": "https://archive.org/details/20thcenturyhisto01lytl",
     "published": "1908"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "C20",
   "claim": "The water works were still a private company as late as 1913, when a local handbook recorded a ten-year contract with the Delaware Water Company running to December 31, 1920.",
   "status": "single",
   "quote": "Ten-year contract with Delaware Water Company expires December 31, 1920.",
   "sources": [
    {
     "publisher": "Delaware County Memory (administered by the Community Library, Sunbury, Ohio)",
     "title": "The Delaware, Ohio, Blue Book; Some Facts and Figgers. 1913, compiled by C. A. Jones and G. G. Whitehead, section headed City Facts",
     "url": "http://delawarecountymemory.org/items/show/172",
     "published": "1913"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "C21",
   "claim": "The Ohio State Board of Health wrote in 1895 that a public water supply had been introduced into Delaware in 1889 but that the city was still without a system of sewerage.",
   "status": "single",
   "quote": "A public water supply was introduced into Delaware in 1889",
   "sources": [
    {
     "publisher": "Ohio State Board of Health",
     "title": "Tenth Annual Report of the State Board of Health of the State of Ohio for the year ending October 31, 1895, report on sewerage for the Delaware County jail, pp. 107-109",
     "url": "https://archive.org/download/annualreportofst1895ohio/annualreportofst1895ohio_djvu.txt",
     "published": "1895"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "C22",
   "claim": "In its 1896 questionnaire returns Delaware answered that it had no general sewerage and that three private sewers discharged into the Olentangy River, and its answer to what the place needed was general sewerage.",
   "status": "single",
   "quote": "(a) No general sewerage. (b) Separate. (c) Three (from private sewers).",
   "sources": [
    {
     "publisher": "Ohio State Board of Health",
     "title": "Eleventh Annual Report of the State Board of Health of the State of Ohio for the year ending October 31, 1896, annual returns from cities and villages, pp. 187-188",
     "url": "https://archive.org/download/annualreportofst1896ohio/annualreportofst1896ohio_djvu.txt",
     "published": "1896"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "C23",
   "claim": "The Board of Health refused Delaware's first sewerage plan in 1900 because it would have emptied raw sewage into the Olentangy River above Columbus, twenty-four miles downstream.",
   "status": "single",
   "quote": "hardly advisable to allow raw sewage to be emptied into the Olentangy",
   "sources": [
    {
     "publisher": "Ohio State Board of Health",
     "title": "Fifteenth Annual Report of the State Board of Health of the State of Ohio for the year ending October 31, 1900, 'Report on Proposed Sewerage for Delaware', pp. 121-123",
     "url": "https://archive.org/download/annualreportofst1900ohio/annualreportofst1900ohio_djvu.txt",
     "published": "1900"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "C24",
   "claim": "The Board approved a plan the following year for a separate sanitary sewer system with septic tanks and coke contact beds, the sewers to exclude all storm and roof water.",
   "status": "single",
   "quote": "all storm and roof waters being excluded",
   "sources": [
    {
     "publisher": "Ohio State Board of Health",
     "title": "Sixteenth Annual Report of the State Board of Health of the State of Ohio for the year ending October 31, 1901: 'Report on a System of Sewerage and Sewage Disposal for Delaware', pp. 110-112, and Appendix II, water supply of Delaware, pp. 441-442",
     "url": "https://archive.org/download/annualreportofst1901ohio/annualreportofst1901ohio_djvu.txt",
     "published": "1901"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "C25",
   "claim": "The Board of Health's 1911 report says that before 1902 Delaware had no system of sewers that could properly be so called, and that beginning in that year some thirteen miles of vitrified pipe sewer were built, from eight to twenty-four inches in diameter.",
   "status": "verified",
   "quote": "there was no system of sewers which could properly be so called",
   "sources": [
    {
     "publisher": "Ohio State Board of Health",
     "title": "Twenty-sixth Annual Report of the State Board of Health of the State of Ohio for the Year Ending December 31, 1911: 'Report on Proposed New Sewage Purification Plant for Delaware', pp. 291-294, with Board action at pp. 29 and 146",
     "url": "https://archive.org/download/annualreportofst1911ohio/annualreportofst1911ohio_djvu.txt",
     "published": "1912"
    },
    {
     "publisher": "Delaware County Memory (administered by the Community Library, Sunbury, Ohio)",
     "title": "The Delaware, Ohio, Blue Book; Some Facts and Figgers. 1913, compiled by C. A. Jones and G. G. Whitehead, section headed City Facts",
     "url": "http://delawarecountymemory.org/items/show/172",
     "published": "1913"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "C26",
   "claim": "The 1913 Delaware Blue Book records that more than 1,100 houses were connected to the sanitary sewer system, in a city the census had counted at 9,076 people in 1910.",
   "status": "single",
   "quote": "(Over 1,100 houses are connected with the system.)",
   "sources": [
    {
     "publisher": "Delaware County Memory (administered by the Community Library, Sunbury, Ohio)",
     "title": "The Delaware, Ohio, Blue Book; Some Facts and Figgers. 1913, compiled by C. A. Jones and G. G. Whitehead, section headed City Facts",
     "url": "http://delawarecountymemory.org/items/show/172",
     "published": "1913"
    },
    {
     "publisher": "United States Bureau of the Census",
     "title": "1950 Census of Population, Volume I: Number of Inhabitants, Ohio, Table 4, Population of Cities of 10,000 or More from Earliest Census to 1950, p. 35-9",
     "url": "https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1950/population-volume-1/vol-01-38.pdf",
     "published": "1952"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "C27",
   "claim": "The first sewage disposal plant stood on low ground about half a mile south of the city between the railroad and the river, inside a high dike that proved inadequate against every freshet.",
   "status": "single",
   "quote": "proved to be inadequate in preventing damage to the plant by every freshet",
   "sources": [
    {
     "publisher": "Ohio State Board of Health",
     "title": "Twenty-sixth Annual Report of the State Board of Health of the State of Ohio for the Year Ending December 31, 1911: 'Report on Proposed New Sewage Purification Plant for Delaware', pp. 291-294, with Board action at pp. 29 and 146",
     "url": "https://archive.org/download/annualreportofst1911ohio/annualreportofst1911ohio_djvu.txt",
     "published": "1912"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "C28",
   "claim": "In October 1908 the Board of Health's secretary wrote to the city that no purification was being achieved after the septic tanks and that the Olentangy River was being polluted by the sewage of the city.",
   "status": "single",
   "quote": "The Olentangy River is, therefore, being polluted by the sewage",
   "sources": [
    {
     "publisher": "Ohio State Board of Health",
     "title": "Twenty-third Annual Report of the State Board of Health of the State of Ohio for the year ending December 31, 1908, pp. 161-162",
     "url": "https://archive.org/download/annualreportofst1908ohio/annualreportofst1908ohio_djvu.txt",
     "published": "1909"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "C29",
   "claim": "The Board of Health approved plans for a new Delaware sewage purification plant on March 2, 1911, on four conditions, one of which was that at least ten acres be bought for the site.",
   "status": "single",
   "quote": "at least ten acres of ground be purchased as a site",
   "sources": [
    {
     "publisher": "Ohio State Board of Health",
     "title": "Twenty-sixth Annual Report of the State Board of Health of the State of Ohio for the Year Ending December 31, 1911: 'Report on Proposed New Sewage Purification Plant for Delaware', pp. 291-294, with Board action at pp. 29 and 146",
     "url": "https://archive.org/download/annualreportofst1911ohio/annualreportofst1911ohio_djvu.txt",
     "published": "1912"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "C30",
   "claim": "The Ohio State Board of Health's inspectors reported that in the flood of March 1913 all of the bridges at Delaware were washed away, 115 families were made homeless, eighteen bodies had been recovered and twenty-one people were still missing.",
   "status": "single",
   "quote": "115 families were made homeless; 18 bodies have been recovered",
   "sources": [
    {
     "publisher": "Ohio State Board of Health",
     "title": "Twenty-eighth Annual Report of the State Board of Health of the State of Ohio for the Year Ending December 31, 1913, flood conditions at Delaware, p. 216",
     "url": "https://archive.org/download/annualreportofst1913ohio/page/leaf222",
     "published": "1914"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "C31",
   "claim": "The Corps of Engineers' Delaware Dam sits on the Olentangy River four miles north of Delaware and holds back a drainage area of 381 square miles.",
   "status": "single",
   "quote": "at dam on Olentangy River, 4 miles north of Delaware, Delaware County",
   "sources": [
    {
     "publisher": "United States Geological Survey",
     "title": "Circular 418, Floods of January-February 1959 in Ohio, pp. 8-10 and station 86, Delaware Reservoir near Delaware, Ohio",
     "url": "https://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/1959/0418/report.pdf",
     "published": "1959"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "C32",
   "claim": "In the January 1959 flood the Corps of Engineers estimated that the reservoir cut the peak stage by fourteen feet at Delaware, and by smaller amounts at Worthington, Columbus and Chillicothe.",
   "status": "single",
   "quote": "Delaware Reservoir are 14 feet at Delaware, 9.2 feet at Worthington",
   "sources": [
    {
     "publisher": "United States Geological Survey",
     "title": "Circular 418, Floods of January-February 1959 in Ohio, pp. 8-10 and station 86, Delaware Reservoir near Delaware, Ohio",
     "url": "https://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/1959/0418/report.pdf",
     "published": "1959"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "C33",
   "claim": "In 1940 the census counted 2,836 dwelling units in the city of Delaware; of the 2,460 that reported, 780 had no private bath and 604 needed major repairs.",
   "status": "single",
   "quote": "Delaware city",
   "sources": [
    {
     "publisher": "United States Bureau of the Census",
     "title": "1940 Census of Housing, Volume I: Data for Small Areas, Part 2, Table 5, Characteristics of Housing for Counties, by Minor Civil Divisions, and Incorporated Places of 1,000 Inhabitants or More, Ohio, p. 226",
     "url": "https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1940/housing-volume-1/housing-v1p2-ch3.pdf",
     "published": "1943"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "C34",
   "claim": "In 1950 the census counted 3,341 dwelling units in Delaware and found 682 of them with no bathtub or shower, with another 179 sharing one.",
   "status": "single",
   "quote": "No bathtub or shower",
   "sources": [
    {
     "publisher": "United States Bureau of the Census",
     "title": "1950 Census of Housing, Volume I: General Characteristics, Part 5, Ohio, Table 17, Occupancy Characteristics, Type of Structure, and Plumbing Facilities, for Standard Metropolitan Areas and Constituent Counties, Urbanized Areas, and Urban Places of 10,000 or More, p. 35-21",
     "url": "https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1950/housing-volume-1/36965082v1p5ch03.pdf",
     "published": "1953"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "C35",
   "claim": "The same 1950 table found 566 Delaware dwelling units whose toilet facilities were something other than a flush toilet inside the structure, a category the census defines as including a privy, and 207 units with no piped running water.",
   "status": "single",
   "quote": "Other toilet facilities (including privy)",
   "sources": [
    {
     "publisher": "United States Bureau of the Census",
     "title": "1950 Census of Housing, Volume I: General Characteristics, Part 5, Ohio, Table 17, Occupancy Characteristics, Type of Structure, and Plumbing Facilities, for Standard Metropolitan Areas and Constituent Counties, Urbanized Areas, and Urban Places of 10,000 or More, p. 35-21",
     "url": "https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1950/housing-volume-1/36965082v1p5ch03.pdf",
     "published": "1953"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "C36",
   "claim": "Of the 3,205 Delaware dwelling units that gave the census a build date in 1950, 2,695 had been built in 1919 or earlier.",
   "status": "single",
   "quote": "1919 or earlier",
   "sources": [
    {
     "publisher": "United States Bureau of the Census",
     "title": "1950 Census of Housing, Volume I: General Characteristics, Part 5, Ohio, Table 20, Year Built and Equipment, p. 35-42",
     "url": "https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1950/housing-volume-1/36965082v1p5ch03.pdf",
     "published": "1953"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "C37",
   "claim": "Delaware's population fell in three separate decades between 1890 and 1930 and did not pass ten thousand until 1950.",
   "status": "single",
   "quote": "Delaware:",
   "sources": [
    {
     "publisher": "United States Bureau of the Census",
     "title": "1950 Census of Population, Volume I: Number of Inhabitants, Ohio, Table 4, Population of Cities of 10,000 or More from Earliest Census to 1950, p. 35-9",
     "url": "https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1950/population-volume-1/vol-01-38.pdf",
     "published": "1952"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "C38",
   "claim": "The Census Bureau's 2024 estimate puts the city of Delaware at 46,521 people, about four times its 1950 count.",
   "status": "single",
   "quote": "Delaware city,Ohio",
   "sources": [
    {
     "publisher": "United States Bureau of the Census",
     "title": "Annual Estimates of the Resident Population for Incorporated Places, vintage 2024 (sub-est2024.csv)",
     "url": "https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/popest/datasets/2020-2024/cities/totals/sub-est2024.csv",
     "published": "2025"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "C39",
   "claim": "The City of Delaware says its water plant treats and distributes an average of 3.65 million gallons a day to more than 12,000 customers through 190 miles of water lines and 2,000 fire hydrants.",
   "status": "single",
   "quote": "190 miles of water lines and 2,000 fire hydrants",
   "sources": [
    {
     "publisher": "City of Delaware, Ohio",
     "title": "Our Utilities (Public Utilities Department)",
     "url": "http://web.archive.org/web/20250930204915/https://www.delawareohio.net/government/departments/public-utilities/our-utilities",
     "published": "undated"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "C40",
   "claim": "The City of Delaware says its sewer system includes 175 miles of sewer line, 3,250 manholes and twelve pump stations.",
   "status": "single",
   "quote": "175 miles of sewer line, 3,250 manholes and 12 pump stations",
   "sources": [
    {
     "publisher": "City of Delaware, Ohio",
     "title": "Our Utilities (Public Utilities Department)",
     "url": "http://web.archive.org/web/20250930204915/https://www.delawareohio.net/government/departments/public-utilities/our-utilities",
     "published": "undated"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "C41",
   "claim": "Ohio EPA records that the City of Delaware has one hundred percent separate sewers in its collection system.",
   "status": "single",
   "quote": "The City of Delaware has 100% separate sewers in the collection system.",
   "sources": [
    {
     "publisher": "Ohio Environmental Protection Agency",
     "title": "Fact Sheet for NPDES Permit Renewal, Upper Olentangy WRC, 2023 (pages 6, 7 and 17 of the fact sheet, inside the same PDF as S23)",
     "url": "https://dam.assets.ohio.gov/image/upload/epa.ohio.gov/Portals/35/permits/DraftPN/4PD00004.pdf",
     "published": "2023-01-17"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "C42",
   "claim": "Ohio EPA records that the Upper Olentangy Water Reclamation Center discharges to the Olentangy River at river mile 25.27 and has an average design flow of 10.0 million gallons a day.",
   "status": "single",
   "quote": "Upper Olentangy WRC discharges to the Olentangy River at River Mile 25.27.",
   "sources": [
    {
     "publisher": "Ohio Environmental Protection Agency",
     "title": "Fact Sheet for NPDES Permit Renewal, Upper Olentangy WRC, 2023 (pages 6, 7 and 17 of the fact sheet, inside the same PDF as S23)",
     "url": "https://dam.assets.ohio.gov/image/upload/epa.ohio.gov/Portals/35/permits/DraftPN/4PD00004.pdf",
     "published": "2023-01-17"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "C43",
   "claim": "Ohio EPA states that the City of Delaware's potable water comes from the Olentangy River.",
   "status": "verified",
   "quote": "The City of Delaware’s potable water comes from the Olentangy River.",
   "sources": [
    {
     "publisher": "Ohio Environmental Protection Agency",
     "title": "Fact Sheet for NPDES Permit Renewal, Upper Olentangy WRC, 2023 (pages 6, 7 and 17 of the fact sheet, inside the same PDF as S23)",
     "url": "https://dam.assets.ohio.gov/image/upload/epa.ohio.gov/Portals/35/permits/DraftPN/4PD00004.pdf",
     "published": "2023-01-17"
    },
    {
     "publisher": "City of Delaware, Ohio",
     "title": "Our Utilities (Public Utilities Department)",
     "url": "http://web.archive.org/web/20250930204915/https://www.delawareohio.net/government/departments/public-utilities/our-utilities",
     "published": "undated"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "C44",
   "claim": "The City of Delaware's building division says it does not review plumbing permits, and that plumbing applications go to the county health district instead.",
   "status": "verified",
   "quote": "The City does not review plumbing permits",
   "sources": [
    {
     "publisher": "City of Delaware, Ohio",
     "title": "Building Division (Planning & Community Development)",
     "url": "http://web.archive.org/web/20250930204915/https://www.delawareohio.net/government/departments/planning-community-development/building-division",
     "published": "undated"
    },
    {
     "publisher": "Delaware Public Health District",
     "title": "Plumbing (Environmental Services)",
     "url": "http://web.archive.org/web/20260519090058/https://www.delawarehealth.org/plumbing/",
     "published": "undated"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "id": "C45",
   "claim": "The City of Delaware's building division describes itself as a state-certified building department and says a remodel permit is required for any remodel that includes structural, electrical or mechanical work, other than simply updating fixtures.",
   "status": "single",
   "quote": "other than simply updating fixtures",
   "sources": [
    {
     "publisher": "City of Delaware, Ohio",
     "title": "Building Division (Planning & Community Development)",
     "url": "http://web.archive.org/web/20250930204915/https://www.delawareohio.net/government/departments/planning-community-development/building-division",
     "published": "undated"
    }
   ]
  }
 ],
 "conflicts": [
  {
   "claim_id": "C2",
   "a": "May 9, 1808, the plan of the town of Delaware filed",
   "a_source": "S25 (City of Delaware)",
   "b": "March 10, 1808, the plat recorded in the Recorder's office of Franklin County",
   "b_source": "S11 (History of Delaware County and Ohio, 1880, p. 202)",
   "printed": "print both with each publisher named, and say they may describe two different plats. The 1880 history elsewhere says Baldwin and Byxbe united on March 7, 1808 in a power of attorney to record the east-bank plat, 'which has never been recorded in this county'; the May date is for the west-bank plan the city still keeps."
  },
  {
   "claim_id": "C3",
   "a": "Judge Henry Baldwin presented the sulfur spring and four acres to the town in 1824, at a public dinner on Saturday, July 3",
   "a_source": "S11 (History of Delaware County and Ohio, 1880), p. 340",
   "b": "Judge Henry Baldwin, of Pittsburgh, and Moses Byxbe jointly donated the same four acres, including the spring, to the corporation in the year 1828",
   "b_source": "S11 (History of Delaware County and Ohio, 1880), pp. 247-248, a Delaware Herald article reprinted in the book's chapter on the White Sulphur Springs and the Girls' Industrial Home",
   "printed": "print 1824 with the 1880 history named, because it is the book's own connected narrative, gives a specific day of the week and date (Saturday, July 3) rather than a round year, and matches the sequence of Baldwin's other 1824 activity the same chapter describes (settling his Delaware property interests, dying in 1844 at an age consistent with an 1824 visit). Note that a second passage in the same book disagrees on both the year and whether Byxbe joined the gift; because both passages are the same publisher, this is recorded as an internal conflict, not resolved by a second source, and the page a writer would need to re-open for the earlier passage is 247, not 340."
  },
  {
   "claim_id": "C4",
   "a": "The Mansion House was built in 1833",
   "a_source": "S29 (Ohio Wesleyan) and S11 p. 366",
   "b": "the hotel was completed in 1834",
   "b_source": "S11 p. 342 (the same book)",
   "printed": "print 1833 as the year it was built, on Ohio Wesleyan's and the county history's shared word, and do not print a completion year. The disagreement is inside one book and cannot be resolved from the sources read."
  },
  {
   "claim_id": "C17",
   "a": "average daily consumption 421,000 gallons in 1901",
   "a_source": "S5 (Ohio State Board of Health, 1901 appendix)",
   "b": "average daily consumption 125,000 gallons, August 1901",
   "b_source": "S15 (Sanborn, August 1901)",
   "printed": "print A because the Board's figure comes with its method and its service and meter counts, and because the Sanborn block of the same year also carries a population estimate nearly double the census. Do not print the Sanborn consumption figure."
  },
  {
   "claim_id": "C31",
   "a": "Delaware Dam completed in 1951",
   "a_source": "S31 (FEMA, via the wave-nine Franklinton sheet)",
   "b": "flow regulated by Delaware Reservoir beginning in 1947",
   "b_source": "S22 (USGS Circular 418)",
   "printed": "print both, and say what each describes: 1946 to 1951 is FEMA's span for building the project, 1947 is the year USGS says the reservoir began regulating the river. They are not the same measurement and neither is wrong."
  },
  {
   "claim_id": "C21",
   "a": "the original well and gallery lay three miles north of the city",
   "a_source": "S5 (1901 appendix), S1 (1889 paper), S14 (Sanborn 1890), S12 (Lytle 1908)",
   "b": "driven wells located along the river several miles below the city",
   "b_source": "S8 (Ohio State Board of Health, 1911 report, p. 291)",
   "printed": "print A. Four independent statements, including two by the same Board, put the works north and therefore upstream; the 1911 wording is treated as an error and is not carried."
  }
 ],
 "sources": [
  {
   "id": "S1",
   "publisher": "Ohio State Board of Health",
   "title": "Fourth Annual Report of the State Board of Health of the State of Ohio (1889), 'Water Supply and Drainage of Delaware' by S. E. Allen, M.D., pp. 309-316",
   "url": "https://archive.org/download/annualreportofst1889ohio/annualreportofst1889ohio_djvu.txt",
   "published": "1889"
  },
  {
   "id": "S2",
   "publisher": "Ohio State Board of Health",
   "title": "Tenth Annual Report of the State Board of Health of the State of Ohio for the year ending October 31, 1895, report on sewerage for the Delaware County jail, pp. 107-109",
   "url": "https://archive.org/download/annualreportofst1895ohio/annualreportofst1895ohio_djvu.txt",
   "published": "1895"
  },
  {
   "id": "S3",
   "publisher": "Ohio State Board of Health",
   "title": "Eleventh Annual Report of the State Board of Health of the State of Ohio for the year ending October 31, 1896, annual returns from cities and villages, pp. 187-188",
   "url": "https://archive.org/download/annualreportofst1896ohio/annualreportofst1896ohio_djvu.txt",
   "published": "1896"
  },
  {
   "id": "S4",
   "publisher": "Ohio State Board of Health",
   "title": "Fifteenth Annual Report of the State Board of Health of the State of Ohio for the year ending October 31, 1900, 'Report on Proposed Sewerage for Delaware', pp. 121-123",
   "url": "https://archive.org/download/annualreportofst1900ohio/annualreportofst1900ohio_djvu.txt",
   "published": "1900"
  },
  {
   "id": "S5",
   "publisher": "Ohio State Board of Health",
   "title": "Sixteenth Annual Report of the State Board of Health of the State of Ohio for the year ending October 31, 1901: 'Report on a System of Sewerage and Sewage Disposal for Delaware', pp. 110-112, and Appendix II, water supply of Delaware, pp. 441-442",
   "url": "https://archive.org/download/annualreportofst1901ohio/annualreportofst1901ohio_djvu.txt",
   "published": "1901"
  },
  {
   "id": "S6",
   "publisher": "Ohio State Board of Health",
   "title": "Seventeenth Annual Report of the State Board of Health of the State of Ohio for the Year Ending December 31st, 1902, appendix on municipal sewage disposal plants, c. p. 493",
   "url": "https://archive.org/download/annualreportofst1902ohio/annualreportofst1902ohio_djvu.txt",
   "published": "1904"
  },
  {
   "id": "S7",
   "publisher": "Ohio State Board of Health",
   "title": "Twenty-third Annual Report of the State Board of Health of the State of Ohio for the year ending December 31, 1908, pp. 161-162",
   "url": "https://archive.org/download/annualreportofst1908ohio/annualreportofst1908ohio_djvu.txt",
   "published": "1909"
  },
  {
   "id": "S8",
   "publisher": "Ohio State Board of Health",
   "title": "Twenty-sixth Annual Report of the State Board of Health of the State of Ohio for the Year Ending December 31, 1911: 'Report on Proposed New Sewage Purification Plant for Delaware', pp. 291-294, with Board action at pp. 29 and 146",
   "url": "https://archive.org/download/annualreportofst1911ohio/annualreportofst1911ohio_djvu.txt",
   "published": "1912"
  },
  {
   "id": "S9",
   "publisher": "Ohio State Board of Health",
   "title": "Twenty-seventh Annual Report of the State Board of Health of the State of Ohio for the Year Ending December 31, 1912: water supply of Delaware, pp. 189-190, and typhoid fever at Delaware, pp. 764-765",
   "url": "https://archive.org/download/annualreportofst1912ohio/annualreportofst1912ohio_djvu.txt",
   "published": "1913"
  },
  {
   "id": "S10",
   "publisher": "Ohio State Board of Health",
   "title": "Twenty-eighth Annual Report of the State Board of Health of the State of Ohio for the Year Ending December 31, 1913, flood conditions at Delaware, p. 216",
   "url": "https://archive.org/download/annualreportofst1913ohio/page/leaf222",
   "published": "1914"
  },
  {
   "id": "S11",
   "publisher": "O. L. Baskin & Co., Chicago",
   "title": "History of Delaware County and Ohio (1880), pp. 202, 247-249, 302, 340, 342, 366, 368",
   "url": "https://archive.org/details/historyofdelawar01olba",
   "published": "1880"
  },
  {
   "id": "S12",
   "publisher": "B. F. Bowen & Company (J. R. Lytle, editor)",
   "title": "20th Century History of Delaware County, Ohio and Representative Citizens (1908), p. 118, section headed WATER WORKS",
   "url": "https://archive.org/details/20thcenturyhisto01lytl",
   "published": "1908"
  },
  {
   "id": "S13",
   "publisher": "Sanborn Map and Publishing Co. (Library of Congress)",
   "title": "Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Delaware, Delaware County, Ohio, February 1885, sheet 1",
   "url": "https://www.loc.gov/item/sanborn06674_001/",
   "published": "1885-02"
  },
  {
   "id": "S14",
   "publisher": "Sanborn-Perris Map Co. (Library of Congress)",
   "title": "Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Delaware, Delaware County, Ohio, October 1890, sheet 1",
   "url": "https://www.loc.gov/item/sanborn06674_002/",
   "published": "1890-10"
  },
  {
   "id": "S15",
   "publisher": "Sanborn-Perris Map Co. (Library of Congress)",
   "title": "Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Delaware, Delaware County, Ohio, August 1901, sheet 1",
   "url": "https://www.loc.gov/item/sanborn06674_004/",
   "published": "1901-08"
  },
  {
   "id": "S16",
   "publisher": "Sanborn Map Company (Library of Congress)",
   "title": "Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Delaware, Delaware County, Ohio, March 1911, sheet 1",
   "url": "https://www.loc.gov/item/sanborn06674_005/",
   "published": "1911-03"
  },
  {
   "id": "S17",
   "publisher": "United States Bureau of the Census",
   "title": "1940 Census of Housing, Volume I: Data for Small Areas, Part 2, Table 5, Characteristics of Housing for Counties, by Minor Civil Divisions, and Incorporated Places of 1,000 Inhabitants or More, Ohio, p. 226",
   "url": "https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1940/housing-volume-1/housing-v1p2-ch3.pdf",
   "published": "1943"
  },
  {
   "id": "S18",
   "publisher": "United States Bureau of the Census",
   "title": "1950 Census of Housing, Volume I: General Characteristics, Part 5, Ohio, Table 17, Occupancy Characteristics, Type of Structure, and Plumbing Facilities, for Standard Metropolitan Areas and Constituent Counties, Urbanized Areas, and Urban Places of 10,000 or More, p. 35-21",
   "url": "https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1950/housing-volume-1/36965082v1p5ch03.pdf",
   "published": "1953"
  },
  {
   "id": "S19",
   "publisher": "United States Bureau of the Census",
   "title": "1950 Census of Housing, Volume I: General Characteristics, Part 5, Ohio, Table 20, Year Built and Equipment, p. 35-42",
   "url": "https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1950/housing-volume-1/36965082v1p5ch03.pdf",
   "published": "1953"
  },
  {
   "id": "S20",
   "publisher": "United States Bureau of the Census",
   "title": "1950 Census of Population, Volume I: Number of Inhabitants, Ohio, Table 4, Population of Cities of 10,000 or More from Earliest Census to 1950, p. 35-9",
   "url": "https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1950/population-volume-1/vol-01-38.pdf",
   "published": "1952"
  },
  {
   "id": "S21",
   "publisher": "United States Bureau of the Census",
   "title": "Annual Estimates of the Resident Population for Incorporated Places, vintage 2024 (sub-est2024.csv)",
   "url": "https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/popest/datasets/2020-2024/cities/totals/sub-est2024.csv",
   "published": "2025"
  },
  {
   "id": "S22",
   "publisher": "United States Geological Survey",
   "title": "Circular 418, Floods of January-February 1959 in Ohio, pp. 8-10 and station 86, Delaware Reservoir near Delaware, Ohio",
   "url": "https://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/1959/0418/report.pdf",
   "published": "1959"
  },
  {
   "id": "S23",
   "publisher": "Ohio Environmental Protection Agency",
   "title": "NPDES public notice and fact sheet, Upper Olentangy Water Reclamation Center, permit 4PD00004*PD, application OH0024911",
   "url": "https://dam.assets.ohio.gov/image/upload/epa.ohio.gov/Portals/35/permits/DraftPN/4PD00004.pdf",
   "published": "2023-01-17"
  },
  {
   "id": "S24",
   "publisher": "Ohio Environmental Protection Agency",
   "title": "Fact Sheet for NPDES Permit Renewal, Upper Olentangy WRC, 2023 (pages 6, 7 and 17 of the fact sheet, inside the same PDF as S23)",
   "url": "https://dam.assets.ohio.gov/image/upload/epa.ohio.gov/Portals/35/permits/DraftPN/4PD00004.pdf",
   "published": "2023-01-17"
  },
  {
   "id": "S25",
   "publisher": "City of Delaware, Ohio",
   "title": "History of Delaware (About Us)",
   "url": "http://web.archive.org/web/20211105090535/https://www.delawareohio.net/about-us/history",
   "published": "undated"
  },
  {
   "id": "S26",
   "publisher": "City of Delaware, Ohio",
   "title": "Our Utilities (Public Utilities Department)",
   "url": "http://web.archive.org/web/20250930204915/https://www.delawareohio.net/government/departments/public-utilities/our-utilities",
   "published": "undated"
  },
  {
   "id": "S27",
   "publisher": "City of Delaware, Ohio",
   "title": "Building Division (Planning & Community Development)",
   "url": "http://web.archive.org/web/20250930204915/https://www.delawareohio.net/government/departments/planning-community-development/building-division",
   "published": "undated"
  },
  {
   "id": "S28",
   "publisher": "Delaware Public Health District",
   "title": "Plumbing (Environmental Services)",
   "url": "http://web.archive.org/web/20260519090058/https://www.delawarehealth.org/plumbing/",
   "published": "undated"
  },
  {
   "id": "S29",
   "publisher": "Ohio Wesleyan University",
   "title": "Historic Sites (History & Traditions)",
   "url": "https://www.owu.edu/about/history-traditions/historic-sites/",
   "published": "undated"
  },
  {
   "id": "S30",
   "publisher": "Delaware County Memory (administered by the Community Library, Sunbury, Ohio)",
   "title": "The Delaware, Ohio, Blue Book; Some Facts and Figgers. 1913, compiled by C. A. Jones and G. G. Whitehead, section headed City Facts",
   "url": "http://delawarecountymemory.org/items/show/172",
   "published": "1913"
  },
  {
   "id": "S31",
   "publisher": "Federal Emergency Management Agency, cited through this project's wave-nine fact sheet",
   "title": "marketing-research/kb-wave-nine-2026-09/facts/franklinton-flood-sewers-and-bathrooms-history.json, claim C32 (FEMA Flood Insurance Study, Franklin County, Ohio, revised June 16, 2011)",
   "url": "https://msc.fema.gov/data/39/S/PDF/39049CV001D.pdf",
   "published": "2011-06-16"
  }
 ]
}