Fall River Spirit Correspondent

In the 19th century, Fall River's trolley horses worked four hours per day while the men who drove them worked eight to 10.

"The horses had better working conditions than the carmen," laughed trolley historian George H. Petrin in his June 27 presentation, Fall River's Trolley Years, 1880-1936. As part of the Fall River Historical Society's summer lecture series, Petrin chronicled the city's early transportation system from its horse-drawn start during the gaslight era to its electric-powered swan song in the throes of the Great Depression.

In the summer of 1880, a syndicate led by George F. Mellen (later to found his namesake hotel) was granted a charter to lay track on Fall River's streets. "They called it the Globe Street Railway, which was unusual because the new systems in those days were usually named after their host city," Petrin said.

The first series of lines included North Main Street to Pleasant Street, continuing south down East Main to Slade, and Pleasant east to Quarry, serving the Flint section. The company began operations with 10 new cars and 15 horses and the new service was welcomed by city residents. "A woman rider from Bowenville remarked that she hadn't been uptown in seven years," said Petrin.

In addition to signs indicating their route, horse cars were color-coded. Even if you couldn't read, you could still get around. The red cars ran on North Main Street, the yellow on Bedford Street and the green line took you to the Globe. At the height of the pre-electric era in the late 1880s, the company counted 142 horses in its stables.

As they did for brewery and cotton freight wagons, Fall River's hills posed a problem for the horse-drawn trolleys. On the city's steepest grades, the normal two-horse hitch was doubled at the start of the uphill leg. The company employed a waiting "Pony Boy" who, after hitching the two additional horses at the foot of the hill, would ride to the top, unhitch his pair, and walk them back down the hill to await the next car.

In 1887, Frank J. Sprague, an employee of Thomas Edison, developed the first practical system for electric-powered trolleys in Richmond, Va. His spring-loaded trolley pole, using a wheel to travel along the electrified overhead wires, revolutionized the industry almost overnight. Within two years, the Sprague System solved the so-called "horse problem" in most of the country's large cities. (It wasn't just the horses of course; it was what they left behind.)

In 1891, the Globe Street Railway, faced with raising capital for the inevitable electrification of its system, sold out to a group of upstate New York investors. According to Petrin, local newspapers accused the former owners of being "quick buck artists" for selling to out of state interests. Perhaps with a finger to the local political wind, the New Yorkers decided to retain the entire Globe Street Railway team to manage the new entity.

On Aug. 18, 1892, only two weeks after the infamous Borden murders on Second street, the following item appeared in the Fall River Daily Herald:


The first trial of the electric street cars in the city was made yesterday afternoon from the Stafford Road barn to Rodman Street. The officials of the road were on the trial car when the power was turned on about 3 o'clock. From start to finish the trial was a complete success. The car was run uphill faster than it came down and it was started and stopped easily. The bell was clanged at every crossing and it attracted no end of attention.

The company soon sold all of its horses except one. Snowball, the employees' favorite, was lovingly cared for as a pet and mascot until its death in 1894.

Charging a 5-cent fare (an amount which never changed throughout the life of the system), the electric trolleys became an integral part of the Spindle City during its "King Cotton" heyday. There were so many mills operating in the city that the main trolley lines couldn't help but be a short walk from an operative's workplace. But to be sure to maximize ridership, the company extended its lines to sections such as Shove Street (Shove Mills), Slade Street (King Philip Mills), and Weaver Street (Border City Mills).

But riding the trolleys wasn't all about work. "Amusement parks were big trolley destinations," said Petrin, mentioning Sunday outings at long-ago attractions such as Sandy Beach, Ocean Grove and Island Park. "When Lincoln Park opened in 1894, the Union Street Railway had to use flat cars with wooden boards as seats to accommodate the crowds," Petrin said.

With the advent of the automobile, trolley ridership began a gradual but steady decline that accelerated with the introduction of buses in the 1920s. According to Petrin, in 1934 the Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway successor company began abandoning trolley lines. On Sept. 19, 1936, motorman Al Menard began the city's last trolley trip at Steep Brook, turning the car over at City Hall to James H. Murphy who took the trolley to its last stop, the Stafford Road barn.

Although it was the end of an era for Fall River, the cars themselves were given a reprieve when they were sold to a transit company in Brazil. In an amusing footnote, Petrin's research indicates that the Brazilians had limited resources and simply never changed or removed the signs on the Fall River cars. "For years," laughed Petrin, "people in some city in Brazil were riding around in trolleys headed for Steep Brook, the Globe or Stafford Road."