Watsonville Water and Light Company

Watsonville Water and Light Company is described in History of the state of California and biographical record of Santa Cruz...(Guinn, 1903), in the profiles of Almon White and William A. White, as follows (the two paragraphs are from the two different biographies, and contain slight descriptive discrepancies):

The Watsonville Water and Light Company, of which Mr. White is assistant superintendent, was established in 1876 by Landrum & Rogers, who purchased the water right from the old Corralitos Flouring Mill Company and erected a reservoir with a capacity of about three hundred thousand gallons. The gravity system was employed, the water coming from Corralitos and Brown's creeks. After two years the water right was purchased by Smith & Montague, who operated the same until 1890, and then the Watsonville Water and Light Company was incorporated. On the establishment of the light system in 1889, a dynamo was purchased with one hundred and fifty light power. It was some little time before the people were educated up to a desire for electric lights. But when they realized their value, orders came in abundance, and it was necessary to increase to four hundred light power, a seventy-five horse power engine being brought into requisition. At this writing five thousand lights are in use in the city of Watsonville, in Pajaro and the surrounding country, all being furnished by this plant. A recent improvement was the erection of a storage reservoir of three million gallons capacity. Protection for fire purposes is adequate and complete. Water for domestic purposes is furnished for about eight hundred and fifty families, besides which they provide water for the irrigation of two hundred acres of berries. The plant and reservoir are on an eminence a short distance north of the city and overlooking the entire valley.

The plant of the company is situated one and one-half miles from Watsonville and includes two reservoirs. The larger, which is for irrigation purposes, holds two and one-half million gallons of water, while the smaller, which supplies water for domestic uses for the city of Watsonville, has a capacity of six hundred thousand gallons. The elevation above the city is ninety-six feet, and the water is kept constantlv changing. By means of a sixteen-inch pipe the larger reservoir is connected with Pinto Lake, which covers seventy-five acres, with a depth of thirty feet. An important improvement is the fifty-horse power water wheel, through which water is conveyed from the springs in the mountains nine miles away. The entire work of pumping is done by gravity. Two engines, respectively of seventy-five and two hundred horse power, supply the power for lighting Watsonville and the surrounding country. The fuel is crude oil, which is stored in two underground tanks, each with a capacity of seven thousand gallons.