HILLSPEAKING
from The Anglican Digest
ADVENT A.D. 2002

NO HISTORY of  Hillspeak -- whether it be for a thirty-year span or any other -- would be complete without the mention of water. Water is much on our minds these days: Many parts of this country and of others face drought; many parts of this country and others face flooding.  Hillspeak -- at least in the last thirty years -- has avoided both drought and flood.

   Two years after  Patient Wife and I came to the Ozarks to work for SPEAK and two years before we moved into the Old Residence at Hillspeak, a well was drilled just west of the Big Red Barn.  The stone that covers the well reads:

THIS WELL OF 134 FEET DRILLED AND FURNISHED
ANNO DOMINI 1974
IS THE GIFT OF
MR & MRS SHERMAN WATERS
AND AFTER THEM NAMED
THE WATERS WORKS

   Prior to that, potable water was obtained from a large spring some three miles east and north of the Big Red Barn and the houses and buildings around it.  Some of the pipe lay atop the ground and was subject to freezing in the winter.  However, there is a large below ground cistern beside the Twin Barns so service was generally available with only occasional interruptions.  When the well for the Waters Works was drilled and put in service that cistern continued to serve the complex.

   Long before PAtient Wife's and my arrival, indeed before the arrival of Father Foland and his colleagues, and before the Big Spring was tapped, the residents of Grindstone Mountain were dependent upon the rains for domestic water.  In addition to the cistern next to the Twin Barns there was another under-ground cistern, now covered by the Gazebo, between the ld REsidence and the Farm House, an an above-ground cistern t the northeast corner of the Old Residence.  An elaborate system of gutters and down spouts and life pumps ensured that little of the rain was not captured.

   In time, the Waters Works, just as had the rainwater cisterns and the Big Spring, became inadequate for Hillspeak needs.  A new, larger well was drilled to 1492 feet; a pump house, chlorinator, and 54-foot standpipe were installed; and SPEAK found itself in the water distribution business, operating as the Southern Hills Water System to serve the Twin Barns as well as domestic users, including nearby neighbors.

   Nowadays the Waters Works provides irrigation water for the lawns, shrubs, trees, flowers -- and bird baths atop Grindstone Mountain, and the new system pumps and distributes some 60,000 gallons of treated water a month -- a far cry from the days of rainwater catch or the Big Spring.

— The Trustees’ Warden