ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, September 4, 1996 TAG: 9609040129
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH, R.I.
SOURCE: RACHEL ZOLL ASSOCIATED PRESS
GOOD FENCES MAKE good neighbors, says the old axiom. So since Colonial times some New England towns have had an official fence viewer. What does a fence viewer do? Mostly he views fences, but sometimes he lands in the middle of disputes.
Henry Donnell found his call to public service in the pages of state law that time forgot.
Chapter 10, section 34 to be exact. The part called ``Fences.''
``Someone from the town called me and asked me to be a fence viewer,'' Donnell says. The conversation went like this:
``What does a fence viewer do?''
``He views fences.''
``What kind of technical training is there?''
``All you need is some common sense.''
So, for the past 17 years, until his retirement this summer, the 89-year-old Donnell has enforced laws enacted when cows and sheep roamed the farms of this seaside town and fence viewers were paid in shillings, not dollars.
Now it's a volunteer position with a badge that looks like a library card - ``This certifies that Henry A. Donnell is a fence viewer'' - and eight pages of photocopied rules, some dating to the 1600s.
Among the regulations: A hedge with a ditch shall be 3 feet high and a hedge without a ditch shall be 4.
Joel Cohen, professor of history at the University of Rhode Island, says fence viewers had an important role when the Colonies were settled.
``Their job was to make sure fences in the town were properly maintained to cut down on internal squabbling and difficulties,'' Cohen says. ``The key to Colonial society was cooperation and community, and a fence viewer's job was to make good neighbors.''
The position was especially important in Portsmouth, where herding flourished and fence disputes were common.
``It's kind of traditional,'' says Carol Zinno, town clerk in Portsmouth, which was incorporated in 1638. ``It works to have one here.''
Donnell has found some modern uses for the rules amid the housing developments and rental units that crowd the landscape.
``One lady called and said her neighbor was building a fence with one wrecked automobile after another, end to end,'' he said. ``He had a lot of junk, that one. We got rid of that fast - really fast.''
Documents at the Massachusetts Historical Society refer to fence viewers in Boston and in Brookline, Mass., as early as 1694, said Mary Fabiszewski, the library cataloger.
``Later, in 1825, a fence viewer was paid 5 shillings a day and 2 shillings, 8 pence for half a day's work,'' said Fabiszewski, who found the figures in a summary of Massachusetts law.
Some towns in Massachusetts and Vermont still appoint fence viewers, but the job is symbolic in most.
``We have one here, but I don't know if they've ever been called out,'' said Denise MacAloney, town clerk in Westminster, Mass., and the president of the Massachusetts Town Clerks' Association. ``It's more of a traditional conference.''
Officials with town clerks' associations in Maine, New Hampshire and Connecticut said they know of no towns in their states with fence viewers.
Zinno says residents who call her with fence disputes - about 15 or so a year - are pleasantly surprised to hear someone is available to help them.
``Most think it's kind of neat we have these kind of positions,'' she says.
But at least one resident found the tradition less than quaint. He wanted to build a barbed-wire fence between his land and a housing development where children lived. The fence could only be built if the developer agreed to it, and he did not.
``The developer told me, `Be careful, he's pretty irate and he's got a shotgun,''' Donnell recalls.
Donnell discovered the man was an old farmer living alone, upset by real estate development on land surrounding his.
``I got him talking about local farming and eventually was able to persuade him to put up a plain wire fence,'' Donnell says. ``It was just a matter of treating his claim seriously.''
It wasn't the only time Donnell was drawn into sensitive territory. One resident wanted to build a 12-foot fence to block the view of a houseful of Navy personnel who liked to leave their bedroom shades and windows open.
The man, who lived on a hill overlooking the rented house, said he had been forced to keep his shades and windows closed to avoid seeing more of the sailors than he wanted, Donnell says.
Donnell did not approve the fence because it violated an obscure law.
``It was a spite fence,'' he says. ``The law says that any fence over 6 feet tall erected out of spite, or for the purposes of annoying the owners of an adjoining property, is illegal.''
Donnell says the origin of the law was unclear, but he had to enforce it.
``We found out that the Navy guys were leaving soon and we convinced him to wait and see how he got along with the new tenants,'' Donnell says.
Donnell retired after breaking his hip, but Zinno predicted several people will compete to fill the position.
``We've always had a fence viewer,'' she said. ``It works, and - how does that expression go - if it ain't broke, don't fix it.''
LENGTH: Long : 102 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Fence viewer Henry A. Donnell of Portsmouth, R.I.,by CNBrecently retired after 17 years of mediating disputes over fences.
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