I am rebuilding our well pump and found this link: Hand driven "well points"and other information: http://www.fdungan.com/well.htm
Yup, that's what I had growing up. I remember helping my dad replace the drive point. The screen got plugged up with sediment from the water after about 15 yrs. "Simply" pulled the pipe out of the ground, replaced the drive point, and put it back in. Instead of a maul or sledge hammer we used a fence post driver. Looked like this (only ours was made by my dad)
They're called "sand points" around these parts. I had one on a house I had several years back. It was located in a river bottom valley and the water table was only 30' below ground level. The jet pumps would work on just suction up to 25' so everyone in the valley would dig a pit 8' deep and put the pump and pressure tank in it with a cover over the top. This was your "well house". Worked great and didn't have to worry about heating the well house in winter. All the water lines were below the frost line. My well now is 186' through a lot of rock, so hand driven is out of the question. But for bottom land with shallow water tables and soft soil they are great.
