The
Street Lamps of Emmitsburg
And
the Men Who Lit Them
Michael
Hillman
It’s easy today, in a
world where night is turned into day with the closing of
automatic switches, to forget that less then 150 years
ago, the lighting of streets was one of the principle
responsibilities of town governments. Insuring how it
was done, and who would do it, preoccupied the
Emmitsburg Town Government for the later half of the 19th
and well into the early 20th century.
Prior to the 1800s,
lighting of streets was confined to only the most
prosperous of communities, and was provided by torches
or lamps which burned oils rendered from animal fat.
While animal fat lamps where a blessing, they where also
curse, requiring daily scraping and cleaning to remove
gummy deposits. With the exception of reflectors to
diffuse (spread out) or concentrate the light, few
improvements occurred in lamps until the late 1700's.
In the 1780's, a Swiss
chemist named Aime Argand invented a lamp with the wick
bent into the shape of a hollow cylinder. Such a wick
allowed air to reach the center of the flame. As a
result, the Argand lamp produced a brighter light than
other lamps did. Later, one of Argand's assistants
discovered that a flame burns better inside a glass
tube. His discovery led to the invention of the lamp
chimney, a clear glass tube that surrounds the flame.
During this period,
whale oil, because it burned with less odor and smoke
than most fuels, and colza oil, an oil from the rape
plant, became important fuels for lamps. As a result, a
thriving whaling industry developed to provide whale oil
for lighting. In the United States alone, the whaling
fleet swelled from 392 ships in 1833 to 735 by 1846. At
the height of the industry in 1856 the United States was
producing 4 to 5 million gallons of whale oil annually.
The demand for whale
oil took a tremendous toll on whales, and some species
were driven to the very brink of extinction. When a
clean-burning kerosene lamp invented by Michael Dietz
appeared on the market in 1857, its effect on the
whaling industry was immediate. Kerosene, known in those
days at "Coal Oil", was easy to produce,
cheap, smelled better than animal-based fuels when
burned, and did not spoil on the shelf as whale oil did.
The public abandoned whale oil lamps almost overnight.
By 1860, at least 30 kerosene plants were in production
in the United States, and whale oil was ultimately
driven off the market.
History gives Walter
Murdock, a Scottish inventor, credit for discovering how
to light a factory using lamps that burned "coal
gas" - a gas given off by heating coal. Soon others
discovered that if you heated coal almost to the burning
point, you could get a liquid they called "coal
oil," which we call kerosene.
As to when the first
picturesque oil street lamps that graced Emmitsburg’s
streets and alleys appeared, we are not certain. We do
know that they not included in a 1852 proposals given by
Samuel Motter, who at the time was serving as the town
commissioner, to improve ‘Baltimore’ Street as Main
Street was then known.
Under Motter’s plan,
‘Baltimore’ Street was to be widened to 22 feet and
covered with 12 inches of stone its full length. Ditches
were to be dug on both sides to channel water runoff,
and for the first time, long established footways where
to be cobble stoned. The project was warmly received and
approved by town residents weary of slogging through mud
or choking on dust.
While we don’t know
exactly when Coal Oil lamps made their appearance in
Emmitsburg, we do know that they did begin to make their
appearance in other small towns across America beginning
around 1875. The first mention of oil lamps in
Emmitsburg town records comes in April of 1878, when the
town council approved the payment of $13.33 to a John
Burket for services rendered for "lamp lighting for
three months.’"
The street lamps
erected in Emmitsburg stood just over six feet high,
were mounted on turned posts, and had the characteristic
four-sided glass frame with sloped sides. The lighting
device itself consisted of a kerosene or coal-oil
burner, which required regular manual refilling and
lighting by the village lamplighter.
Lamps were an expensive
commodity and consumed a significant portion of
Emmitsburg’s town budget. They were expensive to buy
($11 a lamp, $3 for a post), expensive to rebuild ($2 a
lamp), expensive to flue ($200+/year), and expensive to
light ($3.50/month for labor, $7.75/month for oil wick
matches). With the cost of the newly formed fire company
and streets maintenance already heavily pressing the
town’s meager supply of funds, if you wanted a light
in front of your house, you had to make your case in
front of the Town Council’s Lamp Committee and hope
for the best.
At $40 a year, the
contact to nightly light and later extinguish the street
lamps was not overly lucrative, especially given not
only the hours of work required, but the time of day the
work was to be performed. While others lay sleeping
securely in their homes, the Lamplighter walked the
street, in all sort of weather, tending the lamps. As a
result, it usually drew takers from day labors who saw
the task as an easy way to argument the prevailing wage
of a dollar a day.
Each year in May,
coinciding with the swearing in of the new town council,
notices were posted requesting bids to perform lamp
lighting for the following 12 months. In 1878 the lowest
bidder was Edwin Webb, and the contract was awarded to
him. In 1879 and 1880, John Burket won the bid to become
the town’s Lamplighter. A reliable Lamplighter, in his
second year, he was awarded a 50 cents a month pay raise
by an obliging town council. In may of 188 the town
accepted the proposal of James Elder to light the lamps
for $47.50/year.
Like any new device,
improvements in lamps and lamp design came fast and
furious. In 1880, the town experimented with a new type
of burner called ‘Star Burners’. The new burners
proved far more reliable, and provided a brighter light
then the original burners, and as the old burners wore
out, they were replaced with the new burners.
1881 the town formed a
committee to look into the cost of supplying water from
the mountain. That summer, the town also began testing
the qualities of various lamp designs, purchasing one
globe, and one square tubular lamp that did not contain
chimneys. After a month long trial, the globe style lamp
won out and as the chimney lamps wore out, they were
replaced by globe lamps purchased at $6.50 each, from
the J. S. Annon & Brother general store. The old
street lamps put on sale at $2 each with the proviso
that while the town would provide the flue, the
purchasers would be responsible for lighting then and
maintaining them at their own expense
Because of their high
operating cost, when lamps were lit and extinguished,
was of great concern to the town, and so lighting and
extinguishing times were clearly
spelled out in the lamplighter’s contact. For Example:
"1. Have all
lamps lighted at dark, and put out by half past ten,
but not before ten o’clock on all nights that the
moon does not light.
2. Have all lamps
lighted at dark and out as soon as the moon gives
light on all nights that the moon does not rise before
seven o’clock during the months of November,
December, January, February, and March, and all nights
during the remainder of the year that the moon does
not rise before eight o’clock PM.
3. Have all lamps
lighted as soon as moon sets and put out between the
hours of ten and half past ten P.M. on nights that the
moon sets before nine o’clock PM."
In 1882, William E.
Ashbaugh became Lamplighter with a winning bid of $40,
his father/Son? William H. Ashbaugh won the bid to
become the Lamplighter for $35/year. In 1883, William E
Ashbaugh won the Lamplighter contact again, and the town
began giving away old lamps provided one promise to keep
them in proper repair and light them regularly. That
same year, the town passed an ordnance declaring:
"ball playing on streets or alleys a
nuisance," and established penalties for playing
it.
In 1884 David Lightner
won the Lamplighter position with a winning bid of $40.
Apparently he bit off more then he had anticipated, and
less then 3 months later he tendered his resignation and
a Peter J. Harting assumes his duties. 1885 saw many new
lamps added to Gettysburg (Now North Seton) and
Frederick Street (now South Seton), and with it, the
cost of lighting them increased dramatically as
indicated by Harting winning bid to light all the old
and new lamps for $65/year. That same year Samuel
Motter, president of the ‘Fountain Committee’,
proposes to erect a fountain in the center of the town
square and the Emmitsburg fire company officially
changes its name to Vigilant Hose Company.
In 1886, Isaac Hyden,
who supplied the town with its lamp oil, was appointed
Lamplighter with a salary of $60/year. Unfortunately for
the town, Isaac Hyden didn’t turn out to be the most
reliable of Lamplighters. Less then two months after
sighing his contact, he was fired by the town replaced
once more by John Burket. In Aug of 1886, the town
experimented with the use of Head-Light Oil as apposed
to coal oil. Apparently the results experiment was less
then stellar, and use of Head Light oil was quickly
abandoned.
In April of 1887,
Burket himself was fired, replace by Lewis Gelwick, who
was subsequently award the following year’s contract.
In 1888, the contact was won by Samuel Rosensteel with
his bid of $55.00/year. Rosensteel won again in 1889,
however, with the hard long winter months approaching,
he had second thought, and in November, Rosensteel
tendered his resignation. The town however refused to
accept it until he agreed to allow the extra cost of
having them lit during the winter months to be deducted
from the salary the town owed him. In December,
Rosensteel was replaced by Lewis Gelwick.
In 1890 the town
experimented with self-extinguishing street lamps, which
while cheap at $3.75 a piece, proved a nightmare to
maintain and provided poor light quality. 1890 also was
the year that the lamp posts in Emmitsburg were first
painted their now characteristic green and white paint
put on the reflectors. Lewis Gelwick contact was also
renewed for another year
In 1891, Lewis Gelwick
contact to light lamps was renewed again for $50 a year
and the town passed an ordnance declaring ‘the display
of unusual pictures in the borough is dangerous to our
youth’. Lewis continued to serve as Lamplighter for
the following two years. In I893, out of concern for
public safety, the town ordered that the lamps outside
of fire hall be lit all night long.
In 1894, William Hahn
assumed responsibility for lighting the lamps of town
with a winning bid of $65/year. In 1895, John Glass won
the contract with a bid of $39.50/year. The cost of
lighting the street in June of that year was $8.80. (80
gallons of oil in three weeks at 11 cents a gallon.)
That same year, the first telephone poles where
installed along main street - town immediately orders
them removed.
1896 saw the first real
change to the rules governing when lamps where lit and
extinguished. That year, P. J. Harding, the new
Lamplighter, was instructed to allow the lamps to burn
all night on nights that moon light ‘shall obscure
them’ and to use his discretion otherwise. That same
year the town passed an ordnance prohibiting bicycles
from being ridden on street or sidewalks
In 1897, John Glass
once again wins the bid to light the lamps at $75/year.
In 1998 he wins again, and in the summer of that year,
the town ordered street lamps to remain lit all night
long
In 1899 the town
authorizes the constable to arrest anyone for ‘fast
driving’, leaving it up to the constable to determine
what was to be considered ‘fast’. That same year,
the town also award the contact to light the lamps to
James Mac Hartachen for his winning bid of $72.
Hartachen however never competed his term, resigning in
March 1900 and being replaced by John Bowers.
In 1900 John Glass once
again submits the winning proposal to light the lamps
for $84/year. He wins again in 1901 with a bid of $96,
and in 1902 with a winning bid of $108. That same year,
the Burgess salary was $15
In the spring of 1903,
the town forbid the placement of telephone poles on main
street. That summer, N. F. Miller $108 bid to light the
town lamp was the winning bid and the town bought four
‘gasoline lamps’ which failed to live up to
expectations.
In 1904 William Daywalt
became the first person to be both constable and
Lamplighter, with a salary of $20/month. That summer,
the town post notice that use of fireworks of any kind
on the streets of town before sunset was prohibited. In
1905, Daywalt loses the bid to continue as Constable,
but win the lamp lighting contact, as he does again the
following year.
In 1906 Daywalt once
again wins both the constable and lamplighter contacts
with a winning bid of $216/year. That summer, the towns
post its first speed limit for cars at 6 miles per hour
1908 marked the
beginning of the end of the Emmitsburg’s oil lamps.
For several year, acetylene generators had been
providing many homes in Emmitsburg with cleaner, higher
quality light and it was no longer a matter of if, but
when, the old oil fired lamps would be replaced by newer
acetylene lights. That April, the town purchased a ‘Best
Light Company’s acetylene light and place it on square
for 80 day trial. It was overwhelming hailed by the
citizens, and the town immediately began to explore the
cost of relamping the town. In May, the town begins
talks with ‘Prepased Settiline Light Company about how
long it would take to build the plant to provide the
gas.
In June of that year,
the town council met with Mr. Hays to get his proposal
for lighting the town with gas. That same month, the
town passed a motion made by Mr. Rosensteel to hold a
festival to raise money to purchase acetylene lights
from The Best Light Company. However, while the motion
passed, the town council wasn’t entirely convinced
that acetylene was the way to go, for many towns where
already installing the newest revolution in street
lights - electrical lights.
Electrification had yet
to occur in Emmitsburg in 1910, but when Bernard
Kershner proposed building an electrical generating
station in town to provide power the town and its
residents, the town’s interest in acetylene gas was
over for good. That same month, the town passed an
ordnance prohibiting the swearing or use of profane
language, drunkenness or fighting within town limits.
While the town readied
itself for electrical lights - the old oil lamps still
needed to be lit. In may, 1910 Harry Balwin assumed
responsibility as Lamplighter- two weeks later he
resigned- replaced by Bert Haspelharm - who also took on
the duties of janitor of the Fire Hall for $20 month. In
1911, John Albert Bowling assumed the mantle of town
Lamplighter, relinquishing it in 1913 to John Dukehart,
whom the town charged to "Light the lamps of the
corporation until they are replaced by electrical
lights."
In January of 1914, the
Emmitsburg Electrical company installed the first '40
candle power' electrical street light. Because of the high cost
of running them, the new electric lights were lit
following the original requirements established for the
lighting of the oil lamps back in 1881. So while
the town's streets were now better lit, they were lit
for a short time every evening. It was not April,
1925 that the street lamps would shine
all night long, irregardless of whether the moon was out
or not.
With the change over
from oil to electric lights, John Dukehart had the honor
of becoming the last Lamplighter of Emmitsburg, ending a long
and proud tradition that spanned well over 35 years.
Read
other stories by Michael Hillman
While we know who the men were who lit the the lamps
of Emmitsburg, we know little else about them. If
you do, please send us their stories to us at history@emmitsburg.net,
we would love to add them to our archives.
For to walk the streets in the deepest and coldest of
night to insure the safety of fellow neighbors, took
character and dedication - these me deserve to be more
then a foot note in a story.
Do you know of other individuals who
helped shape Emmitsburg?
If so, send their story to us at: history@emmitsburg.net
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