By Emily Rinaman, Technical Services Librarian
We probably all say the phrase "a lightbulb came on in my head" at least once on a weekly basis. Well, the lightbulbs literally went on in Tiffin for the first time (and many parts of the country) in the early 1880s. September 4th marks the anniversary of the very first public electric lighting when the first central power station in the world, the Edison Electric Illuminating Company of New York (now Consolidated Edison) lit its lamps.
Many major cities were soon to follow, but just because the light bulb as we know it today existed at that point, doesn't mean that everyone made the switch from candles and gas right away (notice the pun there?) Just like the slow reversal from horse and buggy to motor cars, from rotary landlines to fancy cell phones, people were hesitant to embrace electricity. It was also much more expensive to use than it is today.
Prior to the invention of the electric light bulb, homes and businesses used candles and gas lights, including kerosene lamps. Early pioneers in Ohio mainly used Betty Lamps lit by various forms of animal oil. According to Beth Maxwell Boyle in her article, Betty Lamps and Grease Lamps, "Fish oil gave the poorest light and was very smoky. Animal fats were somewhat better but still burned with an odor. Whale oil was much sought after as it produced the best light, but usually was only available in coastal towns, not always in rural areas. Whale oil gives off light about equal to that of two ordinary candles. This fuel was always expensive and highly sought after."
While that may sound messy and somewhat putrid, kerosene is simply a by-product of coal, another dirty substance. A medical doctor and geologist by the name of Abraham Gesner began distilling coal to produce this clear fluid in the early 1840s and gave it the term for the Greek word for “wax oil.” Kerosene lamps were invented in 1853 and shortly thereafter streetlamps lit with kerosene lined the main streets even in smaller towns. The Tiffin Gas Light Company was formed in 1856, and 50 street lamps were installed around Tiffin. The Ohio Lantern Works, a company in Tiffin with 75 employees who produced baron lanterns and tubular lanterns, converted Tiffin's street lights to electric in 1883.
Lighting gas lamps was not an easy process. A student at the former Jackson Township School described how a group of boys had to walk a mile "uproad" to get coal oil at the general store for 4 lamps in preparation for a school play. Tiffin rascals apparently got the discarded carbon sticks from the gas streetlamps after they burnt out. The lamplighters used to give the sticks to boys so they could mark up the streets with them like black chalk.
New Riegel's 18 gas streetlamps cost $5.40 each in 1897 to install and the village marshall/street commissioner became the lamp lighter (a common practice in rural villages where individuals held multiple simultaneous roles). A History of New Riegel states that in 1912, Peter was paid $55 a year followed by Louis Seifert. New Riegel converted to electric street lights in 1927. Either Bascom had more streetlights or it just paid better--the Bascom Area Sesquicentennial 1837-1987 marks its going rate in 1923 as $100 to Ward Creeger. Bascom did not convert its streetlamps over to electric until 1957.
Many natives of Tiffin are familiar with one of its major claims to fame, so to speak, in regards to electricity. St. Paul's United Methodist Church on Madison Street was the first building in the world to be wired for electricity while it was being constructed in 1883, and a chandelier was gifted to the church by Thomas Edison himself. This brass and copper chandelier with 20 lamps was still serving as the main source of light for the sanctuary of the church as recently as 1973 and is still in use today.
What Tiffinites might not know unless they are history buffs is that the Tiffin Electric Illuminating Company contracted with the Edison Electric Light Company in New York City (the sole executive licensee of Edison patented incandescent lights) and built a plant during the same year as St. Paul's UMC. This plant was only the third of its kind in the United States at the time and the first "west of the Allegheny Mountains." It provided series arc lighting and arc lamps (the first type of electric light).
Electricity didn't start becoming widespread in rural areas until well into the 20th century. The Sisters of St. Francis installed electricity in its chapel in 1903. Risingsun passed the addition of electricity in its town with an election in 1910. Bettsville joined the trend in June 1916 when an ordinance was passed and both Bloomville and Republic followed shortly thereafter.
Seneca County originally had several electric companies. The Tiffin Electric Company, 139 E. Perry St., (controlled by Judy and George E. Seney) merged with the Tiffin Edison Co. in 1902 and was eventually bought out by the Ohio Light and Power Company in Canton in 1919. During that same time period the Fostoria Incandescent Lamp Co. (1897-1920) produced bulbs, tubing and rods.
General Electric as it looked in 1979. Photo was taken from an advertisement in the Tiffin Ohio - Chamber of Commerce 1979 Publication.
By 1925, however, still only half of the country had electricity. Coal oil lamps remained in most rural areas until FDR's New Deal's Rural Electrification Act (REA) in 1936. This Act, signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt May 20, 1936, initiated loans for large construction projects like power plants and power lines and loans for individual homes (for example, wiring and appliances). In 1939, the REA was put under the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and by the late 1940s, 95% of rural homes had electricity. Now, electricity had become a staple in American society (and much of the world), and with the growing demand, General Electric in Tiffin was built at 401 Wall Street in 1946. At one point GE of Tiffin employed over 1,500 people and was the city's largest employer throughout most of the 1960s and 1970s. By the late 1980s it had unfortunately closed. (On a side note, Atlas occupied the building next and recently TPC purchased it and will be moving almost 100 employees there shortly).
If one wants to learn more about Thomas Edison and the invention of the lightbulb, his birthplace is only a one-hour drive from Tiffin to Milan, Ohio. It has been a museum since 1947 and is a National Historic Site. According to the site's website, the United States and the Buckeye State could have almost just as well not been able to boast of being the home of the inventor of the lightbulb. Thomas Edison's great-grandfather, John Edison, was a wealthy landowner and Loyalist during the American Revolution. After the British were defeated, he was forced to become a refugee in Canada. His grandson (and Thomas Edison's father), Samuel Edison, was forced to become a refugee back into the United States after a political struggle with the British in Canada. If not for that, Canadians may have took the honor!
Works Cited:
Bascom Area Sesquicentennial 1837-1987, https://www.ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/41947/rec/1
Betty Lamps & Grease Lamps, Beth Maxwell Boyle. https://www.ramshornstudio.com/early_lighting_2.htm
Between the Eighties, Tiffin, Ohio 1880-1980. https://www.ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/65253/rec/1
Bicentennial Sketches, Myron Barnes.
Centennial of Sisters of St. Francis, https://www.ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/36274
History of Kerosene Oil Lamps https://www.antiquelampsupply.com/history-of-kerosene-oil-lamps
History of the light bulb. Nov. 22, 2013. Department of Energy, https://www.energy.gov/articles/history-lightbulb#:~:text=Incandescent%20Bulbs%20Light%20the%20Way,possible%20with%20the%20arc%20lamp.
History of Bettsville, Ohio. John E. Durrett. https://www.ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/29509/rec/3
A History of New Riegel, https://www.ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/32008/rec/2
Newspaper Clip Chandelier Installed 1883, Ohio Power Review. https://www.ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/58229/rec/1
RURAL ELECTRIFICATION ADMINISTRATION (REA) The Living New Deal, https://livingnewdeal.org/glossary/rural-electrification-administration-rea-1935/
Seneca County, Ohio History & Families, https://www.ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/28319/rec/1
Seneca County History Volume 1, https://www.ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/17316/rec/1
Survey of Ten Largest Industrial Employers, https://www.ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/43451/rec/1
Third Annual Heritage Festival 1817-1981, https://www.ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/27465/rec/1
Thomas Edison Birthplace, http://tomedison.org/tom/hislife/
Tiffin Street Cars and Public Utilities, https://www.ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/22390/rec/1
Seneca County Digital Library, Ohio Memory Project, https://ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27