Matson Insurance has partnered with Jefferson County History Center to offer exploreJeffersonpa.com readers a look into Jefferson County’s past. Today, the history of Brookville’s electricity is highlighted.
[Pictured above: The Solar Electric Company provided electricity to Brookville folks more than a century ago. Today our Bowdish Volunteers run the trains the last Saturday of each month and they run right past the exquisite model of where that electricity was produced. (JCHS Photograph)]
(Submitted by Carole Briggs.)
IT WAS SHOCKING!
For much of our history, Brookville has tried to “keep up with the Joneses.” When surrounding towns were investing in something new, entrepreneurs here were doing the same.
Brookville men read about the Duquesne Light Company providing electricity in Pittsburgh in 1880, the same year that Wabash, Indiana, introduced electric street lights. They read about Pittsburgh inventor George Westinghouse distributing natural gas in 1886, then developing ways to distribute electricity. They read about electric street cars.
So, in December of 1896, Brookville investors chartered the Solar Electric Company and opened an office on Main Street. They purchased land on the flats at the foot of Spring Alley, near the Redbank, hired a contractor, and built a building.
Directors of the company were Clarence R. Hall, W. H. Jenks, and John White. George W. Heber became secretary and general manager of the company. Stockholders included familiar names like Charles Corbet and his wife, men named Kreitler and Reed, and Amelia Clark (who lived in Brady Craig House on Jefferson Street!)
They contracted with the General Electric Company for two 35 K.W. dynamos that had the capacity to provide about 1,500 incandescent lights with 16 candlepower each. To make these decisions, company members had considered electrical systems in surrounding places and talked with electricians from Franklin, Meadville, Greenville, and Homestead.
An important aspect of the system was its adaptability for street lighting, for long-burning commercial arc lamps, and the economical provision of power to drive sewing machines, ice cream freezers, dental engines, printing presses, and fans. Less than a year later, according to historian McKnight, Charles Corbet, Esq. was illuminating his home at 340 Main Street (the present offices of attorney Taylor) with power generated by the new company.
Until the 1920s the Solar Electric Company provided electricity from early evening to 8AM in the morning, and “until noon on Sunday to provide light and power for the pipe organs in the churches. When the preacher got a bit long-winded the light would fade out, and there was no organ music for the last hymn.”
One might think the general manager of the company, George W. Heber, might have intervened. He was organist at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church!
Copyright@Jefferson County Historical Society, Inc.
Throwback Thursday is brought to you by Matson Insurance in Brookville.
Submitted by the Jefferson County History Center.
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