
July 18, 2016

Street Light with Five Lamp Arc Light design (late 19th century) |
Street Lighting by Barbara Schock
Edwin A.
Allen was born December 9, 1865, in Log City, north of Galesburg. His
parents were Shelden O. and Zipporah Edwards Allen. He was the grandson of
Shelden W. and Fidelia Leach Allen, pioneers of the Galesburg community. He
grew up on the farm and attended Knox College for three years.
As a young
man, he was given the opportunity to work for George Westinghouse who
created the wondrous illumination for the World's Columbian Exhibition in
Chicago in 1893. Electric lighting was a new phenomenon which delighted the
public.
In the days
before man-made lighting, darkness was an inconvenient part of life. Work
had to stop when the light faded and there was a concern about safety when
being away from home at night.
Galesburg
had gas street lights at intersections in the 1880s when Carl Sandburg was a
lad playing baseball in the dusty street near his home. Coal was heated to a
high temperature which produced a gas. It was manufactured and stored during
the daytime in huge tanks. It was then piped to lamps throughout the city.
In the evening a lamplighter would light each street light and return in the
morning to put out the lamp. It was a high maintenance operation.
Allen
returned to Galesburg and became an electrical contractor. In 1900 he
erected a pole in the Public Square which had five arc lights on it. The
pole was more than sixty feet tall. The generator for the electricity was
located near Central Congregational Church. The intense light shown for five
or six blocks around it. The other neighborhoods of the city didn't benefit
from the illumination.
The arc
lights used on the pole in the Public Square were made from hard carbon rods
which had to be replaced every twelve to fourteen hours. They also required
considerable attention to keep them producing light.
Allen also
put the first electric motors in Galesburg street cars which previously were
pulled by horses. He performed electrical work for the United States Post
Office on South Cherry Street. The Carnegie Library erected on Simmons
Street in 1903 was also wired by Allen.
On December
27, 1894, Edwin Allen married Desdemona Burkhalter. They had three children,
only one surviving to adulthood. Dessie was the daughter of James L.
Burkhalter who had settled in Maquon in 1856. He was a bridge builder and
contractor.
It is said
Burkhalter built the foundation for the Wolf Covered Bridge over Spoon
River. He also erected bridges for the Peoria and Oquawka Railroad.
Burkhalter served in the Civil War from 1862 to 1865. He organized two
companies of infantry and rose to the rank of major. He became the president
of the Farmers' and Mechanics' Bank in 1884 and served until his death in
1908. After his wife's death in 1893, he lived with the Edwin Allen family.
Edwin Allen
died October 3, 1958, at the age of 92, in the Good Samaritan Home in
Knoxville. He had lived in his home at 522 North Academy Street until two
months before his death. His wife had died in 1942 and was buried with other
Burkhalter family members in Linwood Cemetery. Mr. Allen's funeral was
conducted from the First and Puckett Funeral Home, with burial next to his
wife.
At the turn
of the twentieth century, Edwin Allen helped dispel the darkness in
Galesburg. Today street lighting is so common and provides so much
illumination that we can't see the Milky Way in the night sky.
 |
Date |
Title |
July 18, 2016 |
Street Lighting |
July 11, 2016 |
Cedar Fork |
July 4, 2016 |
Shelden W. Allen |
June 20, 2016 |
Conrad Byloff |
June 13, 2016 |
Edward W. Rosenberg |
June 6, 2016 |
Lawrence Futhey |
May 30, 2016 |
Memory |
May 23, 2016 |
Decoration Day, 1881 |
May 16, 2016 |
William Cullen Bryant |
May 9, 2016 |
College Days |
May 2, 2016 |
A Military Career
Thwarted |
April 25, 2016 |
How to Sweep a Room |
April 18, 2016 |
The Marsh Horse and Mule
Market |
April 11, 2016 |
Horses Everywhere |
April 4, 2016 |
Victor A. Thoureen |
March 28, 2016 |
Nicknames |
March 21, 2016 |
Corporal Edward P.
Peckenpaugh
|
March 14, 2016 |
Hold Still! |
March 7, 2016 |
Capt. T. L. McGirr |
February 29, 2016 |
Sparrow Season |
February 22, 2016 |
George W. Erickson |
February 15, 2016 |
George Helgeson Fitch |
February 8, 2016 |
Anna Charlotte Goldquist |
February 1, 2016 |
"Little Boy Blue" |
January 25, 2016 |
Always the Young
Strangers |
January 18, 2016 |
George R. Longbrake |
January 11, 2016 |
Fred Cook |
January 4, 2016 |
Domestic Help |
December 14, 2015 |
Justice of the Peace B.F. Holcomb |
November 30, 2015 |
Standardized Time |
November 23, 2015 |
Joseph H. Knutson |
November 16, 2015 |
Wells and Cisterns |
November 2, 2015 |
Willis E. Calkins |
October 26, 2015 |
Galesburg Pottery |
October 19, 2015 |
Private Lewis H. Kay |
October 12, 2015 |
The Klondike Gold Rush |
September 28, 2015 |
Charles L. Bloomgren |
September 21, 2015 |
The Gilded Age |
September 14, 2015 |
Oliver Optic |
August 31, 2015 |
The "Spanish" Cannon |
August 24, 2015 |
The Company C Men |
August 17, 2015 |
Jacob A. Riis |
August 10, 2015 |
Mason Jars |
August 3, 2015 |
October 7, 1896 |
July 27, 2015 |
The Soldier's Monument |
July 20, 2015 |
Ice |
July 13, 2015 |
Moses O. Williamson |
July 6, 2015 |
Sweet Little Alix |
June 29, 2015 |
Sharlie's Shickens |
June 22, 2015 |
Anna Held & John Drew |
June 15, 2015 |
Hartel & Secker Meat Market |
June 8, 2015 |
Girls |
June 1, 2015 |
Old First Church - Part II |
May 25, 2015 |
Old First Church - Part I |
May 18, 2015 |
Marbles |
May 11, 2015 |
Pawnee County, Kansas |
May 4, 2015 |
Detective Stories and the
Real Thing |
April 27, 2015 |
Professor Isaac A. Parker |
April 20, 2015 |
Celluloid Collars |
April 13, 2015 |
Asparagus |
April 6, 2015 |
Mayor John C. Stewart |
March 30, 2015 |
Basket Ball |
March 23, 2015 |
The Courthouse of Knox
County, IL |
March 16, 2015 |
“Trifles make
perfection...”
|
March 9, 2015 |
Uncle Tom's Cabin |
March 2, 2015 |
Martha Sandburg Goldstone |
February 23, 2015 |
Devotion |
February 16,
2015 |
Gumbiner's
Pawn Shop |
February 9, 2015 |
White Bread |
February 2, 2015 |
The
Monarch Club |
January 26, 2015 |
The Silver Dollar |
January 19, 2015 |
The Fulton County Narrow Gauge Railway |
January 12, 2015 |
The
Four Corners |
December 22, 2014 |
Swedish
Christmas |
December 8, 2014 |
Christmas 1878 |
December 1, 2014 |
Bunker
Boots & Shoes |
November 24, 2014 |
Galesburg,
Illinois |
November 17, 2014 |
It was Buffalo Bill's Day |
November 10, 2014 |
The Election of 1896 (A follow-up story) |
November 3, 2014 |
The Election
of 1896 (continued) |
October 27, 2014 |
The Election
of 1896 |
October 24,
2014 |
The
Rissywarn |
October 20, 2014 |
The Parlor Stove |
October 13, 2014 |
Ashes to Ashes |
October 6, 2014 |
Jesse James |
Sept. 29, 2014 |
Lester T. Stone, Public Servant |
Sept. 22, 2014 |
It's Who You Know |
Sept 15, 2014 |
Mother of the Illinois Flag |
Sept 8, 2014 |
The Scissors
Grinder |
Sept 1, 2014 |
Baseball |
August 25, 2014 |
Howard K.
Knowles, Capitalist |
August 18,
2014 |
Alcoholic Beverages |
August 11, 2014 |
Soda
Water |
August 4, 2014 |
Sweet Corn |
July 28, 2014 |
Marching Through Georgia |
July 21, 2014 |
The Knox
County Fair |
July 14, 2014 |
The Panic of 1893 |
July 7, 2014 |
The Rev. T. N.
Hasselquist |
June 30, 2014 |
The Knox
County Courthouse |
June 23, 2014 |
The Family
Photograph Album |
June 16, 2014 |
Parades |
June 9, 2014 |
Lingonberries |
June 2, 2014 |
Where We Live |
May 26, 2014 |
Old Main |
May 19, 2014 |
Rhythms
of the Railroad |
May 12, 2014 |
Spring
Tonic |
May 5, 2014 |
The Milkmen |
April 28, 2014 |
Gray's
"Elegy..." |
April 21, 2014 |
Off to War |
April 14, 2014 |
Swedish Easter |
April 7, 2014 |
A Father's Face |
March 31, 2014 |
Secret Societies |
March 24, 2014 |
George A. Murdock, Merchant |
March 10, 2014 |
Trade
Cards |
March 3, 2014 |
The Demorest
Medal |
February 24, 2014 |
Rip
Van Winkle |
February 17, 2014 |
Cabbage
Soup |
February 10, 2014 |
Lincoln's Birthday |
February 3,
2014 4 |
The
Colonel |
January 27, 2014 |
The
Lincoln Penny - A Little History |
January 20, 2014 |
Walking to Work |
January 13,
2014 |
A Small Abode |
January 6, 2014 |
Birth of a Poet |
December 30, 2013 |
Christmas 1880 |
December 23, 2013 |
Swedish Christmas |
December 16, 2013 |
The Reporter
Sees Santa |
December 9, 2013 |
The Coming
of Christmas |
December 2, 2013 |
The Fire Boys Talk |
November 25, 2013 |
Galesburg Will Feast on Turkeys and Cranberries -
Thanksgiving 1893 |
November 18, 2013 |
Mary
Sandburg Johnson |
November 11, 2013 |
Carl
Sandburg's Bicycle |
November 4, 2013 |
Lace Curtains |
October 28, 2013 |
The
Front Room |
October 21, 2013 |
A Warm Breakfast |
October 14, 2013 |
Marion D.
Shutter |
October 7, 2013 |
Cigars and Consumption |
September 30, 2013 |
Forrest F. Cooke & August Sandburg |
September 16, 2013 |
Forrest F.
Cooke, Mayor |
September 9, 2013 |
Dusty
Streets |
September 2, 2013 |
Typhoid
Fever |
August 26, 2013 |
Coffee and Water |
August 19, 2013 |
A
Horse! A Horse! |
August 12, 2013 |
Gaddial Scott |
August 5, 2013 |
The
Racetrack |
July 29, 2013 |
John Peter
Algeld - Part II |
July 22, 2013 |
John Peter
Altgeld - Part I |
July
15, 2013 |
Tramps, Tramps, Tramps |
July 8, 2013 |
Lady
Liberty |
July 1, 2013 |
Galesburg's
Fourth |
June 24, 2013 |
John
H. Finley |
June 17, 2013 |
The
World's Columbian Exhibition |
June
10, 2013 |
Fruit
Short-Cake |
June 3, 2013 |
Horatio Alger,
Author |
May 27, 2013 |
Memorial Day,
1887 |
May 20, 2013 |
Professor
Jon W. Grubb |
May 13, 2013 |
Beginnings of Lombard University |
May 6, 2013 |
Young
Sandburg’s View of Lombard College |
April
29, 2013 |
Thinking |
April
22, 2013 |
Robert
Colville, Master Mechanic |
April 15,
2013 |
The Galesburg Opera House |
April 8, 2013 |
Grocery
Stores and Sample Rooms |
April 1, 2013 |
A
Hearty Breakfast |
March
25, 2013 |
The Lost
Wallpaper Legend |
March 18, 2013 |
Martin G. Sandburg |
March 4, 2013 |
The
Edison Talking Machine |
February 25, 2013 |
Joe Elser, Civil War
Veteran |
February 18, 2013 |
Remember
the Maine... |
February 11, 2013 |
Lincoln's
Birthday |
February 4, 2013 |
Curiosity |
|