Arc light towers served Hannibal for a season
- Mary Lou Montgomery
- 28 minutes ago
- 6 min read
MARY LOU MONTGOMERY
Circa 1899, Arnold M. Conner, a bachelor, went to work for Hannibal’s electric department as a lamp trimmer.
As evening approached, 365 days per year, it was his responsibility to ride his horse to the location of each of Hannibal’s (11) light towers, climb 1,000 feet (m/l) to the top of the tower, and trim the carbon in order to provide light for the night.
At first he started his route from his parents’ house at 523 Union Street. After his marriage to Eva Mae Dunkin, he adjusted the route to begin at 201 Summit.
His evening route consisted of 10 miles.
Obsolescence ended his career with the city’s electric department. As technology advanced, there was no longer a need for a dependable man and his horse, making the rounds and climbing the towers so that others could see into the night.
By 1907, Mr. Conner was working for the Star Shoe Company.
Hannibal electrifies
The process of electrifying Hannibal began with a $20,000 bond issue, passed by voters in 1885, and culminated the following year with the installation a power house on East Bird Street, and 11 light towers, constructed of iron pipe and ranging in height from 75 to 125 feet tall. These towers were strategically located throughout the town, intended to replace the dark of night with a moon-lit aura.
J. Hurley and Roberta Hagood, in their 1976 book, “The Story of Hannibal,” identified the locations of the towers:
Main and Hill, near the boyhood home of Samuel Clemens;
Main and Church, in front of the Windsor Hotel;
North and Sixth, a high point in downtown Hannibal;
Tenth and Bird, near the future location of the Cruikshank mansion;
Union and Eighth, in South Hannibal. (Eighth was later renamed O’Fallon);
Oak and Grape, east of Fulton Avenue, a high point in South Hannibal;
Chestnut and Griffith, in West Hannibal along the street car line;
Fifth and Broadway;
Eighth and Lyon;
Market and Gordon; and
Lyon and Market.
In 1888, at least one more tower was in place, not mentioned by the Hagoods in their book. It was located at Third and Washington in South Hannibal. It was dismantled and removed in April 1908, and a local newspaper report paid a brief tribute to this tower:
“The electric light tower, on the corner of Third and Washington streets, which has been in service for 25 years, (dating this tower’s original installation at 1883) was taken down yesterday. The structure was taken apart in sections and by evening the last section had been removed. The iron will be sold for whatever price it will bring and will probably be used for the construction of concrete walls.”
Watch out for the tower!
A Hannibal newspaper, on April 12, 1902, reported: “A horse attached to a buggy owned by John Simms, a farmer, became frightened and ran away on South Main street yesterday morning. The animal collided with the electric light tower at the corner of Church and Main streets. The vehicle was damaged, but the horse escaped uninjured.”
Feb. 19, 1908: “A team of horses hitched to the South Side Dairy wagon owned by E.T. Cameron of Ralls county became frightened near Murphy and Lampton’s grocery store on Third street and brought the wagon in contact with the electric light tower on the corner of Third and Washington streets. The axles of the wagon were badly bent, but the horses and the driver escaped injury. The wagon was taken to a nearby blacksmith shop where the necessary repairs were made on it.”
Nov. 16, 1910: “The lower braces on the east side of the electric light tower on Union street were repaired yesterday by employees of the city. A runaway on election day ran into the tower tearing the braces from their bearings.”
Fun and games
Once the towers were in place, they became what might be described as “an attractive nuisance.”
On June 25, 1886, the Palmyra Spectator reported that a man by the name of Ferguson bet a glass of beer that he could climb to the top of one of Hannibal’s new electric light towers. He found a taker, and accomplished the task.
“A couple of brass buttons coming along at the time, discovered Mr. Ferguson and induced him to come down from his lofty perch. When he was once more on terra firma the officers nabbed him, and Mr. Ferguson was compelled by the Recorder to pay a five dollar fine or exercise himself for a few days on the rock pile.”
And on June 5, 1906, a Hannibal newspaper reported: “George Clarence, a small boy, climbed the electric light tower at the corner of Union and Eighth streets late Saturday evening and while doing some acrobatic stunts on the steel rods got so entangled that he could not reach terra firma. David Lacey, who heard his cries for help, went up the tower and assisted him back to mother earth.”
But young George Clarence wasn’t the only boy to attempt such stunts.
An April 9, 1907 Hannibal newspaper reported:
"A number of prominent South Side citizens are making a great deal of complaint about the small boys who upon coming from school in the afternoon climb and play on the electric light towers. A number of accidents have occurred in the city from the kind of sport, and one lady stated it almost made her hair turn gray, to see the youngsters slide town the iron rods and some even go so far as to hang by their knees where the rods cross each other. The boys should not be allowed to continue this practice and the sooner a stop is put to such proceedings the better it will be for the boys and for the people in general, and any one passing along the street who chances to see the lads going through any such maneuvers should report them to the proper authorities.”
Removing the towers
The electric tower at Lindell and Market was taken down in October 1912, and the tower on Union Street was condemned at the same time.
The tower on Chestnut street was taken down in early December 1912.
Electrical process
The “Vintage Streetlights” offers an explanation of the process:
“Early types of arc lamps employed two carbon electrodes, held end to end. To start the lamp, power was applied and the circuit broken by pulling the electrodes apart, and the arc formed in the gap between the electrodes. As the arc lamp burned, the electrodes were consumed and required periodic replacement. The lamp itself was simple - it was little more than a support and feeder mechanism for the two electrodes as well as a mechanism that separated the electrodes when power was applied. Source: Vintage Streetlights, https://www.vintagestreetlights.com
The Windsor Hotel was located on the northwest corner of Church and Main Street. Note the electric tower frame in front of the building. Steve Chou collection.
This illustration, based upon the 1899 Sanborn Fire Prevention Map, shows some of the light tower locations in Hannibal. From far left, North and Sixth Street; Main and Hill; Tenth and Bird; Fifth and Broadway, Main and Church, and on Hannibal’s South Side: Third and Washington and Eighth and Union. Illustration by Mary Lou Montgomery.
This early 20th century photo, facing west on Broadway, was reprinted from J. Hurley and Roberta Hagood’s 1976 “The Story of Hannibal.” It offers an intriguing look at early Hannibal. At far right is the old Settles building, on the northwest corner of Main and Broadway, which burned in 1930 and was replaced with the building standing today. In the forefront, at right, is the old iron watering trough, which was long located at the intersection of Main and Broadway. It was later moved to Central Park, and the ultimate fate of the trough is unclear. To the left of the horse image, hanging on a wire, is a “flaming arc light”. Superintendent Nipper of the Electric Light plant had two such lights placed on the corner of Main and Broadway in September 1908. This style of light was the replacement for the tower arc lights, some 11 of which were interspersed throughout Hannibal as an early means of lighting the streets. The tower lights were first installed circa 1885. At the crest of Broadway in this photo can be seen the arc light tower at the intersection of Fifth Street. One of Hannibal’s street cars is also visible along Broadway in this photo, which was probably taken during the first decade of the 20th Century.
Arnold Conner of Hannibal was a lamp trimmer for Hannibal’s electric company at the beginning of the 20th century. This photo was published in the Hannibal Courier-Post on Oct. 20, 1952. Newspapers.com
The Hannibal Courier-Post offered an explanation of the evolution of street lighting in its May 25, 1911 edition. newspapers.com
Mary Lou Montgomery, Suburban Newspapers of America Editor of the Year, Dailies, 2010, retired as editor of the Hannibal (Mo.) Courier-Post in 2014. She researches and writes narrative-style stories about the people who served as building blocks for this region’s foundation. Books available on Amazon.com by this author include but are not limited to: "The Notorious Madam Shaw," "Pioneers in Medicine from Northeast Missouri,” “Hannibal’s ‘West End,’” “Oakwood: West of Hannibal,” and “St. Mary’s Avenue District.” Montgomery can be reached at Montgomery.editor@yahoo.com Her collective works can be found at www.maryloumontgomery.com
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