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Bellefonte was the second town in the United States to have municipal electric lighting. Sunbury was the first. On July 25th, 1883, a charter was granted to the Edison Electric Illuminating Company of Bellefonte. W. D. Rich who was vice president of the parent Edison Co., came here from Sunbury after having installed the first Edison plant in the country, and interested enough local gentlemen to start an organization in Bellefonte. They were George Valentine, president; James Harris, secretary; James Sommerville, W. R. Jenkins, Lawrence L. Brown, John I. Olewine, W. H. Teller, Geo. L. Potter, J. Howard Lingle, Adam Hoy and Frank McCoy.
On the night of February 4th, 1884, the lights were turned on for the first time and the event was celebrated with a banquet at the Bush house, then run by Col. Teller, who advertised his hostelry as "the only second class hotel run by a first class fellow, in the world," It is interesting to note that this paper, in it's story of the momentous event, reported that the great dining hall of the Bush House was brilliantly illuminated with thirteen ten candle power lights" and that there was one on the table in front of the president that could actually be moved around.
That night was a notable one in Bellefonte. The business houses of A. J. Cruse, tobacconist; Charley Rine's stand which was a little place where Robert Roan's store is now located; D. Garman and Son's store, the F. C. Richard jewelry, the Brockerhoff house, the James Harris hardware store, Doll and Mingle's shoe store, John Sourbeck, Blairs and the Bee Hive "were all brilliantly lighted."
It has been reported that the first light actually flashed was in the law office of Gen. Beaver and the second in the windows of Blair's jewelry. Be that as it may, the first actual subscribers to the service were Harry Hicks, who then ran a hardware store where F. W. West and Co., are now located; F. X. Lehman who ran the Butts house, now the Brant; D. Garman and Son;' Isaac Guggenheimer, the Brockerhoff House, John Anderson and the Garman house.
The original company had a contract with Mr. Edison that permitted it to use his patents for a certain time without charge. After that it was required to pay his parent company a royalty. When the time came to pay the royalty the infant industry was already nearing the rocks. The Bellefonte Gas Co. was functioning efficiently under the management of Robert McKnight and few people had faith in the endurance of "this new lighting contraption." The company struggled along but found the load too heavy and then sold out to the Bellefonte Electric Company and thus ducked the royalties to Mr. Edison.
Near midnight of Tuesday, April 6th, 1897 Thomas Faxon, the engineer, discovered a fire in the storage room of the building, which was located on West Lamb street. Although Tom sounded the fire alarm, a whistle located on the building, the fire had progressed to such a state that the light generated from the fire was visible "from all parts of the town." By this time, fueled by "the oily floors and combustible rubbish" in the store room, the plant was quickly engulfed and Bellefonte went black. This greatly delayed the arrival of the Logan Hose Co and the Undine Hose Co engine was "disabled." As the Logan's began to pump water on the fire, "the water from their nozzle seemed to be turned into steam by the intense heat before it would strike the blazing timbers." All the fireman could do was protect the adjacent property, mostly private residences, most notably the large double home of W. P. Humes which sat less than forty feet from the electric plant. Mayor Naginey requested that residents on principal streets "leave their window lights burn all night." Although no trouble was encountered, the borough put on six extra policemen to patrol the streets during the blackout.
The building and equipment were destroyed, with the exception of the battery of boilers which were only slightly damaged. Almost as the flames were still burning, the stockholders were meeting and deciding to rebuild immediately. They secured an engine from the Altoona Electric Light Co, which arrived in Bellefonte by Thursday night and by Friday a "60-light arc machine and two incandescent dynamos from Philadelphia." By Saturday night, the borrowed equipment had been installed and for the second time Bellefonte was turned from dark to light.
For some years it hung on by its eyelashes when suddenly, the community discovered that electric light was a real and useful commodity and not the machination of the devil. But just before this turn some of the canniest business men in the organization sold their stock in disgust for whatever, they could get for it and later bit twenty-penny nails in two when the "flop" turned to be a "wow" and declared a one-hundred per cent stock dividend on which it paid mighty handsome interest up to the time it was taken over by the present owners.
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