1910

LET THERE BE (RELIABLE) LIGHT

Jeff Elliott Leave a comment

And so it came to pass; in 1910, Pacific Gas and Electric finally kept the lights burning in Santa Rosa for an entire year.

Not a single article appeared in the Santa Rosa papers about power outages in those months, which is remarkable; long blackouts were common in that decade, as was flickering current. During peak usage hours of 6 to 8PM, voltages dropped causing lights across town to dim. City Council members said in 1909 “citizens are continually kicking [complaining] to them of the service,” according to one of the articles from that year transcribed below.

Then there was the gas problem. Some businesses and better homes (including Comstock House) were plumbed for gas lights as well as electric, so that was an option if the “juice” fizzled. Many more homes had gas just in the kitchens for stoves and water heaters. This “town gas” was actually coal gas generated at the big facility downtown on First street, and typically once a year there would be a mishap at the power plant causing the gas to smell foul – or even be potentially lethal, as carbon monoxide was a significant part of the mix (MORE). In 1908 the fire chief complained polished brass was turning black in a few hours and later a man complained his pet bird nearly died from noxious fumes.

So why did the situation improve so dramatically in 1910? Mostly because PG&E finally upgraded the infrastructure it had inherited from the small regional power companies it began buying up in 1907 and 1908. A spokesman from the company told Santa Rosa city council that they were rewiring lines to carry heavier loads and were building auxiliary steam plants to supplement the main power still generated by a dam in the Sierra foothills. Also, Santa Rosa now had a backup option of tapping electricity from the Snow Mountain Water and Power Company on the south fork of the Eel River. After months of working out bugs – or rather, wiping out most “eels” in the Eel River via electrocution – they were now supplying the grid in Sonoma County.

At the city council meeting the PG&E rep also advised consumers wanting the best lighting should be “…throwing away lamps [lightbulbs] when their period of usefulness had been reached, and with new lamps better lights would be secured and better results obtained.” Of course PG&E thought this was a great idea; you could only buy new light bulbs directly from them, and cost the equivalent of about $40 today. Most of the public didn’t buy bulbs so much as leased them from the company with a surcharge for each bulb on your monthly bill. And adjusted for inflation, electrical service was also about 25 times more expensive than we now pay (MORE).

The ads shown to the right are from electrical contractors and appeared in the 1910 Santa Rosa Republican, reminding that most homes outside of the larger towns still did not have electricity. It was just announced the year before that power was coming to the towns along the Russian River and other communities in West County; when it arrived, they wanted you to know it would be affordable to install. Methinks their estimates probably did not mention the ongoing costs of service and lightbulb rental. One wonders how many farmers later read their first PG&E bill under a new electric light and promptly turned the dang thing off. 

FIXING RATES IS POSTPONED
Electric Company Will Give Perfect Service

The fixing of rates to be charged by the gas and electric company and telephone company for service here was postponed by the council at its meeting Tuesday evening until an adjourned meeting next Tuesday evening…

[..]

…Mayor Gray called twice on any citizen who desired to speak of the gas or electric service to step forward. Not a solitary complaint was made by any citizen, although Mayor Gray and the councilmen claim the citizens are continually kicking to them of the service.

Mayor Gray declared he was not satisfied with the service furnished and said the lights were far too dim between 6 and 8 o’clock each evening. He said the rates charged by the company  were satisfactory, but the service rendered was poor at times. The interruption in the service this year, over previous years, the mayor said, showed a decided improvement.

George C. Holberton, an engineer of electrical distribution for the company, addressed the council later in the evening. He spoke of the improvements in the service which the company had made here by building heavier lines to carry the voltage and the installation of steam plants at congested districts. Speaking of the lights going out that evening, Mr. Holberton said the break in the wires had occurred many miles from here, but that in seven minutes current was again being supplied with the aid of the auxiliary steam plants.

The speaker told of the big regulators installed here to keep the pressure uniform, and said these would do the work accurately if the variation in use of current was not too great. He invited all who had complaints to consult Thomas Petch, the local manager, and declared that all these things could be remedied by Mr. Petch at once. Mr. Holbertson pointed out that in some of the older houses the service wires were too small to carry the number of lights placed on them, and advised throwing away lamps when their period of usefulness had been reached, and with new lamps better lights would be secured and better results obtained. He declared the company was not attempting to carry too great a load here, and denied that would make the lights dim between 6 and 8 o’clock in the evenings. The company’s first aim had been to stop the interruptions. Mr. Holbertson said and now that this had been accomplished, the next aim was to give the patrons a perfect service. He said the company would not stop in its betterment of conditions until everybody was satisfied.

 – Santa Rosa Republican, February 17, 1909

SAYS THE GAS IS VERY IMPURE HERE
Citizen Demands that Noxious and Dangerous Fumes be Removed from the Gas Furnished Santa Rosa

“I don’t care so much about $1.25 gas; and Santa Rosa does not care, in my opinion. What I do want, and many citizens share my demand, is a better quality of gas than that with which we are being served at the present time.

“I maintain that the fumes from the gas that we are using now are absolutely injurious to health. In fact a number of times of late they have driven us from the room. Only the other day a song bird, hanging in a cage in a room where the gas was being used, was almost suffocated by the impurities sent off by the gas. Don’t bother about the $1.25 gas yet. We’ll be content with $1.50 gas, but do insist that we are served with a purer article. These are my sentiments and I have heard many other people express themselves just the same.”

The above statement was made by a well known citizen of Santa Rosa, who uses gas for fuel and cooking purposes, and from what he says he apparently has a good kick coming in his demand for better and purer gas.

 – Press Democrat, February 26, 1909

 CAUSE OF NO JUICE ON FRIDAY

 An oil switch in the Colgate power house of the Pacific Gas and Electric Company, burned shortly after 11 o’clock Friday night leaving all the towns served by the Company in total darkness for a few minutes but repairs were quickly made and the current was again turned on. The cause of the accident is unknown.

 In the handling of switches there is a spark even on the low voltage lines while on the high potential lines it is so heavy that the only way the switches can be used is to keep them submerged in oil which smothers the spark.

 The Snow Mountain Company has taken a portion of the load from the older company in this county and is now furnishing the power for Sebastopol. Work is nearing completion on the local station which will allow of the Snow Mountain power being cut in here at anytime there is an accident on the old line preventing the company from furnishing light and power.
 

 – Press Democrat, February 28, 1909

 WESTERN SONOMA WILL TWINKLE WITH ELECTRICITY

 The whole of western Sonoma is to twinkle with electric lights before long. Graton, Forestville, Eaglenest, Guerneville, Montrio, Occidental, Camp Meeker, Duncan’s Mills, Mesa Grande, Markhams and Freestone are all included. The Board of Supervisors were yesterday asked by H. C. Eastman, representing the Russian River Light and Power Company to grant a franchise for the running for the running of electric light and power lines from Sebastopol to the place names. The electricity will be obtained from the Pacific Gas and Electric Company from the station at Sebastopol. The Supervisors will order the franchise advertised.

 Mr. Eastman informed the Supervisors that he had already signed up a number of contracts with the places specified above for the taking of the light. For sometime the work has been in progress. This will mean a great thing for the towns and resorts that will be reached by the system.
  

 – Press Democrat, September 11, 1909

  
  

“JUICE” PRANKS WERE BEWILDERING

“Off agin, gone agin, on agin, gone agin, Finnigan.”

Mr. Finnigan’s brief but to the point message describing the derailing of a train might have been applied to the electric “juice” yesterday. Many times during the afternoon the electricity hobbed off and on “agin,” momentarily stopping presses and linotype machines in the printing establishments and the machinery in the factories.

 – Press Democrat, September 11, 1909

MAIN LIGHT “OUT;” NO LIGHT RESULTS
Santa Rosa and Petaluma in Darkness on Saturday Night Until Relieved by Snow Mountain “Juioce”

The electric “juice” suddenly disappeared on Saturday night and was off for some time, causing considerable inconvenience. Manager Thomas Petch of the lighting company stated that the main line of the big system was “out” somewhere between Napa and Petaluma, and that had occasioned the trouble here and in Petaluma during the afternoon and evening.

At nine o’clock Saturday night the Snow Mountain “juice” was “cut in” for Santa Rosa and Petaluma to furnish illuminant until midnight.

 – Press Democrat, September 12, 1909

LIGHTS WENT OUT AND CHURCHES AND HOMES DARK

About 7:30 o’clock Sunday evening the electric lights all over this city went out, and it was near three hours after before the juice came on again. Many homes were compelled to get out the old coal oil lamps and candles to light the family circle during the remainder of the evening. The churches of the city suffered considerably.

Most of these have gas as well as electricity, but in a number of instances the members of the church were compelled to go out and search for lamps and candles. At the Congregational church back in the classrooms at the rear of the main auditorium, there is gas, and by throwing open the sliding doors that separate the two rooms and also by lighting the gas jet in the organ loft, the services were able to be held. The Fourth street Methodist church was another that was discommoded. There candles and lamps were borrowed from the neighbors and after about ten minutes delay the services were continued. At a number of other churches the same conditions prevailed, but all managed to hold the usual services.

The Columbia Theater was left in darkness during the time the electric company’s trouble was on. the few gas lights that are situated in the different parts of the building were brought into use and the performance of “The Little Outcast” was presented in good shape by the Scott-Lynn Company. The body of the theater was not lighted as much as the Columbia management desired, but the stage was well lighted. To be fixed for an emergency like last night’s the auditorium will be piped throughout with gas and henceforth electrical troubles will not bother our local play house.

The trouble with the electric juice was that the main line between this city and Petaluma  was broken down just in the city limits of Petaluma and it took a long time before the break could be fixed.

 – Santa Rosa Republican, November 15, 1909

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DOWNTOWN SANTA ROSA’S OLD PROBLEMS SOUND FAMILIAR

Jeff Elliott Leave a comment

Reasons to avoid downtown Santa Rosa in 1910: Parking was a headache and it was too dark at night. So apparently, was ever thus.

The parking problem then was really a hitching problem, as posts for tying up horses were not included in the landscaping around the new courthouse. “Every convenience that a judge, a lawyer, a supervisor could ask for is there inside,” complained a Forestville fruit farmer in a humorous letter to the newspaper, “But outside, the old time privilege, dear to the farmer’s heart is taken away.”

As he circumnavigated courthouse square in a forlorn search for a hitching post, he sketched a neat little portrait of downtown Santa Rosa, its streets busy with trolley cars, dray wagons, “benzine buggies” and a steamroller “that noisily rolls a noiseless pavement:”


On Fourth and Mendocino is where the circus begins…Turning this corner with skittish horses, dodging the dangers named, not forgetting to throw one eye up to the clock tower in the new bank building, and then dropping it to the lesser dignitary in front of Hood’s jewelry store, to see which is the nearest correct in time, and the while looking out with the second best eye that none of the citizens on foot are run over — all this makes Fourth, Mendocino, Hinton avenue, and Third streets quite an interesting locality.

The Mystery of the Missing Hitching Posts was never resolved, but it was in line with other efforts by the City Council to make the town auto-friendly as fast as possible, which meant making the town horse-unfriendly. “I drove all around town,” bemoaned the farmer. “Mr. Editor, the thing came to me like a slap in the face. Bewildered, humiliated, a drive around the palatial building, vainly searching for posts. None was there. I drove all around town. Hitching places were at a premium–all homesteaded by serried ranks of teams. Warning notices attached to sundry trees, electric light poles, etc., drove me away.”

(RIGHT: Postcard of downtown Santa Rosa, 1910. The viewer would have been standing near the current entrance of the “Forever 21” store in the Santa Rosa Plaza. Photo courtesy the Larry Lapeere Collection)

While they were chasing away horses, it comes as a bit of a surprise to learn downtown was still being illuminated at the time by 19th century arc streetlights. Besides being dim, the lights needed frequent attention because they burned out after about 175 hours and would sometimes all turn off unexpectedly, as the public angrily complained at a 1908 meeting.

But that changed dramatically at the end of April, 1910, when the new incandescent light system was switched on along Fourth street, from Railroad Square to E street. “About 8 o’clock the current was suddenly cut in the street was lighted up as if by magic to the delight of everybody,” reported the Press Democrat. So exciting was the prospect of a well-lit street that “A large number of citizens, hearing of the lighting up of the street for the first time came down town during the evening to enjoy what all agreed was a fine change.” The lights were probably only 100 watt bulbs, but it was far better than the system they had before. Or, for that matter, superior to what we have today in many parts of downtown.


NOTES: A few points in the articles merit further explanation.

Farmer Pilkington’s joke about the horse trough refers to the Woman’s Improvement Club raising the height a little in 1908 to make it easier for horses to drink (an action parodied by the Squeedunks at the Fourth of July parade that year).

The PD called the new illumination system “electroller lights” but that was an error; they were “electroliers.” The 1910 paper should be forgiven because the names for streetlights were not at all settled at the time. Generally an electrolier was like a big candlestick with several globes that cast light on both the sidewalk and street. A “utilitarian” streetlight hung over the roadway and was usually attached to an overhead wire or to a power pole. (See this 1912 article for more detail on the differences.) But the article says both that there were globes and they were mounted on the poles for the trolley; which type was used in Santa Rosa? If you enlarge the image to the right, you can see they were clearly electroliers with two globes.
 A PLEA FOR HITCHING POSTS
 Farmers Entitled to More Consideration

 To the Editor of the REPUBLICAN:
 A few days ago I hitched up my nags and drove to Santa Rosa.

 With lungs filled with the tonic air of a Sonoma January, feeling at peace with all the world; calling no man enemy — (and only one woman, and that my old opponent, Madame Grundy) — I enjoyed that drive along the fine roadway from Vine Hill to the county seat.

 Along College avenue I held my course, whistling to such dogs as I had picked up a barking acquaintance with, on many previous trips, noting with interest the building and other improvements, commending or criticising these, as they pleased or offended my sense of the fitness of things. In due time I reached Mendocino avenue and halted at the watering trough, the one whereon is inscribed the pleasing legend, “Ponies, please take the elevator.”

 That water trough is surely a happy inspiration, a great convenience — and I have wondered this long time why the infernal masculine hasn’t ere this given credit where it is due, to the eternal feminine, through whose influence it was erected.

 In pure shame for my sex I hereby thank the Ladies’ Improvement Club for the kindness of heart, the enterprise and motives in general which led its members to have the troughs placed for the convenience of the public. Should the thanks be scornfully received because of the lateness of the day in which they are given, I humbly beg pardon for myself and the 9999 others behind me, by hastening to assure that august body that the thanks were in the heart of us all from the beginning — even if the tongues and pens have been lax.

 From the trough to the court house the nags always made a fine burst of speed, the chug-chug of the autos being mainly responsible for this performance.

 On Fourth and Mendocino is where the circus begins, the nags having a great antipathy for the trolley cars, benzine buggies, Lee Brothers’ warehouse on wheels, and that monster of an iron hermaphrodite, that noisily rolls a noiseless pavement, but which some people call a steam roller.

 Turning this corner with skittish horses, dodging the dangers named, not forgetting to throw one eye up to the clock tower in the new bank building, and then dropping it to the lesser dignitary in front of Hood’s jewelry store, to see which is the nearest correct in time, and the while looking out with the second best eye that none of the citizens on foot are run over — all this makes Fourth, Mendocino, Hinton avenue, and Third streets quite an interesting locality.

 After all this is the peaceful port, on Third street, where for years and years I have hitched my horses — when in town. What I’ve done for years in freedom and with no man to make me afraid, I wanted to do again this January day in 1910, so I drove up with a final flourish to the hallowed spot to memory dear, the old hitching place by the court house — and “be gorra,” as my friend, Pat Daly, would say, “yez cud hav knocked me doon wid a — crowbar. Divil a bit av a hitchin’ post visible nor invisible wor there to mate wan’s mortal vision.”

 Mr. Editor, the thing came to me like a slap in the face. Bewildered, humiliated, a drive around the palatial building, vainly searching for posts. None was there. I drove all around town. Hitching places were at a premium–all homesteaded by serried ranks of teams. Warning notices attached to sundry trees, electric light poles, etc., drove me away. I got to wandering in a circle — got lost. Met with Uncle Josh and Aunt Manda from the Forks of Green Valley “Crick,” who were also lost. Held a council of war, decided to drive out into the country, find a convenient tree, tie thereto and tramp back afoot in town. Couldn’t find a tree. All converted into stove wood. Finally found a place, warm hearted merchant on Second street furnished us what we were looking for.

 And now, I want to know who is responsible for the removal of the tying places on three sides of the court house? Who has done such a thing?

 Every convenience that a judge, a lawyer, a supervisor could ask for is there inside that pride of new Sonoma, the court house; but outside, the old time privilege, dear to the farmer’s heart is taken away. I am told that there are cut glass cuspidors for (though I don’t believe it this yarn myself). But hitching posts for farmers? Not on your life! A half million (so rumor putteth it) for a building and furnishings!! But fifty cents for posts? Not a cent! Oh, the good old farmer — doesn’t he get it in the neck every time? Isn’t he turned down when he petitions for a privilege?

 Isn’t he? Ha! Ha! Bet your life!!
 THOS. J. PILKINGTON
 

 – Press Democrat, January 11, 1910

 4TH STREET NOW A BLAZE OF LIGHT
 New System Tried Last Night and Hundreds of Citizens Express Great Pleasure at Change

 Fourth street was lighted for the first time Thursday night by the newly-installed incandescent electroller system from E street to the Northwestern Pacific Railroad depot, and presented a very attractive appearance.

 No announcement had been made of the intention to turn on the lights, and when about 8 o’clock the current was suddenly cut in the street was lighted up as if by magic to the delight of everybody. Pedestrians on the street and people in the stores and hotels, who were attracted to the walk, expressed their pleasure at the great improvement over the old arc system.

 The movement to install the electroller lights originated with the Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce, which presented the matter to the City Council and jointly the scheme has been successfully worked out, The city defrayed the expense of making the change from arc to incandescents, the poles of the electric railroad being utilized, by permission, to carry the wires and lights.

 The globes are on the way from the East, and when they are put in place there will be a marked improvement even over the first display. A large number of citizens, hearing of the lighting up of the street for the first time came down town during the evening to enjoy what all agreed was a fine change.

 – Press Democrat, April 29, 1910

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MESSAGE FOR YOU, SAID THE THUG

Jeff Elliott Leave a comment

Humorous ads are swell, although not so much if the ads also come across as being creepy or outright disturbing. Take the cartoon shown at right; would you guess that it shows:
A) a young man enroute to deliver important papers, or
B) a maniac fleeing the scene of a gruesome murder?
Call me judgmental, but if that glowering lout with his snaggle-toothed rictus knocked on my door, I’d hide under the bed after calling the cops, pronto.

This ad appeared regularly in the Press Democrat during 1910 – and on the front page, no less. It’s hard to imagine there was much demand for a “messenger service” in little Santa Rosa with its population of 10,000, but likely they also handled small deliveries of groceries, drug store items, laundry and whatnot.

Later in the year the ad copy changed to read, “The Rapid Messenger Service has produced the goods and will continue to do so. That is what has built up the business and made possible the success attained. The merchant and the general public have time and again expressed their approval, highly praising the services for its active and satisfactory work.” Their only other ad was the cartoon strip shown below (CLICK or TAP to enlarge) which appeared only once. This time the messenger appeared less thuggish, thank goodness, although he kept shrinking over the course of his mission.

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