The Early History …

With the permission of the Kirkwood Historical Society, the following excerpts on the beginnings of the Kirkwood Electric Department are provided from “A History of Kirkwood,” by June Wilkinson Dahl, published in 1965 by the Kirkwood Historical Society of Kirkwood, Missouri, pp. 182-187.

Highlights:

v     When the voters of Kirkwood went to the polls on July 21, 1900, they cast 237 votes authorizing the issuance of the bonds for the construction of the electric generating plant with only 8 votes being cast in opposition.

v     Construction of the electric light plant in 1900 cost $2,138.

v     In 1902, electric current for “fan service” was provided

v     In 1902, the furnaces in the plant reportedly consumed about 50 bushels of coal each day in order to generate the necessary power. There were more than 1,00 lights in private residences by 1902. The streets of Kirkwood were lighted by 250 electric lights – no small accomplishment for a plant in operation only slightly more than a year.

v     By 1911 so many request for electric service  had been received from person living outside their range of the original wire than an “Electric Light Extension Fund” was established and $10,000 in bonds were issued to cover the cost of extending the wires to new customers

v     Following the country’s entry into World War I,  on December 6, 1917, the aldermen found it necessary to light only half of the “white way” lights on Webster (Kirkwood Road) and Main Street (Argonne Drive) each night in order to reduce the amount of coal used at the light plant.

v     In July, 1918, Judge Sam Hodgdon, Fuel Administrator of St. Louis County, advised the Kirkwood Board of Aldermen to close its municipally owned and operated electric plant and purchase current from the Union Electric Company as a patriotic action to reduce coal consumption during wartime. The city complied.

v     In 1921 the city leased the generating plant building to the Kirkwood Ice Cream Company

Full Text:

… The first aldermen were anxious to provide various services to residents as quickly as possible so they began to work on several problems simultaneously. The desire of a number of residents for electricity in their homes brought this matter to the attention of the aldermen soon after their organizational structure had been completed. It will be recalled that electric street lights had been installed and had been in operation in Kirkwood since 1896, in accordance with a contract between Kirkwood and the Suburban Electric Light Company. However, only a very few residents had contracted for electricity for their homes.

In May, 1900, a special committee was set up by the Board of Aldermen (consisting of Theodore Bopp, Maurice Cronin, W.F. Warner and Mayor W.M. Daly) to consider the problem of the need for a municipal water supply and an electric light plant. Because both of these services were highly technical, Mr. Owen Ford was retained as a consultant and supervisor to work with the aldermen. The special committee asked Mr. Ford “for the necessary surveys…plans and specifications for the equipment of a plant sufficient to meet then [electrical] requirement of the City…” While these specifications were being drawn, the aldermen sought information from several cities which owned their own “lighting plants” to determine whether they felt that municipal ownership was superior to private ownership. When the replies were received, it was obvious that they were favorable to public ownership, because the Special Committee on Public Lighting recommended the submission of a proposition to the voters of Kirkwood to issue $17,000 in city bonds to run for twenty years for the establishment of an electric lighting plant.

When the voters of Kirkwood went to the polls on July 21, 1900, they cast 237 votes authorizing the issuance of the bonds for the construction of the electric generating plant with only 8 votes being cast in opposition. With this overwhelming mandate from the residents, the special committee proceeded with the selection of a suitable site for the plant. The committee members recommended to the Board of Aldermen that the lot on the southeast corner of Monroe and Taylor Avenues be purchased form Francis McMullen for $2,000. Mr. McMullen agreed to hold the lot for the city until the bonds, authorized by the voters on July 21, could be sold.

While arrangements were being made for the sale of the bonds, Owen Ford was employed to supervise the construction of the electric plant. By October 15, 1900, the bonds had been sold and the lot on Monroe and Taylor was purchased from Mr. McMullen. Thereafter, work proceeded quite rapidly. Mr. P.C. Bopp, being the lowest bidder, was awarded the contract for the construction of the electric light plant at a cost of $2,138. The St. Louis Electrical Supply Company, lowest bidder for the equipment to be placed in the plant, was awarded that contract on October 15, 1900. Except for the normal delays in construction work due to winter weather, work continued on the plant and by the middle of March, 1901, the aldermen were ready to employ operating personnel. James Martin was hired as the first fireman at the plan and C.C. Radabaugh was the first engineer employed there, the latter receiving a salary of $65 per month.

By the time the plant was ready to begin operating in the spring of 1901, the contract which the Board of Trustees had signed with the Suburban Electric Light and Power Company in 1896 was about to expire. On June 17, 1901, the aldermen agreed to pay the Suburban Company $325 “in consideration of a waiver of all claims for compensation due the company under the contract for street light.” As a consideration for the removal of all the Suburban poles in the city, the aldermen agreed to permit the company “to put one cross arm upon any or all municipal poles upon payment of a rental of 5 cents per month.” This arrangement was apparently satisfactory to both sides.

The “Light Committee,” as the members of the Board of Aldermen who handled all matters concerning electricity were called, established and published in February, 1901, the rates consumers would be asked to pay. That the supplying of electricity to Kirkwood residents was an almost instant success is revealed by the fact that in 1902, a year after the plant began to operate, the Light Committee reported that it felt able from a financial point of view to offer customers an opportunity to contract for “fan service.” This meant that customers contracting for this service would pay a lower price for the extra electricity used by a fan. An affluent resident who could afford an electric fan would not, therefore, have to depend entirely on an all-too-infrequent breeze to give some relief from the hot, humid weather of July and August. Of course, in comparison with full-house air conditioning, considered so essential by many of the younger generation, one stationary electric fan scarcely conjures up visions of comfort, but then many of the present younger generation have also missed the opportunity which every young man once gladly accepted – to wield the palm-leaf fan for the young lady sitting next to him at any public function. Nor does the present generation remember the use of highly decorated cardboard hand fans bearing almost as wide a variety of advertising as modern matchbook covers! The stationary fans at least created some air circulation. The use of a little later of oscillating fans created additional circulation of air on those summer days ”when not a leaf moved.”

Unfortunately, no record of the number of subscribers for electricity or summer fan service has come to light but the editor of the Kirkwood Argus, which was part of the Clayton Argus, reported to his readers on June 27, 1902, that Kirkwood’s electric plant covered about 9,500 square feet and was composed of three parts – the shop, the electric room and the boiler room. The plant was equipped with two complete sets of machinery so that if there should be a breakdown in one, the other could be put into operation to avoid any interruption in electrical service. The furnaces in the plant reportedly consumed about 50 bushels of coal each day in order to generate the necessary power. The editor also reported that there were more than 800 lights in private residences by 1902, an additional 200 lights had been installed the week before his paper went to press. The streets of Kirkwood were lighted by 250 electric lights – no small accomplishment for a plant in operation only slightly more than a year.

As soon as the plant began to operate, it became apparent that its continued functioning would require a great deal of the aldermen’s time. The purchase of coal and the arrangements for hauling it from the railroad cards to the light plant, supervision of the maintenance and operational personnel, authorization for the purchase of new machinery as needed – all required the attention of the aldermen. However, the matter of setting charges for service, complaints from customers, cases of liability, delinquent bills and requests for installation of street lights were far more time consuming than the mechanical problems. In April 1906, for example, the Light Committee reported to the Board of Aldermen that a number of customers were using more electricity than they were authorized to use at flat fee rates. They also reported a number of cases of illegal connections being made with the city electric wires without the use of a meter!

When Mr. H.A. Kreig’s horse was struck by an electric wire in 1907, he asked the Board of Aldermen for damages. Alderman J.P. Schmitz and City attorney Albert Chandler investigated the case thoroughly. After three months of checking and deliberating, they awarded Mr. Kreig $50 for his horse. In 1910 the Aldermen were confronted with another problem to which they did not know they answer. Judge Enos Clarke asked the price of electricity with which to operate his new automobile. Unfortunately, no record was made of the price quoted but the aldermen took the matter under advisement along with numerous complaints that year from customer who felt that their bills were too high because their electric meters were not measuring accurately the amount of electricity being used. Each such complaint was handled individually and a “compromise,” as the settlements were called, reached. In June, 1910, another type of request was received from Mrs. Louise P. Forsyth who complained that the electrical wiring in her home had been damaged by an overcharge o electricity passing through the wires. She asked the Board of Aldermen to pay the cost of repairs. The complaint was referred to City Attorney Powell, who studied the matter carefully before advising the aldermen that he did not believe the city was liable for the damage.

By 1911 so many request for electric service  had been received from person living outside their range of the original wire than an “Electric Light Extension Fund” was established and $10,000 in bonds were issued to cover the cost of extending the wires to new customers. The aldermen also tried to fill as many requests from residents for new street lights as possible. Some of the members of the Business Men’s Credit Association were not pleased with the street lighting in the business section of Kirkwood. After the city established its own electric generating plant, the street lights were lighted according to the old “moonlight schedule” used by the town of Kirkwood before it had contracted with the Suburban Light and Power Company for all-night street lights in Kirkwood. After having all-night service the businessmen no longer found the “moonlight schedule” satisfactory so on November 5, 1910, they requested all-night service on present Kirkwood Road from Monroe to Adams Avenues and on present Argonne Drive from Kirkwood Road to Clay Avenue.

In June 1913, Mr. Bennett, representing the Business Men’s Credit Association, offered the Board or Aldermen $440 if it would install and maintain 40 additional street lights in the central part of town for three years. However, by this time the Board of Aldermen was divided in its attitude toward the whole matter of supplying electricity in Kirkwood. On March 15, 1913, a resolution had been presented to the Board of Aldermen to sell the electric plant and all its property to the Suburban Light and Power Company. Although the motion had been opposed by some of the aldermen, it was passed by a vote of nine to three even though Mayor Joseph Matthews opposed the sale vigorously. The matter was finally taken to court and those opposing the sale were upheld with the statement that the “City of Kirkwood is perpetually restrained from the sale of the light company to the Suburban Power and Light, alias Electric Company, of Missouri.” This ended the controversy but the problem of inadequate street lighting continued for sometime. The “moonlight schedule” had been changed and the street lights were lighted from sunset to 2:00 a.m. and from 5:00 a.m. until dawn. At the insistence of the businessmen, that schedule was changed in 1917 to that Webster Avenue (Kirkwood Road) from Monroe to Adams Avenue and Main Street from Webster to Clay avenue were lighted all night every night.

This satisfied the unhappy businessmen but very shortly other problems in connection with the electric light plant appeared. The United States had become officially involved in World War I on April 6, 1917, and various measures for conversation of resources and equipment soon became necessary as part o the total war effort. On December 6, 1917, the aldermen found it necessary to light only half of the “white way” lights on Webster (Kirkwood Road) and Main Street (Argonne Drive) each night in order to reduce the amount of coal used at the light plant.

This arrangement, was of course, helpful in the conservation of coal which became increasingly difficult to secure as more and more men were called to active duty with the armed forces and as the various branches of the armed forces required more coal for their own use. In June, 1918, the aldermen discussed the possibility of purchasing electric current form the Union Electric Company of Missouri, which had purchased the Suburban Power and Light Company. In July, 1918, Judge Sam Hodgdon, Fuel Administrator of St. Louis County, advised the Kirkwood Board of Aldermen to close its municipally owned and operated electric plant and purchase current from the Union Electric Company. Shortly, thereafter, Wallace Crossley, Federal Fuel Administrator, also urged this action as a patriotic way to conserve coal. The aldermen decided, therefore, to enter into a three-year contract with the Union Electric Power and Light Company to supply electrical current to the City of Kirkwood. A sub-station was constructed immediately to receive the electric current and Kirkwood’s own generating plant was closed. Because of the need for machinery of all kinds during the war, the machines in the generating plant were promptly sold.

During the balance of the war, the aldermen compiled records to determine whether it was cheaper for the city to operate its own generating plant or buy the current form a large producer. When the ware was over and coal again became available, the statistics kept by the aldermen revealed that it was cheaper for the city to buy electric current than to maintain its own generating plant. The aldermen made no further effort to reactivate the generating plant, and in 1921 they leased the building to the Kirkwood Ice Cream Company for five years at $50 a month.

As the population of Kirkwood increased, the use of electricity by individuals and the city also increased. The businessmen urged the installation of additional street lights in the business section of Kirkwood, and in 1922 raised sufficient funds to cover the cost of them. Residents also asked the aldermen for more street lights as the geographical area of Kirkwood expanded during the 1920s.