Lakewood Lore

Lamplighter truly made night a bit brighter

"...He made the world a little brighter wherever he would go, the old lamplighter of long, long ago."

Once upon a time there was in the urban tableau of Americana a welcomed workingman known as the lamplighter. With matches and small ladder, he would amble daily from lamp post to lamp post along his neighborhood route, lighting gas jets at dusk and putting them out at dawn.

Tender recollections of his service were rekindled in 1946 when "The Lamplighter Song," written by Nat Simon and Charles Tobias, was published. Band leader Sammy Kaye, a native of Lakewood, made one of the best-selling records of the tune, and his rendition is still heard from time to time on nostalgic radio.

East Ohio Gas Co. supplied fuel for the lights in Cleveland and environs, Charles Hlad, 82-year-old retiree of the utility, recalled. Hlad, who now lives in West Park, started as a meter reader in Lakewood in 1928 but lit lamps six years before that as a 13-year-old on Cleveland's East Side.

"Before my neighborhood changed to electricity in the mid-20's, I carried a three-rung ladder to climb the 7-foot-high lamp posts, and then used those big old-fashioned kitchen matches to light the gas jets," he explained.

The jets were covered by glass globes under which were mantles -- chemically treated, incombustible hoods which, when the jets were lit, would become incandescent and give off a bright light.

One of the lamp posts on Hlad's route was only 20 feet from a railroad track and just outside a man's bedroom window.

"The man kept insisting that I keep the light turned down low, but the noise of the trains never seemed to bother him," Hlad said, still a little perplexed.

Hlad has two of his former East Ohio co-workers, John A. Mertes and John F. McCarthy, to substantiate trips down memory lane.

Mertes, 79, a Lakewoodite who lives on Belle Avenue, remembers that, toward the end, automatic timers were installed on the lamps, thus eliminating the need for lamplighters.

"During the day the gas valve would remain open and a pilot light would burn so low that one could hardly tell it was lit. At night, however, the flame would be increased automatically to provide a bright light," he said.

Use of natural gas in the lamps began in 1903, according to Mertes. Before that, manufactured gas, a byproduct in the making of coke, was used.

McCarthy, 76, who lives in Rocky River, recalls most of the lamplighters as being city employees, but said the gas company would be called upon to replace posts that had been knocked down and to do other maintenance work.

Last stretch of gas lamps in Greater Cleveland was in Bratenahl, both men agree. It was taken down about 1946.

Although there was a gas boom in Lakewood starting in 1914, during which 200 shallow wells were operated here for several years, there is no record of lamplighters plying the streets of our city proper. However, some men who later moved to Lakewood worked the job in Cleveland during their younger days.

Lakewoodite Carlyn M. Irwin, 87, who now lives in Lake Shore Towers, reported that her late husband, Fred H. Irwin, a long-time resident here, and his brother Thomas, were lamplighters. Working with them, she pointed out, were the late Rev. Daniel Gallagher, who became pastor of St. James Catholic Church in Lakewood and his brother, Dr. Farrell Gallagher, for many years a prominent surgeon at Lakewood and St. John's Hospitals.

Dr. Gallagher is now 96 and resides at the Bradley Road Nursing Home. His son Farrell Jr. has been a practicing dentist in Lakewood for 33 years.

Electric illumination came to Cleveland early, thanks to Charles F. Brush of Euclid Township, who invented arc lights, and with them lit Public Square in 1879.

Brush Electric Light and Power Co., a predecessor of Cleveland Electric Illuminating Co., was founded in 1881.

There was a Lakewood Municipal Light Co., formed in 1896 when our community was still a hamlet. Its electric lighting plant lit streets and many private homes here.

An experiment in municipal ownership, the company continued until 1907 when CEI bought it out. The Illuminating Co. now has more than 3,500 street lights in Lakewood.

This article by Dan Chabek appeared in the Lakewood Sun Post May 2, 1991. Reprinted with permission.

More Lakewood Lore