Lamp+Lighters

Original Author: Brady Hartley Revision Author:
 * Lamp Lighters **

In researching the Mississippi river at the Rock Island County Historical Society (RICHS) I came across an article written specifically for RICHS back in May and June of 1973 by a Mrs. M.F. Weissmann formerly Olive Maxwell. The subject of which Mrs. Weissmann wrote was something that very little of our history books have covered. She wrote of her father and grandfather who oil lamplighters on the Mississippi river. Never before has this article been published outside of RICHS until now.What was shocking when researching this subject was to read about how different the river was compared to today. The Mississippi river, according to a Winona report in 1889, was at its lowest stage, claiming, “One can wade over a great portion of the river in many places.” (Review Dispatch) It was merely a trickle of its current state, albeit a fast-moving and powerful trickle. What follows are the highlights of Mrs. Weissmann’s article (gathered with other bits of information) rather than the entire work.

“When Mrs. Virgil Simpson of Prot Byron, Illinois asked me to put something personal on record for the Rock Island County Historical Society regarding the Rock Island Rapids, lamp lighting and river travel, I was thrilled, pleased and agreed to do so. The following sketch, edited by my son, F.J. Weissmann, will reveal the story of lamp lighting on these rapids and how the last lamplighter, my father, Captain James E. Maxwell, became a Rock Island Rapids Pilot and a Master Pilot on the Mississippi river in the service of the Rock Island District Corp of U.S. Engineers.

Through much research of books written about the Upper Mississippi river, I have been unable to find reference to the oil lamps and lighting as an early aid to navigation on the Rock Island Rapids, a treacherous stretch of the river which extended from above LeClaire, Iowa to below Rock Island, Illinois, a distance of approximately 17 miles. This portion of the Mississippi River beginning with its early aids to navigation has been and still is an important part of my life and today it is vital to my family. I hope this trend continues.

The lamp lighting along the Rock Island Rapids was synonymous with the Maxwell family in Hampton, Illinois. My grandfather, Richard Maxwell Sr., was a veteran of the Civil War and had re-enlisted twice in the Reserves while living in Iowa. After coming to Hampton, Illinois in 1884, he made application for the lamp-tending job in 1889 before this aid to navigation had been implemented. I have a copy of the letter grandfather received from the office of Light House Inspector 15th District U.S. Lamplighter Lily, St. Louis, Missouri, dated July 22nd, 1889 in answer to his inquiry to the job yet to be established. (Not shown.) He became the first tender of the lamps and these duties stayed in the Maxwell family until the oil lamps were replaced by battery operated lamps in 1917. My memory does not cover this period, but interesting stories of my grandfather and father do. These were tales of a routine, but also courageous devotion to duty, for their main concern was the safety of the river men and their craft, which plied these rapids at night. River Travel then was perilous and pilots throughout the region were aware of the hazards of these rapids. More than one pilot owed his safe travel at night to the Maxwell clan of lamplighters of Hampton, Illinois for they spared no risk in tending the lamps.

These rapids remained a treacherous stretch of river until the completion of the nine-foot channel in the 1930’s. In 1922, a six-foot channel had been developed over these rapids by the means of locks and lateral dams, but there were no dams across the river and the smaller boats during high water by –passed the locks. Predating the six-foot channel, a four and one-half foot channel was maintained by the use of wing dams, which were built of rocks extending outward from shore in order to divert the flow of water into the channel. During low water they protruded above the surface but during high water they were submerged. The experienced eye could tell the wing dam’s position by the flow of water over or around them. This was important to safe travel.

During the latter part of the 19th century when my grandfather became the first lamp tender, most of these lamps stood on piers built of rocks and bricks at strategic points along the Rapids. Some were just a pile of rocks with a lamp secured atop, while others were larger and more carefully built of bricks with steps leading from the water on the downstream side to the top, which provided space for the tenders to stand while, serviced the lamp.On the Illinois side of the channel (left bank) these piers were painted red and those on the Iowa side of the channel (right bank) were painted black and so it is today…” (Weissmann 1-2). The lamps are “known as ‘post’ lights, and consist either of a flat wick lamp on a small pressed-glass lens or on an ordinary hand lantern, enclosed in a triangular tin case with glass sides.” (Putnam 165).

“Grandfather had assistance from members of his family. His sister Mrs. Hattie Maxwell Ferman, of Hampton, Illinois, worked two seasons tending lights. Later, his son-in-law, E.B. LaGrange, of Hampton, helped on occasion. In the early 1890’s, grandfather took as his first assistant, his only son, James E. Maxwell, who later became Captain James E. Maxwell. At an early age father became an official employee of the U.S. Government and continued as such the rest of his life. Father’s pay as a lamplighter, was $90.00 a month and as a contrast to today’s pay periods, was payable every three months.

Lamp lighting was at times hazardous, since no matter what the weather or risk might be, the lamps had to be cared for each day for the safety of river traffic at night. At 2:30 each afternoon, father as did his father before him, started his trip by rowing his skiff from Hampton, Illinois to the head of the rapids near LeClaire, Iowa. From LeClaire, he rowed downstream from pier to pier stopping at each one to clean, repair, replace, refuel and finally relight then lamp which burned thru the night until the next afternoon when father returned to each pier to tend the lamp for another night’s burning. This sounds simple and routine ¾  as it was, but at times it took real fortitude. There were times when my mother told of standing on the shore during a storm of bad weather, watching my father in his skiff bounce up and down on the waves and in the wind, wondering if he would reappear ¾  but the lights must be tended. The waves, storms, gale-like winds and the strong swirling current through these rapids required skillful handling of the heavily laden skiff with only a pair of oars…” (Weissmann 2-3).

“Occasionally, but not often, these adversities spelled “mishap” and at times demanded fast thinking in addition to quick reflexes and stamina. On one occasion, father’s skiff loosened from its mooring at one of the piers while he was tending the lamp. Father looked around to see the current taking his skiff swiftly downstream. He quickly took his watch from his pocket, laid it on the pier, kicked off his shoes and jumped into the swirling water to retrieve his skiff. Father was a clam, collected person as well as an excellent swimmer; nevertheless, caught in a whirlpool, thrashed around by the swirling current, and hindered by his clothing, he became exhausted and went under. Had it not been for a fisherman friend, John Edelman of Hampton, Illinois, father would have drowned.

Steamboats were numerous and all pilots and their crews knew father and often, as the came along upstream, waved father aboard and towed his skiff to the head of the rapids. This was a great help, for rowing upstream with a loaded skiff could be a chore. Going down stream from Le Claire, Iowa, to Rock Island, Illinois, was easier, for he went with the current ¾  landing at each pier on his way. This took until dusk, depending on how much service each lamp required… Again, there were steamboats and pilots and crew knew father and he often was given a ride back home. Lamp lighting earned father the endearing name of “Jim-The Lamp” from the men on the steamboats; for he was their guiding light. He was to carry this name for the remainder of his life…” (Weissmann 3-4). <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">“The lighthouse tender ‘Lilly’ brought weekly supplies to father for his lamp tending duties. These lighthouse tenders were named for flowers. The side wheller ‘Lily’, a picture of which hangs in my home; the ‘Wake Robin’, a stern wheller; and later, the ‘Lantan’, a diesel powered tender.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">When the transition was made from oil lamps to battery powered lamps, father was transferred to small government steamboats as Captain and Pilot…” (Weissmann 4).

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">This nearly first hand account of the Mississippi river’s lamp lighting in the Rock Island area is a wonderfully preserved part of history that many books don’t cover. But what we do know is that by 1917 there were “1,798 lights and 861 buoys and beacons making 4226 miles of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers and tributaries…” (Putnam 165).In 1907, during the time that Mrs. Weissmann’s kin were tending lamps President Theodore Roosevelt was aboard the U.S.S. Mississippi, which was traversing the Mississippi river. On his trip he wrote to his children about his experience aboard a brand new stern-wheeled steamer and his impressions of the Mississippi. Roosevelt wrote to his son Kermit. “It is a broad, shallow muddy river, at places the channel being barley wide enough for the boat to go through. Though to my inexperienced eyes the whole river looks like a channel.” (Roosevelt). Weissmann’s father and grandfather tended the very lamps that guided Roosevelt’s boat downstream at a time when the river was quite dangerous for passing boats. His trip was without complication thanks, in part to the lamplighters of the Mississippi. Roosevelt went on to write to his in that same letter. “It is my first trip on the Mississippi and I am greatly interested in it. How wonderful in its rapidity of movement has been history of our country, compared with the history of the old world.” (Roosevelt)

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> Mrs. Weissmann’s stories highlight a vital time in this area’s history, a booming industrialization, the very “rapidity of movement” that Roosevelt wrote about, was taking place during this period the likes of which this world had ever seen and has seen since. What Mrs. Weissmann shared with us is an understanding of just how critical every role in society really is to the success of a nation.

**<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Work Cited ** <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Weissmann, M.F.. Hampton, IL: Rock Island County Historical Society, 1973. <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Putnam, George R.. __Lighthouses and Lightships of the United States__. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1917. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Review Dispatch. August 2, 1889 <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Roosevelt, Theodore. __Theodore Roosevelt’s Letters to His Children__. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 1919

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