The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1910-09-29
TURNED ON THE LIGHTS
Decatur City Celebrated Completion
of Electric Light System with a
Banquet Saturday Night.

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Last Saturday was an eventful day
for the prosperous little town of De-
catur City, for it marked their pass
ing from the candle and oil lamp
period to the modern electric light
system of illumination.
About a year ago some of the en-
terprising citizens of Decatur City,
took up the matter of extending the
Leon electric light system to that
town, with the owners of the Leon
Electric Co. They meant business
and it took but few days for them
to secure a definite proposition from
the Leon Electric Co., as to the
terms on which they would build
a line to Decatur City An election
was called on Nov. 18th and by an
almost unanimous vote, there peing
but six votes cast against the propo-
sition, franchise was granted the
Leon Electric Co., and a contract
made for furnishing street and COM
mercial lights. 1t was too late to do
anything until spring, and then the
building of the line was delayed
several months on account of being
unable to secure the poles for the
line, but finally everything was COM
pleted and last Saturday evening
was the time set for turning on the
electricity
DR.. B. l.. Eiker, of this city, who
for many years was prominent citi-
zen of Decatur City, was given the
honor of turning on the switch which
sent the electric light current from
Leon to Decatur City. Promptly at
z o'clock he pulled the switch, chief
engineer Ira Pugh having worked
like beaver getting everything in
readiness at this end of the line, and
he had everything in perfect order
and not hitch occurred. At the
Decatur City end of the line the
streets were filled with people, an
immense crowd having driven in from
the country to witness the illumin-
alton, and when the brilliant lights
spread their radiance over the town
a great cheer went up. The Grand
River band furnished the music for
the occasion
A big banquet had been arranged
in honor of the occasion, which was
served by the ladies of the NJ E.
and Christian churches, over two
hundred guests being in attendance.
Then everybody went to the opera
house, where Hon. v. R. McGinnis
delivered splendid address, in
which he highly complimented the
citizens of Decatur City for their
enterprise, and said they would
never regret taking this step in the
progress of their town. A short ad-
dress was also made by Mayor Camp
of Decatur City.
The citizens of Decatur City are
loud in praise of Messrs. Smith and
johnson, the owners of the Leon
Electric Co., for the splendid man
ner in which they have performed
their contract For some time they
have practically devoted all of their
personal time to the work of INSTALL
ing the system, and have had every
available man they could hire on
the work. Four powerful arc lights
illuminate the business part of De-
catur City, and incandescent lights
are used for street lighting in the
residence district At this time over
fifty residences and business houses
have electric lights installed and
many others have their orders in
and they will be installed as fast
as the electricians can do the work.
The people of Decatur City now
have all the advantage of the splen-
did electric light and power system
which the Leon Electric Co. are CIV
ing Leon, which is the best service
of any city the size of Leon in tue
state of Iowa, tWenty-four hour con-
tinuous service. They will also have
electricity for running motors and
all kinds of machinery and num-
Der will install electricity for power
We don't believe there is another
town as small as Decatur City in
the state of Iowa which has cleo
trio lights.