The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1920-04-07
F|RST STREET CAR
THIRTY YEARS AGO
This is Anniversary Of Transfer Of
the Lines to Electrically oper-
ated System in This
City.
EVENT is IMPORTANT
mighty Shout Rents Air" When First
Car Has Current Turned
Through the Street
Car.
EVENT IS IMPORTANT

| Thirty years ago today, at 11:00
io'clock April Z, 1890, the old Keokuk
Street Railway company was trans
ferred TO the Keokuk Electric Car
and Power company, for considera-
ton of $4,000. The next morning o..
j. Chapman, superintendent and man
i aser of the new corporation, put a
gang of men to work to build the
new lines, which were to run from
Third to Fourteenth on Main street;
Main to Grand avenue on North Four
teenth street, Main to Franklin on
North Fourth street; Main to B on
South Fifth street; Main to Timea on
South Sixth; Sixth to Nineteenth on
Timea and out Nineteenth to the
cemetery.
On August 80 the new electric car
made it's first trip at midnight, carry.
ing a company of invited guests. The
Gate City of August 81 has this &C.
count:
"At about twenty minutes of mid
night the crowd of invited guests and
corner Of Twelfth and Franklin
streets, saw brilliant flash of light.
1t came from car No. s, the current
Uceu UltO Tic lttIlpS.
A mighty shout rent the air, and the
gentlemen who had been invited by
Manager Chapman to make the Trial
trip entered the car. The trial
was a complete success"
The line which the Keokuk Elec-
trio Car and Power company bought
out was mule and horse car line
with about three and one-half miles
OF track which was operated by
james H. Anderson and the Walsh
interests of ST. Louis. The privilege
of running such a line was granteo
by city ordinance August 20, 1883.
They had track out Main; on the
south side track from Main to
Timea on Sixth and out Timea to
cemetery; and on the north side from
Main to Morgan on Sixth, out Nor
gan to Tenth, back Tenth to High,
out High to Fourteenth and thence
to the park.
Badger Company First.
The company which first introduced
to Keokuk was the Badger
Electric Co., a corporation organized
March 2. 1885, by S. S. Badger CT
Chicago, A. J. .McCreary, then OF keo-
Suk, and G.. J. Smith. They erected
! plant where the Briar Mills now
stand and supplied sixty arc lights.
When the Keokuk Electric Car and |
Power Co. got in operation, they !
absorbed the Badger Co., and Install |;
ed an electric arc and incandescent !
system with a power station on the |
north side of Main between Thir-
,eenth and Fourteenth. When this |
company refused to go beyond Ninth |
and the avenue, j. c. Hubinger sank
artesian wells, generated his own
electrical power to illuminate his new
home on Thirteenth and Grand ave-
hue and found that he had more
power than he needed. He ran a
,ipe down the bluff to the river, en-
arging his plant and sold the power.
lie built a power house on the river
,ank which was in operation until
he dam was built. Then he acquired
he car lines, and the existing light
md power system from the Chap
nan group. He used this power
,ouse merely as a car barn.
After this the car lines and light
ne system changed hands, but were
operated from the power house over
he bluff below the Hubinger house
md the street car barn on Main I'M
il taken over by the Stone and Web
;ter corporation, in December, 1911.
,ince then electrical power has been
furnished by the Mississippi river
oower Co. A car barn was built on
South Nineteenth between Exchange
md Bank to house the electric cars
gearing the triSkellon.