West Jefferson in Days Gone By - series 101

West Jefferson in Days Gone By - series 101 by Charlie Miller

____Interurban stops—Beginning at the west corporation limit, the center line at Blair Pike, a stop west of the Railroad, 2,300’, stops east of the Railroad at the stop sign at McNeal’s (Twin St.). Then in front of Gillivan’s store 555’ (Parson’s), then at the station (Chevron Pool) 285’; distance from Railroad to the station, 1,490’; From the station to the east stop, 1,093’; from the station to the east corporation line, center of Little Darby Bridge, 2,105’.

___September 1903 – William Baker resigned as Lamp Lighter. (At this time, those wishing for the job of Lamp Lighter submitted bids for the village to consider.

____December 20, 1903 - Mayor George Gillivan, Mayor of West Jefferson, dies in office. (George Gillivan served as mayor from 1902 to 1903 and is buried at Mt. Calvary Cemetery. He was the son of James Gillivan, who was born in 1835 in Ireland and immigrated in 1848. He founded Gillivan Hardware in 1866, which lasted 100 years. James also served as Post Master of Gillivan, Ohio, a town that he had founded but was never platted or incorporated. It sat at the intersection of U. S. Route 42 and Blair Road.)

____In 1903, the street lights in West Jefferson used gasoline for fuel. (One of these lights is mounted upstairs in the Village Hall, and it is a gift from Earl Gregg.)

____March 14, 1904 - A contract was signed with the Sun Vapor Co. for incandescent street lights, not less than 35 in number. Lamps shall be lit 22 nights each month during the time that this contract is in force. They are to burn from dusk until 2 a.m. The contract was for 3 years.

____September 7, 1904 – An ordinance for the lighting of the railroad tracks of the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago, and St. Louis R.R.Co., operating the Columbus & Xenia R. R.

Lamps are to be posted with gasoline lights located at the intersection of the track and W, Main St, West St., Walnut St., and Pearl St. On Walnut St., it is to be located on the north side of the track west of the street. On West St., on the south side of the track, and on the south side of the street. On Pearl St., on the north side of the track, and on the east side of the street. (At this time, the tracks were not elevated.)

____1904 – A new pump was bought for the well in front of the Baptist Church and in front of Grassel’s, and the trough in front of the Church was moved to Grassel’s. (The well in front of the Baptist Church, which sat on the corner of W. Main St. and S. Center St., was well known; it had sat there for years.

____At the beginning of the 1904 school year, the Alpha Kappa Gamma and Sigma Kappa Phi Literary Societies were formed. The Jefferson Ratio, the first school annual in the County, was published.