Originally, city leaders resisted investing in this new technology out of concern for cost and uncertainty about electricity\u2019s longevity. Sweeney did not give up, however, and formed the Wheeling Electrical Company with his two sons, J. M. Sweeney and A. T. Sweeney, his son-in-law, J. B. Garden<\/a>, and Garden\u2019s father, John. After securing a resolution from city council permitting the installation of electric poles, wires, and other hardware, Wheeling Electrical contracted the Brush company to provide the poles, lamps, and other necessary fixtures to provide electricity throughout the city.<\/p>\n It was decided that the dynamo needed to produce electricity would be housed in the basement of A.J. Sweeney\u2019s<\/a> machine shop at 10 Twelfth Street, because of its central location in the business district. On September 13, 1882<\/a>, just nine days after Edison turned on the lights in lower Manhattan, Wheeling Electrical turned on the lights for four businesses in Wheeling at a cost of one dollar per night per light (around $26 in 2020). The first subscriber, J. W. Grubb, added a light to his jewelry store at Twelfth and Market Streets. Other subscribers included Louis Schwab, John Sheekey, and William McLaughlin.<\/p>\n This location did not work for long, though. According to \u201cSixty Three Years of Progress, 1882-1945: Wheeling Electric Company,\u201d \u201cThe art of electrical generation was still relatively new and the designers had made a mistake in placing the new generators on foundations that were too small. The result was a serious vibration that was communicated to residences within a radius of a city block. People strenuously objected to having their chinaware rattle, their furniture shiver, and the plaster in their homes crack.\u201d Neighbors raised $10,000 and purchased the property in 1890. Wheeling Electrical moved to Thirty-sixth and McColloch Streets, where it remained for many years.<\/p>\n Despite Wheeling Electrical\u2019s growing success, it would take another decade before the city itself embraced electricity fully, and it took an act of the state legislature, which required that the city purchase the Wheeling Electrical Company. The city rejected this order and built its own power plant for street lighting only. Finally, after many delays electric streetlights shined on the City of Wheeling for the first time on April 23, 1892<\/a>. An article in the Daily Intelligencer<\/em> two days later declared that \u201cWheeling is splendidly illuminated.\u201d Even the Suspension Bridge glowed under bright white beams.<\/p>\n By 1900 Wheeling Electrical (now Wheeling Electric) supplied power to just over 500 customers and had started purchasing other electric companies. In the decade that followed, the invention of new ways of using coal in the production of electricity would change the face of Wheeling Electric and expand the reach of the area\u2019s power capabilities.<\/p>\n While other power plants existed in places like nearby Bellaire, Ohio and Moundsville, West Virginia, Wheeling\u2019s demand for power increased tremendously in the years leading up to World War I. Big cities like Chicago and New York required more power than their own plants could deliver as well; therefore, solutions were needed to provide large quantities of electricity over long distances.<\/p>\n To help meet this need, two companies\u2014American Gas and Electric and Penn Power Company\u2014joined forces to create one of the most powerful electric plants in the country. In 1915 ground was broken for the Windsor Power Plant ten miles north of Wheeling near the mouth of the Windsor Coal Mine. It was the largest plant of its kind and the first to be shared equally (with liabilities and profits) by two different companies.<\/p>\n The Windsor Power Plant was extraordinary for other reasons as well, but mostly because of its sheer production capabilities. According to American Electric Power (the result of AGE merging with other power companies), \u201cEach turbine generator had a 30,000-kilowatt capacity, making for a facility with a record-breaking total capacity of 180,000 kilowatts. That was more than five times the capacity of the world\u2019s largest plant at that time, which had a capacity of just 35,000 kilowatts.\u201d<\/p>\n In addition, the Windsor Power Plant played a major role in America\u2019s victory in the first World War. Thanks to innovations achieved by plant engineers, electricity was transmitted to Canton, Ohio (nearly 100 miles away). More than 90% of Canton\u2019s industries were put into service producing war-time products, which were all made possible by the Windsor Power Plant workers and the coal miners who supplied them with the coal needed to make electricity. According to the plant\u2019s first manager, E. H. McFarland, during the height of its production, the plant\u2019s transmission lines were hauling the energy equivalent of 500 to 700 railroad cars of coal.<\/p>\n In 1917 neither coal mines nor power plants relied on machines in the way they do now, so a large human workforce was necessary to literally keep the lights on. While the Windsor Power Plant was being built, makeshift housing was constructed for workers in the form of a clubhouse. Later, this structure would become the community center, which would house the library, a Victrola, a pool table, and a dining room. As the demands for electricity increased, so did the need for more housing.<\/p>\n According to a brief history of Power by American Electric Power, limits on available housing in the area around the Windsor Power Plant forced the company to purchase the entire town of nearby Nitro, West Virginia and move it to what became the village of Power. \u201cHundreds of splendid homes\u201d were added in the 1920s when the plant expanded to become the largest power plant in the world. In addition to single family houses, which workers rented from $25 to $55 a month depending on size, the company provided utilities and water from the factory\u2019s wells. Residents worked together to establish a volunteer fire department and to form a women\u2019s club and other social groups that organized community events. The village also boasted a bowling alley, tennis courts, a restaurant, doctor\u2019s offices, and a barbershop. Workers and their families shopped at Wickham\u2019s, a general store where purchases could be made on company credit.<\/p>\n When the village established its post office, paperwork was filed with the United States government. In an August 10, 1967 article celebrating the plant\u2019s 50th Anniversary, Wheeling Intelligencer\u2019s<\/em> staff writer, Thais Blatnik, explains that the United States Postal Service selected \u201cPower\u201d from a list of the three names submitted. Since Windsor, West Virginia already existed and the local name, \u201cBee Bot\u201d (short for Beech Bottom), was rejected, the postal service chose Power as the official name for the company town.<\/p>\n At the height of its operations, Windsor Power employed 330 workers. The vast majority of those workers and their families lived in Power, which had a streetcar that shuttled people from one end of town to the other and to the plant. The streetcars dictated a great deal about life in the village, including providing residents with an identity, such as Stop 40 or Stop 36. Obituaries for Power residents, for example, list their stops as their addresses.<\/p>\n On any given summer evening in 1922, for example, children played ball in the streets and hide-and-seek in the dark between neighbor\u2019s houses while their dad\u2019s bowled and their mothers planned community events. On one Monday night in March, some of them might have attended a dance Community Stop 44, where \u201cthe Community Hall was trimmed in black and white and with skulls and crossbones\u201d and the Bellaire Orchestra played. Or maybe on a Wednesday afternoon in November, women would stop at Wickham\u2019s for some onions and a bag of potatoes for that evening\u2019s dinner. And perhaps later that evening some workers from the night shift at the plant would drop by Humphrey Brothers Store and Restaurant (open 6 am to 11 pm) for a bite to eat.<\/p>\n Like in the rest of country, baseball was an incredibly popular past time in Power. Teams of workers played against other men from around the Ohio Valley, including Wheeling, Philo, and Canton, at Plummer\u2019s Field. These company teams reinforced comradery and encouraged healthy competition. Ron Marshall, who worked at the Windsor Power Plant for a decade, said, \u201cBaseball was the real thing. It was rumored \u2014 but also true to a great extent \u2014 that ability as a baseball player determined employment of new applicants.\u201d<\/p>\n By most accounts of surviving Power residents, life in in the village was filled with hard work, devoted neighbors, and good times. Former resident John Hoppers describes life growing up in pre-World War II power as idyllic. Children played in the streets until dusk. Teens danced at the community center on Saturday nights. Adults hosted picnics and backyard parties on Sunday afternoons. Hoppers notes, \u201cPower was important to me because it was my formative years and where I made many good friendships.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/WhgIntell-article_1928-10-3.jpg?resize=600%2C761\")
<\/a>An article in the following morning\u2019s Daily Intelligencer<\/em> described the light up night as being well attended by curious spectators, who asked questions long into the evening. The reporter observed: \u201cCrowds gathered in the streets and entered the stores to witness this strange form of illumination. Some marveled while others ridiculed it as an impractical method.\u201d The skeptics did not prevail, of course, and the demand for electricity grew among business owners and residents. Soon, Wheeling Electrical had outgrown its quarters in Sweeney\u2019s shop, and in 1888 ground was broken for the new power plant at Twenty-Second and Chapline streets due primarily to its proximity to natural gas, which produced the heat necessary to make the steam for electricity. The larger plant allowed for the production of electricity for twenty-four hours for the first time.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThe Granddaddy of All Power Plants\u201d<\/h2>\n
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\nThe Village of Power<\/h2>\n
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\nPulling the Plug<\/h2>\n
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