Photo of the first street lights in Minonk

This is a photo showing what we think are the first street lights in Minonk. It shows men posing under the lights installed in Minonk in 1882. The many flags indicate this may have been some type of celebration.

The story goes that Miner T. Ames, the owner of the Minonk coal mine, knew someone who worked for Thomas Edison and was able to get lights from Edison. He had the lights installed from the coal mine to the miner's company store shown at the left at the corner of 6th and Chestnut, which is the current site of The Sweet Shop. The building to the right is the old Schlitz Opera House. Supposedly, these were the first street lights installed in the country.

Miner T. Ames died in 1890 at the age of 50 so he is not in this photo. Also, the Schlitz Opera House was built in 1896 so the photo was taken some time after that. Here is a link to Miner T. Ames.

We are extremely grateful to Eric Haefli of Bloomington who provided the photo. He had family members who lived in the area back in the late 1800's.