The HORSE DRAWN Papers #9

L I G H T I N G   T H E   W A Y

A hearse on display for the 1930 Alexandria Centennial.  Notice the magnificent lamps.

A coach on display for the Alexandria Centennial.  Please note how the lamps are different than the hearse lamps.

An inspection of the Federal Censuses of 1870, 1880, and 1900 reveal two tinsmiths.  There was a Federal Census in 1890, but it was entirely destroyed by a fire.  For those searching for Veteran records, there are similar problems.  Vets, do yourself a favor and please save copies of your orders.

Lamps on a carriage tended to be more of an urban thing than in the farmlands and village.  At the risk of sounding anti-safety, the horse could see better than us humans at night and knew where it was going anyway.  If a farmer needed a light, he or she could easily hang a tin lantern on his or her wagon.  Anyone who has been out and about on a clear, moonlight night knows it is quite easy to see without a lantern.

The M. T. Gleeson Company produced lamps until the company failed in April 1898.  In 1890, the M. T Gleeson is listed as a brass foundry at 228 to 234 North Fourth Street (now occupied by Wolf's Ridge Brewing) with his residence at North Fifth Street in Columbus.  Gleeson also had a shop at the northeast corner of Broad and High, across from the Statehouse in 1874.  In 1878, he is also shown as a dealer in carriage mountings.  It is likely that Alexandria would have ordered from there.  These fittings could include whip holders, various ornamentals or decorative castings, or other latches and accoutrements.

I place a distinction between Lamps and Lanterns.  A lamp is highly finished with a silvered interior to catch and reflect light while the exterior is brass, usually with some fanciful additions and possibly figurines or some other ornamentation.  A lantern is a windowed, tin box with a candle or oil lamp inside. Largely, farmers saw no need for nothing more than a lantern hanging from a hook on the side of the wagon.  City folk, and those needing to show prestige, opted for lamps.

One of the things a luminary does that I have not noticed among tin smithing is the spinning of brass.  Spinning is a special, practiced art that involves a special lathe which can absorb the pressures applied on the shaft against the motor.  A lathe-turned, bowl-shaped pattern is mounted on the spindle and a circular piece of brass sheet is placed against the pattern. Blunt shaping tools are used to conform the brass to the pattern to create a bowl shape.  This can be used to hide a soldered join, or two placed together to form a decorative object.  

Alexandria and St. Albans had two tinsmiths in 1880.  One of these is Lewis Twining, whose relationship to Charles Maranville's wife, Julia Twing, beyond a distant (fourth) cousin, is unknown.  The other was John Scureman, a neighbor of Charles Maranville.  Scureman was a native of New Jersey who was born in 1837, served in the Civil War, and died in 1905.  

Alexandria had no lamp maker.  While there were tinsmiths, Alexandria probably could not support a lamp maker and rely, instead, on catalog and mail order.  It would be sad to see a lamp maker's family starve.