In February 1902, Bristowm was looking forward to electric lights and water works.
In 1906, Bristow already had a few oil burning lamps placed about town. The merchants had paid for them themselves rather than take funds from the city treasury. One such lamp was on the International Bank building which served as a streetlight as well as providing a measure of safety for the bank.
The city had ordered 46 gas arc lamps to be installed. On October 16, 1908, it was announced that the gas would be turned on in the first demonstration of the gas fuel lamp would be given that evening.
Bristow ice and electric company installed one electric streetlight on the corner of seventh and Main Street in 1916 to demonstrate the superiority over the gas lamp. It made the old gas lamps look like tallow dips.
In time, all gas lamps were replaced with electric lights. In 1920, the electric plant was built on Chestnut Street between ninth and tenth Street.
In 1921, the old 100 candlepower street lamps were replaced with 600 power lights from fifth to 12th Street there were 30 in all.
In 1928, Bristow got a whole new “white way”. Hundreds came to witness the event.
Farmers usually came to town on Saturdays to buy groceries, feed, and so on. Some did their farm chores early so they could stay in town until dark in order to see the lights come on. It was an exciting event to see until electric lights became more common.
Rural homes depended on lanterns and coal oil lamps for their lights. Finally, in 1947, electricity became available for rural homes. For the most part, farmers had never been around electricity and many were afraid to touch their switches, afraid of being electrocuted, but they finally became accustomed to it. However, one old farmer far from town or neighbors, didn’t know exactly what to make of electricity. The company manager noticed the farmer wasn’t using hardly any electricity and decided to talk to him to find out what the problem was. He visited with the old man and questioned him about the service, if he was satisfied with it, and son on. The old farmer answered all his questions indicating that he was happy with electric services in every way and ended the conversation by telling the manager, “It comes in really handy at night to see how to light our coal oil lamps.”