Kerosene Reached Shelby — Then a Lamp Accident Killed a Father and Child

Mamie Jones wrote that the first oil well in America was sunk in 1859, and that just after the close of the Civil War kerosene reached Shelby—but people were afraid of it. She quoted Harry Fulenwider’s reminiscence:

In 1868, the first hotel he remembered was kept by the “late eccentric and jovial” Jim Alexander on the South Court side, where old tallow candles lighted supper and the way to bed. Then kerosene was tried “in a few places” for the first time, but it proved “sorrowful” to the family of Mr. Watkins, who—with one of his little children—was burned when a lamp turned over and spread the burning flames, causing their death. Fulenwider said that the morning after this accident, all the kerosene lamps from the Alexander tavern could be seen scattered and broken on the streets and sidewalks of the place.

Source: Mamie Jones.