(bell dinging) - [Narrator] "March 31st, 1880.

The fame of Wabash has been wafted upon every breeze and hurled from one point of the compass to the other until every nook and corner in America has been reached.

This is all because she is the first city in the world to be lighted by electricity.

It was the strangest light ever exhibited in the United States," "Fort Wayne Gazette."

(gentle music) (traffic humming) - [Todd] Seldom do you think that a Hoosier town of only 2,000 people could be such an influential pioneer in global history.

Welcome to Wabash, Indiana, the first electrically lighted city in the world.

- Mostly everybody was just awed by what they saw.

Out of the darkness of centuries comes this light that is so brilliant that you can see five miles away.

It cast shadows of houses and barns and buggies and things.

It had to be very unusual.

(gentle upbeat music) (lively music) - [Todd] Back in 1880, the Brush Company of Cleveland, Ohio, was one of the first entrepreneurial firms to shed new light on the functional uses of electricity.

Charles Brush and his engineers were working on a new arc lamp, which fired sparks of blue light from the tips of two electrodes.

Meanwhile, in Menlo Park, New Jersey, Thomas Edison had just invented a new incandescent light.

In a heated publicity race, Edison and Brush looked for a way to become the first scientists to illuminate an entire city by electricity.

- Wabash had gas lights around the downtown district and they weren't very satisfactory.

They were dull and they were dimming.

It took a lot of maintenance to keep them going and the city fathers were looking for something new and they'd heard of this electricity, so they put out the word they'd be interested in anything.

(gentle country music) - [Todd] Rarely has the lay of the land played such a major part in the historic destiny of a city.

High on the hill in the center of town, towered Wabash's newly christened courthouse.

The stately clock tower overlooked the entire town and provided an unusual opportunity for the Brush Company.

- They saw the concept they could light up the city for the first time from one point, and so that's why they took on Wabash because that was great advertising for them and it did it.

It worked out just fine for them.

- [Todd] The entire setup only cost the city $100.

On March 31st, the demonstration was ready.

Special trains were dispatched throughout the Midwest.

10,000 curious spectators invaded Wabash to witness this miracle of modern technology.

At 8:00 PM, Charles Brush threw the switch on the dynamo generator that supplied the electric current.

- Suddenly, from the top of this courthouse came a brilliant flash of blue like no one had ever seen before.

And at first, the large crowd, there was not a murmur.

Matter of fact, it was deadly silent around here, and then it burst into what was a tremendous thunder of applause.

This was absolutely phenomenal.

Never seen anything like this before.

(upbeat patriotic music) - [Narrator] "The city of Wabash, Indiana, is to be lighted by electricity hereafter.

The initial test of the system was made Wednesday night and proved entirely successful," "Grand Rapid Times."

- Out to southwest of town here there was a farmer who evidently attended to his own business and he didn't even know that they were going to have this demonstration, so he happened to be out at the barn at 8:00 and suddenly all the world lit up.

He was only about four miles out of town, but the shadows that were cast and everything, and he looked and saw that brilliant blue in the western sky and he went running in the house and he says, "For God's sakes, Mary," he said, "Get on your knees and start praying.

The end of the world is near."

- [Todd] Everyone present in Wabash that night basked in the blue glow of this history-making event.

One reporter from the "Chicago Tribune" wrote, "That even as his train pulled out of town, he could still read a newspaper from four miles away."

For months after, as trains chugged through this small Hoosier hamlet, conductors made a special point to stop in Wabash and invite passengers to step out and experience the radiance of the city's famed electrical beacon.

- [Narrator] "The crowd spread over the suburbs making tests by looking at watches and reading newspapers.

In short, the Brush system of electric lighting for cities is a success, and Wabash enjoys the distinction of being the first city in the whole world to be lighted by electricity," "Chicago Tribune."

- If we had been on a flat surface like Tipton, we'd have never made our place in history because there's no way you can light up Tipton from a flat territory like they are, so thank goodness for the hill.

It was the thing that made our Wabash light what it was and so its moments of glory can never be denied and no one can ever refute that Wabash was the first electrically lighted city in the world.

(upbeat patriotic music continues) (gentle upbeat music) - [Announcer] For more "Across Indiana" stories, go to WFYI.org/AcrossIndiana.