The Williams family depended on kerosene lamps to light their house. There was no electricity on most rural farms in Texas until the late 1930s, even though people living in cities such as Austin had begun lighting their homes with electric chandeliers many years before then. The Williams family moved away from their farm long before they could enjoy light from an electric light fixture or the cooling breeze from an electric fan.

Archeologists excavating at the farm found several pieces of lamps, such as the burner mechanism shown on the left. The complete lamp may have looked something like the one shown above, on the right. Lamps like these could have been carried around the cabin or taken outside to light the way to the outdoor bathroom at night, where you had to be on the lookout for snakes and critters!