Ramsey County History – Winter 2003: “Slunky Norton: The Chimney Sweep Who Rocked the Rafters with His Buglers”

Slunky Norton: The Chimney Sweep Who Rocked the Rafters with His Buglers
Author: Albert W. Lindeke Jr.

By the late 1880s, coal had become the predominate fuel but had some problems. It could create a buildup of creosote that might break into flame, so people needed the periodical employment of a chimney sweep. A colorful Irish-born chimney sweep named Slunky Norton worked the Ramsey Hill district in the early part of the twentieth century. He had a troop of buglers who accompanied him on rounds on special occasions, such as the holidays. In the 1920s, fuel oil, and in the late 1930s, natural gas, supplanted coal as the fuel of choice for heating homes, and the need for chimney sweeps declined.
PDF of Lindeke article