the street lights that you see on the way to town from you farm are called street LAMP on the wiki and are craftable at your work bench after Roman sets up shop in town. The street lamps do not provide any light on their own, but you can sift a standing torch into them to light them up.
If you want a actual street light that lights up the area, you will need to buy the LAMP POST from Herb' furniture stall once you reach Kozita Island.
So basically you are in the dark until year 4.

What quest are you talking about, the only one that mentions streetlights is when John stone asks you to bring 10 torches to him.