Certificates
Enron Corporation - Kenneth L. Lay as Chairman - Plus George Bush Invent the Future Certificate!
Beautifully engraved historic Certificate from the Enron
Corporation . This historic document was printed by the American Banknote
Company and has an ornate border around it with a vignette of an oil man sitting
in front of a world globe and an oil field. This item has the printed signatures
of the company's officers including Kenneth L. Lay as Chariman of the Board and
Corporate Secretary. Lay resigned as chairman and CEO of Enron under pressure
from bankruptcy creditors. Folded in thirds for mailing. Enron Certificates with
Kenneth Lay's printed signature are becoming very hard to find.
While supplies last, we thought it would appropriate to include a certificate
from the Texas Reading Club with the theme "Invent the Future". There must have
been a few people at Enron's headquarters in Houston, Texas who received this
certificate since they not only invented the future, but they also invented the
past as demonstrated in their reported financial results. This certificate was
given out to students as an achievement award and has the printed signature of
George Bush when he was Governor of the State of Texas. The certificate has a
colorful scene on the moon with 3 spacemen, a rocket and the lunar rover. The
message along the top says "Invent the Future! Read!"
May 25, 2006 - Enron former chief executive Jeffrey Skilling and
founder Kenneth Lay were both found guilty Thursday of conspiracy and fraud in
the granddaddy of all corporate fraud cases.
On the sixth day of deliberations, a jury of eight women and four men convicted
the former executives of misleading the public about the true financial health
of Enron, whose collapse in late 2001 symbolized the wave of corporate fraud
that swept the United States early this decade.
Ex-Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling walks away from reporters in Houston after a jury
found him guilty of 19 counts of fraud, conspiracy, false statements and insider
trading.
Skilling was found guilty on 19 counts of conspiracy, fraud, false statements
and insider trading. He was found not guilty on nine counts of insider trading.
Lay was found guilty on all six counts of conspiracy and fraud. In a separate
bench trial, Judge Sim Lake ruled Lay was guilty of four counts of fraud and
false statements. (Click here for the defendants' reactions)
Both Lay and Skilling could face 20 to 30 years in prison, legal experts say.
And Lay will also face an additional hefty term in prison for his conviction in
the bank fraud case.
Enron, once the top electricity and natural gas trader and marketer in the US,
had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Rival power marketer Dynegy had
agreed to purchase Enron after controversy over accounting procedures caused
Enron's stock price and credit rating to drop sharply in 2001; however, Dynegy
backed out of the deal as Enron's finances worsened. Besides its energy trading
operations, the company buys and sells other commodities, including metals,
paper, coal, chemicals, and fiber-optic bandwidth. Enron has global interests in
utilities, power plants (9,000-MW), and other energy projects, including a
25,000-mile US gas pipeline system. Enron plans to sell up to $6 billion in
assets to pay off debt.
Houston-based Enron created and dominated the trading of oil and gas contracts
and is a big player in the complex world of commodities and risk management
trading. It also has extensive gas and oil lines and refineries. It had more
than $100 billion in sales last year.
The company's spectacular collapse began last month after revelations that its
chief financial officer was running partnerships that allowed the company to
keep half a billion dollars in debt off its books. In early November, Enron
restated its earnings back to 1997, eliminating more than $580 million in
reported income during that time.
Its stock has plunged from $84.88 a share earlier in 2001 to pennies in just 11
months. It is under investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
and, as of Thursday, the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee.
Chronology of Enron's History
July 1985 -- Houston Natural Gas merges with InterNorth, a natural gas company
based in Omaha, Neb., to form the modern-day Enron, an interstate and intrastate
natural gas pipeline company with approximately 37,000 miles of pipe.
1989 -- Enron begins trading natural gas commodities. Over the years, the
company becomes the largest natural gas merchant in North America and the United
Kingdom.
June 1994 -- Enron North America trades its first electron. Enron goes on to
become the largest marketer of electricity in the U.S.
August 1997 -- Enron announces its first commodity transaction using weather
derivative products. Enron goes on to market coal, pulp, paper, plastics, metals
and bandwidth.
April 1999 -- Enron agrees to pay $100 million over 30 years for the naming
rights to Houston's new ballpark, Enron Field. The Astros also sign a 30-year
facilities management contract Enron Energy Services.
November 1999 -- Enron launches EnronOnline, the first global Web-based
commodity trading site.
December 2000 -- Enron announces that president and chief operating officer
Jeffrey Skilling will take over as chief executive in February. Kenneth Lay will
remain as chairman. Shares hit 52-week high of $84.87 on Dec. 28.
August 2001 -- Skilling resigns after running the company for just six months;
Lay becomes CEO again.
October 16, 2001 -- Enron reports a $638 million third-quarter loss and
discloses a $1.2 billion reduction in shareholder equity, partly related to
partnerships run by chief financial officer Andrew Fastow.
Oct. 22, 2001 -- Enron acknowledges Securities and Exchange Commission inquiry
into a possible conflict of interest related to the company's dealings with
those partnerships.
Oct. 24, 2001 -- Enron ousts Fastow.
Oct. 31, 2001 -- Enron announces the SEC inquiry has been upgraded to a formal
investigation. Enron creates special committee headed by University of Texas law
school dean William Powers to respond to the investigation.
Nov. 6, 2001 -- Enron's stock price drops below $10 a share after reports the
financially troubled energy trader was seeking additional financing to shore up
confidence.
Nov. 8, 2001 -- Enron files documents with SEC revising its financial statements
for past five years to account for $586 million in losses.
Nov. 9, 2001 -- Dynegy Inc. announces an agreement to buy its much larger rival
Enron for more than $8 billion in stock.
Nov. 14, 2001 -- Enron announces it is trying to raise an additional $500
million to $1 billion in new private equity to shore up customer and market
confidence.
Nov. 19, 2001 -- Enron restates its third-quarter earnings and discloses it is
trying to restructure a $690 million obligation that could come due Nov. 27.
Nov. 20, 2001 -- Concerns about Enron's ability to weather its spiraling
financial problems send the company's stock down nearly 23 percent to its lowest
level in nearly 10 years. Officials from both Enron and Dynegy say the merger
was not in trouble.
Nov. 21, 2001 -- Enron reaches critical agreement to extend $690 million debt
payment.
Nov. 26, 2001 -- Enron shares fall another 15 percent as investors continued to
doubt that the deal will completed. Shares finish day at $4.01.
Nov. 28, 2001 -- Dynegy backs out of deal after Enron's credit rating is
downgraded to junk bond status; analysts say a bankruptcy filing is likely.
Enron shares plunge below $1 amid the heaviest single-day trading volume ever
for a NYSE or Nasdaq-listed stock.
Beautifully engraved certificate from the Edison Sault Electric Company dated 1905. This historic document was printed by American Bank Note Company and has an ornate border around it with a vignette of an angel kneeling holding a light and a train wheel. This item is over 100 years old. 40 coupons attached on top.
Beautifully engraved $100,000 Bond certificate from the Florida Power & Light Company issued in 1987. This historic document was printed by the American Banknote Company and has an ornate border around it with a vignette of various symbols of the state of Florida (boats, palm trees, rockets, etc). This item has the printed signatures of the Company's President and Secretary and is over 16 years old.
Pacific Electric Railway Company Bond Proofs (5)," "CA. 1911. $1,000, Refunding Mortgage 5%, 50 Year Gold Bond. Production file certifying the destruction of the plates for the entire bond. There are 5 different proofs including the front proof of vignette, text and title without border; a border proof in green with $1,000 denomination; a back proof of the back panel describing the bond; a sheet of black and white coupon proofs and a sheet of green color undertints. Extremely rare railroad and unique in this form. No specimens were found in archive. Also included is miscellaneous paper work and certificate indicating original plates destroyed.
RARE specimen certificate from the Hilton Hotels Corporation printed in the 1950's. This historic document was printed by Security Banknote Company and has an ornate border around it with a vignette of two allegorical woman (The one on the right side is not Paris Hilton). This item has the printed signatures of the Company's President, Conrad Hilton and Secretary, William Friedman and is over 50 years old.
Founded in 1919 by Conrad Hilton. Hilton bought his first hotel,
the Mobley Hotel in 1919 in Cisco, Texas.
In 1930, Conrad Hilton opened his first high-rise Hilton hotel in El Paso,
Texas, the now Plaza Hotel.
Hilton became the first international hotel chain with the opening of the Caribe
Hilton Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
John Lennon and Yoko Ono held their first Bed-In for Peace between March 25 and
March 31, 1969 at the Amsterdam Hilton in Room 902. This room has become a
popular tourist destination.
Hilton Hotels owns and manages several other hotel brands, catering to both
business and leisure travel. These brands are Embassy Suites, Doubletree,
Hampton Inn, Hilton Garden Inn, and Homewood Suites by Hilton.
HHC was granted the naming rights to the George R. Brown Convention Center in
late 2003. The Hilton Americas in Downtown Houston, Texas, is connected to the
convention center.
$500 certificate #14 from the Confederate States of America dated February 3, 1863. This historic document was printed by Blanton Duncan, Columbia, South Carolina and has an ornate border around it with a vignette of J. H. Reagan, CSA Postmaster-General. It was issued under the Act of August 19, 1861. This certificate has been hand signed by the Registry of the Treasury, Robert Tyler. There were only 1338 of these bonds issued but it is unknown how many survived over the years
certificate from the General Electric Company issued in the 1940's. This historic document was printed by the American Banknote Company and has an ornate border around it with a vignette of an allegorical man holding a beam of light in his hand sitting next to a power generating plant with the GE emblem on it with electric trains and power lines in the background. This item has the printed signatures of the company’s president, C. E. Wilson and is over 58 years old.
ENSERCH CORPORATION. Enserch Corporation, with headquarters in
Dallas, is a diversified energy company with interests in petroleum exploration
and production, oilfield services, engineering design and construction, and
natural gas transmission and distribution. The firm was founded under the name
Lone Star Gas in 1909 as a utility company to transmit natural gas to Dallas and
East Texas. Partners George W. Crawford and M. C. Treat, with the help of
attorney L. B. Denning of Ohio, established the enterprise in Dallas as a
pipeline company allied with Corsicana Refining. At the time, Crawford and Treat
owned a drilling company in Marshall, Texas, and operated successful gas wells
in several states as well as the Petrolia field, which was Lone Star's major
source for gas east of Dallas. The company's first president was Henry Clay
Edrington, a former fiscal agent for the Agricultural and Mechanical College of
Texas and organizer of the Traders National Bank in Fort Worth.
By the end of 1909 Lone Star had begun the construction of what was then one of
the world's longest pipelines, from Fort Worth-Dallas to Petrolia. The Petrolia
field was not large enough to support the growing needs of Texas, however, so in
1916 Lone Star Gas expanded its business into southern Oklahoma. Between 1915
and 1924 the company confronted crises on three occasions when inability to
deliver adequate gas supplies nearly forced it into receivership. In 1924 a
technological breakthrough enabled the company to capture gas previously allowed
to escape at the wellhead and revived the business. In 1927 Lone Star began to
expand again with the purchase of the Dallas Gas Company, and by 1935 it had
opened a new Dallas headquarters. In 1942 the company formed Lone Star Producing
to develop oil and gas wells, and by 1968 it served a million customers through
a network of pipelines across Texas and southern Oklahoma. In 1972, as part of
the deep-well drilling projects in the Anadarko basin in southern Oklahoma, Lone
Star Gas drilled a well 30,050 feet deep, the deepest ever completed at that
time.
The company changed its name to Enserch in 1975 to reflect the change in its
business, which now included not only natural gas distribution and transmission
but also exploration, resource recovery, and other aspects of the industry.
Diversification began in the 1970s, when the Justice Department pressed the
Halliburton Corporation, of Houston, to divest itself of its
utility-construction subsidiary Ebasco; Enserch purchased the division in 1976.
The subsidiary specialized in construction and construction management for large
power-station projects, including the Encogen Power Plant in South Texas and the
South Texas Nuclear Project. By 1989 Ebasco had constructed over 1,000 plants
around the world and had worldwide annual revenues of $2.9 billion. The company
further diversified with the acquisition of Losinger AG, a Swiss construction
firm founded in 1917, which in the 1980s employed 5,000 workers building dams,
bridges, and tunnels. The company's oilfield-service subsidiaries included the
Pool Company of Houston, which employed 6,000 workers at oil-rig operations
statewide; Oiltools, which provided oilfield equipment worldwide from
headquarters in London; Samson Ocean Systems, acquired in 1978, a provider of
rope systems that succeeded Samson Cordage, founded in Boston in 1888; and
Alaska International Constructors and Frank Moolin and Associates, both acquired
in 1982, which did construction primarily for the oil and gas industry. In 1981
the company established Enserch Engineering and Construction at Houston, and in
1983 it acquired Humphrey and Glasgow, Limited, an international engineering
firm founded in 1892, which designed and constructed processing plants
throughout Europe. In the 1990s Enserch entered into a partnership with Tejas
Gas Corporation known as Gulf Coast Natural Gas and continued to grow.
uncancelled certificate from the Houston, Tap and Brazoria
Railway Company issued in 1861. This historic document was printed by Crawford &
Reynolds and has an ornate border around it with a vignette of a steam engine
train moving past a small town. This item has the signatures of the Company's
President, E. W. Taylor and Secretary, Edwin Fairfax Gray and is over 146 years
old. This certificate is very hard to find issued and is quite scarce. Edwin
Fairfax Gray (1829-1884)
Edwin Fairfax Gray, military officer and railroad engineer, son of Milly
Richards (Stone) and William Fairfax Gray, was born in Fredericksburg, Virginia,
on March 15, 1829. He moved to Texas in the winter of 1838 and in 1841 obtained
an appointment as midshipman in the Texas Navy.qv As such he participated in the
Tampico expedition aboard the flagship Austin.qv Upon the annexationqv of Texas,
Gray was transferred to the United States Navy. He graduated with honors from
the Naval Academy at Annapolis in June 1852 and accompanied Commodore Matthew
Galbraith Perry to Japan in 1853. In January 1858 Gray resigned his commission.
On September 16, 1858, he was appointed Texas state engineer, a position that
entailed supervision of river improvements and inspection of railroad
properties. In 1860 he became secretary and treasurer of the Houston Tap and
Brazoria Railway Company. He served throughout the Civil War in the Third Texas
Infantry and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel. After the war Gray returned
to engineering and often acted as inspecting engineer to certify railroad
construction as qualification for land grants. On June 8, 1857, he married
Rosalie Woodburn Taylor; they had two sons and one daughter. Gray died in
Houston on August 14, 1884, and was buried in Glenwood Cemetery
HOUSTON TAP RAILROAD. Section 10 of an Act to Incorporate the Buffalo Bayou,
Brazos and Colorado Railway Company authorized the City of Houston to build or
have built a railroad to connect with or "to tap" the BBB&C. On January 26,
1856, the Texas Legislature gave the city permission to impose a one percent ad
valorem tax on real and personal property as well as a license tax on "Taverns,
Groceries, Barrooms, Tippling-Houses, Nine and Ten-Pin Allies and Billiard
Tables" for the purpose of constructing a railroad, provided that the citizens
of Houston approved such taxes at a special election. At the election held for
that purpose on February 19, 1856, the railroad tax was approved by a margin of
250 to 15. Construction of the railroad, commonly called the Houston Tap, began
on April 7 when Thomas S. Lubbock broke ground for the enterprise. William F.
Kyle and Benjamin F. Terry were the contractors. The line began near the
courthouse square, ran down San Jacinto Street to the corporate limits, and met
the BBB&C at a point that was then simply called Junction, but later known as
Pierce Junction. The 6½-mile-long railroad opened on October 21. It owned one
locomotive, named for Houston mayor James H. Stevens, three freight cars, and a
passenger car. Even as the line was being built, plans were underway to extend
the railroad into Brazoria and Wharton counties. On September 1, 1856, the
Houston Tap and Brazoria Railway Company was chartered and in June 1858
purchased the line from the City of Houston for $130,000 in stock and a loan of
$42,000.
In comparison to other Confederate states, Texas came out of the war relatively
unscathed. Trade with Mexico during the war also proved profitable for some
Texans. In general, Texas was spared the kind of wartime devastation seen in the
rest of the South. Union troops did not destroy Texas towns or demolish roads
and bridges. However, Texans often dismantled such installations themselves to
salvage iron and other resources which could be used by Lee's army. For example,
the fifty miles of track that made up the Houston Tap and Brazoria Railroad was
torn up to salvage iron needed to manufacture weapons. In addition, because the
state was not at the center of military operations, civilian deaths from combat
did not approach those of other Confederate states.
International-Great Northern Railroad The International-Great Northern Railroad
Company was a major component of the Missouri Pacific lines in Texas. The
railroad was formed on September 30, 1873, by the consolidation of the
International Railroad Company and the Houston and Great Northern Railroad. The
Houston and Great Northern was chartered on October 22, 1866, by the first
legislature to meet after the Civil War, and was backed by eastern and local
capital. At the time of the merger, the Houston and Great Northern owned 252
miles of track between Houston and Palestine, between Houston and East Columbia
with branches from Phelps to Huntsville, and between Troup and Mineola. The
mileage of the Houston and Great Northern included the former Houston Tap and
Brazoria Railroad and the Huntsville Branch Railway, which had been merged on
May 8, 1873. The International was chartered on August 5, 1870, and at the time
of the consolidation operated 177 miles from Hearne to Longview. Despite the
financial panic of 1873, the consolidated company continued to slowly expand,
reaching Rockdale in 1874 and Austin on December 28, 1876. Building resumed in
1880, and the following year the railroad reached San Antonio and Laredo on
December 1, 1881. On August 5, 1879, the International and Great Northern
acquired the Georgetown Railroad Company at foreclosure and merged the latter
company on June 2, 1882. The Henderson and Overton Branch Railroad Company was
acquired on September 27, 1880. Although operated as a part of the International
and Great Northern, the Henderson and Overton Branch was not consolidated until
August 31, 1911. The various predecessor companies of the International and
Great Northern earned 6,432,000 acres of state land. This land was sold for a
net of $4,668,850 or about seventy-two cents an acre. The charter of the
International called for the State of Texas to grant $10,000 in bonds to the
company for each mile completed. However, when the company applied for the bonds
Comptroller Albert A. Bledsoe refused to sign and register the bonds. A
compromise was worked out whereby the railroad was granted twenty sections of
land per mile constructed rather than the normal sixteen sections. In addition,
the railroad was exempted from state taxation for twenty-five years. The
International and Great Northern entered receivership on April 1, 1878, was sold
at foreclosure, and conveyed to a new company organized under the original
charter on November 1, 1879. The second receivership lasted from February 21,
1889, to July 11, 1892, but the company was reorganized financially without sale
or change of name. At the time of the reorganization, the railroad owned
eighty-eight locomotives, sixty-one passenger cars, 1,919 freight cars, and
eighty company service cars. Earnings that year included $1,076,695 in passenger
revenue and $2,530,451 in freight revenue.
Jay Gould acquired control of the International and Great Northern in December
1880. The company was leased to the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway Company,
another Gould company, for ninety-nine years on June 1, 1881, but the lease was
canceled on March 2, 1888, and the railroad was again operated by its own
organization. The company owned 756 miles of track at the end of 1882 and did
not increase mileage until after 1900. On May 1, 1901, the International and
Great Northern merged the Calvert, Waco and Brazos Valley Railroad Company. The
latter company had built sixty-six miles of a line between Spring, just north of
Houston, and Fort Worth. The Fort Worth line was completed in 1902 by the
International and Great Northern. The following year a forty-five-mile branch
was built between Navasota and Madisonville. In that year the railroad also
acquired the Houston, Oaklawn and Magnolia Park Railway Company. The company
again entered receivership on February 27, 1908. A new company, the
International and Great Northern Railway Company, was chartered on August 10,
1911, and bought the old company at foreclosure on August 31, 1911. At this time
the Henderson and Overton Branch was also consolidated, giving the International
and Great Northern its peak of 1,106 miles. In addition, the International and
Great Northern owned the Austin Dam and Suburban Railway Company and a 50
percent interest in the Galveston, Houston and Henderson Railroad Company. Less
than three years later the reorganized company was forced into receivership,
which lasted until the railroad was sold at foreclosure on July 28, 1922. A new
company, the International-Great Northern Railroad Company, was chartered on
August 17, 1922.
The Missouri Pacific Railroad Company, the Texas and Pacific Railway Company,
and the International and Great Northern had worked together as a system through
Gould holdings in each company rather than by any direct control by the Missouri
Pacific. By the early 1920s, however, the Gould interests no longer controlled
the railroads, and in 1922 the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway Company attempted
to acquire the International-Great Northern. Although the Interstate Commerce
Commission refused to authorize the purchase, the threat of losing a major Texas
connection led to the Missouri Pacific's acquisition of the International-Great
Northern. It did this through the New Orleans, Texas and Mexico Railway Company,
which bought the International-Great Northern on June 20, 1924. When the New
Orleans, Texas and Mexico was itself acquired by the Missouri Pacific on January
1, 1925, the International-Great Northern became part of the Missouri Pacific
Lines, although the company continued to be operated separately. Major
components of the Missouri Pacific Lines, including the International-Great
Northern, entered receivership on March 31, 1933. This receivership was to last
for twenty-three years, primarily due to the inability of the various financial
interests involved to agree on a reorganization plan. A plan was finally
adopted, and on March 1, 1956, the International-Great Northern was merged into
the reorganized Missouri Pacific Railroad Company. During the receivership the
International-Great Northern abandoned two branch lines including the five miles
between Calvert and Calvert Junction in 1934 and the forty-five miles between
Navasota and Madisonville in 1944. At the time of its merger into the Missouri
Pacific, the International-Great Northern owned eighty-eight diesel units, 4,959
freight cars, sixty-nine passenger cars, and 149 company service cars. The
company had 1,053 miles of main track at the end of 1955 and during that year
had freight revenues of $29,745,000, passenger revenue of $1,681,300, and total
revenue of $34,359,900. In 1965 the Missouri Pacific abandoned twenty-seven
miles between Bryan and Navasota in favor of trackage rights between these two
points over the Southern Pacific Company. Two years later the line from a point
near Fort Worth through Waco and Mart to Marlin was abandoned. Trackage rights
were obtained over the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad Company between Fort Worth
and Waco, and a former Southern Pacific branch between Waco and Marlin was
purchased and upgraded. The only other significant change has been the
abandonment of thirty-one miles of the East Columbia branch, which now
terminates at Arcola.
William Earl Dodge American merchant, cofounder of Phelps, Dodge
& Company, which was one of the largest mining companies in the United States
for more than a century.
DODGE, William Earle, a Representative from New York; born in Hartford, Conn.,
September 4, 1805; completed preparatory studies; moved to New York City in
1818; became a clerk; in 1826 established the house of Phelps, Dodge & Co., of
which he was the head for forty years; delegate to the peace convention of 1861
held in Washington, D.C., in an effort to devise means to prevent the impending
war; successfully contested as a Republican the election of James Brooks to the
Thirty-ninth Congress and served from April 7, 1866, to March 3, 1867; declined
to be a candidate for renomination in 1866; resumed business interests; died in
New York City February 9, 1883; interment in Woodlawn Cemetery.
William Earle Dodge (September 4, 1805 - February 9, 1883), was a New York
businessman, referred to as one of the "Merchant Princes" of Wall Street in the
years leading up to the Civil War. Dodge was also a noted abolitionist, and
Native American rights activist and served as the president of the National
Temperance Society from 1865 to 1883. Dodge represented New York's 8th
congressional district in the United States Congress for a portion of the 39th
United States Congress in 1866-67 and was a founding member of the Young Men's
Christian Association (YMCA).
Dodge was born in Hartford, Connecticut, the second son of David Low Dodge,
founder of the New York Peace Society, and his wife Sarah Cleveland. His wife
was Melissa Phelps (1809-1903), the daughter of Anson Greene Phelps and Olivia
Egleston. In 1833, Dodge and his father-in-law founded the mining firm Phelps,
Dodge and Company, one of Americas foremost mining companies.
Dodge is the namesake of Dodge County, Georgia. A consortium of businessmen led
by Dodge purchased large tracts of timberland in this area following the Civil
War. They built the Macon and Brunswick Railroad, connecting Macon to what was
then a remote area of the state. Dodge County was formed in 1870 and Eastman,
the county seat, was established at the railroad's Station Number 13. Dodge
visited the area only once, to dedicate a two-story courthouse that he donated
to the county. Dodge's sons later administered the timber businesses in this
area. The consortium's ownership of these lands led to land wars which resulted
in nearly fifty years of court cases.
Dodge was active in the post-Civil War Indian reform movement. He joined Peter
Cooper in organizing the privately funded United States Indian Commission in
1868 and helped institute Ulysses S. Grant's Peace Policy toward the Indians. In
1869, Dodge toured Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma) and Kansas as a
member of the government-sponsored Board of Indian Commissioners. He met and
discussed U.S. Indian policy with representatives of the Cheyenne, Arapaho and
Kiowa. Dodge lobbied for the prosecution of the U.S. cavalry commanders
responsible for the 1870 Massacre of the Marais in Montana, which left 173
Blackfeet dead. Dodge unsuccessfully campaigned to establish a cabinet level
department for Indian Affairs. He also used his influence in Washington on
behalf of Indian educational programs and the General Allotment Act of 1887. A
monument to William E. Dodge stands on the North side of Bryant Park.
HOUSTON AND TEXAS CENTRAL RAILWAY. The charter for the Galveston and Red River
Railway was obtained by Ebenezer Allen of Galveston on March 11, 1848. However,
the company did not become active until 1852, when, after a series of meetings
at Chappell Hill and Houston, the charter was made available for the proposed
railroad from Houston to the Brazos River and the interior of Texas. On January
1, 1853, Paul Bremond and Thomas William House broke ground for the G&RR at
Houston. Although early progress was slow, considerable grading had been
completed by the end of 1855. Track laying began in early 1856, and the rails
reached Cypress City, the twenty-five-mile point, on July 26, 1856. On September
1, 1856, the company was renamed Houston and Texas Central Railway Company. By
April 22, 1861, the railroad was open eighty-one miles to Millican, but the
Civil Warqv prevented any additional construction until 1867. The H&TC reached
Corsicana in 1871, Dallas in 1872, and Red River City in 1873.
At Red River City connection was made with the Missouri, Kansas and Texas
Railroad to form the first all-rail route from Texas to St. Louis and the East.
In 1867 the H&TC acquired the Washington County Railroad, which had completed a
line between Hempstead and Brenham in April 1861. This line was extended to
Austin, where the final spike was driven on Christmas Day, 1871. The H&TC also
acquired the Waco and Northwestern, formerly the Waco Tap, and completed the
line between Bremond and Waco in 1872.
Other railroads subsequently merged into the H&TC include the Austin and
Northwestern, Central Texas and Northwestern, Fort Worth and New Orleans, Hearne
and Brazos Valley, and Houston Railway. Major new construction after 1900
included the Mexia-Nelleva cutoff from a point near Navasota to Mexia, which was
completed in 1907, and the extension from Giddings to Stone City in 1913, which
completed the Dalsa cutoff and shortened the route between San Antonio and
Dallas by 140 miles.
The H&TC was sold to Charles Morganqv in March 1877 and came under Southern
Pacific control when that company acquired the Morgan interests in 1883.
However, the H&TC continued to be operated by its own organization until 1927,
when it was leased to the Texas and New Orleans. At the time of the lease the H&TC
operated 872 miles of track. It merged with the T&NO in 1934. Until 1875 Texas
law required a track gauge of 5' 6", and the H&TC from Houston to Corsicana and
the Western Branch to Austin were built to state gauge.
The H&TC adopted 4' 8½" gauge, now known as standard gauge, for its construction
north of Corsicana as well as on the Waco line. The rest of the railroad was
narrowed in three stages: Corsicana to Hearne in 1874, Hearne to Houston in
1876, and the Austin line in March 1877. The H&TC inaugurated Pullman service in
Texas between Houston and Austin in June 1872. In 1892 the Houston and Texas
Central reported passenger earnings of $1 million and freight earnings of $2.5
million and owned 115 locomotives and 2,271 cars. The company also became one of
the first in Texas to use oil as a locomotive fuel when it began experimenting
with oil-fired locomotives in early 1901. Significant portions of the former H&TC
have been abandoned or sold.
In 1933 the Mexia-Nelleva cutoff was abandoned. Later abandonments included the
line between Bremond and Waco (1967), the track between Hempstead and Brenham
(1961-62), and the track between Brenham and Giddings (1979). On August 19,
1986, the line from Giddings through Austin to Llano was sold to the city of
Austin. Lines still operated by the Southern Pacific in 1988 included Houston to
Denison, Ennis to Fort Worth, and Hearne to Giddings.
certificate from the Dr. Pepper Company issued in 1928. This
historic document and has an ornate border around it with the company's name on
top. This item has the signatures of the Company's Vice-President and Secretary
and is over 78 years old. This is the first time we have had this certificate
for sale and we only have one.
DR PEPPER COMPANY. The Dr Pepper Company was officially incorporated under
Colorado laws on July 6, 1923, in Dallas. The company markets fountain syrups
and sells soft-drink concentrates to independent franchised bottlers. These
licensed bottlers then add sweeteners and carbonated water, package the result,
and sell the finished product in the surrounding market. In the mid-1980s Dr
Pepper's products were Dr Pepper, Sugar Free Dr Pepper, Sugar Free Pepper Free,
Pepper Free, and Welch's soda flavors. Dr Pepper, with a 6.9 percent market
share, was the nation's fourth largest soft drink company in 1983.
Dr Pepper was first made in Waco, Texas, in 1885. Wade B. Morrison, owner of
Morrison's Old Corner Drug, employed a pharmacist named Charles Courtice
Alderton, who, when not filling prescriptions, often served soft drinks to
customers. Alderton enjoyed experimenting with various combinations of fruit
extracts and sweeteners. One combination, later to become Dr Pepper, proved
enormously popular with drugstore patrons. As the popularity of the beverage
grew, the residents of Waco urged Morrison to name the drink. Morrison named the
beverage after Dr. Charles T. Pepper, a physician and pharmacist for whom
Morrison had worked in Rural Retreat, Virginia. The trademark employed a period
after Dr until 1950.
As the consumption of Dr Pepper increased, Morrison's drugstore could no longer
produce a sufficient quantity of the beverage. In an effort to satisfy the
demand, Morrison, along with Waco beverage chemist Robert S. Lazenby, started
the Artesian Manufacturing and Bottling Works in 1891. On September 8, 1898, the
Southwestern Soda Fountain Company of Dallas purchased the rights to produce and
sell Dr Pepper fountain syrups. On September 25, 1902, Southwestern Soda
Fountain changed its name to Dr Pepper Company. Circle "A" Corporation, which
purchased Artesian Manufacturing and Bottling Works in 1920, was the only
bottler of Dr Pepper concentrate. On June 12, 1923, because of rising commodity
prices and high bottling taxes, Circle "A" Corporation went bankrupt.
On July 6, 1923, in Dallas, the remnants of the old Dr Pepper Company and Circle
"A" Corporation officially incorporated as the Dr Pepper Company. Lazenby's
son-in-law, John B. O'Hara, was named general manager of the firm. In these
early years, the struggling firm developed a small but loyal following in the
South and Southwest.
An important 1963 district court ruling enabled Dr Pepper to expand when the
United States Fifth District Court of Dallas declared that Dr Pepper was not a
cola. This ruling allowed independent bottlers to carry Dr Pepper along with
Pepsi-Cola or Coca-Cola, since bottlers could now carry Dr Pepper without
violating their franchise contracts, which state that bottlers are not permitted
to bottle competing brands. Through close personal contacts and cooperative
promotional efforts, Dr Pepper aggressively courted independent bottlers. From
1968 to 1977, under the guidance of Chief Executive Officer Woodrow Wilson
Clements, sales increased from $41.9 million to $226.8 million. In the same
period net earnings jumped from $4.1 million to $20.3 million.
As the 1970s drew to a close, however, Dr Pepper's fortunes declined. First, the
company incurred tremendous debts in its acquisition of bottling plants and
purchase of Canada Dry in 1982. Second, as market growth leveled off, the soft
drink industry became increasingly competitive. As much larger Coca-Cola,
PepsiCo, and Seven-Up (the last owned by Phillip Morris) increased advertising
expenditures, debt-ridden Dr Pepper struggled to hold its own. From 1980 to 1983
the Dr Pepper brand's market share declined from 5.5 percent to 4.9 percent.
Third, the rapid brand proliferation, begun in 1982 by Seven-Up with Like Cola,
pushed Dr Pepper off the grocer's shelves. Fourth, in an effort to meet other
soft drink companies' advertising efforts, under President Chuck Jarvie Dr
Pepper concentrated primarily on nationwide advertising and ignored independent
bottlers' needs. Independent bottlers thus no longer pushed Dr Pepper with the
same zeal. Though sales increased from $370.6 million in 1981 to $516 million in
1982, the increase was largely attributable to the purchase of Canada Dry. In
1982 earnings declined to $12.5 million, down from $29.9 million in 1981. The
company reported earnings of $21.6 million in 1983, still below the 1981 figure.
In late 1983 Dr Pepper began a search for a buyer, preferably a large
conglomerate, to increase its competitiveness in the soft drink industry.
Because of the highly competitive nature of that industry and Dr Pepper's poor
cash position, few companies showed interest in the firm. In late 1983 Forstmann
and Little, a New York investment-banking firm, offered twenty-two dollars a
share for Dr Pepper. This deal, using primarily borrowed funds, involved buying
out existing shareholders, refinancing Dr Pepper's debt, and retaining the
company's top management. At about the same time, another suitor entered the
picture. Castle and Cooke, a large food producer based in Honolulu, wanted Dr
Pepper. With Dr Pepper, Castle and Cooke would be able partially to offset
volatile earnings swings caused by fluctuating commodity prices. Unable to
obtain sufficient financial information from Dr Pepper, however, Castle and
Cooke's investment group withdrew its offer of twenty-four dollars a share. On
February 28, 1984, Dr Pepper shareholders accepted the Forstmann and Little
offer, and the company went private.
Since the buyout, the company has sold a majority of its fixed assets. Canada
Dry was sold for about $175 million to R. J. Reynolds Industries, Incorporated,
in 1984. All ten company-owned bottling plants have also been sold. In 1984 the
Dr Pepper brand slipped from fourth to fifth in soft drink popularity, while
maintaining an approximate 5 percent share of the market. By 1985, however, it
had climbed to the number three position in the market, moving ahead of
Seven-Up. Dr Pepper closed out its centennial year in 1985 with a 7½ percent
share of the market as the third largest soft drink. It was the biggest sales
year in the company's 100-year history.
In 1986 Dr Pepper merged with the Seven-Up Company and soon thereafter moved its
manufacturing operations to facilities in St. Louis, although the company's
corporate headquarters remained in Dallas. In 1992 Dr Pepper/Seven-Up Companies,
Inc., was the soft drink industry's third largest marketer, with a domestic
market share of 11.1 percent. Its products included Dr Pepper, Diet Dr Pepper,
7UP, Diet 7UP, Cherry 7UP, Diet Cherry 7UP, Welch's, and IBC soft drinks. The
company's net sales totaled more than $658 million in 1992. A collection of Dr
Pepper memorabilia formed the core of the Dr Pepper Museum and Free Enterprise
Institute, which opened in Waco in 1991.
Val Verde County includes the City of Del Rio, Langtry, Comstock
and Laughlin Air Force Base. Val Verde is also famous for being the home of
Judge Roy Bean, referred to as "the Law West of the Pecos".
Judge Roy Bean and Lily Langtry are the only two reasons to remember the town of
Langtry. The town started as a grading camp during the building of the Southern
Pacific railroad in 1882 to connect New Orleans and San Antonio with Los Angeles
and San Francisco. Why the town was named Langtry is a bit uncertain. Legend has
it that Judge Roy Bean became so enamored with pictures of the English singer
that it was he who gave the town its name of Langtry, The Judge is remembered in
history for not having an established pattern for rendering judgements but his
judgements were always sound. Langtry became a ranching community and had a
population of several hundred around the turn of the century. Today it has only
a few occupied homes but it does have the Judge Roy Bean Visitor Center that
preserves the second of two buildings that housed Roy Bean's saloon, billiard
parlor, and courtroom. The town is on Loop 25 off of U.S. Highway 90 about 40
miles east of Dryden.
According to the myth, Roy Bean named his saloon and town after the love of his
life, Lily Langtry, a British actress he'd never met. Calling himself the "Law
West of the Pecos," he is reputed to have kept a pet bear in his courtroom and
sentenced dozens to the gallows, saying "Hang 'em first, try 'em later." Like
most such legends, separating fact from fiction is not always so easy.
Western Ramblings Roy Bean was born in Mason County, Kentucky about 1825. At age
15 he left home to follow two older brothers west seeking adventure. With
Brother Sam, he joined a wagon train into New Mexico, then crossed the Rio
Grande and set up a trading post in Chihuahua, Mexico. After killing a local
hombre, Roy fled to California, to stay with his brother Joshua, who would soon
become the first mayor of San Diego.
There, Roy developed a reputation for bragging, dueling and gambling on
cockfights. Mayor Josh Bean appointed Roy a lieutenant in the state militia and
bartender of the Headquarters, his own saloon. In 1852, Roy was arrested after
wounding a man in a duel. He escaped, and after Mayor Josh was killed a few
months later by a rival in a romantic triangle, Roy headed back to New Mexico
where brother Sam Bean had become a sheriff.
Roy tended bar in Sam's saloon for several years while smuggling guns from
Mexico through the Union blockade during the Civil War. Afterward, he married a
Mexican teenager and settled in San Antonio, where throughout the 1870s, he
supported 5 children by peddling stolen firewood and selling watered-down milk.
His notorious business practices eventually earned his San Antonio neighborhood
the nickname Beanville.
West of the Pecos In 1882, the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railroad
hired crews to link San Antonio with El Paso, Texas across 530 miles of
scorching Chihuahuan Desert, infested with bobcats, rattlesnakes and scorpions
(locally called vinegaroons by local Texans). Fleeing his marriage and illegal
businesses in San Antonio, Roy headed to Vinegaroon to become a saloonkeeper,
serving railroad workers whiskey from a tent. As his own best customer, he was
often drunk and disorderly.
But with the nearest courtroom a week's ride away, and County Commissioners
eager to establish some sort of local law enforcement. They appointed Roy Bean
Justice of the Peace for Precinct No. 6, Pecos County, Texas. Roy was just
crazy, or drunk enough to accept. He packed up and moved north from Vinegaroon
to a small tent city on a bluff above the Rio Grande named Langtry in honor of a
railroad boss who had run the Southern Pacific's tracks through it.
The name also happened to belong to a beautiful British actress, Lillie Langtry
Roy had read about and become enchanted with. Roy built a small saloon, he named
the Jersey Lilly (Lillie's moniker) which also served as his home. He hung a
tattered picture of Miss Lillie behind the bar, and above the door, posted signs
proclaiming "ICE COLD BEER" and "LAW WEST OF THE PECOS." From here Roy Bean
began dispensing liquor, justice and various tall tales, including that he
himself had named the town for actress Lillie Langtry.
Dispenser of "Justice" Roy Bean's justice was not complicated by legalities; it
was characterized by greed, prejudice, a little common sense and lots of
colorful language. "It is the judgment of this court that you are hereby tried
and convicted of illegally and unlawfully committing certain grave offenses
against the peace and dignity of the State of Texas, particularly in my
bailiwick," was a typical Bean ruling. "I fine you two dollars; then get the
hell out of here and never show yourself in this court again. That's my rulin'."
One of Bean's most outrageous rulings occurred when an Irishman was accused of
killing a Chinese worker. Friends of the accused threatened to destroy the
Jersey Lilly if he was found guilty. Court in session, Bean browsed through his
law book, turning page after page, searching for another legal precedent.
Finally, rapping his pistol on the bar, he proclaimed, "Gentlemen, I find the
law very explicit on murdering your fellow man, but there's nothing here about
killing a Chinaman. Case dismissed."
In legend, Judge Roy Bean is a merciless dispenser of justice, often called "The
Hangin' Judge." But that title goes to Isaac Parker of Fort Smith, Arkansas, who
sentenced 172 men to hang and actually strung up 88 of them. In his book "Judge
Roy Bean Country," Jack Skiles says that although Bean threatened to hang
hundreds, "there's no evidence to suggest that Judge Roy Bean ever hung
anybody." One or two were sentenced and taken to the gallows, but allowed to
escape.
Despite his self-serving antics, Roy was duly elected to the office in 1884 and
often reelected, so that between 1882 and 1902, most of Roy's bizarre rulings
were the law. Except for an occasional murder, his cases consisted mostly of
misdemeanor counts of drunkenness and the crimes of smalltime con men like
himself.
Roy spent most of his days sitting on the porch of his saloon, with rifle handy.
In his spare time, he served customers. His favorites were railroad passengers,
desperate for something to drink while the train took on water. Bean served them
quickly, then lingered before giving them their change. When the train's warning
whistle blew, customers swore and demanded their change. Roy then fined them the
exact amount and sent them cursing back to their railroad cars.
Birth of a Legend In 1898, prizefighting had become illegal in most Western
states, as it was in Mexico, and promoters could find nowhere to hold the world
championship title bout between Bob Fitzsimmons and Peter Maher. On February 22,
the Jersey Lilly was packed with 200 fight fans who, after a few rounds of
drinks, followed Roy to a bridge he built to a sand bar in the Rio Grande River.
While Texas Rangers watched the makeshift ring helplessly from atop the bluff,
Fitzsimmons decked Maher in only 95 seconds. After returning to the saloon for
more drinks, the fans and sportswriters headed for El Paso, where news stories
were filed to papers throughout the U.S.
This event launched the birth of the Roy Bean legend, which burgeoned after
continued newspaper and dime novel accounts of his exploits, many fabricated by
Roy himself. The myth of Roy Bean eventually became part of Texas folklore. In
1936, the Texas Centennial Fairgrounds displayed replicas of Roy's saloon and
office. In 1940, Walter Brennan received an academy award for his portrayal of
Roy Bean opposite Gary Cooper. In 1956, Edgar Buchanan played him in a weekly TV
series, and in the 1972, Paul Newman portrayed him in the movie, The Life and
Times of Judge Roy Bean.
Miss Lillie For years, Roy boasted of his "acquaintance with Miss Langtry," and
promised locals she would one day arrive and sing in Langtry. In 1896, after his
first saloon was destroyed by fire, Roy rebuilt the Jersey Lilly and constructed
a home for himself across the street, which he called the Opera House,
anticipating the day when Lillie would perform there. Roy never met Miss Lillie,
but he often wrote her, and she is purported to have written back, even sending
him 2 pistols, which he cherished till his dying day.
Contrary to the Larry McMurtry novel and movie Streets Of Laredo, Roy was not
gunned down by a Mexican outlaw on the steps of the Jersey Lilly. In March 1903,
Roy went on a drinking binge in Del Rio and simply died peacefully in his bed
the following morning.
Ten months later, the Southern Pacific stopped at Langtry and finally disgorged
Lillie herself on the way from New Orleans to San Francisco. She had decided to
take the judge up on his invitation. She visited the saloon and listened as
locals told her how Roy Bean had fined a corpse, freed a murderer and lined his
pockets by shortchanging train passengers. "It was a short visit," Lillie later
wrote in her autobiography, "but an unforgettable one."
Langtry Today These days, almost 100,000 sightseers visit Langtry each year.
Tourists from all over the world arrive by car, train and tour bus, seeking the
romance of the American West. "Where's your hangin' tree?" is their most common
question. But from the steps of the Jersey Lily saloon, one can only see the
remnants of an old mesquite tree, a dozen sad and dusty buildings and the hot,
unforgiving Chihuahuan Desert all about. The nearest courtroom is in Del Rio, 50
miles away.
Newspaper from March 1903
Judge Roy Bean, better known under the title of “Law West of the Pecos,” died at
3 o’clock this morning.
Judge Bean was apparently well Saturday morning when he called to one of his
hands to come to his place, claiming he was not feeling well. Toward 3 o’clock
in the afternoon he was found by some of his friends acting strangely in his
saloon and was asked what he was doing. He could not explain, as he was unable
to talk. He was immediately put to bed and the doctor telegraphed for, but when
he arrived and examined the patient, he said there was no hope. His children,
although hard to locate, were notified by wire, but only one—his son, Sam, who
was out seventy miles in the country—succeeded in arriving before his father
died, and took the remains on this morning’s train to Del Rio for burial.
Judge Bean, who was about 68 years old at the time of his death, was born in
Kentucky and came to Texas a young man, after taking a trip to California. Judge
Bean married about forty years ago at San Antonio to Miss Chavez, daughter of a
well respected Spanish settler of that place, who survives him and still resides
in that city. Judge Bean is survived by four children, Roy Jr., who is married
and lives at present in New Mexico; Mrs. Laura Mellon of Algiers, La.; Mrs.
Zulema Voss of Richmond, Texas; and Sam who still lived with his father. Judge
Roy Bean located at this place in 1883 and ran a beer saloon ever since; he was
justice of the peace of precinct No. 5 of Val Verde County since 1884, and with
the exception of four years, when he was defeated by J. P. Torres, he has held
the office till the time of his death.
Roy Bean was buried in Del Rio’s Westlawn Cemetery, March 17, 1903. His passing
was symbolic of the passing of an era in the country west of the Pecos.
certificate from the New Orleans Public Service Inc. This
historic document was printed by the American Banknote Company in 1922 and has
an ornate border around it.
NOPSI serves approximately 190,000 electric customers and 154,000 natural gas
customers in the New Orleans metropolitan area. Headquartered in New Orleans,
NOPSI primarily serves residential, commercial, and government customers in the
metropolitan New Orleans area.
The origin of NOPSI can be traced back some 170 years ago to the 1820s, when an
actorentrepreneur named James Caldwell opened his American Theatre on Camp
Street, lighting it with gas chandeliers. Spurred by success, he founded the New
Orleans Gas Light Co. By 1833 he was providing manufactured gas to a few street
lights and a hotel. Armed with an exclusive grant from the legislature, Caldwell
built the first commercial gas plant in the Deep South. The gas was made from
coal. New Orleans was one of the earliest cities in the U.S. to have a public
gas system.
Less than 50 years after gas lighting was introduced to the city, the era of
electricity began. The Southwestern Brush Electric Light and Power Company was
incorporated in New Orleans on June 11, 1881, and was the first company to
generate and distribute electricity in" the city. The company began operating
January 8, 1882, and by the end of that year had installed 12 generators serving
480 of the brilliant electric arc lights invented by Charles Brush, almost all
of them being used for street lighting.
The Edison Electric Illuminating Company was the first electric company in New
Orleans to provide incandescent lighting and other power needs. The company was
chartered on August 17, 1886.
The decades that ushered in present-day NOPSI were chaotic. By 1900, more than
200 different gas, electric, and streetcar companies had operated in New Orleans
since 1834. The resulting inefficient and wasteful duplication of service led to
ruinous competition and financial problems. By 1919 the principal utilities were
financially unstable and under federal receivership.
By early 1921 a federal receiver appointed the city's professional and business
leaders as the "Citizen's Committee of Forty" to study the situation and suggest
a solution. They recommended the formation of a single utility to provide
electricity, gas, and transit.
In April 1922, the New Orleans City Government passed the Settlement Ordinance
under which a new company could be created from the receivership. The Ordinance
set up controls to bring the new company and the city into a partnership. Later
in the year the entity was born as New Orleans Public Service Inc. On August 8,
1922, the newly formed company made its first incorporation by acquiring New
Orleans Railway and Light Co. By September 27, it had taken over a number of
subsidiaries and began operation.
At first the new company was not really a single entity, Technically, six
corporations with the name *New Orleans Public Service Company Inc." succeeded
each other in just five years as the charter was redrawn to encompass the latest
consolidations and acquisitions of former companies. The present NOPSI was
chartered January 1, 1926. It was formed out of a consolidation of
Consumers Electric Light and Power Company, which served the central business
district and portions of residential areas; Citizens Light and Power Company,
Inc., which served primarily the Carrollton section; and New Orleans Public
Service Inc. (1925), which served other parts of the city.
The creation of NOPSI finally ended a series of buyouts, bankruptcies and
consolidations since 1835 that involved no fewer than six gas companies, thirty
transit and street railway systems, and 18 electric or consolidated electric,
gas, and street railway companies.
The founding of NOPSI coincided with a leap in the consumption of electricity.
In 1921, the year before the first NOPSI was founded, there were 43,000 electric
meters in all of New Orleans. Five years later there were 86,000, The vast
majority of 1921 customers were commercial, industrial, and government. The
average customer used roughly 2,500 KWH per year, and the average residential
customer used 319 KWH per year. From 1926 to 1939 - an era dominated by the
Great Depression - electrical usage increased 400% while the number of customers
barely doubled. During that same period the cost of electricity fell 72%, so the
average residential user's total electric bill remained about the same despite
the huge increase in consumption. This reduction in cost is attributable to
efficiencies of new technology and economies of scale. From 1923 to 1985 the
average residential consumption of electricity in New Orleans increased 3,000%.
While the city's demand for electricity grew at an enormous rate from NOPSI's
founding onward, the city's entire generating capacity continued to be housed in
the same Market Street generating station. Finally, in 1947 the Industrial Canal
Generating Station was completed. It was renamed the A.B. Paterson Station in
1952. The last of three units at Michoud was completed in 1967. Since the late
1960s NOPSI has experienced a lack of growth, and no further generating
capability has been added.
The 1970s were characterized by the energy crunch caused by the Arab oil
embargo. With the trend away from natural gas and oil toward what was thought to
be at the time more economical coal and nuclear fuels, the company committed
itself to participation in the Grand Gulf Nuclear Plant along with MSU's other
utility subsidiaries. With the growth in demand for electricity disappearing as
the plant was being constructed, the need for it was continually questioned.
This was one of the major issues of the 1980s and resulted in the New Orleans
City Council in 1983appointing a Citizens Task Force to look into the
feasibility of the city municipalizing or taking over electric and gas
operations in Orleans Parish. Ultimately NOPSI remained in private hands (except
for the purchase of its transit operations in 1983 by the Regional Transit
Authority), but in 1985 voters in Orleans Parish chose to return regulation to
the New Orleans City Council from the LPSC.
