NIPSCO

In 1926, Samuel Insull combined Northern Indiana Gas & Electric with his Calumet Electric Co., forming the Northern Indiana Public Service Co.

The joining of Calumet Electric and Northern Indiana Gas and Electric Co. was the beginning of the modern Northern Indiana Public Service Co. The first chairman was Samuel Insull, one of the creators of General Electric. At the time, Insull also owned the Chicago South Shore and South Bend Railroad.

By the 1930s, NIPSCO consolidated its business in the 30 counties of Northern Indiana by trading properties it owned in Lafayette, Crawfordsville, Frankfort and Lebanon with Interstate Public Service Co. for properties that company owned in Goshen, Warsaw and Monticello.

1926 - Jun 9 -A Greater Company to Serve "The Workshop of America" THE Northern Indiana Gas and with the Electric Company formally merged Northern Indiana Public Service Company (formerly called the Calumet Gas and Electric Company). The merger of these two important public utility companies became effective on June, the plan having previously been approved by the common stockholders of both companies and by the Public Service Commis- sion of Indiana. The two companies which now will be operated as one, served the same general territory in northern Indiana. Completion of the merger makes the Northern Indiana Public Service Company of the outstanding public utility com- one panies in the state, serving 119 communities in 25 counties with gas or electricity or both. The population of the area served is estimated at 560,000. Because of the comand rapidly growing industrial centers faciligreat in this territory, it has come to be known as "The Workshop of America". The new and greater company has 12 gas manufacturing plants with a total capacity of 25,340,000 cubic feet. An electric power supply of 121,500 kilowatts is available for the company's electric light and power customers. The company also operperates a 132,000 volt super-power line between the Indiana-Illinois state line and Michigan City, which is connected with the great power supply in the Chicago district which has been called "the greatest pool of power in the world". The company has 59,804 electric customers and 116,595 gas customers. Merger of these companies will permit the developing and financing of the comand pany to better advantage and will faciligreat tate centralized generation of electrical energy and mass production of gas for domestic and industrial uses with the attendant benefits in efficiency and continuity of service The same high standard of service, the same devotion to duty, the same personnel with whom you are acquainted and the same respect for customers satisfaction will characterize the operation of this company — with improvements in each whenever possible. NORTHERN INDIANA PUBLIC SERVICE COMPANY Serving "The Workshop of America".

1926 - Sep 8 IMMENSE GENERATORTO SUPPLY THIS SECTION

TWO YEARS TO INSTALL

New Station Will Be Largest of It's Kind Will Burn Two Tons of Coal a Minute.

According to a dispatch to the New York World, Culver and that part of Indiana that is now served by the Northern Indiana Public Service Company will soon be getting its electricity from a turbine generator set of 208.000 kilowatts, practically three times larger than any turbine unit now in operation in this country and approximately 40 per cent greater in capacity than any now being manufactured.

This will be installed as the first unit in what ultimately will be the world's largest steam electric generating station, to be built on the Indiana side of the Indiana-Illinois State line on the shore of Lake Michigan.

This new station will be unusual in that it will serve as a producer and wholesaler of electricity, supplying energy for the interconnected power companies of the area near Chicago in the Indiana and Illinois districts.

The Board of Directors of the State Line Company include the heads of the various companies which will receive power from the station, including Commonwealth Edison, Public Service Company af Northwestern Illinois, Interstate Public Service Company and Northern Indiana Public Service Company.

Plans are under way to increase the output of this one station ultimately to 1,000,000 kilowatts. The machine just ordered will be the first turbine generator to produce electric current at 18,000 volts. The present high records for generators of this type is 14,000 volts. One element of the new machine, known as the high presure section, will produce 76,000 kilowatts of electricity, and the other two low pressure sections will use steam exhausted from the first element after it has been reheated, and each will produce 66,000 kilowatts. These combined will give about 280,000 horse power, and are equal to 63 per cent of the electricity produced by the Niagara Falls Power Company at the world famous cataract.

Delivery of this turbine has been promised in eighteen months. It will supply enough electricity tO pull 160 fully loaded Twentieth Century Express trains from New York to Albany, operate 100 Panama Canals or take care of the electrical needs of a city with a population of 1,700,000.

The entire set will weigh abont 4.000,000 pounds.

Approximately 400.000 gallons of water each minute will be pumped in and out of the new plant, chiefly for cooling the turbine. To cool the generator will require 350,000 cubic feet of air per minute.

More than two tons of low grade Illinois coal will be used per minute in the operation of this machine.

The record for size in single machines ever shipped is held by the General Electric Compeny for the 60.000 kilowatt units built by the New York Edison and Buffalo General Electric Companies.

1927- Sep 7 - LINEMAN'S LIFE ENDS WHEN 2300 VOLTS PASS THROUGH BODY

Comes In Contact With Live Wire While Working On Top Of Pole.

TOUCHED BOTH ARMS

Resuscitation Fails After Fellow Workers Labor Unceasingly For Four Hours.

Leo Murphy, a lineman for the Northern Indiana Public Service Company, was electrocuted at the corner of Madison and State streets last Friday when both of his arms came in contact with a live wire and formed a circuit for the passage of 2300 volts through his body.

Murphy was at work with other members of the line crew replacing iron wire with copper and while at the top of a pole, Murphy turned in some manner so that both arms touched the live wire. He was thrown from the wire, but his safety belt held him up and he was lowered by a rope by his fellow workmen.

They immediately started using artificial respiration and continued their efforts for four hours until rigor mortis set in.

The victim was conscious for a few moments after the accident, but soon lapsed into unconsciousness.

Leo is the son of Mr. and Mrs. William Murphy of Plymouth, but as the father is ill, he was not notified of the death at the time.

He is survived also by his two brothers and an adopted sister

1936 - Jan 29 - NIPSCO Moves Next Door Into Larger Quarters

The Northern Indiana Publice service Company moved last week into its new quarters in the State Exhange Bank Builing

It is occupying the room formerly used by the post office, which is next door to the utility's former location.

The room has been divided into three rooms the front office - manager's office and a stock room. The change allows a greatly impoved space for display of mercandise.

Workmen are now busy remodeling the room to be used as a private office for W. O. Osborn, which is at the rear of the Western Union room,

1926 Feb 10 - New Name Selected For Public Service Co.

The Name of the Calument Gass and Eletric Company serving this community, has been changed to Northern INdiana Public Sercice Company

Because the Company has grown by purchase and extensions to include properties extending across northern Indiana from Illinois to the Ohio stateline, the new name more accurate;u describes the terrritory new served by this company.

The Northern Indiana Public Service Company gives service to 83 communities in Northern Indiana. The compan owns the 132,00 volt super-power line which extends from the Indiana-Illinois state line to Michigan City and an extension to that line which is not under construction which will interconnect this company with powers systems extending to Virgina, West Virginia and eastern Kentucky.

Northern Indiana Public Service Co. successor to Calumet Gass and Electric Company - Culver Citizen

The building in 2000

Culver Employess

Earl Mishler

Lester Young

Other Properties

Nipsco Substation

Merger History

In 1918 - the company was then the Hawk's Electric Liight co., at Milford

and then became Interstate Public Service Company

Samuel Insull organized the Interstate Public Service Company in Indianapolis in 1912 with headquarters located in the Traction Terminal Building. The company provided power for interurban electric train service between Indianapolis and Louisville.

In 1923, Northern Indiana was purchased by Samuel Insull, who owned utilities all round the Chicago area.

the descendant of several small enterprises founded during the nineteenth century, including the South Bend Gas Light Co., established in 1868 by the Studebaker brothers, of the famous wagon-making firm. During the first decade of the twentieth century, a series of mergers caused the Hammond Illuminating Co. (founded in 1901) to become the South Shore Gas & Electric Co., which by 1909 would become the Northern Indiana Gas & Electric Co. In 1923, Northern Indiana was purchased by Samuel Insull, who owned utilities all around the Chicago area
In 1909, Northern Indiana Gas and Electric Company was formed; a year later, it acquired South Bend Gas Light Company and became a subsidiary of United Gas Improvement Co. This formative branch of NIPSCO was complemented by another, the Calumet Electric Company, whose 1912 date of incorporation is usually given as the inception of NIPSCO. Like Northern Indiana Gas, Calumet eventually attracted the interest of a large holding company, the multi-billion-dollar Midland Utilities Company, managed by Samuel Insull, a former business secretary of Edison and a titan of the public utilities industry. In 1923, Midland acquired Northern Indiana Gas, thus uniting the two branches of NIPSCO


and then NIPSCO In 1926, when Insull combined Northern Indiana Gas & Electric with his Calumet Electric Co., forming the Northern Indiana Public Service Co. NIPSCO attained its near-present form when Calumet changed its corporate name to Northern Indiana Public Service Company and then merged with Northern Indiana Gas. At that time, NIPSCO, chaired by Insull, served 25 counties and approximately 200,000 customers.

Over the years Insull centralized control of many small electric and gas companies into Interstate but overextended his holdings and following the stock market crash in 1929, he was forced to declare bankruptcy.

1929 - May 29 - DOES CULVER WANT GAS ASKS COMPANY
WHAT'S YOUR WILL?

Northern Indiana Public Service Company Willing to Install Gas If Public Wants it.

Does Culver want gas? That is the question officials of the Northern Indiana Public Service Company are asking of the citizens of Culver. The company is not asking for any signed orders or advanced deposits, but simply asks that the community express its desires on the subject.

Gas may be used in the home for cooking, for heating a hot water tank, and in a furnace.

The company| would be willing to bring a gas line into an individual's house for any of these uses. It is stated that the cost of gas for heating is about onethird of the cost of electricity.

The company now has lines as close as Plymouth and these are being extended to Argos, it is stated. Bremen and Nappanee were given gas last year.

If you are interested in seeing a gas line come to Culver call the Northern Indiana Public Service office or tell a member of the town boar


In 1931 when J.N. Shannahan replaced Insull as Chairman of the Board, the company name changed to Public Service Indiana (PSI)

For a brief time, Samuel Insull, Jr., served as chairman, but by 1932, with the election of John N. Shannahan to the post, the Insull family ceased its direct participation in NIPSCO's affairs. Meanwhile, acquisitions, service territory, and power capability increased rapidly. Following Shannahan's death in 1938, NIPSCO embarked on a long, steady period of growth under the leadership of Dean H. Mitchell.

NIPSCO began working with Commonwealth Edison of Chicago in 1939 by selling a subsidiary to Comm Ed but retaining a long-term contract.

In 1947, Midland Utilities Company sold block of privately held stock in NIPSCO, allowing the former subsidiary to go public.

By the middle of the 1960s, this Hammond-based company grossed nearly $200 million in annual sales and employed over 4,000 people Net income in 1969 amounted to $37 million, up from $27 million net income in 1965

The 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s were marked by continued corporate expansion and the completion of the Mitchell, Bailly, and Schahfer generating stations, all located in the northwestern corner of Indiana. Together with the Michigan City plant, completed decades earlier, these electric stations possess a total capacity of 3,059 megawatts, or approximately 90 percent of NIPSCO's total power capability

By 1970 NIPSCO was capable of generating 1.39 million kilowatts, with 500,000 kilowatts available under purchase contracts. The company engaged in extensive dealings with Commonwealth Edison, Public Service Company of Indiana, and Indiana & Michigan Electric Comp

In 1988, the name of the company was changed to Nipsco Industries Inc.

By the 1990s, Nipsco was providing electricity to 400,000 customers in Northern Indiana; it also had about 700,000 gas customers.

After several more mergers and acquisitions at the end of the twentieth century, the company operated out of Merrillville, Indiana, and became known as NiSource Inc., with more than $6 billion in annual revenues and 7,500 employees





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1951- Mar 28 - NIPSCO moving College Avenue Power Lines
A project of considerable inter est and "merit Involving the moving of wires and poles from the north side of College Avenue to dhe rear of properties located there is now being carried out by the Northern Indiana Public Service Company.

The poles carrying important electric lines, which are being moved, are located on the terraces of the College Avenue properties. Easements obtained from property" owners were necessary before the present work could be carried out.

All the poles with the exception of two or three on the east end of College Avenue are being moved. Geonge McLaughlin, district manager, stated yesterday that the work should be completed by May 1. It is estimated that the project will cost - $6,000.

The lines have been a source of many aggravating maintenance problems, not to mention radio Interference and periodic tree trimming. On several occasions, particularly during storms, there has been interruption of power along these lines.

Mr. McLaughlin pointed out "Eventually our plans call for a 33,000 volt line which will be located on Road 10 and will go to the Bruce Lake substation on State Road 14.

At that time we will have a 33,000 volt line from Kewanna up to Plymouth. It will then be possible to supply Culver with electric power from either the north or the south."


1959 - Sep 9 - Culver May Get Natural Gas From Texas

1960 - Culver Gets Natural Gas