The stock market soared throughout the Roaring Twenties. In August 1921, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 63. By September 3, 1929, the Dow had risen to 381, an increase of more than 600%.
And then it crashed.
Continue readingIn 1928 and 1929, Public Utility Investment Company continued to thrive, growing even faster than before. Acquisitions increased several hundred percent during these two years.
Ralph and Chleo Jarvis settled into a new way of life in Salina. They were in a home of their own.
Acquisitions were booming. Investment sales were booming. Home office staff was booming.
Public Utility Investment Company invested in a much larger office. It was on the second floor of businesses along Santa Fe Avenue, the main street in Salina.
Nathan Jones had organized The Public Utility Investment Company (PUIC) in 1924. It was used to purchase the assets of States Power Company in Oklahoma, and then to sell the assets to the newly formed United Power Company.
Nathan Jones focused on his vision for the new Public Utility Investment Company. In late 1924, Jones moved his family from Abilene to Salina, Kansas. He opened a two-room office on the third floor of a bank in downtown Salina.
By January 1924, Pawnee Power and Water Company and all the other C.L. Brown companies were merged into United Light and Power Company.
Nathan Jones had risen to assistant treasurer, and Ralph Jarvis had moved up to head the construction division.
But there was an opportunity in Oklahoma.
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It was good that Chleo Jarvis lived in her mother’s household. They got along well. Anna had a daughter and grandchild at home, and Chleo had help raising Melvin.
In 1922, Ralph was age 28 and Chleo was 22.
Continue readingThe vision was a huge loop of transmission lines from Hutchinson to Larned to Kinsley to Turon and back to Hutchinson. It was the most ambitious plan for electrical distribution in Kansas.
Family Nibbles 