Originally, Commonwealth Edison provided power to the homes of Chicago residents. The utility company continued to grow and expand into other markets. Today, power plants like this one bring electricity to consumers far outside the Chicago area.

Commonwealth Edison Company:
The Illinois Company

Iisha D. Griffin
Brookwood Junior High School, Glenwood

In 1868 George H. Bliss and L. G. Tillotson started a small electric store. In 1871 the store burned in the Great Chicago Fire. Afterward, George Bliss became the store's owner, without anyone to help. George Bliss then formed an electricity company called Western Edison Light Company. He planned to show the people living in the Chicago area that electricity could work and be used in homes. In 1887 a Chicago ordinance allowed the company to use underground wires and conductors for the transmission of electricity in an area bounded by Lake Michigan, North Avenue, and Thirty-ninth Street.

Later the company was given to Chicago Edison Company. In August 1887 the company began to deliver electricity. The total connected load exceeded six thousand incandescent lights and grew to fifteen thousand lights by 1889. Edison allowed his customers to buy incandescent lamps for sixty-five cents, which included a free replacement. The Chicago Edison Company provided the means of electricity for the entire city.

In 1892 Samuel Insull became president of the Chicago Edison Company. Insull began acquiring

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rival companies and organizations that had wiring and underground cable franchises. The Chicago Edison Company, which secured its franchise in 1887, enjoyed a monopoly for the first decade of its history, having no competitors until the Commonwealth Electric Company was granted a parallel franchise in 1897. In another ten years power generation was again in the hands of a single utility.

In 1898 the Chicago Edison Company made many offers designed to bring more new customers to the company. The company, for a limited time only, suggested it would set up six outlets, free of charge, in unwired residents' homes, but only if the company's proprietors agreed to sign a contract giving them electrical lights for one whole year. Their suggestion was approved by the whole Chicago area and the proprietors. Chicago Edison also auctioned off electrical fans during the long and very warm summer seasons. The starting rate for that year was ten cents for the first thirty hours.

Samuel Insull, president of the company during the early years, was instrumental in expanding the company's service area.

In 1907 Chicago Edison and Commonwealth Electric Light and Power companies joined to become one company. The two original firms thus became the present Commonwealth Edison Company.

A different century had brought new kinds of light bulbs with better filaments. It also brought the world's first all-steam turbine generating plant, the Fisk Station. It brought the beginning of stores that sold electrical items, growth in the numbers of customers, acquisition of other organizations, and a company move to 72 West Adams. During that same time Commonwealth Edison Company moved into the huge Edison building on the same street.

In 1929 the one-millionth meter was installed, and the State Line Station was placed in service with the largest unit in the world—a distinction that lasted for twenty-five years. Simultaneously the company's maximum load exceeded one million kilowatts.

In 1930 Samuel Insull, James Simpson, and Charles Freeman became the company's board chairmen. They were responsible for the years of growth in northern Illinois. The chairmen that succeeded them were Willis Gale, J. Harris Ford in 1961, Thomas G. Ayers in 1973, and James J. O'Connor.

The Commonwealth Edison Company relied on coal, gas, and oil to keep electricity flowing. In 1951 the company was asked by the Atomic Energy Commission to join with other utilities to study the feasibility of atomic electricity. In 1960 Edison built a 180,000-kilowatt-capacity unit called The Dresden Nuclear Power Station. In the years afterward, Commonwealth Edison used a great deal of nuclear energy. In 1972 they expanded the Dresden Nuclear Power Station with the Quad-Cities Nuclear Power Station.

"The story of the Commonwealth Edison Company is the story of electricity helping to shape the future of northern Illinois. It is the story of convincing the public that electricity had great value," writes one historian. The utility has been substantial, and it has also been involved in the political and social history of Chicago.—[From Carl Condit, Chicago; Kenan Heise, Chicago; Michael Kilian, Who Runs Chicago?; Donald Tingley, The Structuring of a State.]

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