HISTORY OF THE (HEN ISLAND) TWIN BRANCH DAM
In January of 1900, the Eastern capitalists and investors that owned Elkhart Electric Company (which had been formed in 1898 to acquire all the assets of Home Electric Light and Power Company [f., 1892] in the City of Elkhart, Indiana), entered into a business arrangement, and formed a new company, with James DuShane of South Bend and Martin Beiger of Mishawaka to construct a dam and powerhouse three miles east of Mishawaka just upstream of where Twin Branch Creek empties into the St. Joseph River. The company they formed, the St. Joseph & Elkhart Power Company, was created to transmit this power to Elkhart to be distributed to the City of Elkhart through their Elkhart Electric Company. The site for what is now known as Twin Branch Power Plant was originally known as Hen Island because an old Frenchman who owned the several islands in the river at that point made his living raising and selling chickens off of the larger island; because of the island arrangement the Frenchman had no need for fences to keep his stock at bay.
Work on “Hen Island Dam” began on March 29, 1900, under the direction of Sanderson and Porter, a consulting civil engineering firm from New York City. After successfully battling litigation brought on because of direct competition from millionaire Charles Chapin, the new dam was completed on December 16, 1903.
This same group of investors building the Hen Island Dam, organized the South Bend Power Company in February of 1900, having in mind the construction of a dam at the state line, six miles below South Bend (at the location where Bertrand Park/St. Patrick’s County Park is today), and the transmission and distribution of the generated power to the City of South Bend, (where the South Bend Power Company was competing to seize the franchise away from Charles Chapin’s South Bend Electric Company), and to Niles, Michigan. This eastern bloc of investors would then distribute the generated electricity through its South Bend Power Company, if successful in acquiring a city franchise (and in direct competition with Mr. Chapin’s South Bend Electric Company). Hen Island Plant began generating electricity in December of 1903.
In order to surmount this aggressive electric competition exhibited by the Eastern syndicate, Mr. Chapin initiated litigation on several fronts (including a claim that the St. Joseph River was navigable at the point of construction for the Hen Island Dam). Although the Eastern syndicate won all the lawsuits encountered, the group was eventually financially drained in fighting such a long struggle. Consequently, in 1904, a compromise was formed between the warring factions, and the two parties pooled interests and created Indiana and Michigan Company of New Jersey to be jointly owned by the Eastern Syndicate and millionaire Charles Chapin. This New Jersey company was a holding company of the stocks and bonds of the various operating companies (i.e., St. Joseph & Elkhart Power Company, South Bend Electric Company, etc.). In 1907, after Chapin had acquired the other parties’ interests, the New Jersey holding company was dissolved and the Indiana and Michigan Electric Company of Indiana, an operating company, was formed. This was done in part because, ever since the New Jersey holding company had been formed in 1904, the electrical development of the St. Joseph Valley had in reality been treated as a single unit and all the separate companies had been effectively working as one entity. In the same year that the Indiana operating company was formed (1907) the “Hen Island Dam” name was officially dropped and replaced with “Twin Branch Dam” to coincide with the surrounding residential development then known as Twin Branch.
After the death of Charles Chapin in 1913, control of the hydroelectric plants he helped to build, as well as the control of Indiana and Michigan Electric Company, passed into the hands of his children. The entire assets of the “I and M” were sold by the Chapin interests on August 30, 1922, to American Gas & Electric Company, an electric utility holding company based in New York City; Indiana and Michigan Electric Company continued as an operating company after the acquisition. Following the merger of Twin Branch Power Company with Indiana and Michigan Electric Company in 1925, a new operating company based in South Bend, Indiana, was then incorporated as Indiana & Michigan Electric Company (the word “and” was replaced with an ampersand). The “I&M” headquarters was moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana, when American Gas & Electric Company merged its newly-acquired Indiana Service Corporation into I&M in 1948. To better reflect its increasing electric role, American Gas and Electric Company officially changed its name to the present American Electric Power Company (AEP) in 1958 and, after a acquiring a new Ohio-based operating company, AEP moved its system headquarters from New York City to Columbus, Ohio, in 1980. In 1987, AEP changed the name of its Indiana operating company from Indiana & Michigan Electric Company to Indiana Michigan Power Company (I&M).
In January of 1900, the Eastern capitalists and investors that owned Elkhart Electric Company (which had been formed in 1898 to acquire all the assets of Home Electric Light and Power Company [f., 1892] in the City of Elkhart, Indiana), entered into a business arrangement, and formed a new company, with James DuShane of South Bend and Martin Beiger of Mishawaka to construct a dam and powerhouse three miles east of Mishawaka just upstream of where Twin Branch Creek empties into the St. Joseph River. The company they formed, the St. Joseph & Elkhart Power Company, was created to transmit this power to Elkhart to be distributed to the City of Elkhart through their Elkhart Electric Company. The site for what is now known as Twin Branch Power Plant was originally known as Hen Island because an old Frenchman who owned the several islands in the river at that point made his living raising and selling chickens off of the larger island; because of the island arrangement the Frenchman had no need for fences to keep his stock at bay.
Work on “Hen Island Dam” began on March 29, 1900, under the direction of Sanderson and Porter, a consulting civil engineering firm from New York City. After successfully battling litigation brought on because of direct competition from millionaire Charles Chapin, the new dam was completed on December 16, 1903.
This same group of investors building the Hen Island Dam, organized the South Bend Power Company in February of 1900, having in mind the construction of a dam at the state line, six miles below South Bend (at the location where Bertrand Park/St. Patrick’s County Park is today), and the transmission and distribution of the generated power to the City of South Bend, (where the South Bend Power Company was competing to seize the franchise away from Charles Chapin’s South Bend Electric Company), and to Niles, Michigan. This eastern bloc of investors would then distribute the generated electricity through its South Bend Power Company, if successful in acquiring a city franchise (and in direct competition with Mr. Chapin’s South Bend Electric Company). Hen Island Plant began generating electricity in December of 1903.
In order to surmount this aggressive electric competition exhibited by the Eastern syndicate, Mr. Chapin initiated litigation on several fronts (including a claim that the St. Joseph River was navigable at the point of construction for the Hen Island Dam). Although the Eastern syndicate won all the lawsuits encountered, the group was eventually financially drained in fighting such a long struggle. Consequently, in 1904, a compromise was formed between the warring factions, and the two parties pooled interests and created Indiana and Michigan Company of New Jersey to be jointly owned by the Eastern Syndicate and millionaire Charles Chapin. This New Jersey company was a holding company of the stocks and bonds of the various operating companies (i.e., St. Joseph & Elkhart Power Company, South Bend Electric Company, etc.). In 1907, after Chapin had acquired the other parties’ interests, the New Jersey holding company was dissolved and the Indiana and Michigan Electric Company of Indiana, an operating company, was formed. This was done in part because, ever since the New Jersey holding company had been formed in 1904, the electrical development of the St. Joseph Valley had in reality been treated as a single unit and all the separate companies had been effectively working as one entity. In the same year that the Indiana operating company was formed (1907) the “Hen Island Dam” name was officially dropped and replaced with “Twin Branch Dam” to coincide with the surrounding residential development then known as Twin Branch.
After the death of Charles Chapin in 1913, control of the hydroelectric plants he helped to build, as well as the control of Indiana and Michigan Electric Company, passed into the hands of his children. The entire assets of the “I and M” were sold by the Chapin interests on August 30, 1922, to American Gas & Electric Company, an electric utility holding company based in New York City; Indiana and Michigan Electric Company continued as an operating company after the acquisition. Following the merger of Twin Branch Power Company with Indiana and Michigan Electric Company in 1925, a new operating company based in South Bend, Indiana, was then incorporated as Indiana & Michigan Electric Company (the word “and” was replaced with an ampersand). The “I&M” headquarters was moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana, when American Gas & Electric Company merged its newly-acquired Indiana Service Corporation into I&M in 1948. To better reflect its increasing electric role, American Gas and Electric Company officially changed its name to the present American Electric Power Company (AEP) in 1958 and, after a acquiring a new Ohio-based operating company, AEP moved its system headquarters from New York City to Columbus, Ohio, in 1980. In 1987, AEP changed the name of its Indiana operating company from Indiana & Michigan Electric Company to Indiana Michigan Power Company (I&M).
