The North American Company was a

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies ...

incorporated in

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

on June 14, 1890, and controlled by

Henry Villard Henry Villard (April 10, 1835 – November 12, 1900) was an American journalist and financier who was an early president of the Northern Pacific Railway. Born and raised by Ferdinand Heinrich Gustav Hilgard in the Rhenish Palatinate of the Kin ...

, to succeed to the assets and property of the

Oregon and Transcontinental Company The Oregon and Transcontinental Company was a 19th-century holding company in the United States, organized by Henry Villard in 1881 to control the Northern Pacific Railroad and Oregon Railway and Navigation Company. It was incorporated in Oregon. ...

. It owned

public utilities A public utility company (usually just utility) is an organization that maintains the infrastructure for a public service (often also providing a service using that infrastructure). Public utilities are subject to forms of public control and r ...

and

public transport Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typical ...

companies and was broken up in 1946, largely to comply with the

Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 The Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 (PUHCA), also known as the Wheeler-Rayburn Act, was a US federal law giving the Securities and Exchange Commission authority to regulate, license, and break up electric utility holding companies. It l ...

. Its headquarters were at 60

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

Holdings

In 1889 New Jersey passed legislation to facilitate the control of other companies by another corporation with a goal of encouraging

trusts A trust is a legal relationship in which the holder of a right gives it to another person or entity who must keep and use it solely for another's benefit. In the Anglo-American common law, the party who entrusts the right is known as the "settl ...

to convert into holding companies and relocate to that state. To take advantage of these expanded corporate powers, in 1890 Oregon and Transcontinental, which was an Oregon corporation, re-incorporated as a holding company in New Jersey and became the North American Company. By 1940, North American was a US$2.3 billion holding company directly and indirectly heading up 80 companies. It controlled ten major direct subsidiaries in eight of which it owned at least 79%. Three of the ten were major holding companies: FindLaw.com *

Union Electric Company The Union Electric Company of Missouri (formerly ) was an electric power utility that was organized in 1902 and grew to be one of the large U.S. companies listed among the S&P 500. In 1997, its holding company merged with a smaller neighboring util ...

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...

Washington Railway and Electric Company The Washington Railway and Electric Company (WR&E) was the larger of the two major street railway companies in Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States, until 1933. At that time, it was merged with its main competitor, the Capital Tractio ...

North American Light and Power Company The North American Light and Power Company was a utility holding company formed in South Bend, Indiana and run since 1916 by its president, Clement Studebaker, Jr., of the family famous for the Studebaker automobiles.

Four of the ten direct subsidiaries were operating companies: *

Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company FirstEnergy Corp is an electric utility headquartered in Akron, Ohio. It was established when Ohio Edison acquired Centerior Energy in 1997. Its subsidiaries and affiliates are involved in the distribution, transmission, and generation of electri ...

Pacific Gas and Electric The Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) is an American investor-owned utility (IOU). The company is headquartered in the Pacific Gas & Electric Building, in San Francisco, California. PG&E provides natural gas and electricity to 5.2 milli ...

Detroit Edison Company DTE Electric Company (formerly The Detroit Edison Company) was founded in 1886. DTE Electric's power generation portfolio includes renewable energy, but is primarily generated by fossil fuels. In 2021, 67.32% of electricity generated by DTE came ...

Wisconsin Electric Power Company WEC Energy Group is an American company based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin that provides electricity and natural gas to 4.4 million customers across four states. Subsidiaries Wisconsin * We Energies, the umbrella name for Wisconsin Electric Power ...

Wisconsin Energy Corporation, History
wisconsinenergy.com The remaining three of the ten direct subsidiaries were: * North American Utility Securities Corporation * West Kentucky Coal Company *60 Broadway Building Corporation At various times during its existence, North American also owned substantial interests in these other companies as well: *

The Milwaukee Electric Railway and Light Company The Milwaukee Electric Railway and Light Company , also referred to as the Milwaukee Interurban Lines or TMER&L, is a defunct railroad that operated in and around Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It was the largest electric railway and electric utility syst ...

: Formed in 1896 as a subsidiary of the North American Company. By 1929, it operated within North American Company along with

, which became the consolidated name of the two operating companies in 1938. It now belongs to

Wisconsin Energy Corporation WEC Energy Group is an American company based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin that provides electricity and natural gas to 4.4 million customers across four states. Subsidiaries Wisconsin * We Energies, the umbrella name for Wisconsin Electric Power ...

() *

Capital Transit Streetcars in Washington, D.C. transported people across the city and region from 1862 until 1962. The first streetcars in Washington, D.C., were drawn by horses and carried people short distances on flat terrain; but the introduction of clean ...

: Formed on December 1, 1933, in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

from merger of Washington Railway,

Capital Traction The Capital Traction Company was the smaller of the two major street railway companies in Washington, D.C., in the early 20th century. It was formed in 1895 through a merger of the Rock Creek Railway and the Washington and Georgetown Railroad Comp ...

, and Washington Rapid Transit. North American owned it through its holding company subsidiary,

, which in turn was the holding company for the merged lines, owning 50% of Capital Transit. *

Potomac Electric Power Company The Potomac Electric Power Company (PEPCO) is an American utility company that supplies electric power to the city of Washington, D.C. and to surrounding communities in Maryland. It is owned by Exelon. The company's current trademarked slogan i ...

* Cincinnati Gas & Electric Company * Union Light, Heat and Power of

Covington, Kentucky Covington is a list of cities in Kentucky, home rule-class city in Kenton County, Kentucky, Kenton County, Kentucky, United States, located at the confluence of the Ohio River, Ohio and Licking River (Kentucky), Licking Rivers. Cincinnati, Ohio, ...

Northern Natural Gas Company Enron Corporation was an American energy, commodities, and services company based in Houston, Texas. It was founded by Kenneth Lay in 1985 as a merger between Lay's Houston Natural Gas and InterNorth, both relatively small regional companies. ...

* Butte Electric and Power Company *

Laclede Gas Company Laclede Gas Company is the largest natural gas distribution utility in Missouri, serving about 632,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers in the city of St. Louis and ten counties in eastern Missouri. As an adjunct to its gas distribut ...

*Edison Securities Corporation *Wired Radio, Inc. (

Muzak Muzak is an American brand of background music played in retail stores and other public establishments. The name has been in use since 1934, and has been owned by a division or subsidiary of one or another company ever since. In 1981, Westingh ...

) *North American Edison Company

History

The

passed with the intent of breaking up interstate electric holding companies by limiting company operations to a single state, thus subjecting them to effective state regulation. The North American Company fought the legislation in court, and the company was not broken up by the

Securities and Exchange Commission The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The primary purpose of the SEC is to enforce the law against market ...

until their loss before the Supreme court in '' North American Co. v. SEC'' on April 1, 1946.

Dow Jones Industrial Average

North American's stock was one of the twelve component stocks of the May 1896 original

Dow Jones Industrial Average The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), Dow Jones, or simply the Dow (), is a stock market index of 30 prominent companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States. The DJIA is one of the oldest and most commonly followed equity inde ...

,What happened to the original 12 companies in the DJIA?, djindixes.com
but it was replaced later that same year. In 1928, when the number of stocks comprising the DJIA was increased to 30, North American was re-added to the list but was replaced again in 1930. The two periods when it was a component were: *May 26, 1896 – August 26, 1896, replaced by U. S. Cordage *October 1, 1928 – January 29, 1930, replaced by

Johns-Manville Johns Manville is an American company based in Denver, Colorado, that manufactures insulation, roofing materials and engineered products. For much of the 20th century, the then-titled Johns-Manville Corporation was the global leader in the ma ...

References

External links

''Landis v. North American Co.''
{{Authority control Holding companies of the United States Defunct companies based in New Jersey American companies established in 1890 Financial services companies established in 1890 Financial services companies disestablished in 1946 1890 establishments in New Jersey 1946 disestablishments in New Jersey Former components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average

Holdings

History

Dow Jones Industrial Average

See also

References

External links