Illinois Power Co. - $1,000 Specimen Bond

$1,000 8 1/4% Specimen Bond printed by American Bank Note Company.

The Illinois Power Company is the second largest provider of gas and electricity in Illinois. It supplies electricity to more than 1.25 million subscribers in 309 municipalities and gas to more than 900,000 subscribers in 257 Illinois communities. Illinois Power has three belts of operation across the state: northern, central, and southern. Illinois Power Company’s history can be traced to dozens of small, independent utility and transportation companies formed in the late-19th and early-20th centuries, and two Illinois utility holding companies created between 1900 and 1920 to consolidate the smaller concerns. The two Illinois holding companies, Illinois Traction Company and Southern Illinois Light & Power Company, were themselves consolidated by a larger holding company in the 1920s, giving birth to Illinois Power Company’s first formal predecessor. Illinois Traction Company was formed in 1904 by utility investor William B. McKinley to bring together several heat, light, and power companies operating principally in the central Illinois communities of Danville, Champaign, Urbana, and Decatur. During the next 15 years, Illinois Traction expanded central Illinois operations and branched out into northern and southern portions of the state by acquiring utility systems in Bloomington, Normal, Jacksonville, Galesburg, LaSalle, Cairo, and Madison County.