Title: John I. Beggs Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1869-1924

Creator:

• Beggs, John I., 1847-1925

Call Number: Milwaukee Mss 182; Micro 2075; Milwaukee Micro 77; PH 1189-1192, 1194-1195, 1197, 1200 (3)

Quantity: 2.4 c.f. (6 archives boxes), 1 reel of microfilm (35 mm), and photographs

Repository:

Housed at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries’ Archives Department / Milwaukee Area Research Center; owned by the Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

UW-Milwaukee Libraries, Archives / Milwaukee Area Research Ctr. (Map)

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

Abstract:

Papers of Beggs, president of the Milwaukee Electric Railway and Light Co. and other utilities, consisting of correspondence, photographs, records of personal financial expenditures, and subject files pertaining to various utilities with which he was involved such as the Edison Electric Light Company, The Milwaukee Electric and Railway and Light Co. (TMERL) and the St. Louis Car Co. Correspondence primarily dates from the1890s when he managed the Chicago Edison Electric Co. It also pertains to other companies within the system, such as the Harrisburg Electric Co., for which he had responsibilities. A small portion of the correspondence pertains to TMERL and the Appleton Electric Co. The photographs received with the papers are divided into eight lots that document the staff and offices of the Edison Electric Company of Chicago; TMERL facilities and a staff outing; and his Beggs' Isle estate, Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. The original photographs are available in the Visual Materials Archive in Madison; they are in Milwaukee on microfilm. Portraits of Beggs, which were separated to the Visual Materials Name File, are available in Milwaukee on microfilm.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mil00182

 ↑ Bookmark this ↑

 ↑ Bookmark this ↑

John I. Beggs, financier, president of The Milwaukee Electric Railway and Light Company, and a prominent figure in national utility circles, was born in Philadelphia on September 17, 1847. He became an orphan at the age of seven and he began his working career as an apprentice in a brick yard, eventually putting himself through the Bryant and Stratton business college. After completing this course of instruction Beggs was hired as an instructor in accounting, but in 1869 he moved to Harrisburg, Penn., to accept an accounting position in a commercial firm.

In subsequent years Beggs built up a large real estate and insurance business. In 1883 he built an electric plant in order to secure electric lights for his church. As a result, he became acquainted with Thomas A. Edison, and three years later Beggs relocated to New York City as vice-president and general manager of the Edison General Electric Illuminating Co. In 1890 he moved to Chicago as the company's general western manager.

Beggs began his career in Milwaukee in 1897, becoming head of the local electric company. In 1911 he resigned to take charge of the St. Louis Car Company which was in difficult financial straits. Beggs succeeded in putting the company back on a sound financial footing and he retained a controlling interest in the firm until his death. In 1920 Beggs was recalled to Milwaukee to resume control of the electric company. In addition to the electric company, Beggs was director of over fifty companies: he was one of the principal stockholders of the North American Co; president and general manger of the Wisconsin Traction, Light, Heat and Power Co; director of the First Wisconsin National Bank; and director of the Wisconsin Securities Co. In addition during his last decade he directed the construction of the second largest paper mill in the country; engineered the reorganization of the J.I. Case Plow Company, arranged to finance a hotel in Atlantic City, and conducted a large Florida real estate transaction. Beggs died October 17, 1925 and was buried in Harrisburg. He was survived by a daughter, Mary Grace (Mrs. Richard) McCulloch.

The Beggs collection is a small group of material that was acquired by the Historical Society in 1957 when “Beggs Isle,” the family home in Oconomowoc, was turned over to a local hospital. The collection consists largely of business correspondence, photographs, personal financial records, and subject files.

Photographs received with the papers, which are perhaps the most generally useful portion of the collection, are divided into eight lots that document the staff and offices of the Edison Electric Company of Chicago; TMERL facilities and a staff outing shortly after the turn of the century; and his Beggs' Isle estate in Oconomowoc. The photographs of the Chicago offices, the TMERL Public Service Building, and the 1906 staff outing at Waukesha Beach are very high quality visual documentation. Portraits of Beggs were separated to the Visual Materials Name File. All of the lots and the material from the Name File are available on microfilm in the collection.

The subject files consist of publications and memorabilia of a few of the firms with which Beggs was associated, primarily the Edison Electric Light Company and its Chicago office, the St. Louis Car Company, and The Milwaukee Electric Railway and Light Co. The Edison Company is documented by a scrapbook indicating prices for the equipment Edison distributed to its system. The Chicago office is documented solely by the photographs mentioned above. TMERL is documented by annual financial reports, 1897-1901 and 1907-1909, several alternative financial plans developed in 1909, memorabilia, and the photograph lots also noted above. Also part of the subject files are receipts and bills documenting the personal expenditures of Beggs and his daughter. In the absence of any other personal information, this file contains a good deal of information about Beggs' life. Beggs' daughter married Robert McCulloch, and he and their son, John I. Beggs McCulloch, are represented in one of the subject files.

The Correspondence series is divided into two sections: correspondence that was received loose and two letter boxes. Both document the 1890s. Generally, the loose material documents the earlier years of the decade, with the boxed material documenting the later years. Both primarily refer to the period when Beggs managed the Chicago Edison Electric Company, although the majority refer to other companies within the Edison system with which Beggs had responsibilities. By far the most extensively documented is the Harrisburg Electric Company. Very little refers to his responsibility for The Milwaukee Electric Light and Railway Co. for which he assumed responsibility in 1897. A few letters pertain to his interest in the Appleton Electric Company.

Acquisition Information

Presented by Mrs. James Lowell Oakes, Jr., Miami, Florida, 1957.

Milwaukee Mss 182	Series: Subject Files
Box   1 Folder   1	American State Railroad Association, 1893, 1905-1906
Box   1 Folder   2	Bell Place Realty Company, St. Louis, n.d.
	Edison General Electric Co.
Box   1 Folder   3	Price lists, n.d.
PH 1189/Milwaukee Micro 77/Micro 2075	Chicago, Album of photographs of offices and work rooms, ca. 1898
PH 1190/Milwaukee Micro 77/Micro 2075	Chicago, Album of portraits of staff, ca. 1892
Milwaukee Mss 182 Box   1 Folder   4	Electric railways, n.d.
	Financial records
	Chronological
Box   1 Folder   5	1869-1885
Box   2 Folder   1-2	1886-1890
Box   2 Folder   3-17	Alphabetical, 1890-1906
Box   2 Folder   18	Kenosha Gas & Electric, Indenture, 1900
Box   2 Folder   19	Laclede Gas & Light Co.
Box   3 Folder   2	McCulloch, Robert and John I.B., 1915-1924
	Memorabilia
Box   3 Folder   3	General
Box   3 Folder   4	TMERL
Box   3 Folder   1, 5	North American Co.
Box   3 Folder   6	Personal property
PH 1194/Milwaukee Micro 77/Micro 2075	Photographs, Album about Beggs Isle, Oconomowoc
Milwaukee Mss 182 Box   3 Folder   7	St. Louis Car Company souvenir book, 1904
	TMERL (The Milwaukee Electric Railway and Light Co.)
Box   3 Folder   8	Comparative statements, 1897-1901
Box   3 Folder   9	Comptroller's reports, 1907-1909
Box   3 Folder   10	Financial plans, 1907-1909
PH 1197/Milwaukee Micro 77/Micro 2075	Photographs of employee outing at Waukesha Beach, 1906
PH 1200 (3)/Milwaukee Micro 77/Micro 2075	Photographs of the Public Service Building, ca. 1905
PH 1191/Milwaukee Micro 77/Micro 2075	Souvenir album of TMERL growth, presented to JIB at farewell dinner, 1911
PH 1192/Milwaukee Micro 77/Micro 2075	Photo prints of electric tunnel construction under the Milwaukee River for TMERL, ca. 1918
Milwaukee Mss 182 Box   4 Folder   1	United Railway Company
	Series: Correspondence	⇧
	Loose correspondence, 1893-1898
Box   4 Folder   2	Appleton Electric, 1894-1895
Box   4 Folder   3	Bain, F.R. (Poughkeepsie realtor), 1896-1897
	Harrisburg Electric Company
Box   4 Folder   4-10	1893-1896
Box   5 Folder   1-4	1896-1898, 1922
Box   5 Folder   5	Marquand, Skehan and Co. (Investment brokers and bankers), 1893-1895
Box   5 Folder   6	Mitchell and Co. (Harrisburg agent, Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Co.), 1893-1895
Box   5 Folder   7-8	Muir, John (Receiver, Schenectady Illuminating and Gas Light Co.), 1894-1896
	Boxed Correspondence file, 1896-1899
Box   5 Folder   9-10	A-B
Box   6 Folder   1-13	C-W