Carolyn McAdams says it’s hard to imagine what it was like in 1895 when the first lights were turned on in Greenwood.
“It had to have been a glorious moment,” said the mayor, one of several called on to speak Monday to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the introduction of electricity to the city.
A mostly masked crowd of 50 convened outside the downtown headquarters of Greenwood Utilities for Monday’s event. They may have been more subdued than the townspeople who gathered in that same vicinity before the turn of the 20th century for a champagne toast to mark the arrival of electric power.
At that time, Greenwood had a population of 1,200, according to Dr. Mary Carol Miller, a local historian who joined advertising agency executive Allan Hammons to provide a glimpse of the sensational but humble start of electricity in the city. Kerosene lamps or candles were the only previous source of light when the sun went down.
But when business partners T. Staige Marye and C.E. Wright fired up their generator, it produced enough juice to power a dozen carbon arc street lamps.
Their enterprise would birth Greenwood Utilities almost a decade later, when Wright sold the franchise for the city’s water, electrical and sanitary sewer systems back to the city for $123,000, according to Hammons. That would be the equivalent of about $3.5 million today.
This circa 1900 photo shows the power-generating facility that would become part of Greenwood Light and Water Plant, later known as Greenwood Utilities.
First known as Greenwood Light and Water Plant, by 1946 it had grown to become “the largest, most successful publicly owned utility in Mississippi,” Hammons said.
Today, Greenwood Utilities provides electricity to more than 10,000 residential and business customers. It also is a major contributor to the city’s operations, providing an estimated $2 million annually in services and cash — from free electricity and water for city offices and schools to matching funds that allow the city to secure government grants for infrastructure projects.
Swayze
Brian Finnegan, left, CEO of Greenwood Utilities, addresses the audience Monday at an event to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the dawn of electricity in the city.
“These contributions, whatever amount of money it may be, allow Greenwood to use their tax revenue for other matters,” said Charles Swayze Jr., chairman of the utility’s three-member board.
“It’s always been such a wonderfully run company,” echoed McAdams, whose first “real job” was as an assistant to the bookkeeper at Greenwood Utilities. The company’s current employment stands at 58.
Charles Wright didn’t know the grandfather who became commonly known as “the father of public utilities in Greenwood.” The now retired banker would not be born until decades after C.E. Wright died in 1920, when he was hit by a train not far from the utility’s headquarters.
Still, Charles Wright said, he is honored that his name is associated with the historical first.
“I’m blessed to be part of it. I didn’t do anything to earn it. I was born into it. God was gracious enough to give me a great family.”
Wright spoke beneath an enlarged portrait photo of his grandfather, which had been hung on the outside of the utility’s headquarters for the occasion.
He said his hometown is fortunate to have Greenwood Utilities. “Very few cities in Mississippi now have their own utility company,” he said. “Most of them have lost it. They’re no longer in operation anymore. The big corporations have taken it over. We’re blessed to still have what we have today.”
Swayze said he is not sure the citizens of Greenwood appreciate what an asset they have with a utility company that provides electricity at a lower-than-average cost as well as clear, good-tasting water — all overseen by a dedicated workforce. “We should be thankful for that,” he said.
Monday’s event kicks off Greenwood Utilities’ annual celebration of Public Power Week.
• Contact Tim Kalich at 581-7243 or tkalich@gwcommonwealth.com.
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