Jenney Electric → General Electric

1881 – 2015

Founded: 1881 — Griswold (1917) gives the organisation in detail: James A. Jenney, "inventor of an electric arc lamp and a small dynamo, came to Fort Wayne" in 1881 and installed his apparatus at Evans, McDonald and Company; "On November 1, of this year, with an authorized capital of $100,000, Ronald T. McDonald organized the Fort Wayne Jenney Electric Light Company," with H. G. Olds as president, Perry A. Randall as vice-president, Oscar A. Simons as secretary, and R. T. McDonald as treasurer and general manager. (The organiser's first name is spelled "Ronald" in Griswold's transcription and "Ranald" in ACGSI and later accounts — flagged, not silently settled.) The News-Sentinel agrees on the year and the man: Jenney "came to town in 1881 to manufacture an arc lamp and small electric dynamo he had invented," first in a cramped building at Wells and Superior, drawing 2,000 people to a public display of his arc lights two weeks after arriving. The lineage from Jenney Electric to General Electric is stated as a whole; its exact corporate dates conflict — see Course.

Founders: James A. Jenney and his son Charles D. Jenney (the patents were "at first chiefly those of James A. Jenney, and his son Charles D. Jenney," per the 1889 Valley of the Upper Maumee River account indexed in research), organised and financed by R. T. McDonald with H. G. Olds, Perry A. Randall and Oscar A. Simons as first officers (Griswold). The firm first occupied a building at Calhoun and Superior used by John H. Bass as a boiler shop (Griswold).

What it did: Manufactured and sold the Jenney arc-lighting system — arc lamps and dynamos — and lit public and commercial spaces: first commercial installation in the Home Billiard Parlor (News-Sentinel); in 1884 "the company lighted the New Orleans World's Fair" (News-Sentinel; a 2023 Quest Club paper on Electric Works likewise says Jenney Electric "provided all outdoor lighting for the New Orleans World's Fair"). Under its successors the Broadway plant's work shifted from lighting to electric motors, transformers, alternators, dynamos and switches (City of Fort Wayne statement in the 2023 National Register release; Indiana Landmarks).

Course: The company moved to Broadway by the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago tracks — date flagged: the News-Sentinel says the move had happened by 1886; Griswold dates the purchase of the vacated Gause Agricultural Works plant at Broadway to the sequence before 1885's hiring of chief electrician M. M. M. Slattery, and the 2023 Quest Club paper dates the relocation to 1885 — purchase 1885 / occupation by 1886 is the most the sources support. The 1883 night game: on 2 June 1883 Jenney lit League Park with 17 arc lamps of 4,000 candlepower each for a seven-inning game, Northwestern League professionals from Quincy, Illinois, against Methodist College, Quincy winning 19–11; the Gazette, the Fort Wayne News and Sporting Life all criticised the light (19th Century Baseball, from the contemporary periodicals). The event is recorded; the claim that it was the first night baseball game is not supported — an amateur night game between two Boston department-store employee teams had already been played under lights at Hull, Massachusetts, on 2 September 1880 (16–16 tie, Boston Post / Boston Transcript / Boston Daily Globe coverage, summarised on the same source). The defensible wording is at most "an early night game, and an early one involving a professional team" — not "the first night game." In 1888 the Thomson-Houston Electric Company (spelled "Thompson-Houston" in Griswold's transcription) "secured a controlling interest in the stock… and at that time the word 'Jenney' was dropped from the name" (Griswold; News-Sentinel agrees on the 1888 purchase and renaming). In November 1888 "the entire plant was destroyed by fire, but it was rebuilt, and operations were resumed in July, 1889" (Griswold). James J. Wood arrived with the May 1890 acquisition of Thomson-Houston's Brooklyn factory — Cityscapes dates his arrival to December 1890 and the 2023 Quest Club / Ankenbruck-based accounts to 3 December 1890; Griswold says he "was engaged to come to Fort Wayne" in May 1890 — and the "Wood System" followed. GE-date conflict, flagged as needing GE records: (a) a 2023 Quest Club paper holds that because Thomson-Houston already controlled the plant, control passed to GE automatically when Thomson-Houston consolidated with Edison General Electric in 1892; (b) the News-Sentinel says the Fort Wayne Electric Corp. "was officially absorbed by the General Electric Co." in January 1899; (c) the City of Fort Wayne's 2023 statement says "General Electric acquired the company in 1898"; (d) Griswold, nearest the events, gives a receivership in January 1899 after McDonald's death in December 1898, a receiver's sale "a few weeks later" at which "the plant was purchased by the General Electric Company, of Schenectady, New York," a new Fort Wayne Electric Works organised in May 1899, a merger of that works with GE in June 1911, and operation as the Fort Wayne Works of GE only from January 1916 — which Cityscapes independently echoes ("By 1916, Fort Wayne's electric works had become officially known as the General Electric Co."). No single absorption date is published here as settled.

Fate: Under GE the Broadway campus grew to a peak in the 1940s — peak figures conflict and are flagged: the City of Fort Wayne's 2023 statement says "at its peak in the late 1940s, GE employed roughly 40% of the city's workforce" (the figure the Quest Club industry paper also carries, citing the Fort Wayne Electric Works); Indiana Landmarks, for 1944 specifically, gives 20,000 employees, "approximately one-third of the city's workforce." The works supported the World War II war effort, making among other things aircraft superchargers (Indiana Landmarks). Thereafter a "steady decline in jobs and ultimate closure in 2015" (Quest Club industry paper) — ; Indiana Landmarks adds that the shutdown began in 2014 and the property was acquired from GE in 2017 for redevelopment as Electric Works, a mixed-use innovation district (first phase opened 2022). The surviving plant was then recognised on the National Register: in April 2023 the General Electric Fort Wayne Electric Works Historic District was listed — a 15-acre complex of 22 buildings built 1893–1968, the majority built by GE 1907–1927, comprising the newly opened Electric Works and the East Campus planned for future rehabilitation (City of Fort Wayne statement, reported 26 April 2023). The district was Fort Wayne's 72nd National Register listing.

Sources:

1. News-Sentinel Cityscapes, Kevin Leininger, "Light of the world," 19 December 1982 (Jenney's 1881 arrival, 1883 lamps, New Orleans World's Fair 1884, Thomson-Houston purchase 1888, Wood's December 1890 arrival, absorption by GE January 1899, GE name by 1916) — http://egen.fortwayne.com/ns/projects/history/scapes29.php
2. Griswold, B. J., The Pictorial History of Fort Wayne, Indiana, Vol. I (1917, public domain), "The General Electric Works" (organisation 1 November 1881 and first officers; Thomson-Houston control 1888; fire November 1888 and resumption July 1889; Wood 1890; receivership January 1899 and GE receiver's-sale purchase; Fort Wayne Electric Works organised May 1899; merger June 1911; Fort Wayne Works of GE from January 1916) — https://ldsgenealogy.com/IN/books/The-pictorial-history-of-Fort-Wayne-Indiana-a-review-of-two-centuries-of-occupation-of-the-region-about-the-head-of-the-Maumee-River-Vol-I-part-57.htm
3. US 93.3 (WBTU), "Electric Works now listed on National Register of Historic Places," 26 April 2023, reporting the City of Fort Wayne statement (district, 22 buildings 1893–1968, Jenney origins, GE acquisition dated 1898, late-1940s peak of roughly 40% of the city's workforce) — https://www.us933fm.com/2023/04/26/electric-works-now-listed-on-national-register-of-historic-places/
4. 19th Century Baseball, Eric Miklich, "Night Baseball in the 19th Century" (Hull, Massachusetts, 2 September 1880; Fort Wayne, 2 June 1883, 17 lamps of 4,000 candlepower, Quincy 19–11 Methodist College, contemporary press criticism) — https://19cbaseball.com/field-10.html
5. Quest Club paper, Carol Young Lindquist, "Electric Works," 17 March 2023 (Broadway relocation 1885; New Orleans World's Fair lighting 1884; GE control via the 1892 Thomson-Houston / Edison consolidation) — https://www.fwquestclub.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Lindquist-Carol-Electric-Works-Quest-Paper.pdf
6. Quest Club paper, David Steiner, "Trends in Industry in Allen County" (GE peak in the late 1940s at roughly 40% of the city's workforce; "steady decline in jobs and ultimate closure in 2015") — https://www.barrettlaw.com/history-trends-in-industry-allen-county
7. Indiana Landmarks, "Innovation Sparks New Use at Fort Wayne Factory," 2021, and "Cook Cup Winner Sparks Revitalization in Fort Wayne," 2025 (GE purchase dated 1899; 20,000 employees in 1944, about one-third of the workforce; shutdown beginning 2014 / closure 2015; acquisition for Electric Works redevelopment in 2017) — https://www.indianalandmarks.org/2021/04/innovation-sparks-new-use-at-fort-wayne-factory/