FREDONIA GAS COMPANY
Which Serves the People and Factories With Fuel
and Controls a Great Gas Field
B.E. Ladow
President and General Manager Fredonia Gas Company
| Unquestionably the most important
institution in the business sum-total of Fredonia is the Fredonia Gas Company.
This corporation has a capital stock of $100,000 but involved in its ramifications
a vastly larger sum that this is to be found. The company was organized
in 1900. Its president and general manager is B.E. Ladow, its vice-president
and secretary David Bowie, and its treasurer F.E. Wear. Mr. C.V. Ladow
holds a very important position as its superintendent. This company has
made most of the gas explorations in Wilson county and adjoining counties,
and now holds the greater portion of the producing territory. It has sixty
thousand acres under lease, embracing and thoroughly protecting the fields
tributary to Fredonia. It has about ten thousand acres of good territory
in Elk and Greenwood counties. It has twenty miles of five and eight-inch
and possibly fifty miles of line all told. It supplies domestic consumption
in Fredonia, New Albany and Fall River, and practically all the factories
in Fredonia. It has twenty-six live wells, with a gross capacity of 150,000,000
cubic feet per day -- more than enough to supply the domestic demands of
New York City. Three of its wells have an aggregate output of sixty-five
million cubic feet. It does not have to draw on most of its wells, and
although there is an abundant demand for its supply to outside cities,
it has shown no disposition to take the gas away, but instead is endeavoring
every day to bring consumers within the range of its Fredonia territory.
It believes that its most profitable course is to build up here an industrial
community which will demand and use its vast supply. The conditions of
its territory are such that within three months it could double its already
vast output of gas. The men interested in this company have been responsible
for most of the manufacturing plants that have come to this city, and they
are the promoters of a movement now on, which engages their attention every
day, to add largely to these plants. They are business men who understand what is needed for the increase of their profits and they are pursuing this policy rather for business reasons than as a matter of philanthropy. They are in touch with great enterprises, and are acting the part of commercial boosters for Fredonia. |
The domestic plant in this city is one of the best in the country. It was installed with a scientific regard for conditions, including mains, laterals, and a belt line, so adjusted as to secure perfection of service, and a proper distribution of pressure. As yet no artificial methods of stimulating pressure have been found necessary, and it is not likely that they will be for years to come. The dominating spirit of the company is Mr. B. E. Ladow, a practical gas man of years of experience. He assumed his present relation with the company at its organization, and under his direction the present magnificent system has been built up. Mr. Ladow is fifty years old and was born at Plymouth, Ohio. He got his education there, and was for some time in the hardware business. For twenty years he sold machinery, traveling for that purpose throughout the United States. It was while in this business that he became acquainted with the manufacture of brick, for he sold brick- making machinery. He was in Chicago for some time, and later in Kansas City from which he came here to take direct and immediate charge of the gas plant of which he had from the start been an officer. Mr. Ladow has proven himself a man of great capacity for business, is a master of business organization and in connection with the enterprises with which he is associated in Fredonia and vicinity has shown great foresight and keen business judgment. He is an enthusiast on the subject of the future of this city. He believes that there is a great opportunity and has already played a very important part in illustrating how that opportunity may wisely and effectively be utilized. He is the vice-president of the Fredonia Window Glass company, and the president and general manager of the Fredonia Brick Company, and the secretary of the Fredonia Portland Cement Company, in addition to his executive responsibility in connection with the Fredonia Gas Company. All these companies are highly successful. | David Bowie, the vice-president,
is a capitalist and manufacturer at Topeka. He is in the milling business
on a large scale, having large mills at a number of points.
F. E. Wear, the treasurer, is a Kansas City capitalist, being president of the Wear Coal Company of that city, and largely interested in many commercial projects. The superintendent of the company, C. V. Ladow, is a native of Plymouth, and the son of the company's president. He graduated from the high school at Plymouth and took a four years course in the University of Wisconsin, graduating as a mechanical engineer. He early became interested as an engineer in the gas business, and became an expert in the installation of gas plants, and in the handling of gas generally. Although a comparatively young man, he is recognized as one of the most important gas engineers in the southwest, if not in the country. He has given the question thorough study and from natural adaptation and direct contact has brought his genius to the solution of many of the difficult problems pertaining to the successful and economical handling of the natural gas product. The Fredonia Gas Company's plant in the field and in the city is a monument to his especial genius and to the splendid business capacity of his father. Behind this company is an ample capital enlisted in the cause of building in Fredonia an industrial city of consequence. They are interested here because they find that there are special opportunities and because, as businessmen, they are looking for a practical place which will afford them a reasonable profit upon their investment. It is a good deal better for Fredonia that men of this kind should be behind her development and growth, because after all the primal inspiration for successful development is the goal of commercial success. Fredonia has occasion to be grateful to this
company and to the men who have invested in it for the new growth and the
wonderful prosperity which she now realizes. |
From the Fredonia Herald,Friday August 12,
1910, Fredonia, Wilson Co., Kansas
Transcribed by Barbara Berryman Kidwell
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