A century of light

I found myself in Fayetteville on Friday afternoon and, as is often the case when I have a few extra minutes in that city, I made my way to the Dickson Street Bookshop. Lovers of Arkansas history always can find obscure, out-of-print books about the state on those dusty shelves, and Friday was no exception. I came home with a copy of Winston P. Wilson’s Harvey Couch: The Master Builder, published in 1947 by Broadman Press of Nashville, Tenn.

Three days later, I was high atop Little Rock’s Peabody Hotel with a group of Couch’s descendants as Hugh McDonald, the president and chief executive officer of Entergy Arkansas, unveiled the company’s plan to illuminate three of the bridges that span the Arkansas River between Little Rock and North Little Rock.

“We believe this will transform how people view our cities and our state,” McDonald said of the $2.4 million project designed to celebrate the company’s 100th anniversary. He mentioned how Entergy got its start when Couch transmitted electricity from a sawmill at Arkadelphia to Malvern. Couch’s Arkansas Power & Light Co. was Entergy’s predecessor. By the time Couch founded AP&L in 1913, he already had earned a reputation as a shrewd entrepreneur.

Couch was born in August 1877 in the Columbia County community of Calhoun. As was the case with the children of many Arkansas farmers in those days, he attended school only a few months each year. His family moved to Magnolia when Harvey was 17, and for the first time he was required to attend school for nine months. When he considered dropping out, a teacher named Pat Neff convinced him otherwise. Neff went on to serve as governor of Texas from 1921-25 and as president of Baylor University from 1932-47.

Wilson’s 1947 book features a photo of Couch and Neff at Couchwood,Couch’s rock-and-log retreat on the banks of Lake Catherine, where he entertained guests ranging from Herbert Hoover to Franklin Roosevelt. Couch loved to show off Arkansas.

“Couch did a good job of selling,” Wilson wrote. “He painted a picture of Arkansas’ natural resources, of its raw processing that needed the knowhow and the money to be translated into the finished product. He pointed out that in Arkansas there was every type of soil from the Ozark Mountains down to the alluvial valleys of the Mississippi. He suggested that Arkansas had been misjudged, that its people welcomed outside investments and they would be fair to and pay a good return on any money put to work in the state. He told of Arkansas’ fine climate, of its long working days, of itshealth-giving waters and of the marvelous scenery of the Ozarks and the unexcelled recreational possibilities of the state. His enthusiasm was contagious.”

Couch had started in business by earning 50 cents a day at a Columbia County cotton gin. He later worked in a drugstore. Couch entered the railroad business at age 21 as a mailclerk for the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway. During a water stop for a train he was riding one day, Couch noticed a construction crew putting up a pole. He learned it was part of a long-distance telephone system and became intrigued by the idea. He soon began the North Louisiana Telephone Co. By 1911, the company had almost 1,500 miles of lines and 50 exchanges in four states. He sold the telephone company that year to Southwestern Bell for more than $1 million.He was just 34 and already one of the richest men in the region.

After founding AP&L, Couch bought the 22-mile transmission line between Arkadelphia and Malvern from Jack Wilson. It was the only electric transmission line in the state, and it ran only at night. By 1930, AP&L had 3,000 miles of line serving 63 of the state’s 75 counties. Couch also created Mississippi Power & Light Co. and Louisiana Power & Light Co. He built Lake Hamilton and Lake Catherine on the Ouachita River near Hot Springs. He built the first modern natural gas fired power plant in this part of the country near Monroe, La. He later was one of the seven directors of President Franklin Roosevelt’s Reconstruction Finance Corp., a powerful force during the Great Depression.

Entergy now delivers electricity to 2.8 million utility customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. The company Couch founded has annual revenue of more than $11 billion and almost 15,000 employees. McDonald said the company had been thinking a long time about the best way to celebrate its 100th anniversary.

“This project aligns with what we do, which is to light things up,” he said. “This is potentially a transformative project for this area. … None of this would have happened without the vision Harvey Couch had more than 100 years ago.”

McDonald noted that Couch was “already a leader on the national stage when he chaired our state’s centennial celebration in 1936, the same year the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge opened to the public. It was a bridge Mr. Couch, as a director of the Reconstruction Finance Corp., championed.”

Couch died in July 1941 of heart disease. He was buried beside his mother and father in Columbia County. His old teacher, Pat Neff, gave the eulogy. -

Freelance columnist Rex Nelson is the president of Arkansas’ Independent Colleges and Universities. He’s also the author of the Southern Fried blog at rexnelsonsouthernfried.com.