Central Illinois Public Service Company

The Central Illinois Public Service Company was an electric streetcar holding company and power utility first organized in 1902. Under its later quarter billion dollar holding company, CIPSCO Inc. (formerly : CIP), it merged in 1997 with the larger neighboring Union Electric Company of Missouri (formerly : UEP) to form Ameren Corporation (: AEE) based in St. Louis, Missouri. Now a subsidiary, AmerenCIPS is headquartered in Springfield, Illinois.[1] [2]

In 1902, in Mattoon, Illinois, the core of the company was born as the Mattoon City Railway Streetcar company, the first of the company's many later interurban electric railways.

In 1910, the Mattoon City Railway was reorganized as the Central Illinois Public Service Company.

In 1912, the CIPS Company became a subsidiary of Samuel Insull's Middle West Utilities Company. The utilities company then acquired 60 utility properties. In 1913, it built the 6,000-kilowatt Kincaid, Illinois, Power Station, the first large generating power station.

In 1921, the CIPS Company headquarters moved from Mattoon to downtown Springfield, Illinois, where it acquired the Farmers Bank Building and Annex, and renamed it the Public Service Building.

In 1922, the CIPS Company gas and electric plants in Beardstown, Illinois, were flooded by the Illinois River and tributaries.

In 1923, CIPS merged with the Middle West Power Company, and acquired the Grand Tower, Illinois, Power Station in southwestern Illinois on the Mississippi River. The merger brought the company's holdings to seven generating stations, 15 ice plants, and two interurban railways.

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