Thursday (Aug. 2) marks Northern Indiana Public Service Company’s  100th year and the utility-giant will host a Centennial Community Celebration at their Merrillville headquarters tomorrow. Among other things, they'll announce the creation of a pilot customer appreciation program.    Today...[Aug 1] … alongside parent company NiSource, a group of NIPSCO employees will ring the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange. NiSource is also commemorating 50years of trading on the NYSE. 

Additional information from NIPSCO:

In 1912, NIPSCO’s predecessor, Calumet Electric Company, was incorporated by a group of Gary businessmen to supply power for the expansion of the Gary Railway Company.  The company’s family tree dates back further, to 1853, when the Fort Wayne Gas Light Company was established, serving a community of 4,300. Another NIPSCO predecessor, the South Bend Gas Light Company, was established in 1868 by the Studebaker brothers, of carriage and later automotive fame.

NIPSCO provides electric and or natural gas service to more than 785,000 customers in 30 counties of northern Indiana.

[all photos courtesy of NIPSCO]

NIPSCO gas crew installs a steel gas main in a ditch. Without the appearance of any trenching equipment, the ditch was probably dug by hand.


NIPSCO linemen during the late 1920s get prepared for work in the Angola District.




Record clerks located at the Gary District Headquarters in the mid-1950s (including Carolyn Mosby, center – the first African American clerical employee hired by NIPSCO) received and manually recorded customer information on cards which were filed in pullout drawers.



NIPSCO’s corporate headquarters in downtown Hammond in the early 1930s.

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