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The Fuel Gas Company

The Fuel Gas Company image
Parent Issue
Day
28
Month
July
Year
1887
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

The Washtenaw Fuel Gas Company, composed mainly of our own citizens, hag completed its organization, and as the peopie oí Ann Arbor will be asked to aid in the enterprise, it is due to them that a frank and plain statement of the plans and purpo6es of the company be made by its directora. The nominal capital of the company is $300,000, divided into G00 shares of $50 each. It has been voied by the directora to place one-half of this stock on the market at ten dollars a share, or so much thereof as will produce a sum sufficient to sink a test well. Subscribers to this stock will, of course, become members of the company and have an interest in that portion of this $150,000 of stock which remains unsold. No certificates of stock will beisaued to any persan, inoluding officers, or promotera of the company, unless they subscribe and pay for it on equal terms. The proceeds of the sale of this stock will be placed in the hands of Mr. Gruner, the treasurer of the company, and not a dollar of it will be expended for any other purpose than to sink a test well, and unless at least $3,000 is secured the money will be refunded upon a return of the stock. The directors realize that the great interest of the general public is in sinking a test well, for should gas in paying quantity be found, not only will the stock subscribed for be worth many times its coat. but all the real estáte of Ann Arbor and for miles around will enormously increase in value ; at least, such, has been the case wherever fuel gas in paying quantities has been found. Citizens of other towns in Michigan, as well as in Ohio and Indiana, have subscribed and made liberal donations and gifts to outside parties to induce them to sink test well?. But we ask for no gifts. We ask the citizens of Ann Arbor and vicinity to take the stock of the company for their subscriptions and share in the profits of the company should it prove a success. This stock wili be non-assessable and no stockholders' liability can possibly be incurred, as by a by-law of the company the directors can créate no indebtedness until there is money in the treasury to meet it. If gas or oil is not discovered in sisking this test well, we are morally certain of findint; mineral water of the same quality and character as that, the discovery and utilization of which has given such an impulse to the prosperity of Ypsilanti. No certificates of stock will be isaued for the remainine $150,000 of capital, but the amount will be kept in the control of the directors of the company ; and if the test well provea a success this atock will also be placed upon the market to raiee funds to develop the well, provide a plant and distribute the gas through the town for fuel and manufacturing purposes, and our citizens will have an opportunity to purchase this stock of the directors upon equal termc. The promoters of the company have already been to considerable expense - raised by subscripüon among themselves - and they have secured leases of nearly 5,000 acres of land in the vicinity of the city. Ihey have secured also a franchise from the common council to lay pipes in the streets for fuel and manufacturing purposes, and bave met all the expenses of incorporation, and they now ask the citizens of Aan Arbor to subscribe, as they feel able, for this stock, which is being sold to sink a test well, with the right to share in the profits of the enterprise should it prove successful. Subscriptions will be received by any of the directors, and the stock secured at the store of Mr. Gruner. Several persons have already subscribed $50 each. In this matter loyal citizens of Ann Arbor can have no divided interest. If we pull togeiher and each one pulls a little, we shall 80on raise a sum sufficient to sink this test well; and it goes without say ing that if the enterprise proves a succeas, as we have reason to believe it will, and natural gas be coupled with the other advantages of our beautiful city, our deserted streets will soon be filled with strangers seeking investments, end the market value of our real estáte will doublé in a single day. Thus can each citizen contribute his mite, with a fair chance of profit, towards that booming of the city for which the Business Men's as3ociation is so worthily striving. CbrisTian Schmid, Edward Düfft, John F. Lawrence, Herman Hützel, Leonhard Grüneb, John Heinzmann, J. S. Hendersok, Euuene K. Frükauff, Sec'y. W. D. Hakriman, Preidsent. Directois. July 27, 1887.

Article

Subjects
Old News
Ann Arbor Register