CHAPTER Steeling 2 the A’ West THE CLOSE OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY, the conquest of the West had nearly run its course, yet many Americans remained in an expansionist mood. The United States had emerged as a world power after the Spanish-American War of 1898, and the world seemed open to Yankee industry and ingenuity. As a result, and despite financial losses during the Panic of 1893 and its aftermath, E. O. Wattis and W. H. Wattis decided to embark on a new venture. On January 8, 1900, they joined with their younger brother Warren L. Wattis in the incorporation of the Utah Construction Company, successor to the Corey Brothers firm. The brothers subscribed for eighty shares of stock, valued at $8,000. By the end of the nation’s bicentennial in 1976, those original shares (after adjustments for stock splits and dividends) would multiply to nearly six million shares as the $8,000 investment soared to a value of nearly $478 million. Exactly one month after the incorporation, February 8, 1900, the first meeting of the new firm’s board of directors convened in Ogden at 8:50 p.m. Joining the Wattis brothers were the same four bankers who had participated in the reorganization of the Corey company in 1895: Thomas D. Dee, David Eccles, Joseph Clark, and James Pingree. The principal item of business was the confirmation of the subscription and payment of capital stock, amounting to $24,000. PM |