Birth of HECO

The advent of electricity opened the market to home generating plants. Anyone who could afford to buy a generator was serviced by the firm of E.O. Hall & Son, which busily began installing small plants in Honolulu homes and at sugar plantations. In 1891, four men met to form the co-partnership that preceded Hawaiian Electric's incorporation, and E.O. Hall and Son were well represented. At the meeting were E.O. Hall's son, William, the manager of E.O.Hall & Son, Edwin Oscar White, the former manager of the Nuuanu plant, William V. Lockwood, and Jonathan Austin, in whose electric fan-cooled law office this fateful meeting took place. The co-partnership was registered on May 7, 1891.

And just five months later -- on October 13, 1891 -- the co-partnership was dissolved and Hawaiian Electric Company was incorporated, with total assets of $17,000 and William W. Hall as its first President.