Harvey C. Couch

Couch was born in Calhoun, a tiny community in Columbia County in southern Arkansas. The eldest of six children, he assisted his parents and younger siblings with the endless work associated with a small cotton farm. His father was also a Methodist minister. When Couch was seventeen, his father's health deteriorated, and the family moved to nearby Magnolia, the county seat of Columbia County. During this time, he was instructed by a future governor of Texas and president of Baylor University, Pat Neff, at Southwestern Academy in Magnolia, also known as Magnolia Academy. He left school early to help with the family finances and assist his mother, the former Marie Heard, with his younger siblings. His first paying job was to start the boiler every morning at Lum Barnett's cotton gin, for which he received 50 cents daily.

After working in several clerical positions at local small businesses, Couch saw a newspaper advertisement seeking mail clerks; the pay was $75 per month, significantly higher than his then salary of $20. Passing the entrance exam in Shreveport, Louisiana, qualified Couch to enter the United States Post Office's Railway Mail Service, for which he would sort mail in one of the many railway postal cars which criss-crossed the nation. Couch initially worked on a Railway Post Office route on the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway between St. Louis and Texarkana, then a Memphis and Texarkana run over the St. Louis Southwestern Railway, before getting an assignment in Louisiana south of his home town of Magnolia.

On 4 October 1904, Couch married Jessie Johnson of Athens in Claiborne Parish east of Minden, a small city in Webster Parish in which he had business interests. Together they had five children.

His brother, Peter Couch, worked with him on various business ventures and held executive positions in several of his companies. Prior to working for Couch, lifelong friend and business attorney Hamilton Moses was a law partner of future U.S. senator Joe T. Robinson. The Democrat Couch was the father-in-law of Pratt C. Remmel, the only elected Republican to have served as mayor of Little Rock in the 20th century. Remmel's wife (and Couch's daughter), Catherine Couch Remmel (1918-2006), is honored by the naming of Lake Catherine near Hot Springs.

His sons were Johnson Olin Couch (1905-1958), Kirke A. Couch, Harvey Couch, Jr. (1908-1963), an officer of the Union National Bank in the capital city of Little Rock, and William Thomas Couch.

While still working on the Railway Post Office route from McNeil, Arkansas, into north Louisiana, Couch was exposed to the development of the long-distance telephone. Believing he could earn money distributing telephone service, he formed a partnership with the postmaster of Bienville, Louisiana, Ben Cheen. In the spring of 1903 they completed 15 miles of telephone line construction from Bienville to Arcadia, Louisiana. After buying out Cheen's share of the business for $1,000, Couch and friend Dr. H. A. Longino formed the North Louisiana Telephone Company. By 1910 the company had constructed more than 1,500 miles of line, serving 50 exchanges in four states. In 1911, at age 34, Couch sold the company to Southwestern Bell Telephone Company, giving him a profit of more than $1 million. His business interests in Louisiana brought Couch into political alliance with Huey Pierce Long Jr., the flamboyant governor and United States senator.

By the time North Louisiana Telephone Company had been sold, Couch was already exploring the possibilities of developing a similar interconnected electric utility system. Both Malvern and Arkadelphia had awarded franchises for citywide electric utilities, and in both cities, the utility companies were in decline, and only provided night-time service. Couch proposed a partnership with Arkansas Land & Lumber Company, a large sawmill operation in Malvern, whereby sawdust and waste material purchased from the sawmill would be used to fuel boilers, producing steam for two 550-kilowatt turbines to generate electric power. The new system, a predecessor of Arkansas Power and Light Company (AP&L), became operational on 18 December 1914, providing Malvern and Arkadelphia with 24-hour electric service for the first time. In 1916, AP&L's second generating plant opened in Russellville, seat of Pope County in north-central Arkansas. The plant was adjacent to a coal field which provided a steady supply of fuel. Under leadership of Couch, AP&L continued purchasing city utility systems and building electric transmission lines throughout Arkansas.

As demand for electric power increased, Couch began formalizing plans for hydroelectric development on the Ouachita River. The first of several such dams, Remmel Dam, was completed in December 1924. Carpenter Dam followed in 1933. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers completed Blakely Mountain Dam in 1952, after Couch's death. Damming the Ouachita River transformed Arkansas's countryside and created three large lakes. Lake Catherine and Lake Hamilton in Garland County, popular lakes for public recreation, were named after Couch's only daughter, and close friend and company lawyer Hamilton Moses. Revenue generated by construction of Remmel Dam was in excess of $25,000 per year. Inexpensive energy produced by these new projects helped lure several major industrial plants to Arkansas. Pine Bluff received the state's first textile mill, the International Paper Co. opened a paper mill in Camden, and other companies followed.

In the 1920s, Couch had set his sights on buying electric companies in other states. In 1923, he merged four independent companies in Mississippi into Mississippi Power and Light. Two years later, he formed Louisiana Power and Light, which provided power to his Mississippi customers from northern Louisiana's natural gas fields.

Meanwhile, in 1922, Sidney Mitchel of the Electric Bond and Share Company (EBASCO), a subsidiary of General Electric, had merged several competing electric utilities in New Orleans into New Orleans Public Service, an EBASCO subsidiary. Mitchel began turning his attention to other territories, and eventually began competing with Couch. The two men ultimately merged their resources. In 1925, Electric Power and Light Corporation, an EBASCO subsidiary headquartered in New Orleans, was formed with Couch as its president. It was the parent company for Arkansas Power and Light, Louisiana Power and Light, Mississippi Power and Light and New Orleans Public Service.

As the electric utility industry continued to prosper and expand, Couch began to devote some attention to his earlier interest, locomotives and the railway. A group of investors, led by Couch, gained control of the Louisiana and Arkansas Railway and the Louisiana Navigation & Railway Company for a total of $27 million. Following Interstate Commerce Commission approval, Couch became president of the Kansas City Southern Railway in 1927, and merged all three railways into the K.C.S.-L.&A. System. He created a syndicate of ownership and operators, among those, younger brother Peter Couch, assumed the role of vice-president and general manager. Couch finally had his railway empire that he dreamt of as a child. This organized system, spanning four states, provided direct access from the Midwest to the Gulf Coast. Thousands of jobs were created through railway employment and small businesses that sprouted with the birth of new communities that formed along the railway thoroughfares.