Brainerd Water Co stock certificate circa 1883 (Minnesota)

Early failed water company.  Beautiful center vignette of a a family of deer. Unissued and not cancelled. Circa 1883 from company records.  Measures approximately 10x7 inches.

Incorporated in October 1883, the initial stockholders of the Brainerd Water were L. P. White, J. B. Douglas, A. E. Taylor, E. E. Webster and C. F. Kindred, President.

In the 1880s, the city of Brainerd, Minnesota, heavily struggled to establish a reliable utility infrastructure. The original Brainerd Water Company was established as a private enterprise by early local investors, including prominent railroad and land speculator Charles F. Kindred.

The Early Struggle:
The company was part of a turbulent era filled with utility schemes, including attempts to build a massive dam over the Mississippi River.

Receivership & Evolution:
By 1889, the company fell into financial trouble and went into receivership. It was reorganized in 1890 as the Minnesota Water Works Company.

Transition to Municipal Control:
To combat decades of high prices and unreliable service from private "con-men" and developers, utility services transitioned to public control. Today, these services are handled by the municipally owned Brainerd Public Utilities (BPU)

Brainerd, Minnesota was founded in 1870 by the Northern Pacific Railway as a Mississippi River crossing point. It was named after Ann Eliza (Brainerd) Smith, the wife of the railroad's first president, John Gregory Smith.

1870:    Town site selected and founded by the Northern Pacific Railway.

September 1871:    Official town plat signed and filed in Crow Wing County.

March 6, 1873:    Formally organized as a city

Did you know that in 1883 there were 52 saloons in the city of Brainerd? Maybe the water was not fit to drink!

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