March 15, 2009

Though best known as the founder of Arkansas Power and Light, Harvey Couch, shown here in a portrait by Arkansas artist Adrian Louis Brewer, began his career in the egg-marketing business. However, Couch soon left the egg business and, by 1910, owned fifty telephone exchanges consisting of 1,500 miles of lines in a four-state area. It was the sale of his telephone interests to the Bell system that made Couch a very wealthy man.