ONEOK history

By the time Braden retired in 1921, ONG owned over 1,300 miles (2,100 km) of lines and served over a half million customers in 48 of the state's 77 counties.

On July 31, 1926, the company was sold to New York investment bankers White, Weld, and Company.

Phillips used ONG until it could complete its own pipeline to the Midwest and then, on October 15, 1927, sold it to the American Natural Gas Corporation, a holding company subsidiary of utility company financiers G. L. Ohrstrom and Company, Inc.

On October 29, 1929, the stock market crashed and the company and Ohrstrom were plunged into turmoil along with the rest of American industry.

In June, 1930, Oklahoma Natural Gas Corporation president Thomas R. Weymouth resigned and was replaced by E. C. Deal, who traded the company's Texas properties for the Oklahoma Natural Gas Corporation in eastern Oklahoma.

In October 1931, Deal resigned as president and was elected chair of the board of directors.

A return to normalcy began on June 1, 1936, when Joseph "Jos" Bowes gained the ONG presidency.

Following the war, ONG acquired distribution operations in the Oklahoma communities of Sand Springs, Crescent, Dover, Guthrie, Hennessey, and Kingfisher, bringing its 1950 customer total to 270,000.

Bowes reported to shareholders that 1954 had been the company's best financial year.

In 1960, it acquired the Northern Oklahoma Gas Company, the Standard Gas Company, and the State Fuel Supply Company, gaining distribution operations in Ponca City, Newkirk, Perry, Madill, Tishomingo, Anadarko, Wewoka, and Lindsey. It expanded its Garvin County gasoline plant, and in 1959 bought an interest in the Laverne gas processing plant in northwestern Oklahoma.

In 1964, H. A. "Tex" Eddins replaced Bowes as chair of the board.

Tragically, Eddins died suddenly on April 26, 1966, while attending an employee service awards meeting.

In 1970, with gas supply as a primary concern, Ingram reorganized ONG's operating department, established a gas supply department, and formed Oklahoma Natural Development Corporation.

In 1971, ONG served 500,000 customers and generated more than $100 million in revenues.

To insure access to new supplies, Ingram in 1973 created ONG Western Inc. to build a 200-mile, $20 million pipeline into the gas-rich Anadarko basin of western Oklahoma.

In 1974, it began making large deliveries to the first of five large new fertilizer plants.

Within ONEOK's non-utility division, the ONEOK Energy Companies, ONEOK Exploration Company explored for oil and natural gas, while Smart Drilling Company, acquired in 1979, was a contract-drilling operation.

In December 1980, the Oklahoma Natural Gas board voted to reorganize as a holding company, Oneok Inc.

To make matters worse, even though executives did what they could to keep industrial deliveries high by cutting prices to ONG's five fertilizer plant customers to keep them in business, deliveries continued to fall from 1982's 281 billion cubic feet (bcf) to 242 bcf.

In 1990, Standard and Poors and Duff and Phelps upgraded ONEOK's debt to A- from BBB+.

In 1996, Oneok acquired the natural gas operations of Kansas utility Western Resources (now Westar Energy) and reorganized them as Kansas Gas Service.