Midwest Natural Gas Corporation was incorporated in 1959. The first two towns considered for natural gas service were Brownstown and Salem, Indiana. In May 1962, after a few years of learning the difficulties of pipeline construction, the initial owners decided to sell to three individuals interested in seeing the company and service territory develop. Henry Gwaltney was a successful oil entrepreneur in Washington, Indiana. Jack Hayes was an attorney, also from Washington, that worked with Henry. The third person was a professional engineer from Belleville, Illinois named Fred Friedewald. Fred had been involved with the original ownership and stayed a part of the ownership group.
The company continued to look in surrounding areas for expansion opportunities. In the mid 1960s, plans for expansion were made to serve Scottsburg, Indiana. Once reaching Scottsburg, the pipeline construction continued northerly along I-65 to Jackson County and to the south into northern Clark County. Other areas of service developed over the years include North Vernon in Jennings County, as well as other rural areas in Jackson, Scott and Washington Counties. Mr. Gwaltney, in the meantime, had started another utility known as Commonwealth Gas. Commonwealth was developed based on a natural gas supply near Plainville, Indiana in Daviess County. The field was developed and used to supply Plainville. In 1973, Commonwealth was merged into Midwest Natural Gas Corporation and the area in Daviess County was extended to serve the towns of Elnora and Odon, and to turn north into Greene County to serve the town of Newberry.
In 1981, Midwest purchased Peoples Gas & Power Company, Inc., which also served rural areas and towns in Greene County, Indiana, such as Bloomfield, Lyons and Switz City. Peoples operated as a separate entity until merged into Midwest in 2001. That area of service now includes the southwest corner of Monroe County.
Over the many years, Mr. Gwaltney had developed a relationship with Herbert Ross, who had moved from Oklahoma in the late 50’s to also start a natural gas utility. Both were relatively new to the business and leaned on each other for support. Mr. Ross’ company was known as Indiana Natural Gas Corporation and headquartered in Paoli, Indiana. Midwest held an ownership position in Indiana Natural for several years and in 2015, acquired 100% ownership in the company.
The corporate office for the group is still housed in Washington, Indiana and ownership remains privately held. The combination of companies operates natural gas pipeline facilities for service to customers in Bartholomew, Brown, Clark, Crawford, Daviess, Dubois, Greene, Harrison, Jackson, Jennings, Knox, Lawrence, Monroe, Scott, Sullivan and Washington Counties.