"If one is seeking a symbol to personify the first half of the Twentieth century, there is perhaps none more appropriate than the electric generator. It represents with perfect aptness the immense volume of new power and energy that has been unleashed and placed at the disposal of the average American in our very lifetimes!" _{- C.L. Campbell}

_{(Prgress and Change: A Brief History of Connecticut's Largest Electric and Gas Utility, pg. 7)}

The Demand for Electrical Power:

The electrical age was in its infancy in the early 1900s, as were the various state and federal agencies whose task it was to regulate new power sources.

J. Henry Roraback envisioned a string of hydroelectric plants along tributaries of the Housatonic River in a grid, harnessing the power of the rushing water to bring electricity to homes and businesses throughout western Connecticut. Although there were many small electric companies already sprouting up across Connecticut in the 1910s and 1920s, none were better politically situated than Roraback's group of companies. 

Progress and Change: A Brief History of Connecticut’s Largest Electric & Gas Utility (1950)

Financial Backing and State Legislation:

As early as 1900, Roraback had grasped the energy generating potential of the Rocky River tributary, where grist mills and water wheels of the Hine and Ferris families had once existed. Roraback invested in several properties but focused much of his attention forming the Rocky River Power Co. on New Milford's Rocky River. This particular spot is where the water dropped some 200 ft. to join the Housatonic River and was easily accessible to the Bull's Bridge hydroelectric station in Kent, Connecticut at the mouth of the Housatonic. In the early 1900s, Roraback had been a legal aid and lobbyist for New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad Co. which owned the Housatonic Power Company and he had become familiar with the early efforts to harness the Housatonic's power. 

Roraback formed the Rocky River Power Company, though a Rocky River power facility had not been built.  He needed financial backing.  Roraback found a partner in a large Philadelphia-based utility holding company, the United Gas and Improvement Co. (UGI).

UGI bought the Housatonic Power Co. from the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Co. along with the Rocky River and a few other smaller power utility companies in the area. These UGI-purchased companies formed the Connecticut Light and Power Co. in 1917. UGI maintained a controlling interest in the new company and made Roraback its director and vice-president.  He was also a significant stockholder and became president of the company in 1925.

By 1918, Connecticut Light & Power was the second­ largest utility company in Connecticut and held a large part of the state's power grid. Click on the timeline below to follow the instrumental steps: