the founders were hopeful that natural gas would prove to be the wave of the future – they named their company accordingly. Sept. 17, 1898, for a fee of $61, West Virginia’s secretary of state granted Standard Oil of New Jersey a certificate of incorporation for the Hope Natural Gas Company.

Hope purchased 11 wells, leaseholds and associated field lines in Wetzel County from South Penn Oil Co. to begin the strong foothold in WV.

Hope opened its first field office in New Martinsville, WV in Wetzel County This year also marked the formation of Hope’s teaming department and use of horses which continued for the next 30 yrs.

Standard Oil acquired Peoples Natural Gas and connected its lines to Hope’s lines.

Hope’s charter purposes were amended to implement the right of eminent domain and to sell and supply gas in West Virginia.
Able to provide retail delivery of gas to West Virginia’s towns and cities; construction complete on its first compressor station in Hastings – named for its first General Superintendent, Dennis Hastings.

Expansion began at Hastings Station and so much construction ensued that the Comp ny found it necessary to build its own hotel and other facilities for workers.

Hope Natural Gas Co. relocated its field office to Clarksburg on the top floor of the Empire Bank Building.

West Virginia led the nation in natural gas production and leaseholds in West Virginia totaled 1.4 million acres.

Purchased Mountain State Gas Company and Home Gas Company and some of Fayette County Gas Company.

Standard Oil dissolved and became Standard Oil Company (New Jersey); 4 of 5 companies that would eventually become Consolidated were in place at this time: The Peoples Natural Gas Company, The River Gas Company, Hope Natural Gas Company and The East Ohio Gas Company.

Hope built the first commercially available process to extract natural gasoline from natural gas – an oil absorption plant.

Hope acquired the Clarksburg Light & Heat Co.

Team competition was among the activities for employees attending the annual Company picnic.

The first Joint Agreement was adopted between employees and management of the Hope Natural Gas Co., Reserve Gas Co., Hope Construction & Refining Co., and The Connecting Gas Co. This agreement made provision for elected representatives of the employees to meet in Joint Conference with representatives of management to discuss and to settle matters of joint interest. such as hours, wages, working conditions and the adjustment of grievances. Hope formed its first formal Safety Dept.

Even though the country was in the midst of the Depression, Hope still held its annual Company picnic and the offices were moved to its own new office building, which had been constructed at 445 West Main Street in Clarksburg.

Hope’s Employee Credit Union formed in Clarksburg.

Inauguration of company’s first underground gas storage field in Bridgeport, WV.

Hope acquired Reserve Gas Company.

Hope’s general office facilities were transferred to Clarksburg from Pittsburgh where they had been since 1904.

Consolidated Natural Gas Co. formed from Standard Oil divestiture of its gas utilites and one pipeline but they retained an operating division called Hope Natural Gas Co.

Hope Natural Gas Co. created as the Operational Division of Standard Oil.

Hope’s Bridgeport Station was leveled by a tornado.

In the aftermath of the June 23, 1944, tornado that struck the Harrison County area, Hope’s Bridgeport Station was leveled.

Devastation from the tornado was rampant, but shifts worked around the clock to have Hope’s Bridgeport Station back in business in about two week’s time.

The company magazine, The Beacon, was first published out of the Clarksburg office.

200 of Hope’s employees took a leave of absence from their jobs in the Clarksburg General Office to serve their country in WWII; a group formed known as Hope Service Organization who were a home front group of Hope employees who made a special effort to keep in touch with and be of service to former colleagues who were scattered throughout the country and in various parts of the world. A plaque bearing the names of those 200 is on display at the WV Oil & Gas Museum in Parkersburg, WV.

Office building and district warehouse constructed on the outskirts of the city of Bridgeport for Bridgeport Station employees.

A harmless petroleum product (Calodorant “C” Special) had been added to return the “natural” odor to natural gas.

For the first time in the history of the company, Hope Natural Gas Co. and the Employees’ Independent Union entered into a two-year labor contract. Previous contracts had only been one-year agreements.

The “flame and well” symbol was first used by all Consolidated System companies; central element of the basic design is a flame rising from a symbolic underground well.

Newly designed Service Recognition awards featured the “flame and well” insignia and replaced the service award button that had been in use since 1928.

A three-year labor contract was signed between Hope Natural Gas Co. and the Employees’ Independent Union and included a new medical plan.

Hope Natural Gas Company plane crashes and burns after take-off during snow storm from Benedum Airport and kills all four employees on board – the pilot, co-pilot, personnel and labor relations director and employee relations director.

Hope Natural Gas Company merged with New York State Natural Gas to form Consolidated Gas Supply Corporation and the name Hope Natural Gas Company was retained to identify the distribution division.

An agreement was signed between the Allegheny Mountain Gas Workers’ Union and the Consolidated Gas Supply Corporation.

This March 1966 shot of the General Office Building in Clarksburg shows the plastic cocoon used to protect against snow and rain during construction. At right, the building is pictured before the addition.

Company warehouse property sold to Ingersoll-Rand for use as a manufacturing facility.

Allegheny Mountain Gas Workers’ Union Local No. 999 affiliated with Service Employees International Union/SEIU—AFL-CIO and signed two-year contract with Consolidated Gas Supply Corporation.

Consolidated Gas Supply Corp.’s storage system had 27 fields and contained more than 800 billion cubic feet of gas and was the largest gas storage system in the world.

CGSC reorganized and as a result Consolidated Gas Transmission Corporation was created and remains under FERC regulation.

Dominion Resources, Inc., or DRI, was formed as a holding company and began trading under that name on the New York Stock Exchange.

In 1984, the distribution operations became a separate company, Hope Gas, Inc., and the interstate gas transmission operations became Consolidated Gas Transmission Corporation.

Consolidated Gas Supply Corporation changes name to Hope Gas, Inc. and is under WV PSC.

Consolidated Gas Transmission Corporation changes name to CNG Transmission Corp and registers the CNG trademark.

Three-year Joint agreement signed between CNG Trans. Corp. and United Gas Workers Union Local 69, Division II, SEIU, AFL-CIO (a consolidation of Allegheny Gas Workers Union Local 999 and Peoples Natural Gas Local 666).

Hope Gas owned and utilized the largest utility fleet of natural gas-powered vehicles in West Virginia.

In January Dominion Resources, Inc. merged with Consolidated Natural Gas Co.; Dominion became a fully integrated energy company – providing both electric and gas. In September Dominion’s electric and natural gas companies began using new names for their delivery, transmission and customer service operations. The company logo was also changed to the “hand and rays” symbol which featured a burst of energy emanating from a human hand—squarely in the middle of the corporate NYSE stock symbol, “D.” The human hand summed up and illustrated the message that Dominion’s emphasis is on people and the enabling effect of energy, rather than the energy itself.

United Gas Workers Union Local 69 changed affiliation from Service Employees International Union (SEIU AFL-CIO) to Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA AFL-CIO).

Dominion Transmission Inc. relocates its headquarters from 445 W. Main St. Clarksburg to 926 White Oaks Blvd. Bridgeport into a newly constructed LEED Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) Gold Certified building.

Dominion Resources, Inc. changed its name to Dominion Energy, Inc., in recognition of its focus on the evolving energy marketplace and to unify its brand. The company also unveiled a new logo, last modified in 2000, befitting its new name. Designed by the global branding firm of Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv, it retained the “D” shape while modernizing the look with stripes suggesting energy through the blue silhouette. Dominion Hope began serving its customers under its new name, Dominion Energy West Virginia and Dominion Transmission, Inc. began doing business as Dominion Energy Transmission, Inc.

The new decade marks the 75th year of philanthropic endeavors for The Dominion Energy Charitable Foundation. The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in cancellation of the silver anniversary of the Dominion Energy Charity Golf Invitational. The sale of Dominion Energy transmission and storage assets was finalized to Berkshire Hathaway in the fourth quarter.

Hope acquired the Gathering assets from Dominion Energy Transmission for PODs 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9 & 11.

Hope Gas Inc., dba Dominion Energy West Virginia was purchased by Hearthstone Company and renamed Hope Gas; headquartered in Morgantown, WV with Operational Hub in Jane Lew, WV.