 He was also a Director at the Detroit Edison Board meeting when Henry Ford first met Edison and first pitched his idea for the automobile startup to those venture capitalists present.From New York he went to Chicago as Western Manager of Edison Company where he remained until the Edison Company was merged with the Thomson-Houston Electric Company to form what is now the General Electric Company.The North American Company, which had just been organized, had acquired an electric lighting interest in Cincinnati, Ohio and Beggs went to Cincinnati in charge of these interests.