Albert Bishop Chance

Albert Bishop Chance (1873–1949) was a businessman and the inventor of the first practical earth anchor.^[1] He founded the A.B. Chance Company in 1907 in his hometown of Centralia, Missouri, where he would also become mayor^[2] He invented the earth anchor after an ice storm knocked down his parents' company's telephone lines. He was a philanthropist to the University of Missouri, and participated in bringing the first hospital to Boone County. He was inducted into the Boone County Historical Society Hall of Fame in 2010.^[3] The Albert Bishop Chance House and Gardens were placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.^[4]

The A.B. Chance Company would be acquired by Hubbell Incorporated in 1994.^[5] The Chance brand is still sold today.