Arizona - Phoenix By the early 1880s he had refocused his efforts in the agricultural Salt River Valley area and Phoenix. He invested in and was involved with the building of the Arizona Canal, which, started in early 1883, would become the main irrigation canal for the valley. In 1884, he co-founded and became president of the Valley Bank of Phoenix. He was a major stockholder and vice president of the Phoenix Water Company. He bought large quantities of real estate around Phoenix and became the largest taxpayer in Phoenix and one of the largest in the territory. In 1887, he constructed a street railway, and, after merging it with several other lines, electrified the lines in 1893 and created the Phoenix Railway Company of Arizona, which he controlled until 1925, when the lines were sold to the city. In 1910 he built a line from Phoenix to Glendale to connect with the Santa Fe Railroad. He was involved with moving the territorial capitol to Phoenix, and with his business associate, attorney M.E. Collins, he donated 10 acres of property for the new territorial capitol building in 1889. Developing Electric Rail Transportation in Los Angeles Prior to Sherman's arrival in Los Angeles, the Santa Fe Railroad had built a line to the Los Angeles in 1886, which caused a rate war with the Southern Pacific. While a short-lived real estate boom followed, the excitement created by the boom drew attention (and new residents) to the area. During his time in Arizona, Sherman had made many trips to Los Angeles and had become convinced that it had a great future. Shortly after moving to Los Angeles in 1890, Sherman became a founding stockholder and director of the Los Angeles-based National Bank of California. He and brother-in-law Clark immediately became involved in the local transportation business. The Los Angeles Consolidated Electric Railway - Prior to Sherman’s arrival in Los Angeles, various individual entrepreneurs had built several horse car lines, cable car lines and an initial electric line. Sherman, seeing promise in the new Sprague trolley technology, gained control of several street railway franchises, and immediately began to create a system based on this new technology. Sherman and Clark incorporated the Los Angeles Consolidated Electric Railway Company (LACE) in November, 1890. Clark was made Vice President and General Manager. They intended to acquire and construct a large number of electric railway lines connecting