Longview, Texas
One shop, one family, four dates worth knowing.
A lot of companies say they have been around a while. Cobb Electric can put a name and a year to every stage of it, because the same family has been writing that history since 1946. What follows is the whole thing, told plainly, with nothing rounded up and nothing left out.
None of it is dressed up for a website. Frank Cobb, Charles Cobb, Beth Cobb and Paul Matlock are real names on a real Texas licence record, and every fact below is on the company's own history page. If you would rather check it yourself before reading our version, that record is public and it says the same thing this page does.
Four dates, in full.
1946
Frank Cobb
Opens the shop in Longview as Cobb's Southwest Electric, running it as a union shop and building the reputation the company still trades on.
1967
Charles Cobb
Frank's son joins the company, and in time takes it over.
1993
Charles Cobb
After several decades as a union shop, Charles re-opens Cobb Electric as a non-union shop.
2005
Paul Matlock
Beth Cobb runs the office by now. Her husband Paul becomes technician manager, and the third generation is in place.
The 1993 change is worth sitting with. Cobb Electric spent its first decades as a union shop, built on that model from the day Frank Cobb opened the doors. Charles Cobb ran it as a non-union shop from 1993 on. That is not a footnote. It is the kind of decision an owner makes once, carefully, and lives with for the rest of the company's history, and it is why the business you call today looks different on paper from the one Frank started.
Nothing about the work changed in 1993. The same commitment to training and to standing behind a job carried straight through, from Frank to Charles and on to Beth and Paul. What changed was how the shop was structured, and the fact that it is still here to talk about is the point.
Who answers the phone
Still a family business, on purpose.
Plenty of electrical contractors get bought, merged, or renamed somewhere along the way. Cobb Electric has passed from Frank to Charles to Beth and Paul instead, and every one of them is a name you can check against the company's own history and the Texas licence record. There is no franchise here and nobody answering the phone from out of state.
That matters more than it sounds like it should. A company that has stayed in one family for three generations has a reason to answer the phone honestly and stand behind a job long after the invoice is paid. Its name is the only advertising it has ever needed, and a family does not carry that name through three generations by treating it carelessly.
What stands behind the work
Licensed, insured, and guaranteed. In writing, not just in the pitch.
None of this is unusual for a contractor doing it right. It is unusual to find all of it written down where you can check it before you ever pick up the phone.
- Texas Electrical Contractor licence
TECL #17658
Texas Electrical Contractor licence
- Years of combined experience on the crew
150+
Years of combined experience on the crew
- General liability and worker's compensation
Insured
General liability and worker's compensation
- Workmanship guarantee on every job
1 year
Workmanship guarantee on every job
Third generation
Ask for references. We mean it.
State-licensed electricians only, covered by general liability and worker's compensation. References are available on request, and after this many years in one town, there are plenty of them to give you.