Rural Electrification Administration in Delaware County

The Delaware County Historical Society graciously contributes a monthly history column to Delaware Source, exploring the people, places and moments that shaped our community.

The first thing most visitors notice when they enter the Gallant Farm kitchen is the large, wood-burning cooking range. Throwing off intense heat, both winter AND summer, it is hard to miss!

The necessity to build or stoke a fire every time you wanted a cup of coffee seems absurd in these days of Keurig and Cuisinart!

As a living history site focusing on the Great Depression era, one of the many stories we try to bring to life is that of the R.E.A. or the Rural Electrification Administration (followed closely by the Rural Electrification Act).

Today, we flip a switch, swipe across a screen, insert a bank card or turn the handle of a faucet. We rely on electricity with almost every move we make.

The Rural Electrification Act of 1936 (REA), enacted on May 20, 1936, provided federal loans for the installation of electrical distribution systems to serve isolated rural areas of the United States.

The funding was channeled through cooperative electric power companies, hundreds of which still exist today. These member-owned cooperatives purchased power on a wholesale basis and distributed it using their own network of transmission and distribution lines. The Rural Electrification Act was one of many New Deal proposals by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to remedy high unemployment during the Great Depression.

According to the Delaware Cooperative website, by 1936, groups of farmers all over the country were forming cooperatives and applying for Rural Electrification Administration (REA) loans, including two groups of farmers in Delaware and Morrow counties of north central Ohio. Delaware Rural Electric Cooperative was incorporated on April 2, 1936, and Morrow Electric Cooperative incorporated on June 10, 1936, borrowing $250,000 from the REA in Washington, DC, to build the first 250 miles of power line.

As a society completely dependent on electric power, it can be hard to imagine a time when it was not readily available. Even more difficult to believe, perhaps, is the fact that when it did become obtainable, not everyone was anxious to use it!

In the early decades of the 20^th century, electric power or the lack of it represented the biggest gulf between segments of the American population. By the 1930’s, the decade that we portray at Gallant Farm, most city dwellers were familiar with electricity and the benefits it could bring like illumination, refrigeration and washing machines while farm families still relied on “elbow grease” to operate most tools.

The REA was one of FDR’s “Alphabet Soup” mix of the New Deal, like the FSA and the CCC. When Roosevelt was elected during the throes of the Great Depression, one of his goals was to get people back to work. The rural electrification was one of the ways he planned to do it.

Created in 1935, and then enacted in 1936, the REA provided federal money to fund cooperative power companies to bring electricity to farms. This was intended to not only create jobs but enhance the living conditions of those in isolated rural areas.

Here in Delaware County, the rural electric co-op was incorporated on April 2, 1936. It would then take two years to get power to the first farm.

Prior to the creation of the REA, a few farmers invested in generator-type “power plants” or battery systems to run a few lights, small appliances and, possibly the most important gadget, a radio. The radio was a link to the world, dispensing news, comedy, music and even game shows.

Not all local farmers were as forward-thinking as those who were willing to join the new co-op. When electricity was first introduced at the end of the 19^th century, the public was skeptical and even scared to have it in their homes.

By the 1930’s, however, it was not fear that influenced farm folk. They were not as dubious as they were practical. Their first thought may have been, “What will we plug in?” They had operated successfully without electric power for generations. The hand-powered machines and kerosene lamps and lanterns had served them well for decades! Plus, there was the expense of running the lines from the road to the farm and then the charge for the power itself.

In an attempt to make it more appealing, agricultural magazines began to tout the wonders and many uses of electric power. Farm families proved to be such “hard sells” that the electric co-ops hired young women to serve as “advisors” to show the women in rural communities the marvels of the new technology.

In what they referred to as “the electric circus” these young advisors traveled to county fairs and grange halls to demonstrate electric appliances and convince farmwives how much easier their lives could be with power.

Once the power lines began to crisscross the county and were strung along the roads, many farmers decided lights in the barn could be an advantage. Carrying a kerosene lantern in straw and hay-filled structures had always presented a bit of a danger and an electric light bulb would give much better illumination.

Once rural families began to use electricity, they embraced it!

Soon, electric cooling tanks for milkcans were eliminating the waist of spoiled milk and powered water pumps were sending water through pipes around the farm without the need to carry it in buckets. In homes small appliances, like toasters, fans and radios, began to appear.

Despite all of that progress, though, it might still be decades before some farmwives would be cooking on a fancy electric range. Large woodburning stoves would often continue to dominate farm kitchens until well after World War II.

So, if you want to get a taste of the past and see our wood burning range in action stop out for a visit to Gallant Farm.