Plattsburg, MO - Chamber Business of the Month

Lighting our homes today is as simple as flipping a switch, but back in the mid-1930s, nine out of ten rural homes were without electric service. City-based electric companies refused to build or extend lines to the rural areas, saying it would not be profitable. Because of the importance of having electricity in rural homes and farms, in 1935 President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the Rural Electrification Administration (REA) as part of the New Deal program. The purpose of the REA was to make low-interest loans available to local electric cooperatives so the co-ops could get the capital needed to build electric lines in the rural areas.

Platte-Clay organized in 1938 and in January 1939, the Board of Directors authorized constructing 456 miles of electric transmission and distribution lines, with the approval of the REA, and borrowing $487,000 from the government to finance construction and operation of electric service to the rural families in our area.

In 1939, families didn’t have radios, irons, refrigerators, electric washing machines, lamps and other appliances waiting to be plugged in. Although the first refrigerators were sold in 1913, the rural areas didn’t have electricity, and much of America didn’t have money to buy appliances. World War II and rationing also put a damper on sales in urban areas. In addition to hanging on through the Great Depression, rural families had been managing without electricity.

To help develop the need for electric service, the co-op proposed loaning members up to $10 to buy appliances. The Board believed that members' enthusiasm for new labor-saving devices, such as an electric washing machine, would help gain new members. By 1944, 85 percent of American households had a refrigerator. By 1953, more than 90 percent of U.S. farms had electric service, and in 2011, about 99 percent of U.S. farms have electric service.

Today the REA has evolved to become the Rural Utilities Service (RUS) and is part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. A rural electric cooperative, Platte-Clay Electric is a member-owned cooperative serving residents and businesses in a seven county area that stretches in a rectangle north of metropolitan Kansas City. The service area includes Clay and Platte Counties, with the most population, and the more rural areas in Buchanan, Caldwell, Clinton, DeKalb and Ray Counties. Platte-Clay is associated with Touchstone Energy, a national alliance of local, member-owned electric cooperatives serving primarily rural customers (members) in 46 states. The rural electric cooperatives now represent the largest electric utility network in the U.S., serving some 75 percent of the U.S. land mass over 2.4 million miles of power lines delivering electricity to more than 30 million members each day.

To learn about Platte-Clay’s many services and programs available, visit their website at www.pcec.coop.

Web sponsored by:	Plattsburg Chamber of Commerce PO Box 134 Plattsburg, MO 64477 816-539-2649

Special thanks to The Clinton County Leader and RT Photography for donating many of the pictures for use on this site.