Most of the people that I grew up with and are now in their 40s have never known a world without electrical service.  The generations younger than my own may even refuse to believe such a world ever existed.  Nevertheless, it did exist, and for much of the American countryside that world is not too distantly removed from the world in which we now live.  In Baldwin County, as in the rest of Alabama and the United States, the electrification of some of our most rural areas didn’t take place until some 75 years ago.  In some cases it was much later than that.

In the early part of the twentieth century the use of electricity in urban areas in the United States was enjoyed by ninety percent of the population.  However, in the rural farmlands that made up much of America electrical service was an oddity.  Most of the electrical companies that served the U.S. at the time simply refused to run lines to rural areas citing high cost and little return based on low population density.  By the mid 1930s President Franklin Roosevelt sought to change this trend by seeking to extend electrical service to the outlying areas in America.  As a result, one of the most ambitious New Deal programs, the Rural Electrification Administration, was born.

The opportunity to electrify the farm was obviously not lost on the residents of Baldwin County.  By January 1937 more than 600 locals had signed up for the program.  In hopes of improving their lives and lessening their work load through the use of electrified machinery the Baldwin County farmer heeded the words of President Roosevelt when he maintained that, “electricity can relieve the drudgery of the housewife and lift the great burden off the shoulders of the hard working farmer.”

Nationally as late as 1925 there were only 205,000 of the nearly 6.5 million farms in the United States that had received centralized electrical service.  A centralized electric service is that provided by a power producing company whose primary product is that of electrical output.  Interestingly enough there were some farms, primarily in the great plains region that produced their own electrical current through the use of windmills.  These windmills charged batteries through a DC generator to use in a variety of ways on the farm such as lighting and refrigeration.

The Baldwin County electrification project was announced in the January 28 edition of the Baldwin Times to much fanfare.  John F. Meagher, the engineer in charge of the project, indicated that the venture would bring around 200 miles of electrical lines to the county and provide service to hundreds.  In March 1937 Baldwin County received word from Senator Lister Hill that the Rural Electrification Administration approved the Baldwin County project in the amount of $200,000.00.  The proposed rates for the service were listed as $2.00 for ten kilowatts, the next forty kilowatts at five cents each, the next 250 at three cents and beyond that usage amount each kilowatt used would cost two cents.

The contract for the construction of the proposed electric lines was awarded in the summer of 1937.  The Richardson Trading Company from Bloosburg, Alabama won the construction bid and began installing the poles and lines in September of that same year.  The lines were to extend from Fairhope through Silverhill, Marlow, Magnolia Springs, Bon Secour, Elberta, Gulf Shores, Summerdale, West Robertsdale and Rosinton, north through Stapleton, Hurricane, White House Forks, Cross Roads, Carpenter Station, Stockton and north to Little River.  At the time County Extension Agent E.E. Hale commented that, “next to good schools and good roads this is the greatest project that has been offered to Baldwin County and its future development in the past decade.”

Electrification continued to expand throughout the nation’s most rural areas.  Baldwin County was no different than the rest of the nation in its thirst for electrical power and the efficiencies that came with its use.  The Rural Electrification Administration also expanded throughout the years.  In 1949 it was authorized to make loans for telephone improvements.  In 1988 it was allowed to provide interest free loans for job creation and rural electric systems.  By the early 1990s, however, it had accomplished its mission so well that there was no more need for its existence.  In 1994 the Administration was abolished and its functions assumed by the Rural Utilities Service.  Nevertheless its legacy is our current use of electricity in almost every facet of our daily lives.