The early years
Ask almost anyone, “How do you get electricity?” and the answer is relatively simple — you contact your local electric utility company or municipality. Just over sixty-three years ago, however, the answer was not that simple. For those folks, “privileged” to live in cities or crowded rural areas, the major power companies of the time might have provided service. If not, chances were good that power was on its way.

But chances were not so good for those people who lived far out in the country — there was darkness. Daytime in a farmhouse was dark, and nights were darker still. Only one out of ten farms was electrified in 1935 when the rural Electric Administration was created. The REA had a two-fold purpose. To try to provide electricity to the rural areas, and to provide employment during hard economic times.

The idea was to provide federal REA loans to established utility companies to stimulate the extension of power lines into rural areas. Unfortunately very few existing electric companies wanted to provide this expensive service even with the loan carrot from REA. In Central Florida, times were hard. Children studied, women sewed and men milked the cows by kerosene lamps which gave off small circles of light.

Milking was done early in the morning so that very precious moment of daylight could be spend outdoors doing the farm work, but of course there were no refrigerators to keep the milk fresh. Often, ice was not enough to preserve the milk long enough to sell it. Men, women and children had to carry water and wood for all sorts of chores — washing, cooking, ironing, canning. It was hard, hot, often “backbreaking” work.

No one was anxious to bring power to rural Central Florida. Nevertheless, a small bank of visionaries led by, then, county agent W. J. Platt, Jr. decided to do something about it. The long and the short of it is that they were able to generate enthusiastic support amongst the farmers and others who were living in our region during the ‘30s. and, the end result, after much hard work, was the creation of Sumter Electric Cooperative, Inc. Construction of the first lines was completed in 1938 near Webster, and the lines energized to approximately 400 homes. At first, most people who received electricity only had a light bulb in the middle of each room. To some it was a special gift, to others it was a miracle! Many housewives who thought they had always been good housekeepers, apologized with great embarrassment to the men who connected their service, for the dust or cobwebs they’d never seen in the darker corners before. The coming of electricity to the rural areas was, in the truest sense of the word, the beginning of an age of “enlightenment.” 

Many amusing stories still circulate today about the time the lights came on. Electricity was so new, it took some time to adjust to the whole idea of how it worked. One man who had been at work when his power first was turned on didn’t know how to turn the light in his bedroom out. So, he took a metal bucket, went outside and cut a length of wood and propped the bucket up over the light bulb with the stick so he could go to sleep. The next day he asked someone how to turn it off. Another man didn’t quite trust “this electricity,” so he put firecrackers up in his attic. He said if the electricity made his house catch fire, at least the noise of the firecrackers would wake him up so he could escape. Those who didn’t have lights were anxious to get them and proved it by cutting their own right-of-way and sending the Co-op 25 cents a week until their $5 membership fee was paid. The waiting time for electricity was often six months or more. Additionally, service on the existing lines was often a problem. In the beginning there were outages every day. But, some people were patient — there weren’t many telephones then and it was difficult to get out during a storm. Some people would just send the Co-op a postcard and say, “thought you might like to know — our power is off!” It might take two weeks before the notice reached the Co-op and was processed so they could get a serviceman out there. Today, people are a little less understanding about outages. Today, electricity is a necessity, not just a convenience. Still, in rough times such as major storms and following hurricanes, that pioneering spirit and neighborly cooperation comes out for our members and for our employees who work tirelessly to get the power back on for everyone.