Greenville in Hunt County, Texas — The American South (West South Central)

Farmers Electric Cooperative

Photographed by James Hulse, July 28, 2025

1. Farmers Electric Cooperative Marker

Inscription. In 1936, President Franklin Roosevelt created the Rural Electrification Administration (REA) to fund the expansion of electricity to rural America. With federal funding, small electric cooperatives began to appear in the area eventually merging into a larger tri-county cooperative called Farmers Electric. The first 50 miles of lines were energized on September 14, 1938, supplying power to 101 customers. After one year, more than 800 customers had power which allowed for a simplified and safer home. Despite the difficult financial time during the Depression, the need and desire for electricity meant a growing membership for the cooperative. This not only included electricity, but also a community of neighbors and friends.

Erected 2017 by Texas Historical Commission. (Marker Number 18785.)

Topics. This historical marker is listed in this topic list: Industry & Commerce. A significant historical date for this entry is September 14, 1938.

Location. 33° 8.054′ N, 96° 3.648′ W. Marker is in Greenville, Texas, in Hunt County. It is on Interstate 30 Frontage Road ¼ mile west of Lamar Street, on the right when traveling west. The marker is located in front of the Farmers Electric Cooperative building. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 1956 I-30, Greenville TX 75401, United States of America. Touch for directions.

Regionally, this marker is in the Prairies & Lakes Region

and in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metropolitan Area.

It is also in the American South.

Globally, it is in North America,

a Gulf of Mexico state,

the Western Hemisphere,

the Western World,

and the Anglosphere.

Historically, it finds itself in what was once New Spain,

the Republic of Texas,

one of the Confederate States of America,

and the Antebellum South.

Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within 2 miles of this

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marker, measured as the crow flies: Audie and the MG-42 Machine Gun (approx. 1.7 miles away); Audie Murphy Hunt County War Memorial (approx. 1.7 miles away); Audie Leon Murphy (approx. 1.7 miles away); Greenville Confederate Memorial (approx. 1.7 miles away); 1926 Confederate Soldier Statue (approx. 1.7 miles away); Civil War (approx. 1.7 miles away); Reconstruction Era (approx. 1.8 miles away); Early Twentieth Century (approx. 1.8 miles away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Greenville.

Also see . . . The Impact of the Rural Electrification Administration in Texas. Texas State Historical Association (TSHA)

The Emergency Relief Act of 1935 gave President Franklin Delano Roosevelt the authority he needed for a rural-electrification program. When on May 11 of that year he started the Rural Electrification Administration as a depression relief agency similar to the Work Projects Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps, rural electrification at first seemed to offer the large-scale project that was needed, since only 10 percent of the nation's farms then had central-station electricity. In Texas, with
Photographed by James Hulse, July 28, 2025

2. The Farmers Electric Cooperative and Marker
sparse population and vast spaces, the figure was only 2.3 percent. It soon became clear, however, that rural electrification was not a suitable relief project. It needed small numbers of skilled men rather than large numbers of unskilled labor. By August 1935, the agency was modified to a lending agency. It took its permanent form in 1936 with passage by Congress of the Norris-Rayburn Bill. By that time Texas farmers were already at work. A loan to a group at Bartlett had been approved in November 1935 for $33,000, one of the first ten loans made by the REA. The Bartlett farmers had contracted to buy power from the municipal generating plant, so they were able to move ahead swiftly. Their first fifty-eight-mile line serving 120 members was energized on March 9, 1936. Members claim that date made the Bartlett project the first in the nation under the REA. Investor-owned utilities and municipalities could borrow from the REA for rural electrification financing, but few did. The utilities feared uniform rate and area coverage regulations. Municipalities were not sure about their legal power to build rural lines. Utilities undertook some
Photographed by James Hulse, July 28, 2025

3. Farmers Electric Cooperative Service Center and Marker
rural line building, but did not use REA loans. Most borrowers were organized groups of farmers and ranchers like those at Bartlett. Each group had to convince REA officials that their project was feasible and that the loan was sound. In some areas this was difficult; for example, in Schleicher County ranchers proposed a cooperative with less than one member per mile of line. After several revisions, their loan application finally was approved when one member signed a contract guaranteeing to pay a minimum of seventy-five dollars a month, and several others agreed to pay fifty dollars monthly.

(Submitted on July 31, 2025, by James Hulse of Medina, Texas.)

Credits. This page was last revised on July 31, 2025. It was originally submitted on July 30, 2025, by James Hulse of Medina, Texas. This page has been viewed 113 times since then and 24 times this year. Photos: 1, 2, 3. submitted on July 31, 2025, by James Hulse of Medina, Texas.