A forest of pine trees passes through the Texas Electric Cooperatives, Inc.'s (TEC) Pole Manufacturing Plant in Jasper each year. The facility's giant bark-peeling machine strips logs as long as one hundred feet to make forty-foot poles for…

Just a minute’s drive from the 1925 county courthouse in Quitman, Texas, one may find the thoroughly modern, electric blue headquarters of the Wood County Electric Cooperative, Inc. (WCEC). Like many contemporary buildings, the WCEC headquarters was…

Douglassville, Texas, with a population hovering around 200, is home to Bowie-Cass Electric Cooperative, Inc. (BCEC). How BCEC, which provides electricity to more than 34,000 locations spread over six East Texas counties, came to be headquartered in…

During the 1930s, the rural citizens of Texas made do without electric lights, running water, refrigeration, and many appliances now considered necessities. Electric power had been part of city life since the turn of the century, but few farms had…

Electric light came to the farmers of Upshur County, Texas in July 1938. Citizens of the county and surrounding rural areas created the Upshur Rural Electric Cooperative Corporation (URECC) in 1937. They applied for a loan of $140,000 from the Rural…

In a 48 year career as a Congressman from Bonham, Texas, seventeen of which he served as Speaker of the House, Sam Rayburn’s proudest accomplishment was passing the Rural Electrification Act. Rayburn was an outspoken supporter of President Franklin…