Bartlett Electric Cooperative
Bartlett, Bell County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Although the town of Bartlett had regular electric service by 1905, farmers in the surrounding rural area were not supplied with electricity until thirty years later. On May 11, 1935, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed an executive order establishing the Rural Electrification Administration (REA) as part of his New Deal emergency relief program. Designed to bring electricity to the rural areas of America, the REA also became a lending agency to help finance such projects. In 1935, the REA lent $33,000 to the Bartlett Community Light & Power Company. Later known as the Bartlett Electric Cooperative, the BCL&P built a 59-mile power line to serve the rural areas surrounding Bartlett. The first section of the line, which was to serve 110 farm homes, became operative in March 1936. Power was provided by the city's municipal light plant, which had been built two years earlier. As the first REA project in Texas and the first in the nation to be energized under an REA loan, the Bartlett Electric Cooperative played an important role in the modernization of area farms.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Though the town of Bartlett had electricity by 1905, the farms around it stayed dark for another thirty years—an everyday hardship across rural America. That changed with Franklin Roosevelt's 1935 executive order creating the Rural Electrification Administration, which lent the local light-and-power company $33,000 to string a 59-mile line to some 110 farm homes. Energized in 1936, it was the first REA project in Texas and the first in the nation to come alive under an REA loan.
Why it matters
Rural electrification was one of the New Deal's most transformative achievements, closing the gap between city and countryside and modernizing American farm life almost overnight.
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Related people
- · Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Related events
- · Rural Electrification Administration
- · New Deal
Themes & tags
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