Lyndon B. Johnson and Hill Country Electrification
Johnson City, Blanco County, Texas
Marker Inscription
LYNDON B. JOHNSON AND HILL COUNTRY ELECTRIFICATION BY THE 1930s, MANY RESIDENTS OF CITIES ACROSS THE U.S. WERE BENEFITING FROM THE COMMON USE OF ELECTRICITY. HOWEVER, A VAST MAJORITY OF RURAL AREAS LACKED ELECTRIC SERVICE, WHICH COMPOUNDED DEPRESSION-ERA PROBLEMS FOR FARMERS WHOSE CROP RETURNS WERE ALREADY MEAGER. IN 1935, PRESIDENT FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT ESTABLISHED THE RURAL ELECTRIFICATION ADMINISTRATION (REA) TO MAKE LOANS TO COOPERATIVES ESTABLISHED BY THE FARMERS THEMSELVES. ALTHOUGH THE REA QUICKLY HELPED BRING ELECTRICITY TO RURAL AMERICA, ITS PROGRAM DID NOT EXTEND TO THE TEXAS HILL COUNTRY, WHOSE SPARSE POPULATION DID NOT MEET QUALIFICATIONS. IN 1937, FUTURE PRESIDENT LYNDON B. JOHNSON WORKED TO BRING ELECTRICITY TO THE AREA, A PROMISE HE MADE DURING HIS SUCCESSFUL RUN FOR THE U.S. CONGRESS THAT YEAR. HIS PLAN FOCUSED ON TWO LOWER COLORADO RIVER DAMS: BUCHANAN IN BURNET COUNTY AND MARSHALL FORD (NOW MANSFIELD) IN TRAVIS COUNTY. JOHNSON’S APPEALS TO ROOSEVELT AND GOVERNMENT AGENCIES LED TO AN EASING OF THE REA’S REQUIREMENTS. RANCHER E. BABE SMITH JOINED JOHNSON IN CANVASSING HIS DISTRICT TO CONVINCE FARMERS TO PAY $5 DEPOSITS, WHICH WOULD ALLOW THE PEDERNALES ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE (PEC) TO BUILD INFRASTRUCTURE AND SELL POWER. IN 1938, WITH ABOUT 3,300 FAMILIES SIGNED FOR ELECTRIC SERVICE, THE REA AWARDED THE PEC A LOAN TO BUILD OVER 1,700 MILES OF ELECTRIC LINES, THE LARGEST ALLOTMENT EVER MADE BY THE ADMINISTRATION. IN THE FALL OF 1939, ELECTRICITY BEGAN TO FLOW. THE PEC BECAME THE NATION’S LARGEST ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE AND REMAINS AMONG THE DOZENS OF OTHER SUCH COOPERATIVES ACROSS TEXAS. LYNDON JOHNSON’S WORK WAS ESSENTIAL IN THEIR FORMATION AND THE EXPANSION OF ELECTRIFICATION IN THE TEXAS HILL COUNTRY. 175 YEARS OF TEXAS INDEPENDENCE * 1836-2011
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
By the 1930s cities across America enjoyed electricity while most of the rural Texas Hill Country remained in the dark, its sparse population failing to qualify for New Deal aid. In 1937 newly elected congressman Lyndon B. Johnson pressed President Roosevelt and federal agencies to bend the Rural Electrification Administration's rules, focusing on power from the Buchanan and Marshall Ford dams. With rancher E. Babe Smith helping sign up families, the Pedernales Electric Cooperative won the largest REA loan ever made, and in the fall of 1939 the lights came on.
Why it matters
Bringing power to the Hill Country was one of the young Johnson's defining achievements and a landmark example of how New Deal rural electrification transformed everyday American life.
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Related people
- · Lyndon B. Johnson
- · Franklin D. Roosevelt
- · E. Babe Smith
Themes & tags
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