Rural Electrification
Cumberland Township, Adams County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
In 1936 seventy-five percent of Pennsylvania farms had no electric service. During the next five years, with Federal support, 14 consumer-owned cooperatives were formed in this Commonwealth. Adams Electric Cooperative at Gettysburg, serving members in south-central Pennsylvania, was incorporated on August 21, 1940.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
In 1936 most Pennsylvania farms had no electricity, left in the dark by utilities unwilling to serve sparse rural routes. With federal backing, a wave of consumer-owned cooperatives sprang up across the Commonwealth, and the Adams Electric Cooperative at Gettysburg was incorporated in 1940 to carry power to members throughout south-central Pennsylvania. It was a farmer-owned answer to a need private industry had declined to meet.
Why it matters
The cooperative electrification of the countryside was one of the most far-reaching domestic achievements of the New Deal era, reshaping rural American life for good.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In the mid-1930s, electricity was still largely a town-and-city convenience in Pennsylvania. As of 1936, three out of every four farms in the Commonwealth had no electric service at all, left in the dark while urban neighbors enjoyed powered light, water, and machinery.
The cause was plain arithmetic. Utilities profited by serving customers packed closely together, and sparse rural routes promised thin returns. Rather than absorb the cost, private companies simply declined to build the lines, and the countryside stayed unlit.
The New Deal set out to change that calculus. With federal support behind them over the following five years, rural communities across the state found a way to bring power to places the market had written off.
People & events
The answer was the consumer-owned cooperative, an organization owned by its members rather than by outside investors. During those years, fourteen such cooperatives were formed across the Commonwealth.
Here in south-central Pennsylvania, that effort produced the Adams Electric Cooperative at Gettysburg, incorporated on August 21, 1940, to serve members throughout the region.
It was, in the truest sense, a farmer-owned answer to a need private industry had refused to meet. Members joined together to build and own the system that would light their homes and power their farms — taking responsibility for a service that had never been extended to them, and making it their own.
Its place in the American story
The electrification of rural America ranks among the most consequential domestic accomplishments of the New Deal era. It reshaped rural life for good, replacing lamplight and hand labor with the steady power that modern farming and modern households came to depend on.
What made it work was the marriage of federal backing with local initiative. Government support opened the door, but it was neighbors organizing into cooperatives who walked through it — a model repeated in county after county across the nation.
The Adams cooperative at Gettysburg is one local expression of that sweeping change. Its story, echoed by many like it, helps explain how the deep divide between electrified cities and darkened farms was closed within a single generation.
If you visit
Gettysburg draws visitors for a very different chapter of American history, so this marker offers a chance to notice a quieter, more recent story hiding in the same landscape. Look around at the farms and homes of south-central Pennsylvania and remember that power reaching them was, not so long ago, a hard-won thing.
Standing here, imagine the region before 1940 — its rural households still waiting for a service that stopped short at the edges of the towns. The transformation that followed is now so ordinary that it is nearly invisible.
Add this stop to a day already spent in the Gettysburg area, and let it broaden the trip. Alongside the famous history most people come for, it points to a different kind of turning point: the day rural neighbors organized to switch on the lights themselves.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
Plan your visit
NearbyMake a day of it — museums, food, and places to stay near this marker.
Museums & culture
- Beyond the Battle Museum1.5 mi away · 625 Biglerville Road, Gettysburg, PA
- Adams County Historical Society1.5 mi away · 625 Biglerville Road, Gettysburg, PA
- Thompson House - Lee's HQ2.0 mi away
- Seminary Ridge Museum, Gettysburg2.2 mi away · 61 Seminary Ridge Avenue, Gettysburg
- Ticket to the Past - Unforgettable Journeys2.2 mi away · 35 Carlisle Street, Gettysburg, PA
- The David Wills House Museum2.3 mi away · 8 Lincoln Square, Gettysburg, PA
Attractions
- John Eisenhower Bridge4.7 mi away · Waterworks Road
- Sachs Covered Bridge5.0 mi away
- Sachs Covered Bridge5.0 mi away · Waterworks Road, Gettysburg, PA
Food & drink
- CJ's Takeout & Late Nite Bites2.1 mi away · 150 Carlisle Street, Gettysburg, PA
- Mason Dixon Distillery2.1 mi away · 331 East Water Street, Gettysburg, PA
- Tacos Monarca2.2 mi away · 11 West Railroad Street, Gettysburg, PA
- Lincoln Diner2.2 mi away · 32 Carlisle Street, Gettysburg, PA
- Kazue2.2 mi away · 25 Carlisle Street, Gettysburg, PA
- Waldo's & Company2.2 mi away · 17 Lincoln Square, Gettysburg, PA
Places to stay
- The Inn at Herr Ridge B&B1.9 mi away · 900 Chambersburg Road, Gettysburg, PA
- Glatfelter Lodge1.9 mi away · PA
- Gettysburg Hotel2.2 mi away · 1 Lincoln Square, Gettysburg, PA
- The Union Hotel2.2 mi away · 27 Chambersburg Street, Gettysburg, PA
- The Brafferton Inn2.2 mi away · 44 York Street, Gettysburg, PA
- Americas Best Value Inn2.2 mi away · 983 York Road, Gettysburg, PA
Places data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Hours and details change — call ahead.
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Related events
- · Incorporation of Adams Electric Cooperative (1940)
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Penn State University Fruit Research & Extension Center
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Established in 1918 to help Pennsylvania's orchardists tackle mounting problems in the field, the Fruit Research and Extension Center began in Arendtsville before moving to this Adams County site in 1971. Set in the heart of the state's apple and peach country, the center pioneered work on fruit production and disease and helped develop integrated pest management, a smarter approach to controlling insects. Its research has shaped how fruit is grown and marketed far beyond Pennsylvania.
John Studebaker
Tyrone Township, PA · est. 1948
In the 1830s a modest wagon-making shop stood near here, run by John Studebaker before he packed up and joined the great westward migration. His decision seeded a dynasty: in 1852 his sons opened a wagon works in Indiana that grew into the largest maker of horse-drawn vehicles in the world. When the age of the horse gave way to the motorcar, the Studebaker firm made the leap in 1897, becoming one of America's earliest automakers.
Tapeworm Railroad
Hamiltonban Township, PA · est. 1967
In 1836, as Pennsylvania threw itself into a canal-and-railroad building spree, the state chartered a rail line through the rugged Adams County countryside, pushed hard by the young Gettysburg lawyer and future Radical Republican Thaddeus Stevens. Critics mocked its winding route through the hills as the "Tapeworm," and the project—never finished as planned—was put up for sale by 1842. Its abandoned granite viaduct still stands nearby as a monument to an overambitious age of internal improvements.
Caledonia Furnace
Greene Township, PA · est. 1947
Thaddeus Stevens and James D. Paxton built the Caledonia iron furnace here in 1837, part of the charcoal-iron industry that fed early American growth. Stevens went on to become one of Congress's most uncompromising foes of slavery, and in June 1863 — as Robert E. Lee's army moved toward Gettysburg — Confederate Gen. Jubal Early singled out the works and destroyed them, in part as payback for the ironmaster's antislavery politics. Early burned the furnace on June 26 on his march toward York.