The past couple of years have been challenging and fun at the same time. Before we packed up and moved out of our old office space in the fall of 2020, we sorted and purged outdated and unneeded documents, pamphlets and such items. We boxed up the remainder and placed them in storage while the remodel took place.
When we moved back into our office, we needed to find homes for everything we placed in storage.
Since I am the communicator and human resources manager of the cooperative, I’m considered the keeper of official, historical cooperative documents. As I moved through several boxes marked “annual meeting material,” I found myself stopping to read many of the articles that haven't seen the light of day since they were kept in our vault in a dark file cabinet.
This has been a fun history lesson, learning about how our cooperative was formed, why it was formed and how after 82 years it is still a very relevant business model.
The specific article I stopped to read from cover to cover is from The Osceola Sentinel dated Thursday, July 30, 1959. I thought some of you might find it as interesting as I did and I’d like to share some interesting facts and stats from then and now.
1959 / 2022
1,670 / 1,900 miles of line
3,800 / 4,687 members
7 / 8 counties served
24 / 24 employees
9 / 9 directors
6,000 / 51,250 kW capacity
1959 Substations: Osceola, Medora, Derby, Humeston & Hopeville
2022 Substations Added: Clio, White Oak, I-35, Murray, Grand River & Lacona
1954: New building dedicated
2021: Remodeled building dedicated
1959: Humeston building
2022: No outpost buildings
The story of Clarke Electric Cooperative begins when two Clarke County extension directors, Kenneth Whirrett and Melvin Goeldner, took an early lead getting area farmers interested in forming a rural electric cooperative (REC). Their goal: to provide high quality, central station electric service to every farm in their area, regardless of its location. Shortly after the establishment of the Rural Electrification Administration (REA) in 1935, Whirrett and a small group of county farmers traveled to Ames to attend some of the early REA meetings. They returned discouraged but resolved that something must be done.
A few years later, Goeldner succeeded Whirett and kept the project alive by continuing to have articles published in the local papers and by word of mouth. During this time, less than 10% of electric service was reaching farmers in our rural service area. In 1939, following months of meetings, a group of interested farmers applied for and received the charter on Nov. 24, 1939, with the REA designation of “Iowa No. 79.”
In May 1940, the cooperative’s first employee, N.T. Miller, was appointed manager. Shortly after, Harold Gripp was hired as membership solicitor. Together, the two men worked tirelessly to sign up members and hire employees to construct the lines and take care of the finances. Miller went on to lead the cooperative until his retirement in 1973.
Construction started in the spring of 1941 to build the first section of line, 115 miles, to serve 180 members in the southern part of Warren County, central Clarke County and northwest Decatur County. Construction was halted by Pearl Harbor in December of 1941, with very little construction progress taking place during the war.
Following the war, electric line activity flourished. From 1946-1953 the bulk of line construction was completed with 1,670 miles of line energized. Five substations were built with a capacity of 6,000 kilowatts. In 2022, our eleven substations have a capacity of more than 51,250 kilowatts.
Today, we take for granted that the lights will come on when we flip the switch. But let's not forget the roots of our existence and the sacrifices early farmers made for the betterment of all rural lives. Clarke Electric Cooperative fulfilled the need then and we will continue to fill the need now and into the future. That’s the cooperative difference.