Monroe County

In the mid 1930’s, northeast Mississippi, like most of rural America, was economically depressed and had little electric power.  Most of the region’s population lived and worked on family farms.  Only 1.5 percent of Mississippi farm homes had electricity, the least of any state in the country. 

​

To stimulate economic recovery from the depression, the federal government instituted several agencies.  Among those were the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) created in 1933, and the Rural Electric Administration (REA).  REA was established on May 11, 1935, through Executive Order 7037.

​

The REA, now the Rural Utilities Service (RUS), was created to loan federal funds to rural electric cooperatives formed by rural people to provide themselves electric power and to assist in the development and operation of such cooperatives.  Rural electric cooperatives were to be owned and governed by their members.  On February 15, 1936, The Monroe County Electric Power Association became the first rural cooperative in the nation to energize lines financed by REA.