Following directions received by mail and provisions of a new Georgia law, they organized the Sumter Electric Membership Corporation. In May 1937, a small group of farmers met at the Sumter County Courthouse. Unlike investor-owned electric power companies interested only in profits, REA financed cooperatives were to be owned by the people they served and operated on a non-profit basis. And then a little known federal government program, the REA, paved the way for rural Americans to build their own electric utility companies. The improving standard of living enjoyed by city dwellers did not reach beyond the city limits. They used an outdoor privy located at the end of a path behind the house and bathed in a washtub on Saturday night. Farm wives washed clothes outside in iron pots and pressed them with a sadiron heated on top of a wood-burning stove. They chopped wood and drew water from a well for heating, cooking, cleaning, bathing, and laundry. Long after city dwellers enjoyed the freedom from drudgery made possible by electricity, farm families still toiled long hours doing chores by hand.įarmers had to grind feed for their livestock and unload seed by hand. In 1930, most rural Americans had no electric power because it cost more than profit-minded, investor-owned electric companies would pay to construct power lines so far to serve so few. Sumter Electric Membership Corporation (EMC) is proud to be part of the nationwide network of electric cooperatives organized under the Rural Electrification Administration (REA). 86 Years of Making Lives Better with Safe, Affordable, Reliable Electricity Cooperatives - the Early Years
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