This story was originally published in the January 2026 Heartbeat newsletter.
In 1936, nearly 90 percent of American farms had no electricity. It wasn’t because the technology didn’t exist—cities had been electrified for decades. It was because investor-owned utilities looked at rural Kansas and saw scattered farms, long distances, and thin profit margins. They decided rural America simply wasn’t worth serving.
Senator George Norris of Nebraska saw something different. He saw families “growing old prematurely; dying before their time; conscious of the great gap between their lives and the lives of those whom the accident of birth or choice placed in towns and cities.” He witnessed the “unending punishing tasks performed by hundreds of thousands of women, uncomplainingly and even gaily and happily” without the benefit of electric power that city dwellers took for granted.
Norris had been fighting to electrify rural America since the 1920s. When Franklin D. Roosevelt took office in 1933, Norris finally had an ally in the White House.
On May 20, 1936, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Rural Electrification Act into law. It provided low-interest federal loans—not grants—to bring electricity to rural America.
Why Cooperatives?
The cooperative model emerged from necessity.
Private utilities needed guaranteed profits. They calculated that rural areas, with homes scattered miles apart, would require massive infrastructure investment for minimal return.
But cooperatives operated on a different principle: cost of service, not profit maximization. Members would pay what it actually cost to deliver electricity.
Cooperatives also solved a critical problem: community buy-in. Farmers understood that electrifying rural America meant they were building their own system. This meant they’d help clear right-of-way, coordinate with neighbors on line routes, and commit to buying power once it arrived—guaranteeing the demand that made the whole enterprise viable.
The REA provided low-interest loans at 2-3% interest, but cooperatives still needed members who would stick with the system long enough to repay those loans. The cooperative structure, with its member commitment and local accountability, provided that stability.
By 1953, more than 90 percent of American farms had electricity thanks to locally owned cooperatives that hired crews, strung lines, and owned the infrastructure. Rural electric cooperatives had accomplished what investor-owned utilities refused to do.
National Movement, Local Reality
Heartland’s roots reach back to three systems born in this era: Cooperative Electric Power & Light Company (1937), based in Iola; Sekan Electric Cooperative Association (1939), based in Girard; and Sugar Valley Electric Cooperative Association (1940), based in Mound City. All three were created by Kansas farmers who needed power and took responsibility for providing it themselves.
Cooperative Electric Power & Light merged with Sugar Valley in 1975, creating United Electric Cooperative, Inc. When United Electric merged with Sekan in 1997, Heartland Rural Electric Cooperative was formed.
Why Co-Ops Still Matter
The challenges that created cooperatives in the 1930s haven’t disappeared. Southeast Kansas remains sparsely populated, with miles between homes and farms, and the population is declining in most counties. Investor-owned utilities still make decisions based on shareholder returns, not community needs. If cooperatives didn’t exist, much of our service territory would face unreliable power or no power at all.
But cooperatives offer more than just service—they offer local control. The board members you vote for—two from each of our four voting districts—are neighbors who show up at the same grocery stores, churches, and ball games you do.
And when Heartland operates efficiently, margins return to you as capital credits rather than enriching distant shareholders. Heartland returned $745,385 to members in 2025.
The Legacy Continues
The cooperative model exists because rural Americans in the 1930s refused to accept that they didn’t deserve the same opportunities as city dwellers. They built something remarkable: a nationwide network of locally controlled utilities that transformed rural life and remain owned by the communities they serve.
Heartland Rural Electric Cooperative continues this tradition. We’re not a corporation extracting profit from Southeast Kansas. We’re your cooperative, returning value to the 12 counties we serve through reliable service, capital credits, community investment, and local control.
That’s why membership matters. It’s the reason this enterprise exists and what makes it special.
Heartland Rural Electric Cooperative belongs to you.