About Rusk County Electric Co-op

The Rural Electrification Program had its beginning in May, 1935 and Rusk County Electric Cooperative came into being in December, 1937 when Dr. C.A. Dawson, Minden; Mr. T.L. Vincent and Mr. J.J. Pool, Tatum; Mr. J.W. Wylie, Pine Hill; Mr. J.E. Rogers, Henderson; Mr. S.T. Allison, Carthage; and Mr. John C. Smith from Beckville incorporated the Cooperative, which started from zero and today has over 3600 miles of lines, and serves over 15,000 members located in Rusk, Panola, Gregg, Nacogdoches, and Shelby Counties.

By definition a "Cooperative" is people working or acting together, willingly for a common purpose. The fact that the Cooperative is a non-profit, people-owned organization, means that it is geared not to profit, but to people. Thus the Cooperative is you - the people we serve.

These farsighted founders of the Cooperative could never have dreamed of the changes that have taken place in the past 77 years, but the Cooperative principle is still as valid as it was then.