Anamosa - A Reminiscence 1838 - 1988

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Maquoketa Valley Rural Electric Cooperative
through 1959: George T. Hall during the growth years
when farms were becoming highly mechanized and
electrified through 1974; and, John W. Parham during
the energy crisis through 1987.
Maquoketa Valley Rural Electric Cooperative is
Headquarters, built in 1950.
people — people working together to benefit themselves
and their neighbors. These members, directors and
employees look to the next half century with continued
confidence.
In April, 1936, Edgar D. Beach, a former Comell
College music teacher who had worked with a number
of the directors in the “AAA Com-Hog Program".
became the first manager. His office consisted of a
small kitchen table and chair in the corner of the Farm
Bureau ofilce. The four-month-old Cooperative was still
a dream of the farmers who had paid their $10
membership fees and filed for incorporation. Those
membership fees were the only assets of the business
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Mr. “REC”
and they went to pay Mr. Beach's meager salary.
Ed Beach was a man of vision who could focus on
those primary objectives while motivating volunteers
and his very small staff to clear away the many
obstacles. He set to work with enthusiasm. He was an
organizer who could bring people together to work for a
common goal. Within two years, loans would be
obtained, lines built, and the first farms electrified. He
had no time for pessimism and his favorite Annual
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Repairmenfor the Maquoketa Valley Rural Electric
Co-op, making a service call in the early days of the
organization. (Submitted by John Parham)
Lineman Bill Dietiker and Kyle Moore, along with
foreman Louie Stoll. manning one of thefour modern
digger-derricks. (Submitted by John Parham)
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