"As is usually the case when a moment of destiny is about to arrive, the forces of change had been working for some time. For the past year a line crew had been setting poles, stringing wire, and installing transformers along country roads in Butler, Lowndes, Wilcox and Dallas counties. But the crew was not with the Alabama Power Company; rather they worked on a contract with the Butler County Electric Membership Corporation, an electric cooperative incorporated in 1937 to bring electric power to rural areas. By now, the lines were up and most houses had been wired, but so far nobody actually had power. The lines could not be energized until the Kolb City substation was completed and the transformers installed. At about two o'clock that afternoon, the crew finished installing the transformers and energized the wires on Halso Mill Road between Ebenezer East Baptist Church and the Central Community. The first house to receive power was owned by Mr. and Mrs. W. Brad Wood, and during the next few days eightone miles of line would be energized.... It was a high moment for people on Halso Mill Road, but the full import of what had happened was something they could not even imagine. Over the next few years it would settle in, as electricity made their lives and those of their neighbors immeasurably better. And they would always recall with a sense of awe the magic glow of that first light bulb on Monday, March 6, 1939 -- when the lights came on."

from When the Lights Came On, A History of Pioneer Electric Cooperative, Inc., by James A. Buford