Making Life Easier

Have you heard this name before?  Clyde T. Ellis.? Probably not but he’s an Arkansas Democrat that has affected, and continues to affect, your life.  

Ellis was born in 1908 on a farm outside of Garfield, Arkansas.  That’s northeast of Bentonville near the Pea Ridge Battleground State Park.  He attended Fayetteville public schools and graduated from the early University of Arkansas.  Working as a public school teacher in Garfield, he then became its Superintendent.  In 1939 he ran for the U.S. House of Representatives campaigning on the need for rural electricity.  He was successful and was elected where he served until 1943.  While there he did champion the need for rural electrification since it was such a needed resource given HIS rural background.  He made so much ado about it that in 1943 he was named General Manager of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, a post from which he led for 24 years until 1967.  His political skills, his oratorical prowess, and his overwhelming zeal to improve lives made him the powerful driving force for the success of the REA.  

This was a big battle for funding since the major power companies did not want competition.  The power companies preferred metropolitan settings where their customers were closer together, lines were more easily strung, and where there were more customers.  Running line through Ozarks hills and dales to fewer customers was just not profitable.   So non-profit, customer-owned cooperatives were a better option.  But where would the money come from?  That was where The REA and Clyde T. Ellis would come in.   Ellis took on the power companies and began helping establish electrical co-ops, funded them, trained directors, and provided much other support.  One other source of electricity?  Hydroelectric power.  It was Ellis who convinced the government to add hydroelectric facilities to the Norfork Dam right here in Baxter County.  The dam was originally designed for just flood control but Ellis’s arguments won the day and the dam has proven to benefit Baxter County way beyond its original purposes.  In 1940, 67,689 Arkansans had electricity with 15,874 miles of line run.  By 1960, 317,191 people were hooked up to 57,838 miles of line.  People wanted the power!  

 Seeing a worldwide need to provide electricity, Ellis went beyond U.S. needs and later, with the Agency for International Development, traveled to over thirty countries to help them in their efforts to electrify their rural areas.   The Rural Electrification Administration became a part of the Department of Agriculture. 

 Ellis served in the Department of Agriculture from 1968-1969, then he was a special assistant to Arkansas Senator Wiliam Fullbright from 1971-1977, and then back to the Department of Agriculture where he retired in 1979.  Another project was seeking preservation status for the Pea Ridge Battleground site near his old home.  These fields were made a National Military Park in 1956. The park has a 7-mile, 10-stop tour road as well as horse and biking trails.  

YOU get electricity today from a coop.  The North Arkansas Electric Cooperative preceded Ellis’ efforts since it was started in 1939 in Viola.  However, it wasn’t until January 1940 that they received word that their loan request of $170,000 from the REA was approved followed by a $25,000 loan in February which allowed them to really get building their infrastructure. This is where Ellis has made his imprint on Baxter County.  His organization found a way to make funds available that gave NAESC its practical beginning.  

Several NAESC innovations helped it through its early years.  In that first year, they cut costs by allowing members to work for .25 cents an hour providing unskilled labor like digging post holes or clearing right of ways.  Another strategy was to increase the use of electricity so that the coop could start repaying its loan.  This was done by offering customers Coop-financed electric washing machines, electric stoves or heaters which the Coop installed at no cost to the member.  Membership grew steadily. Today NAEC adds about 300 new members every year.  They’ve seen a growth in demand as more people come to this area, whether fleeing from COVID or just seeking a nicer setting to retire, do business, or raise a family. New lines are being built all the time.    

Clyde Ellis is honored in many ways.  There is the Van Buren Hydroelectric Generating  Power Station named for him, he’s an honoree in the International Rural Electrification Hall of Fame, and an award is given annually in his honor to an outstanding NAEC employee.  In fact, Mel Coleman, the CEO of NAEC was the recipient of the award in 2018.  Even in death (Feb. 9, 1980) Ellis is honored by his burial place at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

Doubtless, the presence of electricity in Baxter County is a result of many people.   However, there was only one man known  as “Mr. Rural Electrification.”  

As an Arkansas Democrat, Ellis has truly made a difference in the way millions of Americans and overseas people live. 

When you turn on your lights with just an easy flip of a switch, or when you plug in your Tesla, remember who worked so hard to make it possible. Our “New” owes much to the “Old” work of Clyde T. Ellis.  

Mike Breton

1/28/24

Front Page clipping announcing the initial funding of the North Arkansas Electric Cooperative from the January 12th, 1940 Baxter Bulletin.   The clipping reveals how NAEC made it possible for the poor Ozarks folks to participate in the NAEC electrification opportunity.