LIGHTING UP OUR LIVES The History of Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative Written by Al Gough Jr. Tis book was published by Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative, Inc. 15035 Burnt Store Road/P.O. Box 1937 Hughesville, MD 20637 www.smeco.coop © 2012 Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without the prior written permission of the copyright holders except brief quotations used in connection with reviews. All photos © their respective copyright holders. All photos not credited are from the collection of Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative, Inc. Every efort has been made to obtain permission to reprint photos. ISBN: 978-0-615-66998-4 Book design, layout, and jacket design by Jonna Jones. Te editing and book design were coordinated by Terry Ressler. Factual content is solely the responsibility of the author. Any questions concerning possible omissions or errors should be addressed to the author, care of Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative, Inc. All inquiries concerning reproduction or permissions should be addressed to Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative, Inc., Hughesville, Maryland. Printed in the United States of America. Table of contents Acknowledgements..................................................iv Foreword ...........................................................v 1 Back to the Future: 1880–1925 .........................................6 2 Alas! Poor La Plata: 1925–1929 ........................................10 3 Holding Companies, Folding Companies and Cooperatives: 1930–1937 ....24 4 The Popes Creek Connection: 1937–1941 ..............................36 5 The Home Front: 1942–1946 ..........................................50 6 Slipping into the Modern Groove: 1947–1959 ............................64 7 The Sixties ..........................................................82 8 For Your Times They Are a-Changin’: 1970–1979..........................98 9 The Next Generation: 1980–1989 .....................................110 10 The New Millennium (Opening Pandora’s Box): 1990–2002 ...............128 11 Dealing with Pandora’s Opened Box: 2003–2012 .......................156 Epilogue..........................................................174 Honored employees and board members .............................178 Notes ............................................................182 Index. 188 Photo credits ......................................................192 iii Acknowledgements Shortly before my retirement from SMECO in June of 2006, SMECO President and Chief Executive Ofcer Joe Slater suggested a retirement project: “Write the history of the cooperative for the 75th Anniversary and you will have fve years to do it.” At the time I was thinking golf and travel, and besides, I said, I would need a word processor for such an undertaking and promptly dismissed the idea. Several months into retirement Joe came to the house one morning bearing a gift of a word proces- sor. Needless to say, without his encoragement and support over the past fve years, this history would not have been written. I would like to thank the many organizations who opened their doors and their photo archives to us. Tese organizations include the Calvert Marine Museum, the Chesapeake Beach Railway Museum, the Patuxent River Naval Air Museum, the Southern Maryland Studies Center at the College of Southern Maryland, as well as our local libraries. Many thanks to Bernadette Lewis for coordinating the photo archiving efort and former employees and co-workers who assisted with identifying photos: Fred Benton, Joyce Bowling, Carl Burch, Lorraine Cook, Ralph Cross, Lena Gardiner, Kenny Hayden, David Hogge, Sharon McWilliams, Bob Mitchell, Joan Mitchell, Louise Morgan, Glenn Sosbe, and Charlie Wible. Tanks also to Judy Dudley for her assistance and patience answering personnel inquiries, to Jonna Jones for her outstanding design and production work and to Colleen O’Neill, Patty Tennyson and John Johnston for their editing eforts. A special thanks to Terry Ressler for her editing and many constructive suggestions. It was she who had the responsibility of bringing this project together and did so with patience and humor. Lastly I would like to thank the many SMECO employees who assisted in compiling information and providing support by providing access to the Cooperative’s archives. Without their assistance this would have been an all but impossible task. Al Gough Leonardtown, Md. June 2012 iv Foreword In the early days of electric cooperatives, local residents worked together to encourage their neighbors to sign up for service and become a member of the co-op. Not everyone did. Some didn’t see the need. Tey were self-sufcient, and they were satisfed with the status quo. But some had the vision, the tenacity and the wherewithal to push the cooperative movement forward. Tose who did found themselves working alongside like-minded individuals who rallied their friends and neighbors, farmers and business people, shop keepers and bankers—people like themselves—to join the co-op. Tey provided the frm foundation of an electric cooperative that answers to its members, providing the community with reliable, afordable service. Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative has grown in the past 75 years to become one of the nation’s larg- est and most respected co-ops. Over the years we have surmounted adversities to provide electric service to a rural area too sparsely populated to be proftable for investor-owned utilities. We’ve built generating stations and purchased power on the open market. We’ve dealt with the complexities of deregulation. And through it all, we’ve held elections every year for customer-members to choose the directors of the co-op. While our mission—to serve our members faithfully—continues the same as it did when we began, today we are faced with new challenges: championing the use of renewable energy, constructing transmission lines to ensure reliable electric service and implementing technological upgrades for every facet of our busi- ness, from online billing and payment services to installing advanced metering infrastructure and smart meters. Since this book was written, more events have occurred and new utility regulations have been instituted. But our years of experience and our dedicated workforce have provided us with the confdence and agility to face any new endeavor and ever more powerful storms. Hurricane Irene was one for the history books. Te storm hit the mid-Atlantic states and rolled up the coast. On Saturday, August 27, 2011, rain began to pour on Southern Maryland and the outages began. In the early morning hours of Sunday, August 28, we had 108,000 customers without power. When the sun came up, the skies cleared, and we worked full force to restore electric service to all customers by Friday night, September 2. Battling the efects of rain, snow and ice storms has improved our emergency response eforts as we’ve learned to improve our planning process and engage our community. In that regard, we have stayed true to our roots. Te electric cooperative was formed by the community to serve the community, and that remains our mission today. Tis book documents our history and captures the events as they happened, and we are very proud to be able to present it to you, our customer-members. Joseph Stone Chairman of the Board v CHAPTER 1 Back to the Future: 1880–1925 Lollie and Susie Hunnt sitting with Carlton Gibbons (center) at Marshall Hall Park on July 4, 1899. Chapter one: 1880–1925 In 1885 the Chesapeake Bay produced more oysters than anywhere else on Earth—quite a contrast to today’s oyster harvest. Te year wasn’t all that eventful, yet there were a number of occurrences that continue to impact our lives. “Huckleberry Finn,” the frst action character, the Dr Pepper soft drink and Good Housekeeping magazine all were introduced to the public. Te Washington Monument was dedicated; the French naval ship Isere arrived in New York Harbor loaded with crates containing pieces of the Statue of Liberty; and Christmas became a national holiday in the United States. On Friday, June 4, 1885, a futuristic article appeared in the Saint Mary’s Beacon, a weekly newspaper that had been published in Leonardtown since 1839. “Te Future of Electricity,” prophesied the unidentifed author, “will work wonderfully in unexpected changes in the near future.” “Te supply of force is incomprehensible, greater than all the coal felds in the world could furnish,” he continued. “Te Tames could light London and have a force to spare. Te power could be applied to sewing machines, sawpits, lifts or a local railway. Te power of the wind and sun can be made the source of electricity. Te power of storage is limited but when solved, a locomotive, boat or tricycle could be supplied and a carriage could be driven. One of the benefcent results is the use in isolated households. Te use of steam has brought about our factory system that has led to the concentration of our population in large cities. Electric power is divisible and can be used economically in smaller quantities, hence its use will be to distribute rather than to concentrate population. We can scarcely conceive the changes that electricity will bring not only economically but to the social condition of mankind.” Some fve years before, on Jan. 22, 1880, the Saint Mary’s Beacon had run an article noting that Tomas Edison had opened his home at Menlo Park in New York to the public on New Year’s Day, to exhibit his elec- tric lights—some of which had been burning for 218 hours. A mere two years later, his work had led to the frst commercial power plant, the Pearl Street Power Station in New York City, which was a direct current (DC) system that could power 5,000 lights. In 1886 George Westinghouse, armed with some 400 patents, formed the Westinghouse Electric Co., and in 1893 his company used an alternating current (AC) system to light the Chicago World’s Fair. It was found that an AC system was more conducive to sending electricity over long distances and in that same year, a 22-mile AC power line was opened in California, sending electricity from Folsom Powerhouse in Folsom to Sacramento.