Memories of an REA pioneer

      As former State Representative Joe C. McCorquodale, Jr. removes an old photo from a wall in his office, his pride in his father’s accomplishments is obvious. Joe C. McCorquodale, Sr.’s drive and determination helped to bring electricity to rural Clarke and Washington County farms some seventy-five-years-ago.

     “Father was a very forward thinking man with great hopes and trust in the times,” Mr. Joe, Jr. says. “He was someone who set goals and did whatever was within his power to make them a reality.”

     Joe McCorquodale, Sr. began his quest to provide local farms with electricity back in 1935, after the federal Rural Electrification Administration (REA) was created through an executive order by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Mr. Joe recounts his father attending regular meetings with Gordon Persons, who was appointed REA’s representative for Alabama and later became Governor of the State. 

     According to Mr. Joe, “It was my father’s dream to bring electricity to our farm in Salipta,” he relates. “He begged Alabama Power to stretch their lines out to our farm, but they wouldn’t even consider serving anyone beyond the lines of Grove Hill and Thomasville.”

     Mr. Joe states that his father never once became deterred. “He decided that if they wouldn’t bring electricity to our town, then he would work with Persons and other leaders from our area to form an electrical cooperative and offer electricity to anyone that desired to have it.”

     On March 2, 1936, Joe C. McCorquodale, Sr. along with Ben Glover of Leroy, C.R. Myrick of Coffeeville, R.S. McNeil of St. Stephens, and H.E. Langlois of Suggsville became the incorporators of Clarke-Washington Electric Membership Corporation.

     “CWEMC meant so much to my father because he had no idea the cooperative would be as successful as it was, and continues to be today,” explains Mr. Joe. 

Realizing a dream

     Rep. Joe C. McCorquodale Jr. was born in 1920, just as his father was beginning his political career as County Commissioner. As a child, he remembers his father working long hours on the farm while trying to establish himself in the timber business and in local politics.

     “With no brothers or sisters to share the responsibilities of chores around the house, I learned at an early age how to take care of our home and farm,” Mr. Joe says. “During the Depression, we had to work extra hard just to get by. One of my early memories is waking before daybreak each morning and building a fire for mother and I to warm up to.”

The Legacy Continues

     Today, Joe C. McCorquodale, Sr’s. drive and determination are mirrored in his son’s and grandsons’ dedication for helping residents of Clarke County.

    Rep. Joe C. McCorquodale, Jr. is a graduate of Marion Military Institute, and attended the University of Alabama. During World War II he served in the US Army Air Corps (now US Air Force) at China-Burma-India and Pacific Theaters. He was elected to the Alabama House of Representatives in 1959 (92nd district) and served as Speaker of the House from 1971 to 1983.

     He was married to the former Betty McCrary for 67 years who passed away in 2009. Mr. Joe is the father of two sons, Attorney Joseph, III, (Mac), Circuit Judge Gaines C. McCorquodale, the proud grandfather of four and great-grandfather of eight.