Brown Atchison Electric Co-Op

Brown-Atchison Electric Co-operative Association, Inc., is a member-owned rural electric cooperative (REC), headquartered in Horton, Kansas, that provides electric service to approximately 3,280 consumers in Northeast Kansas.

Brown-Atchison REC has the unique distinction of being the first Rural Electric Administration (REA) financed project in the state of Kansas.

In December of 1936 a representative from the REA in Washington, D.C., held a meeting in Horton to explain the benefits of forming an electric cooperative. The residents of Horton were then asked to survey the potential users in their community. The results were so positive that in early 1937 plans were submitted to the REA and the first power pole was erected and dedicated on November 10, 1937.

On April 1, 1938, Kansas Governor Huxman attended ceremonies in Horton, where the REA Administrator John Carmody addressed the crowd via telephone and then closed a ceremonial switch in Washington, D.C. to mark the beginning of the flow of electrical energy for the first REA-financed line in Kansas.