MJM Electric Cooperative, like many cooperatives, owes its existence to the Rural Electrification Act of 1936.

When Congress passed the act, it gave funding to the Rural Electrification Association (REA) created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s executive order May 11, 1935. Roosevelt created the REA to address the problem of providing electricity to rural communities. At the time, only 10 percent of rural homes had electricity.

Privately owned utility companies were providing power to cities but were reluctant to expand into rural areas because they claimed it wasn’t profitable because potential customers were spread out too far.

Farmers banded together to form communally-owned cooperatives, but these groups usually lacked the resources to construct lines and purchase equipment. The Rural Electrification Act provided these cooperatives with money in the form of low-interest federal loans.

By 1938, there were already two fledgling cooperatives signing up members in Macoupin and Montgomery counties, Rural Electric Convenience of Divernon and Illinois Rural of Winchester. But in early 1939 it became apparent that Winchester’s diesel power plant was not going to be able to provide enough power to all of Macoupin County, leaving farmers in the southern part of the county unsure of their future.

Macoupin County farm advisor O. O. Mowery had been heavily involved in plans for the electrification of the area. After meeting with neighboring farm advisors and the REA, it was decided that another cooperative needed to be established to meet the people’s needs.

MJM Electric was officially created on April 10, 1939, at a 2 p.m. meeting held in Mowery’s office in Carlinville. The name was suggested by Loren L. Love of Carlinville and stands for Macoupin, Jersey, Montgomery – the three counties initially served by the cooperative.

Love, who served as the coop’s first treasurer, was instrumental in signing members up for service. Before the creation of MJM, he was paid $3 a day to sign up members and obtain easements. His gasoline and vehicle expenses came out of that pay.

There were many other men and women like Loren Love who poured their time and energy into bringing electricity to the rural community of west central Illinois. The end result was well worth it. One customer, a middle-aged woman in Macoupin County, actually cried when she turned on the light switch for the first time. Electricity meant she would no longer have to wash clothes by hand or bring in firewood for the stove.

When the coop officially formed in 1939 it counted 940 members in Macoupin, 250 in Montgomery, and 410 in Jersey. The board of directors signed a contract with Iowa-Illinois Power Company to secure a source of electricity, and the coop’s first member had power turned on in 1940. The average member, in 1941, used an average of 79 kilowatt hours a month.

The coop now provides electricity to over 9,000 members and services over 1,722 miles of power lines through Macoupin, Jersey, Montgomery, Bond, Fayette, Green, and Madison counties.. The average member uses around 1,200 kilowatt hours per month.

In 2002, MJM signed a power-purchasing agreement with Wabash Valley Power Association in Indianapolis. That same year, MJM became a member of Touchstone Energy, a support organization that counts over 600 cooperatives across 48 states as members.