Life Before the Lights: How Families Survived Without Electricity in Rural Kentucky

Electricity lights up our lives—literally.

It’s hard to imagine life with no electric power. We rely on electricity to light our homes and our streets, to cook our food, to heat and cool our homes, and—especially these days—to power our phones and computers.

Antique wood-burning stoves can still be
found,  but at one time they were a vital part
of family life.

But even as late as 1940, many homes in rural areas of the United States had no electricity. Running power lines was expensive, and the utility companies saw little return in running wires to every individual farm, often miles apart.

The communities around Golden Pond and Trigg County in western Kentucky were served primarily by Pennyrile Rural Electric Cooperative, which was organized in 1937, with a low-interest loan from the Rural Electrification Administration (REA). The first lines were energized on September 2, 1938, serving 175 homes. By the end of 1938, about 600 rural members had electricity.

The network expanded year by year. Rather than wiring an entire county at once, crews built new lines as funding became available and enough nearby farms signed up. Families often watched poles being set for months before electricity finally reached their road.

I’ve written about the TVA’s Kentucky Dam and Barkley Dam, built by the U.S. Corps of Engineers, which created lakes that eliminated entire towns.

A washtub in the middle of the yard
was a common site in 1930s rural areas.

But before those dams allowed electrical lines to be built inexpensively, what was life like for families in the area Between the Rivers of western Kentucky and Tennessee?

They cooked on wood stoves.

Water typically came from a hand pump outside,
though "modernized" homes might have had
a pump  at the kitchen sink.

They pumped water by hand and hauled it to the house, or carried it from a nearby stream.

They cooled food in springhouses.

This AI-created image shows a woman
canning jam in a country kitchen without
electricity.

They canned almost everything.

They raised gardens and livestock.

They heated with wood and coal.

They washed clothes by hand.

Washday before electricity meant heating water in a tub, typically
outside over a wood fire, and scrubbing clothes on a washboard.
Even the children helped out.

They ironed with cast-iron irons heated on the stove.

Churning butter was not as easy
 as going to a grocery store.

They read by kerosene lamp.

They listened to battery-powered radios (if they had one).

They often raised their own food, including chickens for eggs and meat, cows for milk and butter, and vegetables they could "put up" for winter.

They relied on neighbors instead of appliances.

Children contributed meaningful work every day.

Thanks to vintage photos and with the help of AI, we can visualize what life was like before electricity simplified our lives. And we can be grateful for our modern conveniences.

The real "heroes" of history weren't just famous people—they were ordinary families who relied on their resilience, ingenuity, faith, and community before they had all the conveniences we take for granted.

Sources:

Washboards and mangles; laundry in the 1930s - 1939 Register | findmypast.com 

Take A Look At These Photos Of Life In The 1930s In Kentucky 

Multi-award-winning author Marie Wells Coutu finds beauty in surprising places, like undiscovered treasures, old houses, and gnarly trees. All three books in her Mended Vessels series, contemporary stories based on the lives of biblical women, have won awards in multiple contests. She is currently working on the Between the Rivers Legacy series, historical romances set in her native western Kentucky in the 1930s and ‘40s. The first book of the series, Moonshine River, releases September 22 and includes descriptions of many details of everyday life before electricity. Learn more at www.MarieWellsCoutu.com.

The historical short story, “All That Glistens,” is loosely based on a real character from Golden Pond, Kentucky. It was included in the 2023 Saturday Evening Post Great American Fiction collection and is now available free when you sign up for Marie's newsletter here. In her newsletter, she shares about her writing, historical tidbits, recommended books, and sometimes recipes.