Recollections: Legends of Yesterday - A.J. Crutchfield

This is a reprint of original articles by Hugh Woolley, a longtime resident and community leader of Graceville. Woolley published these articles in The Graceville News more than 20 years ago.

Originally published in the March 08, 2001 edition of The Graceville News.

It would be almost impossible to review the historical legends of Graceville and escape the name A.J. Crutchfield. I had heard many things about him, but centralizing information about him I didn't know just where to turn for information. In the quandary, I turned to Tom Crutchfield, he in turn called Mr. Crutchfield's granddaughter, Doris Toole, who lives in San Antonio, Texas. She brought Tom a copy of the REA Light Flashes newsletter. So, thanks to Doris and Tom. The article below is from the Current Light Flashes, October 1977 issue.

West Florida Electric Cooperative was organized 40 years ago through the untiring efforts of several men who were willing to work to sell the idea of electricity. These men were farmers. they contacted prospective members at night or anytime, anyplace they saw them. They did not have a great deal of spare time to devote to organizing the Co-op because it was necessary for them to cut wood for winter or stove wood when it was too wet to work in the fields. The fences had to be mended and the chores were much more strenuous since water had to be hand pumped or drawn from an open well by bucket if a stream was not available to water the stock. In time, the corn had to be hand pulled and hauled by wagons to the crib. At night the families shelled peanuts to be planted the following year. The men that promoted this dream of electricity left these jobs undone or shifted more responsibility to another member of their family.

The membership fee was set at $5.00. In the late 30's, the banks had closed, and people had lost money and land. This caused them to be afraid or hesitant to venture into new investments and some were very much opposed to paying a Membership Fee for something they would have to wait a year or perhaps two to receive any benefit from. The people were under great economic strain and in some cases the men collecting the Membership Fee had to loan the prospective member money. December 11, 1937, a Charter was filed with the State of Florida forming a cooperative under the name of West Florida Electric Cooperative Association, Inc.

The information below was compiled from relatives of the first directors that were instrumental in organizing the Cooperative.

President A.J. Crutchfield was born on November 20, 1877 and grew up near Blakely and Ft Gaines, Georgia, later moving to Abbeville, Alabama. He did not have the opportunity to go to the school but very little however, his great desire to learn kept spurring him on to do the best he possibly could by himself.

He moved to Florida and first married Miss Sarah Ann Golden from Graceville. They had three children as follows: Walter, Willa, and Sarah Ann. Mrs. Sarah Ann died a few months after their third child was born. Sometime later Mr. Crutchfield married a Susan Jane Lee from Graceville and they had six children (all girls) as follows: Cora, Maude, Clara, Beatrice, Malzie, and Evelyn. They lived in Cottondale, for several years and were engaged in farming and selling fertilizer for Fox Fertilizer Company. In 1913, they moved near Graceville on the Cottondale-Graceville highway. He continued farming but on a much larger scale. For several years during the watermelon shipping season, he worked for Sowega Melon Growers, Assn., from Camilla, Georgia buying watermelons by the rail carloads for them, traveling to various points in Florida. Georgia, and Alabama. Mr. Crutchfield worked for 30 year or more as Land Appraiser for the Federal Land Bank & Loan Assn. of Columbus, SC, but lived on his farm near Graceville. He also worked for a year in Sanford, FL., and had a real estate office upstairs over the Old Post Office

Mr. AJ was always very civic and eager to do and help in all ways possible to make his community and town a better place to live in and for others as well as himself. He was a member of the Graceville Lion's Club for several years and a member of Damascus Baptist Church serving as clerk of the church for several years.

During the years he had dreamed of having electric current or electricity for the rural people of which he was one. He tried two different portable light plants, of which Carbide was one, at his home but they didn't prove satisfactory. He finally got together with other men from his area and surrounding areas and they called on friends, neighbors, and then strangers in rural areas trying to sell them on rural electricity for their homes and farms. This would mean starting their own Rural Electrification Project whereby all of them would benefit by having electricity in their homes to enjoy and use to make their work easier as well as save time. They learned it was possible for a large group of people to borrow the money needed to build and maintain their Rural Electric Cooperative from the Rural Electrification Administration in Washington D.C. and repay their loan over a long period of years.

It was a tremendous undertaking and at times they had so little success it was discouraging, but finally they created enough interest to call a special meeting to be held in the Jackson County Courthouse in Marianna. The project desired was explained to all attending the meeting and encouraged others to help them in collecting Membership Fees of $5.00 to join the proposed project. Naturally the right-of-way had to be obtained from all owners of all lands where the electric lines were to be installed and that’s where they ran into all kinds of trouble, which caused much time to be lost. However, this great dream had become an obsession with these men, and they worked even harder than ever before.

For more article like this subscribe to The Graceville News by visiting Pricing Plans.