On November 25, 1935, seventeen farmers from Clay and Union counties met at the Manning/O'Connor store in Burbank, three miles south, to form a consumer-owned corporation that would let rural residents of this part of southeastern South Dakota provide themselves with central station electric service. At that meeting they formed Clay-Union Electric, the first rural electric cooperative in South Dakota. Its establishment was made possible after President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 7037 on May 11, 1935, creating the Rural Electrification Administration. At the time, nearly 90 percent of rural America lacked electricity. The creation of the REA was the first step toward a dream shared by rural Americans to have electricity in their homes. Achieving that goal was not simple, but with REA financial backing, 99 percent of rural America became electrified. One thousand RECs serve 20,000,000 people nationwide, and in South Dakota, thirty-three RECs serve more than 200,000 people.