Information Sheet

 

 

R         Boulson, Charles E.

404                  Papers, 1928‑1990.

                                    Fifty-six folders.

 

NOTE: THIS COLLECTION IS IN OFF-CAMPUS STORAGE. AT LEAST TWO DAYS' ADVANCE NOTICE IS REQUIRED FOR RESEARCH USE.

 

 

These are personal and professional papers of an electrical engineer in Missouri.  Boul­son was general manager of the Sho‑Me Power Corporation, 1954‑1974, and member of the Board of Directors of Associ­ated Electric Cooperative, Inc.  The collection includes corre­spondence, scrap­books, profes­sional and historical writings, speeches on rural electrification in Missouri, and cor­porate manuals and annual reports of Sho‑Me Power Corporation and As­sociated Electric Coop­erative, Inc.

 

Charles Elbert Boulson is the son of Clyde White Boulson and Blanche Ames Boulson.  He was born on 26 October 1909 at Iola, Kansas, where he grew up and attended primary and secon­dary school, Iola High School, and Iola Junior College.  The family purchased a ten‑acre farm in Taney County, Missouri, and in 1931 moved to the Ridgedale community south of Hollis­ter.  The move was designed to improve Clyde Boulson’s health and to capitalize on land val­ues which were expected to increase greatly upon the completion of Table Rock Dam on the White River.  How­ever, construction on the project did not begin for many years, and the Boulsons arrived in Taney County just as the depression began to hit hardest on the local economy.  The family was unpre­pared for rural life and endured exceeding difficult times in the four years they remained in Taney County.  In 1932 the Boulsons accepted the resident management of a two hundred acre fruit farm and livestock ranch near Ridgedale.  Income was augmented by Clyde Boulson’s employment by the University of Missouri to assist in ar­chaeological surveys of the White River Valley, and by Charles’s employment in a tomato can­nery at Ridgedale and, later, on the Ava District of the Mark Twain National Forest.  Clyde Boulson took a position in 1935 with the Missouri Geological Sur­vey at Rolla.  Charles joined the family there in late 1936.  He entered the Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy in 1937 and graduated in 1939 with a degree in electrical engineering.  In June 1940, Boulson was employed as a staff engineer of the Missouri Electric Power Company, a predecessor of Sho‑Me Power, a regional power distribution organi­zation headquartered at Marsh­field and serving south‑central Missouri.  Boulson continued in the same capacity after Sho‑Me Power was organized in 1941, and became Chief Engineer in 1944.  He was appointed acting man­ager in 1953, and in June 1954 was named General Manager.  Boulson retired in 1974 after thirty‑five years of service with Missouri Electric Power Company and Sho‑Me Power Corpo­ra­tion.

 

Boulson was exceedingly active in the development of rural electrification in Missouri.  In addition to his work with Sho‑Me Power, he was one of the founders of Associated Electric Coop­erative, Inc., headquartered at Springfield, Missouri.  AECI was organized in 1962 as a whole­sale supplier of electric power to regional cooperatives which serve nearly all of Missouri and south­eastern Iowa.  Boulson was one of the first directors of AECI, and continued as a mem­ber of the Board of Directors to 1974.  Boulson was also a member of the Missouri & Arkan­sas Power Co­operative, headquartered at Poplar Bluff, Missouri, and the Farm Electrification Council, a na­tional organization dedi­cated to the development of rural electrification.

 

Boulson married Inez Curnutt, a native of Douglas County, shortly before his graduation from the Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy in 1939.  They have resided in Marshfield since 1941.  Boulson has been active in the community as a member of the Masonic Lodge, the Li­ons Club, and the Methodist Church, and has served on the boards of the Marshfield Public Li­brary and the Marshfield Housing Association.  He authored many speeches and articles on rural electrification for professional organizations and local service groups, and has written extensively on local history for the Webster County Historical Society Journal.  After his retirement, Boulson authored The Farmer Took A Hand In Missouri (1984), a history of the Sho‑Me Power Corpora­tion, and History of St. Luke United Methodist Church, Webster County, (1988).

 

The Boulson papers consist of an assortment of personal, profes­sional and corporate mate­ri­als primarily concerning the development of rural electrification in Missouri.  They have been ar­ranged in seven sections, including personal and biographical materials, scrapbooks, profes­sional papers and historical writings, speeches, Sho‑Me Power Corporation papers, manuals, annual re­ports, and interviews with key personnel of Associated Electric Cooperative Inc., and miscellane­ous publications concerning the electric power industry.  Of particular interest and use to local historians are Boulson’s Taney and Douglas County diaries, 1933‑1936, a scrapbook concerning the Missouri Electric Power’s Niangua River tunnel pro­ject, 1929‑1930, a publication detail­ing the utility and post engineer services at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, 1944, and the history of the Methodist Church at St. Luke, Missouri.  Researchers in­terested in rural electrifica­tion should con­sult Boulson’s numerous speeches and writings, The Farmer Took A Hand in Missouri, and the papers and annual reports of Sho‑Me Power Corpo­ration, and Associated Electric Coopera­tive, Inc.  There are also video‑taped (VHS) inter­views with the directors and of­ficers of AECI, includ­ing Truman Green, Charles Boulson, James McNabb, Luther Riddle, and Gerald Diddle.  Included with the interviews is a brief history of AECI, produced on the occasion of its 25th Anniversary.

 

 

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