For its fifty years of existence, Berwick supplied power to all residents of rural Northeast Nemaha County willing to pay the $250 required to purchase stock in the corporation. The $250 buy-in requirement was intended to pay for the cost of transmission lines from Sabetha to stockholders. In many cases the $250 purchase of the initial stock was facilitated by more well to do members of the Berwick Company extending credit to their neighbors until the household could pay back the debt. R.D. Farrell addresses this issue in his report for the Agricultural Experiment Station, "In due course, stockholders became able to pay for their shares and the notes were repaid without loss to anybody."" This hastened formation of the corporation and the beginning of construction. Shortly after its corporate charter was issued the Berwick Company applied for non-profit status as a municipal cooperative under state law. The granting of their non-profit municipal cooperative status placed the Berwick Company outside the jurisdiction of the Public Utilities Commission. .
It must be remembered that the purchase of stock in the Berwick Company by its forty-eight initial stockholders was not a reaction to a need for electricity. Instead the excellent financial atmosphere for agriculture during and directly following World War I allowed farmers to act as discerning consumers capable of increasing their standard of living. So the major demand of stockholders in the Berwick Company was electric lighting. Plus, while the Federal Government wasn't supplying funds specifically for rural electrification, the Federal Farms Credits program helped to increase the spending power of Kansas farmers. By 1919 most townships were electrified through either municipal or private power companies, and rural residents had watched municipal electrification with interest. Unfortunately for rural areas, the consensus amongst private and public utilities was that profitable expansion required at least 5 customers per mile of line.
