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Welcome to Belden Electric

No matter what your electrical needs, we have the right solution at the right price.

Russell Belden Electric Company was founded by the late Russell Belden (1894-1951), who had been active in the electrical business all his adult life. Upon graduation from Northwestern University in 1915, he served in a number of capacities that gave him a broad range of experience in electrical engineering, installation, sales, purchasing and financial functions. He was manager of the original Chandelier Shop when he was called near the end of World War I for military service.

Russell had considered a musical career. He was an outstanding drummer and was in the first Joplin High School band. However, the deteriorating economy, and the stock market crash of 1929, convinced him that he had better stay with the livelihood that he knew best; the electrical business.

Russell Belden Electric Company opened for business in December 1929 at 313 West 13th Street in Joplin,MO. As purchasing agent for the Belden Supply Co., a business founded by his father, Russell had good working relationships with many of the major suppliers. These relationships became quite valuable when he started his own business.

Russell and his employees were fortunate that they didn't know how bad things were going to become. They all worked hard and long hours and made every penny count. When Belden Supply Co. went bankrupt, Russell filled many of his orders out of that bankrupt inventory.

By 1935 the company was profitable but was growing at the same slow, painful pace as the national economy. The recession of 1938 shook the fragile national confidence once again only to be improved by the gradual and then explosive military production brought on by war in Europe and finally World War II.

The war years brought on a fictitious, but profitable, economy. The nagging unemployment disappeared, and even though there were price controls, anything acquired could be easily sold. Women who had never worked for a pay check were employed by the hundreds, thousands, even millions.

During the war, Russell made plans to expand and become a regional distributor at the war's end. His plans were badly battered when part of the money he had invested for this expansion was lost in a severe stock market 
slump in 1946. Most of his advisors had not foreseen a down market for at least another year.



He regrouped and began the follow through on his plan. He had just opened his fourth location when the Korean War began. . . and he discovered he had cancer.

Russell Belden died in February 1951, leaving the company in a trust for the future benefit of his then high school age son, Jack.

Jack Belden gained control of the business in October 1961, and began the long process of rebuilding the sales and financial strength it once enjoyed under the watchful 
and conservative eye of Russell.

The fourth generation - Scott -  is now active contributor to the well being of the company and the strengthening of its resources in preparation for the next century 
and the next generation. The electrical industry is changing continuously. "Light" and "power" are still the giants of the business, but in changing forms, while the big 
growth is in "control" and its ever changing facets.