Downtown Yanceyville, May 1940

Downtown Yanceyville, May 1940

Make Do and Build Your Own, 1935

“The Woman’s Touch,” by Jane S. McKimmon, Carolina Co-operator, May 1935

Making Over the Hand-Me-Downs

Hold on to all the old suits which your men folks are wont to give away and see if you can’t be as ingenious as a Richmond County woman who says, “My oldest brother, who is away from home, sent several old suits to our younger brother thinking he might get some use out of them in his work on the farm. One suit was a nice brown mixed material and in fairly good condition. He had two pairs of pants and I decided I would try to make a suit for myself out of them. I cleaned the suit, turned the pants upside down and with a four gore pattern cut a nice skirt for myself, using both pairs of pants. I made a few changes in the coat and behold! I had a lovely suit.

“I have received so many compliments on the costume and it has given me such good service that I feel I will never let any old suits go for farm work until I have looked them over and decided whether anything worthwhile can be made from them.”

Man’s Suit from Feed Sacks

Last summer at the Style Show held during Farm and Home Week, State College, the son of Mrs. P.G. Sturges, Franklin County, modeled a white suit which his mother made for him from heavy cotton feed sacks. The slacks has been bleached and looked like linen.

Farm Women Enjoy Their Club Houses

Sixty-five Home Demonstration Club Houses have been built in rural communities of North Carolina which were equipped by interested farm women of the neighborhood and are serving as meeting places for all kinds of community activities.

If you are passing through Lee County, stop and see the Dignus Community Club House, and observe another one in a beautiful setting among pines and dogwood which is now under construction. It is just opposite the attractive home on the hill of Mr. K.E. Seymour, chairman of the Board of Commissioners, who gave the land and building.

In addition to the new club houses, home demonstration women have furnished 70 club rooms in buildings where space was offered, and there are 117 new applications for club buildings from 21 counties.

Some houses are built of brick or stone, but usually they are fashioned of logs or lumber. The club house costs little in actual cash. Interested farmers in the community usually furnish the logs and stone for side walls and chimney; and the county ERA office has cooperated in furnishing men to do much of the construction.

The main room is long and narrow, sometimes 50 by 25 feet, and the logs furnish both an inside and outside wall of artistic appearance. There is a kitchen in the rear planned for the convenience of those who prepare and serve refreshments for community get-togethers, and practically all communities have planted or are planning to plant the grounds to give the house a proper setting.

Members of the North River Club in Carteret County have been promised logs for their club house and are baking bread or cakes to raise funds for other expenses.

At Waterlily an old house boat on Currituck Sound has been anchored, furnished, and made into a cool and attractive club house for the Waterlily community.

Rural women have taken great interest in making curtains, rugs, and cushions for their club houses and are doing over or painting old furniture which has been contributed.

Farmers Asked to Donate Scrap Metal, 1951

You probably knew that people collected scrap metal during World War II to help the war effort, but did you know that citizens also were asked to collect scrap metal in the early 1950s? Does anyone know what the NPA is/was? I thought it might be a mistake, that the author had intended to write NPB, but the National Production Board was dissolved in 1945 after Japan surrendered. The following article is from the May, 1951, issue of Extension Farm-News, published by N.C. State College, Raleigh.

North Carolina farmers are being asked once again to get in the scrap by salvaging scrap metal.

Iron and steel scrap is badly needed to keep the nation’s steel mills rolling at full capacity, says the National Production Authority of the U.S. department of Commerce. 

The NPA points out that about 67 million tons of scrap from all sources will be required to keep steel furnaces going in 1951. The all-time high of 61 million tons was attained last year. Therefore, steel mills will require 6 million more tons of scrap in 1951 than was used in 1950.

Extension Service officials at N.C. State College believe that spring clean-up offers farmers a good opportunity to salvage the scrap so urgently needed for military and civilian products.

Woodleaf Home Demonstration Club and HD Agent Adna Edwards, 1920s

Adna Edwards, Rowan County’s first full-time home demonstration agent, teaches the Woodleaf Home Demonstration Club how to use a steam pressure canner. Maggie Julian Canup began home demonstration work in 1912 on a part-time basis for $1 a year. The first adult program began in 1920, and Miss Edwards became the first full-time agent in 1921. Only four member of the audience have been identified. They are, fourth from the left in the front row, Daisy “Des” Fraley; first on the second row, Bertha Watson Wetmore; and third on the second row, Charlotte Fraley Bailey, holding her son, Jack. This photo was published May 6, 1989, in the Salisbury Post.

At the Stem General Store, Granville County, May 1940

Inside the Stem general store in Granville County, May 1940. 

The young men have dressed up to cast their ballots in a primary election.

Voting

This photo was labeled "Mr. Coley's Store, Stem."

Interior of the store

General store and poolroom

Watching the pool game

If all the chairs are taken, take a seat on an old barrel.

I wish I had names for the people in these photos, but all I have is this general information from the photographer, Jack Delano. I can't be sure if all the photos were taken at the same general store and filling station, because the exterior is wood in some and brick in others. But perhaps there was a brick addition for the filling station. Jack Delano worked for the Farm Security Administration during the Great Depression. Many of his photos have been digitized and placed on the internet by the Library of Congress. To see more of his photograpy, go to http://www.loc.gov/pictures/related/?fi=name&q=Delano%2C%20Jack.

Rural NC Women Starting Own Home Businesses, 1936

“Marketing Sidelines” by Cornelia C. Morris, Extension Economist in Food Conservation and Marketing at N.C. State College, as published in the May, 1936 issue of Carolina Co-operator

There are so many things that women can do to make money these days some one has said that it is almost a privilege to be out of a job. This may be true of the gifted woman who has many talents at her finger tips, but what I am asked are the chances of success for the woman who knows just a little about this and that and who has no special talent of any kind to recommend her.

It is from women like this that I get letters almost daily asking what they can do to earn money and still stay at home. My answer is that there are many enterprises to choose from and there are many demands for homemade articles provided that high standards are maintained.

The woman in the country is especially blessed as she has at her very door the means to satisfy this demand and at the same time can build up for herself an enterprise that will yield a steady income if she is willing to devote her time to it.

In selecting a business for herself, a woman turns naturally to the work she likes best and finds congenial employment in doing one thing well rather than giving half-hearted interest to a number of things for which she is unfitted. One woman likes to cook, another likes to sew. Then there is the woman who has a flair for growing flowers, herbs, and vegetables.

There is an increasing demand for crafts, and good baskets, rugs, and brooms made of native materials find ready sale in the gift shops. Buttons and buckles made of maple and applewood and buttons made of black walnuts and other nuts make lovely accessories for sweaters and knitted suits.

One ingenious girl in western North Carolina, Josephine Price of Rutherford County, uses rye straw for weaving table mats, hot dish mats, and fans. The bright golden color of the straw makes these articles very attractive and desirable.

Hooked rugs and braided rugs sell well if the colors are pleasing and the designs good. If they are made of wool, they bring better prices. Whether they are made of cotton or wool, the colors should be fast and the work so well done the rugs can stand frequent washings.

The woman who likes to cook can begin now to make strawberry jam for sale. Later in the season she can make blackberry and peach jam, tomato ketchup and chili sauce.

If she cannot leave home to sell her products on the curb market, she can establish a small roadside market near by if she lives on a well-traveled highway. Motorists like to stop at these roadside markets and buy fresh eggs, fruits, vegetables, and flowers, and the woman who is keen enough to make good ginger bread and serve it with ice-cold buttermilk to her customers can soon have a substantial bank account. In apple season cider is a favorite beverage and motorists will take a jug or jar home with them. The pomace left from cider making can be used for apple jelly. The thrifty housewife wastes noting.

Honeysuckle and oak splits make beautiful baskets and who can resist a lovely basket? The old shapes are the best sellers—melon-shaped baskets and egg baskets like your grandmothers used.

North Carolina has a wealth of material at every farm house door and there is a growing tendency today to revert to the old handicrafts of Colonial days—wool, cotton, and flax are woven into exquisite coverlets, wall hangings, and rugs; and looms and spinning wheels are quite the vogue again!

-=-=-=-=-=

Farm News from Across North Carolina, May 1951

From the May, 1951, issue of Extension Farm-News, published at N.C. State College, Raleigh

JOHNSON COUNTY

Johnston County’s 900 home demonstration club women resort to all types of transportation in order to get to their meetings. When the family car was unavailable, two Pine Level members recently resorted to the tractor and trailer. Mrs. Ishnael Pittman recently climbed atop the family tractor and later picked up Mrs. Inez Phillips, who got in the trailer behind the tractor. They continued about six miles to the home of Mrs. Lewis Thompson. Later they all got in Mrs. Thomas Allen’s car and proceeded to the home of their hostess, Mrs. Herman Rollins. Callie C. Hardwicke, Johnston County’s Home Agent, insists that there are some very loyal club members in her county.

DAVIDSON COUNTY

Jeff F. Fritts, Tyro Township, Davidson County, won the first Farmer of the Month citation when he was named to that honor by the Davidson County Agricultural Workers Council and the Lexington Dispatch.

Each month the Council and the newspaper will cite a farmer whose work is considered most outstanding for the month. He will also be the subject for a feature story on the farm news page.

W.T. Moss of Youngsville won honorable mention with his sample of Atlas 50 wheat in the 10^th annual Phillip W. Pillsbury Award for Agricultural achievement. This marks the first time that a North Carolina Farmer has won an honor rating in a national wheat sample contest, according to officials of the Crop Improvement Association at State College. Moss’ sample was entered in the soft red winter wheat division with a test weight of 63.7 pounds.

PENDER COUNTY

Four hours after Marie Raynor of Burgaw won the Pender County speaking contest sponsored by the N.C. Bankers Association, she experienced an attack of appendicitis. Her operation was delayed, however, until she could participate in and win the Group Contest.

Miss Raynor was coached by the Burgaw agriculture teacher, W.C. Blackmore.

HAYWOOD COUNTY

Haywood County’s Community Development Program sponsored a bloodmobile drive recently, and 261 pints of blood were donated. County Agent Wayne Corpening reports that this is the largest amount of blood ever received in one day by the bank.

COLUMBUS COUNTY

Home demonstration club women in Columbus County have devised a point system which will be used this year in determining which local club wins the loving cup for achievement. Clubs desiring more information on the system may write to Mrs. Elaine N. Blake, Columbus County home agent, Whiteville.

ROBESON COUNTY

Scoring by points is getting to be quite popular among home demonstration clubs in North Carolina. Evelyn Caldwell, Robeson County home agent, announces that clubs in Robeson are now being scored on a point system for correct parliamentary procedure, observing National Home Demonstration Week, formal social functions, and outstanding community projects.

ORANGE COUNTY

The Duke Power Company is cooperating with the Oxford Experiment Station in experimenting with fluorescent light traps to catch adult tobacco hornworm moths. Orange County farm agent D.S. Matheson reveals that plans call for the installation of these traps adjoining tobacco fields near Cedar Grove in Orange County.

DAVIE COUNTY

F.E. Peebles, Davie County farm agent, recently has a letter from Leonhard Stadelmann, a county agent in Bavaria who visited North Carolina last fall. He reports that his friends, co-workers and fellow farmers have greatly enjoyed the picture of American rural life they were able to get from his more than 400 slides taken while here.

WARREN COUNTY

For the second straight year, Albert Seaman, Ridgeway farmer, has been named Corn Champion of Warren County. The award cannot be won twice in a row unless the second year produces an increased yield. Seaman’s yield increased from 117.3 bushels on one measured acre in 1949 to 131.5 bushels in 1950.

WILSON COUNTY

Wilson was the site of the annual meeting of the 22^nd District Federation of Home Demonstration Clubs, which featured talks by ECC Dean L.W. Jenkins, Mrs. P.P. Gregory, State Federation President, and music by Norman Cordon. An unusual feature of the session was the presentation of the annual report in panel discussion form, with Mrs. Jack Speight serving as moderator.

CALDWELL COUNTY

B.B. Hayes of Granite Falls won the Caldwell County 1950 corn growing championship with a yield of 94.22 bushels per acre. Gerald Bolick, senior 4-H Club member of the Happy Valley Club won the junior corn growing championship for the third straight year. He produced a total of 90.97 bushels per acre last.

Plans were announced for the 1951 contest by Forrest Jones, manager of the Lenoir Chamber of Commerce, the sponsoring group.

WOMAN’S COLLEGE OFFICERS 

New 4-H Club officers have been elected for Woman’s College as follows: Nancy Pritchett, Brown Summitt, president; Sue Nichols, Raleigh, vice-president; Mary Farmer, Marble, secretary; Kathryn Pritchett, Brown Summitt, publicity; and Doris Davis, Cornelius, historian. Retiring president is Carolyn Smith of Andrews.

Starting the Tobacco on Durham County Farm, May 1940

It all depends on the weather.

A young man plowing, May 1940

“Bustin middlins” (plowing between recently planted rows of tobacco) 

on Mr. Ray’s farm, Highway 15, north of Durham

Neighbor woman helps in the field

Gas station and store operated by the tobacco farmer on Highway 15 north of Durham

After the storm has brought much-needed rain to young tobacco plants, 

taken on Highway 15 headed south to Durham in May, 1940

Salisbury Post Columnist Recalls Day With Home Demonstration Agent

“Scrapbook brings memories of young Eleanor Southerland” by Rose Post in the Salisbury Post May 29, 1990

A young Eleanor Southerland hovered over me as I read the story in Sunday’s Post about the Extension Homemakers scrapbooks that are being given to the Rowan Public Library.

Those scrapbooks, Juanita Lagg said, are the story of the times, times that change so gradually we can’t see it happen until the day something draws our eye back, and we think, “Oh, my! It was like that, wasn’t it?”

Eleanor came to Rowan as home demonstration agent in August of 1952 and left just over four years later to go to Colombia, South America, as a home agent with a federal program that sent technical assistants all over the world.

But that was long enough to make an impact on women in Rowan County—and an impact on me. I knew her casually even before we did a series on weekly stores about days in the life of just about everybody.

It was my good fortune to spend a day with J.H. Knox, city schools superintendent, who guided the system with the help of one secretary and knew the names of all 4,000 children by the time they graduated. And I got to spend a day with a public health nurse and a welfare caseworker when they spent most of their time making house calls.

And with Eleanor Southerland.

Dedication

All of them taught me about dedication. They were public servants. Their days started early and ended late as they tried to make life better in a world that was happy with hope and bursting with energy and prosperous at last after the Depression and World War II and Korea.

Eleanor Southerland was at her desk by 8:30 that morning in late May. She’d been able to sleep a few minutes longer than usual; most mornings began with a call by 6:45 from a farm woman with a question. It didn’t end until 10 that night, because she gave her club demonstrations in the afternoon and at night. The words “comp time” hadn’t entered our vocabularies and air conditioning hadn’t entered our buildings. It was hot.

But neither the hours nor the heat marred a good day. As we hurried from one task to another, she told me a story.

One day a woman had asked her what a girl needed to be a home agent. Her daughter, she said, wasn’t smart enough to be a teacher or strong enough to work in the mill.

Eleanor said she didn’t know how smart or how strong she was when she started, but she’d learned a lot from the women she worked with and her back had held up under heavy loads of suitcases and boxes full of materials for her demonstrations, cookbooks, and even hoes, which she carried all over Rowan.

But the day was routine. No weekly column to write for The Post, no extra talk, no Monday staff meeting; and it wasn’t Saturday, so she didn’t have to load her car for the next week.

Routine was putting away dishes borrowed by the Salisbury B&PW Club, arranging 4-H dairy demonstrations for civic clubs, reporting a club meeting to The Post, unpacking materials for an arts and crafts workshop, answering mail, handling nominations for a delegate for a United Nations tour, filing government brochures, turning in money for cookbooks and a music workshop, planning a quarterly council meeting and meeting with the executive board (and cleaning up after their refreshments), arranging for a woman to report on a baby beef show—all before noon.

On her way to and from the afternoon’s demonstration she made home visits, responding to calls for help with everything from supervising the design of a anew home to repairing a toilet, planning a wedding reception or helping someone select a gift for a high school graduate, choosing paint for a new baby’s room or telling someone how to apply for welfare help.

By the end of that day, we were friends, and when I discovered she was going to leave the end of that year, I knew we’d be poorer for it, but another corner of the world would be infinitely richer.

Basic Demonstrations

And today, anytime people talk about going to Third World countries to improve lives, I think about Eleanor and what she told me when she first came back from Columbia to visit.

She loved working with women in Rowan, but knew someone else could do that job as well, someone who might not be willing to go where life was so basic that no one would even know to wish for air conditioning on a hot day or think about making drapes. In Columbia she taught people to put a long handle instead of a short handle on a broom so they wouldn’t be permanently bent over by the time they reached middle age. She taught them to lift their beds off their dirt floors so the cold damp of earth wouldn’t seep into their bones and erode their health and shorten their lives.

She taught them to build brick stoves with chimneys to carry the smoke outside instead of surrounding their open indoor fires with three stones and coughing in the smoke that blackened their walls and damaged their health. She taught them to build tables instead of eating on a banana mat on the floor, and to raise rabbits for protein because they did what rabbits do much faster than chickens.

Home demonstration in Columbia was real, she said. So real she went back when her tour was over, because she had to finish organizing a school of home economics in a Colombian university so that they could train their own home demonstration agents. Now married and living in Clinton, she’s still involved with development in Colombia.

I lost track of Eleanor Southerland long years ago, but she taught so many—that one person can make a difference without making a splash.

And I’m sure she’d be happy to know the scrapbooks are preserving a chapter of history about so many who did so much to make life better for the people around them.

A.O. McEachern of Wilmington Improving His Dairy Herd, 1944

By F.H. Jeter, Extension Editor, N.C. State College, Raleigh, as published in the Wilmington Star on May 20, 1944

East Carolina is a great crop country. The sandy loam soils of the area are easily worked. They can be improved through the use of legumes and they respond well to applications of fertilizers and limestone.

High acre yields of hay crops, both summer and winter, may be secured and for that reason the great coastal plain area of North Carolina should be a place where livestock can be produced economically and profitably.

As a matter of fact, the section is noted for its production of finished hogs for market but dairying and beef cattle production has developed more slowly. With the knowledge becoming more general about how to establish pasture sods and how to graze farm woodlands in a combination beef and timber producing enterprise, however, these cattle growing ventures are becoming more frequent and some of the fine herds of both beef and dairy cows are to be found in the area.

In some parts of the east, growers have found that their young animals, particularly, do not develop properly. Every livestock man knows that he cannot get very far in livestock farming unless he produces the great bulk of his feed on the home farm. This must be in the form of pasture, hay, grazing crops, or silage. To a less extent, the grain feed is produced. Sometimes when an eastern livestock man depends entirely upon his home-grown supplies for the roughage for his cattle, he runs into difficulties. It seems that something is lacking in, the sandy soils of that area and the more sand in the soil, the more acute is the situation.

This is exactly what A.O. McEachern of Wilmington, Route 2, found out was happening to him. Mr. McEachern runs one of the best dairies to be found in eastern North Carolina. In fact, he may be classed as a pioneer dairyman for that section, and he has developed a fine herd of Holstein cattle as a definite contribution to North Carolina’s livestock progress.

HONORED BY COLLEGE

The North Carolina State College honored Mr. McEachern a few years ago with a certificate of meritorious service to the agriculture of the State because of his success in establishing this outstanding herd of dairy cattle and in his other leadership work among farmers of his section. His farm consists of about 1,000 acres located along the Carolina Beach highway out from Wilmington in New Hanover County. Only about 330 acres are in the open, cultivated land and most of this land is almost all sand. These 330 acres, however, maintain an average of 100 head of purebred registered Holstein cows and about 80 head of young animals.

The other began with purebreds back in 1923 and after he had secured his foundation stock, he never bought another Holstein cow. He added purebred sires from time to time from some of the best herds of America. But to visit this farm and to see the well-kept premises, the excellent pastures, the acres of grazing crops, and the great herd of cattle one would never believe that Mr. McEachern had ever experienced any trouble with his herd.

For several years after he began his herd, the dairyman continued to grow truck crops and to buy practically all of the feed for his cows.

“As long as I did this,” he said, “I had no trouble. The cows would produce their young and the calves would grow off nicely to reach a strong, well-developed size in the usual time of two or three years. My feed was coming, of course, from all parts of the United States and if something was lacking in that which came from one place, perhaps it was compensated for in that which came from another place. I decided, however, to devote my main attention to my herd, to quit the trucking business, and to use the land to grow my own feedstuffs.”

It was then that Mr. McEachern began to run into trouble. For instance, he tried to grow alfalfa but never had much success with it until L.G. Willis, soil chemist and research man in charge of the Soils Laboratory maintained in New Hanover County by the State College Experiment Station, found out that about 25 pounds of borax should be added per acre to the soil.

The dairyman used two tons of ground limestone per acre, 400 pounds of 5-7-5 fertilizer, and about 600 pounds of basic slag, along with the 25 pounds of borax at planting time in the fall and he has one of the prettiest fields of alfalfa, to be found in the state. He says now that he plans to grow about 100 acres as a result of the facts he has learned.

“Mr. Alec” as he is known locally has been quick to adopt all the new facts about how to handle his soil. When he saw that his animals were not developing as they should be tried salt licks in an effort to get needed minerals into them. He fed them more than was good for his profits but still he failed to get the results.

GOT RESULTS

Following the tests and trials made on his land by the soils chemist, he began to get immediate results. The soil was first limed and the cows got the limestone into their system through the feed. Manganese and boron were added. Some cobalt came into the feed through the use of basic slag. Then a little copper was added. 

The results of putting these minerals into the soil were good. The cows began to breed easier, and the calves were increased in size by 33 and one-third per cent. Their bones were stronger and they had a better developed framework.

“Before, I began adding minerals to the feed through the soil. I couldn’t get a cow up to any size before she was five years old,” Mr. Alec said. “I did that by putting the feed to her until the cost was greater than the profit.”

Before I left his farm, Mr. McEachern showed me a group of 11 heifers about two years old. They were grazing contentedly on a good pasture and would weigh an average of about 1,200 to 1,300 pounds each. I agreed then with his statement, “I have just about whipped this sand.”

Memories of 4-H Camp, Home Demonstration Work, and the County Agent

When you pack to send your child off to summer camp, you probably won’t include a live chicken or a pound of butter. And you probably won’t expect that part of your child’s week at camp will include preparing her meals. Or that she will be carried to camp in the back of a truck. But that’s what Carlyn Bernhardt remembers about 4-H camp in the 1930s.

To learn more about life in rural North Carolina, read the following interview with the former 4-H’er, and retired agriculture and home economics agents. The article by Lynn Earley Roberson was published in the May 7, 1989 issue of The Salisbury Post in honor of the Extension Service’s 75^th anniversary.

When Carlyn Bernhardt and other Rowan County youngsters headed to 4-H camp in Swannanoa in the 1930s, each carried crucial items.

In addition to clothing, blankets and comfortable shoes, each child’s provisions included:

·         a pound of butter,

·         two pounds fresh string beans,

·         a firm cabbage head,

·         A dozen tomatoes,

·         One dozen apples, and

·         A live chicken.

“We went up on an open-bed truck,” Mrs. Bernhardt says. While the young people sang songs from their benches in the truck, their provisions bounced along on another truck. Once at the camp, each day’s events including fixing the food.

Mrs. Bernhardt plans to share that bit of nostalgia and other tidbits at a dinner on Monday, in recognition of the 75^th birthday of the Agricultural Extension Service.

Mrs. Bernhardt, who in 1936 was the first Rowan County 4-H’er ever tapped for the state 4-H Honor Club; retired Agricultural Extension Service agent P.H. Satterwhite; and retired home extension agent Edith Hinshaw will be guest speakers at the 7 p.m. dinner at the Agricultural Center on Old Concord Road.

Cooperative Extension began across the nation on May 8, 1914, with the signing by President Woodrow Wilson of the Smith-Lever Act. The act created a partnership of local, state and federal government to spread information on agriculture and home economics.

Although much has changed through the years, Extension’s purpose has remained the same.

“The philosophy behind the whole thing was to teach by means of instruction and demonstration and illustration more scientific things that had been developed,” says Satterwhite, who turns 90 in a few months.

For Mrs. Bernhardt, 4-H taught her leadership and brought her joy. “My sisters and brothers and I look back on those times and think of them as the best days of our lives. 4-H club has always held a special place in my heart.”

They saw 4-H as fellowship and a learning experience. For 50 years, she has treasured a lion she received from Mrs. Frank McRae, a local leader, for her good work. The lion signified strength and leadership, she says, and has occupied an honored spot over her fireplace.

‘Finer Things of Life’

As a teenager in the 1930s, Mrs. Bernhardt wrote of 4-H in her scrapbook, “It builds men and women out of farm boys and girls.” It taught better agriculture and the finer things of life, she says.

Her involvement in 4-H began in 1932 when she joined the Granite Quarry club, of which she was president in 1934. She was the first president of the Saint Paul’s 4-H Club and served in countywide offices.

For Miss Hinshaw, the Extension Service offered a career opportunity. When she decided to switch from her job as a hospital dietitian in 1945, Extension Service employees must have worked or lived on a farm. When they asked about her farm experience, she said, “Why yes, I suckered tobacco for half a day.”

Help was scarce because of World War II, so she was hired despite her lack of farm experience. She worked with the Stanly County extension service for eight years and for four years at what is now UNC-Greensboro.

She then came to Rowan County with the extension service. Because of her ties to Stanly County, and the family relationships between Stanly and Rowan County people, “I never did feel like a stranger,” Miss Hinshaw says.

Extension offices then were crowded and stuck away in basements or third floors, she says. Now, they often are modern and spacious. When she held meetings in Stanly County, trucks grinding by on the highway interrupted the meetings. In Salisbury, trains did the same.

For Rural Women

“Back then, the clubs were for rural women, because it was started to help the farmers,” she says. Sometimes, Salisbury women would join the nearby rural clubs, and after World War II, the clubs opened to city and county residents.

The clubs and church provided the social and educational part of women’s lives, Miss Hinshaw says. Many had no cars or one car, which their husbands used. “As I went to clubs, I would stop as I went along and pick them up,” she says.

Often the club members helped spread information and technology, Miss Hinshaw says. “When something new came in, like when the bookmobile first started, they came to the clubs and asked them to find places for the bookmobile to start,” she says.

The club members also helped introduce Rowan Technical Institute and the Mental Health Center, as well as volunteering at the V.A. Medical Center and helping find sites for dumpsters.

The farm agents also encouraged farmers to try new methods and new crops. Satterwhite describes farmers’ reactions as good, bad and indifferent. “Some of them were so ‘sot’ in their ways,” he says, laughing.

“When I first started with Extension, there wasn’t much soil conservation,” Satterwhite says. Later, he began encouraging farmers to protect their soil from erosion.

He started with the extension service in 1940, after teaching agriculture in the high school at Cleveland School. When he first started working, he did a lot of veterinarian work because there was no vet.

He spent most of his time with farmers in the fields, stopping by his office occasionally to check his mail. Each farmer kept a few milk cows and a flock of chickens. “If you see one now, you stop and look at them,” Satterwhite says.

Satterwhite counts among his achievements his help in forming a dairy cooperative, which later merged with a larger organization. Now, farming has grown more specialized, he says.

Agriculture Commissioner Jim Graham, who Satterwhite had taught at Cleveland, presented Satterwhite with a plaque on Feb. 13, honoring him for his faithful and outstanding contributions to agriculture in Rowan Count y and North Carolina.

William Strudwick's Column on Durham, May, 1940

 “As Time Marches On” by William Strudwick in The Carolina Times, Durham, May  11, 1940. This issue is online at http://library.digitalnc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/newspapers/id/17112/rec/1, copyright The Carolina Times.

The Golden Chain

As time marches on apace

We kept far apart as of place,

And yet there was that in the ken,

That we knew of even then.

Before we trod the haunts of man,

Of dizzy deals and noisy spats

We learned little by little these facts,

That it took more than vim to buck the rats.

And now that those trite songs are sung—

The golden chain is restrung—

Pray God we can move along

Again as one!

. . . . . . .

DOWNBEAT

And into my sanctum the haunting echo of a thrilling sweet voice stolt and my equilibrium fled. Fled away on the ghost of melody of “Aloho” and it all come back, each sign, each touch, hazy and more vivid in hue. The warmth not present as of a moment passed came back and filled the room with a presence I knew. Unreal unrest stole into my tired troubled soul and I knew no surcease until I fell into a deep sleep and dreamed of you.

. . . . . . .

Cherry by Erskine Hawkins and Cherokee by Charlie Harnett has the jitter-jive in these parts.

. . . . . . .

It, “Oomph” and anything else cannot describe these hats our fair ladies don from year to year out. It is something when you think about what “poor pa” has to pay for a change of design in a feather and straw.

. . . . . . .

THESE THY PEOPLE

This is a story of a man who had one son. He loved his son, a fine, ambitious lad who greatly wanted to make good and live up to his father’s expectations.

The father sent his son to the best preparatory school possible, and gave him every advantage. It was expensive, yes, but Fred was going to make good, get a job and make up for everything.

Preparatory school ended. Fred graduated with honors, the valedictorian of his class.

Then came college; sending Fred to college cost his Dad three times as much expense as sending him to prep school.

Fred finished college with the highest honors. The college he attended received huge philanthropies from industrial magnates and the government.

Then, Fred and his diploma came home.

The factories slammed doors in his face. He hadn’t anticipated teaching so those avenues of employment were closed to him; and Fred again began working on the farm. Not for his dad as before for the farm was no longer his dad’s—sold for education, not for wages, because dad had gone hundreds of dollars in debt for his education and was keeping the farm simply to pay off. So Fred worked for education.

And so a great commonwealth prepared a brilliant young man for work and then told him there was no work!

. . . . . . .

Our eternal cry through the polls, press and various organizations should eternally be Vocational School with our high school.

The future of a generation—the future of a race—shall definitely depend upon the progress made in this direction by our group.

The super-machine age we are living in demands emphatically but two things—and two things only does it pay for; necessities, which means(?) industries and enterment.(?)

A laugh, a meal and a song seems to be our modern way of living.

And there arose a great cry that could be heard far and soar(?) of a people in need. Their surging cries could be heard everywhere, in every place as time marched on.

They were rooted stem, root and branch in the land en masse their querulous cries were headed only in a few places.

They needed most of all these people the sterling faith of their ancestors. As time marched on.

. . . . . . .

We see fewer occupations and more avocations in cause(?) of survival. The creative impulses of men and women have preserved and made the civilization which we enjoy today. The creative desires of real men carved a great nation out of this continent we live upon. These warlike and resourceful men fought and builded at the same time, literally, octopus like, with a hand on the plow, the axe and the rifle, inspired by the creative desire for freedom.

The unselfish creative impulses of the truly great men of all time have left their indelible imprint upon the sands of time and have indeed added to the understanding of mankind.

The Master puts a spark of divine creative urge into every human being. Therefore it is the duty of every person whose life touched a growing life to see that this spark is cherished in the right way.

We pray for the day when the creative urge of our compact(?) for example, all-powerful few will create for us—with us, a haven for the wholesome relaxation of our boys and girls—a real YMCA, etc.

The creative urge of the buncing(?) youth today maybe to write a book, to sing a song, to build a bridge or to right wrongs—but whatever the creative urges of our youth may be, it is our duty to find them, to start them right off on their own peculiar mission for the benefit of mankind.

We may not stumble upon a George Washington Carver, a Frederick Douglas, a Dunbar or a Bethune or create a bushel of men of genius—but ever and eternally the world will be that much better when one unknown John Jones suddenly finds his star, his way of life, his creation.

Once found, this creative urge remains in the breast of every living human being. This spark, regardless of the resultant fate of the individual whether he become murderer, thief, pickpocket, scientist, lawyer, doctor, etc. Whatever his lot in life may be this spark though dormant. There, as Wong remarked in “The Good Earth,” “My son, the good seed will ever grow in the good earth.” These budding men and women are the good earth of tomorrow so ray to heaven that their finest urges are developed to a greater and greater extent as understanding grows. Life is a fragment, a moment between two eternities, influenced by all that has preceeded, and to influence all that follows. The only way to illumine it is by extent of view.—William Eldery Channing*

BULLING ABOUT THE BULL CITY

The traveling bus belched this bit into the Bull City Saturday evening and time began peeping on.

Bull City time clock found Dr. J.W.V. Cordice holding forth in the “Friendly City” barber shop as Confusiuous Cum Laude. Yours truly received his usual flawless tonsorial attention at the hands of one Charles Steele whom we vote one of the best barbers in any of the states.

We find White quiet—and Malone’s harbouring a truly talented street urchin who entertained a group for 5 cents a clog-hop. The roving scribe finds the James’ Boys still at the Bull City drugstore, the ABC still the most popular place in town. Definitely it seems a new car is not only a luxury but a necessity in the Bull City.

College Inn finds potentates campaigning Saturday night for one Dr. J.N. Mills for County Commissioner, manager Lawyer “Ed” Avant. Around and inside(?) out Profs. B. Paige(?), Lanky Cole, and playboy(?) Frank Craft as per usual followed by a galaxy of fems and yours truly—ahem, not alone. Also there assez-toi, Miss Ruth Clarke of Wake Forest accompanied by her sister Miss Hazel Clarke visiting her aunt for the week and Mrs. Rosa Dunn of 1201 Hazel Avenue most interesting.

En route to Fayetteville also Mrs. L.L. Booker, instructor at Anne Chestnut High School from a weekend in Durham visiting her other half B.B. Booker.

We pause here to give credit where credit is due. W.G. Rhodes, chief usher at St. Joseph AME Church, of modest, unassuming young man who really lives his life as he professes, has been eminently responsibly by his shining example and straight-forward personality, in drawing larger number of the younger set into the AME service rolls.

Mrs. Ernestine Scarborough Johnson now residing at 1409 Gray Avenue, Winston-Salem, N.C., is at home visiting her father J.C. Scarborough.

Mrs. Hattie Thomas, Sanford, N.C., visited her grandmother at 804 Picket St., Durham, over the weekend.

. . . . . . .

DOWNSTREAM

I felt the shadow moving fast and free. Then, there came into the ken a hazy sort of expectation of things seen and unseen. I drew the mists from my eyes and the shadow shape of you formed and I knew the hunger of years past for which there is no surcease.

The Senior Class of E.E. Smith High School presented a farce in three acts “”Annabelle Lee” Friday night. It would be impossible to say any one or two players were outstanding because all performed exceptionally well and indeed thoroughly lived up to the expectations of their able directress Mrs. L.C. Fowler.

Ralph Tilles of 547 Wilkins Avenue, Detroit, Michigan, was in Fayetteville enroute to Charleston, S.C.

. . . . . . .

WE ENDORSE DR. J.N. MILLS

Dr. J.N. Mills, Durham physician running for County Commissioner, is in the first place eminently qualified by training and experience and all-round ability for the position. In the second place being the only Negro candidate he represents the largest minority group and the election to office will enable that group to have fuller appreciation in participation in government function.

Of Dr. Mills, his closest associates say, “He is truly a prince of a fellow.”

Time Marches On—W.W. Strudwick

-=-

*William Ellery Channing was a well-known abolitionist and Unitarian minister, but he died long before Pearl Buck’s The Good Earth was published. His nephew, a poet, was his namesake, but I’m not sure if Strudwick is quoting him.

Alice Caudle Prefers Mill Work to Housework, 1938

From “American Life Histories,” stories of everyday Americans collected during the Great Depression. These stories are now online. On September 2, 1938, Muriel L Wolff interviewed Alice Caudle, Concord, N.C.

"Law, I reckon I was born to work in a mill. I started when I was ten year old and I aim to keep right on jest as long as I'm able. I'd a-heap rather do it then housework."

Alice Caudle, who spoke these words so gayly, did not look as if she had spent much time in rebelling against her fate. Her tanned face may have been somewhat wrinkled for her forty-seven years, but they were pleasant wrinkles; her eyes were alive, her hair thick and brown, her teeth (they were her own) seemed good in spite of the dark rim of snuff around them, and her body was active looking. She sat perfectly relaxed, rocking gently back and forth and occasionally leaning over the front porch banister to spit. The red voile dress she wore without a belt, for coolness, and she did not have on stockings; on her feet were faded blue felt bedroom slippers.

When she was about ten years old, Alice's father had moved his family of four children from the farm in [Alamance?] County to Concord. Alice didn't go to school in Concord because she didn't have to and "there were'nt no school buildings here the way there is now." And so when she was ten, she began to work in the mill.

"Yessir, when I started down here to plant No. 1, I was so little I had to stand on a box to reach my work. I was a spinner at first, then I learned to spool. When they put in them new winding machines, I asked them to learn me how to work 'em and they did. If I'd a-been a man no telling how far I'd-a gone. It was mighty convenient for 'em -- having a hand that could do all three, but I got mad and quit. In them days there was an agreement here in the mills that if a hand was to quit one, then the other mills in town wouldn't hire him, so I went over to Albemarle and I got me a job in the knitting mills."

She leaned forward in her rocker to beam upon her youngest grandchild, Alice Jane Fletcher, who was pointing to a passing Negro woman and piping out "he oma (woman), he oma."

"Don't hit sound like she's a-saying 'hey Mama'?" Alice chuckled. Then she went on to tell me of her marriage in Albemarle, of the birth of her two children there, and the death of her husband when Ruby, her oldest child, was "three year and three days old." She was more interested though, in telling of how she learned to work a machine in the knitting mill in one day. "One day the boss man told me the hand that worked the machine that knit stockings was quittin', and he told me to go watch her to see if I couldn't learn it. Well, I stood right close by that hand all day and I watched her, so that the next day when she didn't come I was able to work the machine by myself."

After the death of her husband, Alice moved back to Concord and again went to work for the Cannon Mills. "I've worked for the Cannon Mills now for over thirty years," she announced proudly. "I have one of them pins they gave at that big supper last spring. Did you ever hear about it?"

Alice looked very much surprised when I said no, and proceeded to enlighten me.

"One day someone come around asking all the hands how long they had worked for the Cannon Mills. Course nobody knew why such a question was being asked and some of the hands was afeared to tell how long they had worked. Well, I wasn't; when they asked me I said 'thirty year' and was proud of it. Several days after that they sent for me to go to the office; 'boys,' I said to myself, they're a-going to fire me now. When I went in the office Mr. there says 'Miss Caudle, you've worked for the Cannon Company for thirty year, ain't you?' and I said 'Yes Sir, Mr., that's right.' Then he said 'We're a-having a big supper up at Kannapolis on Friday night for them that's worked twenty-five year or more for the company and here's your ticket.'"

Alice paused for a moment and there was a mischievous glint in her eye "'Well Sir,' I said to him, 'in all these thirty years this is the first time the Cannon Mill ever offered me anything -- are you right sure they're not a-going to take hit off my pay?'

"When the day come for the supper Rose Panell come down here to go with me because they was sending a car for us two. Hit was held up in the Mary Ella Hall in Kannapolis. You went into a great big room, furnished jest as nice as you'd want, and they had a man there who didn't do nothing but take your hat and coat when you come in and hang 'em up fer you. I thought we would kill ourselves laughing and Rose kept a-wondering if we'd get the right coats and hats back. The other room where we was to eat looked as pretty as anything you ever saw. Such a sight of tables -- and every one was covered all over and down at the sides with some of that white cloth that was finished down at the Bleachery; and there was flower pots set about on them. I didn't think they'd have much to eat for such a crowd, but the tables was covered. They had turkey and everything; hit was real good.

“Yes, they had speeches. Charles Cannon made a fine speech and give out the pins to us. He told about the way young'uns used to stand on boxes to work -- the way I done."

At present Alice works in the spinning room. There are only women in this division and she says they have a time together, talking, laughing and cutting up. "The section head don't hardly ever come around. Sometimes I tell him that us old widow women back there could go off to South Carolina to get married and come back again, but he wouldn't even know we'd been gone." When asked why men didn't work in the spinning room, she shrugged and made some remark about the patience and skill required for such work and added "you know how men are..." in a pitying tone.

The morning shift, on which Alice works, goes from 7:00 to 3:30, with a half an hour off for lunch. For two full weeks work of five days a week she receives $31.00. When she lived over in another village (owned by the same company) her rent was $6.00 a month; now she lives with her daughter's family and contributes to their expenses.

After a car passed the house Alice looked thoughtful a minute then said "You know, I believe I'd get me a car if I could learn to run it, but I don't believe I ever could. I'd like to have me one of them little Austin cars. Mr. was saying to me the other day that anybody who could learn to run the machines I know how to run in the mill could sure learn to drive a car. But I jest don't know."

Once she had a permanent wave, but when it got kind of long she said it "bushed out so funny when I put my hat on, it made me look jest like old Miss, so I pinned it up. I despise to see hair all bushed out behind."

There is a neat little frame church at the top of the hill, the Young Street Baptist Church, and Alice is a member. She belongs to the Women's Society and especially enjoys the Heart Sister part of it. (It is the vogue now in women's societies of almost all denominations to have Heart Sisters. One woman draws another's name and for a certain period of time considers her a Heart Sister -- sends her cards, gives her presents, etc. -- meanwhile keeping her identity a secret. At the end of a certain length of time, the identities of the respective Heart Sister are revealed.)

In the afternoon when she is through work Alice enjoys sitting on the porch in the swing or the rocker; she watches her two little granddaughters play, chats with neighbors, or maybe just sits and enjoys her snuff. "As long as I can work and talk and laugh, I'm happy," she says, "and I get to do plenty of all of them."

For Wholesome, Economical Food, Grow It Yourself, 1940

“Views of a County Agent” by W.C. Davenport, Mecklenburg County Agent, as published in The Carolina Times, Durham, May 11, 1940. This issue is online at http://library.digitalnc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/newspapers/id/17112/rec/1

No other plot of ground on the farm of similar size contributes more to the health of the family and wholesome, economical production of food than the family vegetable garden. To attempt to elevate the home garden in terms of dollars and cents is a difficult task when one considers the value of the crisp, juicy vegetables that come fresh from the real home garden and the definite savings in the year-round food budget.

It is not a difficult task to grow as many as 20 different vegetables during some period of the year in Mecklenburg County, and have at least three or more different kinds of growing each month in the garden for at least eight months of the year.

While in conversation with a high school principal of Mecklenburg County a few days ago, he came forth with some long and drawn out constructive plans for what he expected to do in the producing of a good home garden on the high school campus. Over the hills to the white and colored neighbors homes he went seeking horse power to un-earth the proposed garden plot. Knowing of his good intentions, all of the neighbors contacted turned thumbs-up and the mules and farming implements poured in from upstream and downstream. A list of vegetables have been made out for this garden: beets, beans, kale, onions, peas, potatoes, tomatoes, turnips, squash, sweet corn, okra and carrots.

All of this might be found on the campus of the Plato Price high school of which Prof. G.E. McKeithem, and to, the growing of a garden on the campus will give the boys more experience in using their hands and will give the girls a rich experience in canning.”

I wish to hail the progress of this school project for I feel that its practical value is equally as important to the progress of the community at large as it is to the high school proper.

Nutritional "Weeds" of North Carolina

Healthy greens are full of nutrition, and the County Health Departments in Orange, Person, Chatham, and Lee counties encouraged residents to eat "free, pick-your-own" greens with this brochure published in 1959. 

Raising Broilers and Turkeys to Add to Family Income, 1935

“The Woman’s Touch,” by Jane S. McKimmon, Carolina Co-operator, May 1935

One of the most popular means of increasing farm income when it must be done by the farm woman is through the production of broilers and turkeys for market.

Anson County has built up an excellent trade in poultry and has a dependable list of customers in Raleigh, Greensboro, and Washington, D.C., to whom women producers make cooperative shipments.

The Home Agent Mrs. Rosalind Redfearn, says “As orders are received they are pro-rated among producers and the basement of the courthouse is used for assembling, weighing, and packing for shipment.

“Anson County as a standard for the poultry which it markets and producers as a whole maintain this standard by using good feeding and fattening methods and care in dressing. Birds are fed a balanced mash, given buttermilk if possible, and the premises are kept clean at all times.

“Cars of live poultry are run in broiler seasons and so are cars for fat hens, geese, and ducks.

“People are finding that marketing poultry cooperatively guarantees good sales at better prices than when they are peddled or handled individually.”

FHA Loan Helps J.J. Allisons Family in Leicester, 1971

“FHA Loans Enabling Rural Folk to Live in Comfort” by John C. Dills, Citizen Staff Writer, as published in The Asheville Citizen, May 17, 1971

The J.J. Allisons of Leicester raised a family in a beat-up old house. But now they live in a brand-new electrically heated brick and masonry house next door to where the old one stood.

For more than 12 years, they lived in a little wooden place that was little more than a shack, with windows covered with plastic and great gaps in the weatherboarding that let in the snow and wind in winter.

The new house is tight, weather-proof and comfortable in winter and summer, Allison said—with quick agreement by his wife.

The Allisons are not unique.

They are clients, so to speak, of the U.S. Farmers Home Administration, which makes loans to rural families whose income is too low for any other lending agency to deal with.

The Allisons were not able to obtain a building loan from a commercial lending institution because of their income level, according to J. Kelly Ray, FHA loan officer for Buncombe and McDowell counties.

The Allisons came to Buncombe County in 1958 from Madison County’s Spring Creak section. The FHA made them a loan to buy a 49-acre farm, where Allison planned to produce Grade C milk and raise tobacco.  The family income the first year was only $2,380—on which they had to raise six children—four boys and two girls, in addition to keeping Allison’s mother, who is now deceased.

Today, all six children are married, leaving only Mr. and Mrs. Allison to share the new three-bedroom house, except when the children or some of their 16 grandchildren come to visit.

Allison also got $740 from the Forest Service for serving as fire lookout during the winter months.

He has changed his farming operation, raising Shorthorn and Whiteface cattle which he sells as feeder calves, using his own stock for breeding. He grows about .45 acre of tobacco, and to supplement his farm income, he and his wife operate the Royster Fertilizer store at Leicester, and during the tobacco market he works at Planter’s Tobacco Warehouse.

Allison said low income kept him from building sooner.

His income has increased from $3,200 a year to about $7,000, from all his endeavors.

The old house, he said, had only four rooms—and only one bedroom.

Allison did a lot of the work of building his new house himself, thus reducing the ultimate cost, he said.

The new house has double insulation, six rooms with paneled walls, an eight-inch masonry wall with brick face and full studs for the interior panels.

The old house had no bathroom, although the Allisons did have hot and cold running water—they installed it themselves.

The Allisons are among 100 farm families who have received home building loans from FHA since July, 1970, Ray said.

He said FHA has made a total of $1.5 million in loans since then, and the state has $30 million available to loan between now and the end of the fiscal year (June 30).

Others, he said, can, like the Allisons, obtain home building loans if they live in a sparsely-enough populated area and their incomes are too low to permit them to obtain commercial loans.

Interested persons may obtain information from Ray at his office in the Buncombe County Courthouse.

North Carolina Nurses at Top of Class, 1940

“N.C. Nurses Tops in Exam in Virginia” From The Carolina Times, Durham, May  11, 1940. This issue is online at http://library.digitalnc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/newspapers/id/17112/rec/1

In the Richmond News, it was learned that from a number of white nurses and eight colored nurses of St. Philip's Hospital in Richmond, Va., who took mid-term State Board Exam in March, Miss Julia Porter of Asheville, N.C., averaged above 95 percent and received the gold seal, and Miss Margaret Bass of 701 Linwood Avenue, Durham, averaged second highest percentage. Miss Bass, R.N., is now employed in St. Philip’s Hospital, Richmond, Va.

Copyright The Carolina Times. This item is presented courtesy of The Carolina Times for research and educational purposes. Prior permission from The Carolina Times is required for any commercial use.

Plowing Cabbage in Swepsonville, 1940

With a plow and a mule, this young man cultivates cabbage on a farm on Route 54, east of Swepsonville. These pictures were taken by Jack Delano in May, 1940, and are on file with the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.