Farmers Repay Rehabilitation Loans in Oxford, 1936

Two farmers, helped with Rehabilitation Loans, make payments in Oxford in 1936. These photos were taken by a WPA photographer.

'A Challenge to Farm Youth' by Upton G. Wilson of Madison, NC, 1935

 “A Challenge to Farm Youth” By Upton G. Wilson in the October, 1935 issue of Carolina Co-Operator

The power to make life on the farm more attractive is in the hands of farm boys and girls of today—but will they stay on the farm and do it? “They will!” says Mr. Wilson.

Twenty-three years ago a drunken cook whom he had discharged, shot Mr. Wilson through both lungs and through the spine. Since that time he has been confined to his bed in Madison, N.C.  Weaker souls would have given up—but not Mr. Wilson. He turned to writing and since that time has written over two million words for publication, typing his manuscripts himself while lying on his right side in bed.

If there is one thing wrong with our country more than another, it is that too few persons are doing its thinking and planning—not because only a few of our people are capable of thinking and planning but that thinking and planning are not required of the vast majority of individuals who do our work.

Eighty-five per cent of our corporate wealth, we are told, is controlled by five per cent of our corporations; which means, of course, that corporate thinking in America is done by a comparative handful.

Millions labor for corporations but only a few think for them, most of those employed being mere automatons. Mechanized industry asks little more of its help that nimbleness of limb and quickness of eye—the ability, that is, to wait on machines without becoming entangled in wheels, cogs, and belts.

Stay On the Farm

Which is a valid reason why farm boys and girls now on the farm should remain there, where individual thought and initiative are still permissible. They may help to shape the nation’s thought and policies by continuing to till the soil.

With millions of unemployed thronging the streets of our cities and with the millions fortunate enough to hold jobs having to conform to certain patterns, the farm today offers ambitious youth its greatest opportunity, not only to earl a livelihood but also to win distinction in politics, statecraft, and social service.

Industry is deadening the minds of its workers, while agriculture is demanding more and more headwork from those who live by the productions of the earth, which is a challenge that physically industrious, mentally alert boys and girls cannot ignore. They can do no other than answer the call that promises occupation both for brawn and brain.

Agriculture Calls for Education

Agriculture is no longer a vocation for the dull and indolent. Insistently, imperatively it is calling for those with educated minds and hands. Today the successful farmer is entitled to the respect of himself and others. He lives not only by the sweat of his brow but by the exercise of his brain cells as well. He is both an individualist and a specialist and his mind is free of cobwebs.

Will farm boys and girls give up the intellectual freedom that is theirs in agriculture for the mind-shriveling inhibitions of industry? I do not think so. I do not believe they will choose to become executors of other men’s plans when they can remain where they are and execute plans of their own.

Agriculture is the fountain head of all enterprise. Always men and women will depend upon agriculture for the food they eat and the clothes they wear. This is a fact of utmost significance to those who have the ability to think. It means, if it means anything at all, that those who control agriculture may control the world.

Hitherto agriculture has too often tamely submitted to dominance by industry and commerce, but this need not be so any longer.  Boys and girls now coming to mental and physical maturity on the farm may change all this.

What reason is there that agriculture should be last instead of first in reaping the rewards of honest endeavor? There is no reason whatever for its laggard position except the laggard minds of those who have made agriculture their vocation. Agriculture is the foundation upon which American prosperity has been built and it is high time that it should demand its just share of this prosperity.

It is for this reason, if no other, that agriculture is calling so loudly to farm boys and girls to remain where they are and restore agriculture to the place it deserves in our national economic scheme. Farm boys and girls may easily do this if they will dedicate themselves to the task. It is a task that calls them to that highest and most glorious of all adventures, the upbuilding of a great and essential industry.

Nor need farm boys and girls sacrifice their desire for social activities by remaining where they are and fighting the battles of agriculture. The city, with its amusements, if ample recreational facilities be lacking on the farm, is no farther away than the nearest church was a decade ago. Automobiles and good roads have reduced distances to next to nothing.

A part of the challenge to modern farm boys and girls, of course, is to provide for the social life of those who dwell upon the land. It should not be necessary for farm boys and girls—even underprivileged farm boys and girls—to go to town for social recreation. Provision must be made for this in rural recreation centers.

Education instead of being a dead loss on the farm will pay greater dividends there than elsewhere. It is the one place, in fact, that a boy or girl may put knowledge to use in an individual way. On the farm one is his own master rather than the slave of a machine. 

Basically more important than industry, agriculture must be made more attractive, more remunerative than industry, and only educated farm boys and girls can do this. Soil erosion and the drift cityward of farm boys and girls must be stopped. It is in the power of our farm boys and girls to do both.

Will they do it? They will. It is a challenge they cannot refuse to accept, a dare they cannot overlook.

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After a gunshot left 23-year-old Upton G. Wilson bed-bound, he studied journalism through an extension service of the University of North Carolina and then got a job writing a column called "Ragweeds and Cockleburs" for the Winston-Salem Journal. He also wrote a book called "My 33 Years in Bed."
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=95651604

The March 1942 issue of The Bennett Banner, a student publication of Bennett College in Greensboro, has a letter to the editor from Wilson. The newspaper is on the Web at:
http://morehead.lib.unc.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/newspapers/id/17448/rec/11

Help for Million Farm Families on Federal Emergency Relief, 1935

“A Million Farmers On Relief” by Whitney Tharin, Carolina Co-Operator, October, 1935

A million farmers on relief and to take them off the government gave us the Resettlement Administration. What it aims to do is told here by the regional information officer.

Orators and writers for generations have pictured the advantages of farming so glowingly that many persons received a severe shock in the summer of 1934 when they discovered that more than a million farm families were on the Federal Emergency Relief Rolls.

These shocked citizens, however, had listened too long to the pleasant platitudes about the advantages of fresh country air and bright sunshine. They had forgotten that agriculture, like all other great economic enterprises, has for a long time included persons who for various reasons have been marginal in their capacity to earn. These people were so near the borderline of poverty that the coming of the depression brought them quickly below the line.

A million families meant that at least 4.5 to 5 million rural inhabitants had to be aided. They were kept from starvation by handouts from state, local, and federal governments or by such rural rehabilitation work as had already been started. With so large a portion of our farm population on relief, the government became convinced that more fundamental causes than the depression were responsible for this situation and that some more permanent economic solution had to be found for a great many of these people.

Are Victims of ____

Investigation proved that it was not merely the depression and the years of low farm prices which have brought these people to their present plight. Many of them, through no fault of their own, are more fundamentally the victims of:

1.       Mistaken agricultural policies of the last hundred years, especially the homesteading upon lands incapable of yielding a decent standard of living.

2.       Overfarming and overgrazing policies, aggravated by war demands and later the struggle to make a living by producing more commodities to offset low prices.

3.       Failure to adopt adequate methods of soil conservation.

4.       Exhaustion of lumbering, mining, and oil areas.

5.       Failure to conserve forest lands, thereby accelerating the destruction of millions of acres through erosion and floods.

In an effort to concentrate study of this problem, and to work out its solution carefully, President Roosevelt established the Resettlement Administration, naming as its head Dr. Rexford G. Tugwell, the Under Secretary of Agriculture. At the same time, the President transferred to the Resettlement Administration the Rural Rehabilitation Division of the FERA; the Subsistence Homesteads Unit of the Department of Interior; and the Land Policy Section of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration.

North Carolina In Region Four

In the national administrative set-up approved by Doctor Tugwell, the nation was divided into 11 regions. North Carolina, with Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee, makes up Region IV, with Raleigh as regional headquarters. The work in this region is under the supervision of two specialists in their respective fields—Homer H. B. Mask, Regional Director of Rural Resettlement, and James M. Gray, Regional Director of Land Utilization.

The present goal of the Resettlement Administration is to put 350,000 destitute or low-income families on a self-sustaining basis. To do this properly will require much time and patient work. After land has been acquired for the use of those who should move to new locations, steps must be taken to assure that the persons so resettled will be enabled to earn a subsistence and raise the standards of their home life. Ideal functioning of the program involves careful social studies of the groups concerned, and the acquisition of land not too far removed from the places where the families are already accustomed to conditions.

There is nothing arbitrary about resettlement. In no case will any family be removed to another location without that family’s voluntary acceptance of the plan. As a matter of fact, the overwhelming majority of the families assisted will be resettled, insofar as possible, “in place,” that is, in the community or neighborhood in which they are now living. There will be established, however, a few rural agricultural communities to which selected families will be permitted to move.

Is Not Relief

There is nothing about resettlement that smacks of relief—as such. Money advanced by the Resettlement Administration for the purchase of farm lands and necessary equipment by farmers, tenants, share-croppers, or farm laborers is to be repaid within a reasonable time.

The work of the Land Utilization Division of the Resettlement Administration is directed towards the better use of land resources. Some of the projects under this division involve the purchase of lands now in agricultural use which should be placed in public ownership as forest or grazing lands in order to conserve the soil and native cover and to correct unsatisfactory conditions of human life and public finance. Other projects are concerned primarily with the public reservation of needed areas for recreation or wild life protection when such use is justified by the location and physical characteristics of the land.

Three major objectives comprise the purpose of the land utilization projects. First is the conservation of land resources, and the use of them to the fullest public advantage. Second is the assistance of families bound to a poverty-stricken dependence on unproductive land to sell out their poor holdings and move to a more profitable location. The third objective is to make possible a reorganization of the finances of local governments by relieving them of the necessity of expending large sums for the maintenance of roads, school, and other public serves in areas of poor land which do not contribute their fair share of taxes to the public treasuries.

In addition to the close-knit cooperation with which the two major divisions—Rural Resettlement  and Land Utilization—of the Resettlement Administration must operate, there must be inter-governmental cooperation with a number of other federal departments, administrations, and services.

Chief among the agencies with which the Resettlement Administration will co-operate are the Extension Service of the United States Department of Agriculture, the Land-Grant Colleges, and Experiment Stations. The Extension Service has agreed to cooperate in appraising the resources of families proposed for rehabilitation or resettlement, in the development of specific plans for each family, and in the supervision of the execution of these plans. In this manner, all families aided by the Resettlement Administration will have available the expert services of Extension Service workers, including those of county farm and home agents and their assistants.

Picture Page from Carolina Co-operator Magazine, 1936

From the October, 1936, issue of Carolina Co-Operator

In the oval photograph is Mrs. Hubert Boney of Teacheys, Duplin County, who was awarded the Master of Homemaker’s Degree at the recent Farm and Home Week at N.C. State College in Raleigh.

Top left shows trapnests in the chicken pen of an unidentified “R.O.P.” (Record of Performance) member, who is operating his poultry plant according to the rules of the National Poultry Improvement Plan.

Top right shows Mrs. Pauline Smith, District Home Demonstration Agent, calling on Mrs. W.T. Whitsett in her out-door living room [garden] in Guilford County.

Bottom left is an unidentified youngster picking cotton.

Middle right are 4-H Club State Officers. Left to right, they are Roy Coates, Johnston County, president; Ida Elizabeth Johnson, Johnston County, vice-president; Elizabeth Randle, Cleveland County, secretary; and Henry Vanstory, Iredell County, historian.

Bottom right is a picture of the Mocksville High School Young Tar Heel Farmers taken in Mt. Vernon, while they were on a trip to Washington, D.C., under the supervision of their vocational Agriculture Teacher J.W. Davis.

Our State is Blessed, 1935

“Put a Wall Around North Carolina” by Ida Briggs Henderson in the July, 1935, issue of the Carolina Co-Operator

Put a Wall Around North Carolina and yet, because of the State’s great agricultural diversity, her citizens need not be deprived of anything necessary for their health and happiness. In other words, we can “live-at-home.”

A great scientific man recently stated that “There is one state in the Union around which there could be built an impregnable wall and its citizens need not be deprived of anything necessary to contribute to their health, comfort, or luxury…and that state is North Carolina.”

This is a very beautiful tribute and a very just one as there are no states whose soil, rainfall, and climatic conditions permit such wide diversity as does North Carolina. The State is blessed in rainfall which is evenly distributed; the mean annual temperature ranges from 46.4 degrees in the mountains to 63.4 on the coast; and there are three distinct divisions of soils, which can and do produce practically every species of crop and variety of fruits.

For long ages the waters of the Atlantic deposited rich ingredients on the portion now classed as the coastal plain, which, after the water gradually receded, held its deposits of lime, nitrogen, phosphates, and other chemicals derived from the disintegration and amalgamation of the crustaceous deposits into the soil.

This region extends westward for about 75 miles to contact with the splendid sandhill section and on up to the Piedmont plateau. Here the soil is heavier, of red clay texture and at an approximate sea level of 1,200 to 1,500 feet it produces some of the best tobacco and grain in the entire country. In fact, the tobacco raised in the State is of a superfine quality demanding high prices in local and foreign markets: one-fourth of the tobacco crop produced in America is on the farms of North Carolina and inasmuch as certain types of this tobacco are suitable for foreign manufactured products, a considerable quantity of the leaf is exported. Leaf tobacco is sold direct by farmer to manufacturer or dealer through some 44 tobacco markets in which 145 warehouses are operated. Type and grade are the controlling factors in price paid.

The Piedmont

The Piedmont plateau is rolling, hilly country, producing  small grains and cover crops and in the southern belt cotton is raised. This is a good section for such fruits as apples, pears, cherries, and though fine vegetables are produced these do not come in early enough to compete with the sandhill and coastal regions. The principal trucking areas are down near the coast, and it is there that occurs the famed double-cropping system, whereby two to four crops may be grown during a single year. Strawberries, dewberries, watermelons, and cantaloupes thrive extensively in the coastal plain, but dewberries and peaches are grown in huge commercial quantities in the sandhill region.

In addition to the very productive corn and cotton land, the soil is specially adapted to the production of forage crops such as clover, rye, oats, cowpeas, velvet and soy beans, lespedeza, vetch, and alfalfa; these together with abundant and varied grasses quite naturally offer wide opportunities for raising of live stock. The dairy industry is expanding and many commercial creameries have been established.

In the mountain section, particularly in the Isothermal belt which extends for miles and lies against the eastern reaches of the Blue Ridge and where, for some strange freak of nature it never frosts, are found vineyards quite equal to those of California; the grape culture around Tryon is specially valuable. Apples of these mountains are famed for their super-excellence and small grains such a buckwheat do well; also the superior nature of the pasturage makes this a superb dairying center; active plants furnish the famers with a steady market for their milk.

Cheese Important

In this section, especially in Ashe and Watauga counties, there is a growing cheese industry, little factories consuming an enormous amount of milk. While the mountain sides are rocky and steep, in the valleys occur super-excellent soil; these Appalachians are known to be the oldest in creation; thus for untold centuries through natural erosion and abundant rainfall the valuable deposits of leaf and mould and chemicals have washed down into the valleys an alluvial deposit of soil, in some instances about 10 feet deep which requires no artificial fertilizer.

North Carolina’s geographical position could not be improved; topographically the State is perfect, with unsurpassed climate through each season of the year. The nature of the flora and trees vary in different sections, as the range of temperature from the southeastern sea level to an elevation of almost 7,000 feet is accompanied by a change in typical trees and flowers from the palmettos and palms of the islands that border the coast, through the gums of the east and the world-famed Carolina longleaf pines, to the Canadian lilies which lift pure white chalices underneath the shade of the virgin growth of spruce pines and balsams that crown the peaks of the Smokies.

ECA Marks It's 100th Birthday at the State Fair, 2013

Tomato Clubs, Home Demonstration Clubs, Extension Homemaker Clubs, and now Extension and Community Associations...the name has changed but the emphasis on lifelong learning, service, and leadership continues. This display at the 2013 State Fair celebrates the group's 100th birthday and its Legacy of Leadership. For more information on the present-day organization, see https://www.facebook.com/pages/NC-ECA/149746751737502?hc_location=stream.

A Bathtub Is Real Luxury, 1927

From the October, 1927, issue of The Bureau Farmer

What She Would Buy With $100, With $1,000

Here is what one Nebraska woman would do if she had from $100 to $1,000 to spend as she pleases—and she might be any one of thousands of farm women all over the country. Home conveniences are her idea of luxury.

“I would call a bathtub a real luxury,” wrote the Nebraska housewife. “You may understand what I mean when I say ‘luxury’, as I am the mother of five children ranging from 2 to 13 years in age. Oh, the awful trial on one’s nerves, going up to the pump on the hill, carrying water down the hill, putting it in the boiler on the kitchen stove, and lifting it down on the floor.

“The water isn’t fit for all of them, so back up the hill I trudge, carrying more water for the wash boiler for more baths.”

Then there is a woman in Maryland discovered by the Rural Engineering specialists of the Bureau of Public Roads, U.S. Department of Agriculture, who walked a distance of 440 miles a year—equal to the distance between Chicago and Omaha—carrying water from the pump to the house. There is yet work to be done in emancipating the American farm wife from her slavery to the water bucket.

Yates Hawkins of Shelby Has Grand Champion Heifer, 1952

From the October 1952 issue of Extension Farm-News, published by the Agricultural Extension Service, State College of Agriculture and Engineering, Raleigh

A North Carolinian, Yates G. Hawkins of Route 3, Shelby, exhibited the Grand Champion heifer in the Junior Show at the Atlantic Rural Exposition in Richmond, Va., last month.

The heifer, Basil Sybil Marina, a registered Jersey, placed second in the Junior Cattle Show at the North Carolina State Fair last year.

Her sire, Magnolia Basil Prince, was one of the outstanding proven sires used in artificial breeding by the American Breeders Service at Asheville. Hawkins procured his prize-winning Jersey heifer in 1950 through the county-wide Cleveland FFA calf chain.

Preparing Caswell County's Display for the State Fair, 1951

Alleghany County's Home Canning Booth at the State Fair, 1954

Alleghany Home Demonstration members display their wares in their county's booth at the State Fair in 1954. Notice all the ribbons hanging from award winning canned fruits and vegetables.

Junior Vegetable Growers Association Elects June Simpson President, 1952

From the October 1952 issue of Extension Farm-News, published by the Agricultural Extension Service, State College of Agriculture and Engineering, Raleigh

Twenty-five persons attended a meeting in Charlotte late in August to organize a local unit of the National Junior Vegetable Growers Associations. Officers elected with June Simpson, president; Deloria McCorkle, vice-president; Millie Morris, secretary; and Barbara Davis, treasurer.

The adult advisory committee, headed by Home Agent Helen John Wright of Mecklenburg County, includes Anna Lee Waddell, assistant Union County home agent; Ray Kiser, assistant Mecklenburg County farm agent; Conrad Furr, owner of Furr’s Seed Store; and Zeb Strawn, president of Citizens Bank.

H.M. Covington, Extension horticultural specialist, attended the session and spoke to the group on the NJVGA program.

Yates Mill County Park, Wake County

This flour bag is part of a display at Historic Yates Mill County Park in Wake County.

The restored mill offers a variety of educational programs. For more information, see www.wakegov.com/parks/yatesmill.

The park includes pleasant walking trails.

You'll probably want to avoid the snake habitats. I know I avoided them!

Cabarrus County Extension Homemakers Quilting, 1950s

Extension Homemakers in Cabarrus County get together to complete quilts. 

This picture was taken in the 1950s. You can see aprons on the ladies sitting closest to the camera. Many women wore aprons all day long, not just when working at the stove. It was part of a homemaker’s “uniform.” And if company showed up at the door, a woman would quickly change to a clean apron before answering.

You can see a second set of quilters in the adjoining room.

Extension Homemaker clubs made quilts to use at home but they also earned quite a bit of money each year by raffling off homemade quilts. The money was raised to help send local children to college and to support groups like the public library, schools, and volunteer fire departments. 

Nash County Curb Market, 1946

Homemade Cakes Sell Well at Curb Markets, 1936

The Woman’s Touch or What Club Work Means to N.C. Farm Women” by Jane S. McKimmon in the October, 1936, Carolina Co-Operator

Twenty per cent of sales made on the farm women’s markets of North Carolina are from homemade cakes and the sum total realized from these sales in 1935 was $45,786. Certain women stand out as cake makers and have captured must of the town patronage.

Cakes have a real individuality which is easily recognized by the buyers. They may all be made by the same recipe but each artist gives her own particular touch to her products which makes it stand out from the crowd and brings the well-pleased customer to her again and again.

An agricultural economist once asked me why it was that women buyers seemed to pass up standardized Western hams in a grocery store and select the far less attractive looking home-cured ones. My explanation was that all good housekeepers preferred a ham cured by a well-tried formula which means good seasoning and that particular gastronomic touch which some people know how to give. There is a recognized standard of excellence in much of our home-cured meat but individuality is just as desirable in the finished product as in the expression of any other type of art which we see around us.

Mrs. Jodie Shipp of Durham County tells something of the work entailed in marketing her products. “To sell on the Curb Market,” she said, “is not the easiest job in the world and it makes Friday the busiest day of all the week. The vegetables have to be gathered, graded, and cleaned. Chickens must be dressed; butter moulded; and cakes and bread baked.

“That means rising at 3 a.m. on Saturday morning, cooking breakfast and lunch all at one time, washing dishes, making beds, hurriedly packing the market produce, and gathering flowers and perishable vegetables and fruits in order that the customer may receive them fresh with morning dew.

“The farm woman rushes to the market building and spends one-half hour setting up her table of produce, weighs her chickens, pins the price and the seller’s name on them, and weighs or measures her vegetables.

“Then she’s ready for the buyers, and for the next three hours a steady stream of customers pours into the market building in Durham and each farm woman tries to be the most tactful and the most attractive seller there that she may sell her produce.

“By 11 or 12 o’clock the marketer returns to her home, tired and worn out, but with a very happy feeling that she has done her best in providing funds for better living conditions in her home.

“The fact that the Durham Home Demonstration Curb Market in five years has climbed from the bottom to the second highest round of the ladder is something of which every curb market seller and customer is justly proud. The total sales for 1935 in Durham amounted to $27,000.”

Fall Fashion Notes from Evelyn Tobey, 1936

“Fall Fashion Notes from Evelyn Tobey” was on the same page as Jane McKimmon’s column for home demonstration women in the October 1936 issue of the Carolina Co-Operator. I wonder what the average housewife thought the following advice.

Wear shortish skirts and make the degree of the shortness depend on the circumference of our hibs and your ankles.

Wear one-inch heels for sports and two-inch for street dress. For evening wear a heel-less to spike-heel slipper according to your costume.

Get into your dresses up to your neck this fall, they are going to wear chokers.

Have a jacket for every dress and have it as short as is becoming to your style of beauty.

Wear your gloves every time you step outside your door.

Wear your corset in the house as well as on the street. If you die for it, better die in good form.

Don’t wear a bouquet unless it is just the thing in just that spot on your costume.

Make up to bring out your own beauty but be artful about it.

For hair arrangement, expose some if not all you’re your ears, for as collars and bust lines went up, so did the hair. No ear muffs this winter.

Plucked eyebrows have gone out of style. 

Home Demonstration Groups Lending Books, Selling at Curb Markets, and Home Canning, 1938

“Timely News Items” by Jane S. McKimmon, state Home Demonstration Agent and Assistant Director of Extension, as published in the October 1938 issue of the Carolina Co-operator

Feeding the Book Hungry

The State Library Commission is using every means to promote county libraries and helps struggling counties by sending shipments of books to the home agent’s office or other convenient places, and these are carried out to clubs at their monthly meetings by agent and local home demonstration librarian.

Women eagerly select books, usually bringing a list which the families have asked for. Sometimes the club room in a community is kept open two afternoons a week and interested club women agree to be responsible for the exchange of books.

With Farm Women’s Markets

Caldwell County’s market sales for last month were $936.92 for a total of four Saturdays.

The Rocky Mount curb market, the largest farm woman’s market in North Carolina, reported sales in a recent month to be $3,733.08.

In the Mecklenburg market the necessary equipment for candling eggs has been ordered for the convenience of women who have eggs for sale.

Flowers constitute a big market item in Wilson County. The buyers think they are hard to resist.

Jelly Is Indispensable

If you have some bottled juice from the late scuppernong crop, why not make some jelly and try selling it in the nearest town? Select jelly glasses not over 4 or 6 ounces in size and make your product known for its attractive appearance and delicious flavor. If you will pour the jelly in even smaller glasses, you can provide most acceptable Christmas gifts for sale or to present to your friends during the holiday season.

NC Ministers and Deacons at Yanceyville Church, 1940

These wonderful photos were taken in October, 1940, in the vicinity of Yanceyville, N.C. An outdoor picnic was held during the noon intermission of a meeting of ministers and deacons of the Negro church. Marion Post Wolcott, a WPA photographer, took these photos, which are online at http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2011661539/.

Rowan County Extension Homemakers' Achievement Day, 1986

This photo was printed in the Salisbury Post on Oct. 3, 1963, (Post Staff Photo by Barringer). Elected to the Rowan County Home Demonstration Clubs Council are (left to right) Mrs. Elmer B. Lagg, president; Mrs. J.W. Shulenburger, vice-president; and Mrs. W.C. Smith, secretary. Mrs. Herbert Baker, treasurer, is not in the picture.

 Rowan County Extension Homemakers Reach Out in 1986

Salisbury Civic Center

October 21, 1986

We welcome you to the annual Achievement Day of the Rowan County Extension Homemakers Association. We serve as the volunteer arm of the Agricultural Extension Service with the purpose of education through programs.

Presently we have 27 clubs with 545 members in Rowan County. This total membership includes 56 new members gained since January 1, 1986. Our clubs are open to all persons regardless of race, color or national origin.

In addition to our program of work achievements, which will be presented today, we participate din the Home and Living Show, March 22 and 23, sponsored by the Agricultural Extension Service, with demonstrations, crafts displays, membership recruitment, and desserts.

The Executive Board has initiated and participated in the following:

--A joint club yard sale, April 19, netted $563.05.

--Mayfest, May 3, consisted of wok cookery demonstrations and membership recruitment.

--Open House-Balloon Launch on May 7, featured pasta-making demonstration, exhibits, a slide presentation depicting the four facets of the Agricultural Extension Service, and the proclamation of National Extension Homemakers Week in Rowan County by Hall Steel, Chairman of the Board of County Commissioners. Miss Bessie Julian, 93, was a charter member of this organization, which began as a tomato club.

--Encouraged an overview study of the U.S. Constitution. This idea was brought back from the National Extension Homemakers conference in 1984 in Louisville, Kentucky. Booklets consisting of 150 questions and answers were distributed compliments of Congressman Bill Hefner, Eighth Congressional District.

--Appointed Carolyn Lampron as coordinator of the newly organized Extension Homemakers Chorus of Rowan County. Jean Poe serves as pianist. Their first performance is today.

--Our letter writing campaign to congressmen in support of restoring the total Extension budget.

--Our membership recruitment committee has been organized with overall co-chairmen and seven division chairmen. This was encouraged by N.C. State President Mozelle Parker, whose major goal in 1986 is to gain new members in all 100 counties in North Carolina.

It has been a joy serving as Extension Homemakers County Council President, 1985-1986. We invite you to join this organization and benefit from the vast knowledge it provides for the citizens of Salisbury and Rowan County.

      --Mary Glover Aycoth, Rowan County Council Extension Homemakers

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1986 Council Officers

President Mrs. Mary Glover Aycoth

First Vice President Mrs. Ann Miller

Second Vice President Mrs. Margaret Shulenburger

Recording Secretary Ms. Rose Holshouser

Corresponding Secretary Mrs. Ruby Young

Treasurer Mrs. Ruby Young

Advisor Mrs. Nora Sifford

50-Year Members and 50-Year Clubs Recognized

Cress Club 50-Year Members: Isaline Cress Morgan, Velma Cress Shoe

Elm Grove Club: Lola Bost, Mattie Brown, Leona Taylor

Enon Club: Frankie Barber, Mary Chandler, Ruth Kincaid

Fink & Yost Club: Anna Funderburk, Loma Funderburk, Wilma Funderburk

Granite Quarry Club: Annie Baker, Jeannette Dunlap

Liberty Club: Emma Arey, Kathleen Eagle, Margaret Shipton, Bertha Trexler

Locke Club: Pauline Shives

Patterson Club: Edna Houck, Myrtle Yost, Eleanor B. Wilson, Mary F. Wilson

St. Paul’s Club: Pearl Casper, Ruth Earnhardt, Lottie Honbarger, Annie Julian, Bessie Julian (79-year member), Margie Page, Sadie Ritchie

50-Year Clubs: Cress Club, Enon Club, Fink & Yost Club, Patterson Club

1986 Outstanding Extension Homemaker Recognition

Rowan County VEEP Winner: Rose Holshouser

State A&P Leadership Award Winner: Rose Holshouser

State CVU Certificate Awardees: Judith Austin, Becky Cozart, Ruby Parris

1986 Perfect Attendance for 25 Years or More

Cleveland Club: Mildred Moore

Ellis Club: Mrs. Henry L. Shuping (33 years)

Five Forks Club: Essie Kirk (34 years)

Franklin Club: Mary Owen (40 years)

Granite Quarry Club: Annie Bell Baker (42 years), Tryphenia Beatty, Genevia Davis, Jeannette Dunlap (42 years), Merle Lowe, Mrs. Wilbert Martin, Mary Ponds, Juanita Sheck, Loraine Strawder (42 years), Bertha Turner (37 years)

St. Paul’s Club: Ruth Earnhardt (31 years)

1986 Reading Certificates

Faith Club: Polly Deal

Elm Grove Club: Joyce Coley

St. Paul’s Club: Mary Ruth Bernhardt and Mrs. Carl Julian

Extension Homemakers Gave Support To:

4-H Clothing Camp Scholarships ($65)

American Cancer Society Fund-Raising Campaign ($1,022)

Rowan Extension Homemaker Scholarship ($300)

HOSPICE

Mission Air

Adopt-a-Student Program

Shut-ins in various communities

Christmas Happiness Fund

Dr. Eloise Cofer Family Living Lecture Fund

Favors for Nursing Homes

Pennies for Friendship

Nickels for National

Expanded Food & Nutrition Education Program

Clothing for the needy

Financial support for needy families in various communities

Rowan County Department of Social Services special projects

Veterans Administration Medical Center

Nazareth Children’s Home

Financial support to local Volunteer Fire Departments

CROP Walk

Food baskets for the needy

Needlework and Shoe Fund Project

The Department of Social Services extends special thanks to all clubs who participated in this project for needy children. Some 323 articles, blankets, and garments were constructed by the following clubs: Corriher, Cress, E. Spencer, Ellis, Elm Grove, Enon, Faith, Fink & Yost, Gold Hill, Liberty, Locke, Mt. Ulla, Rockcut, Southside, St. Paul’s, and Union Grove.

St. Paul’s Club contributed the most items (47). The Department of Social Services Shoe Fund contributions were $263.42.

Volunteer Service to Veterans

173 Extension Homemakers volunteers over 847 hours at the Veterans Administration Medical Center during 1986. Volunteer services were rendered through projects of chapel flowers by 17 clubs on 20 Sundays, sewing for patients with 18 clubs sewing 26 times; patient birthday parties by 26 clubs; water therapy assistance by 3 volunteers; $400 donated to fund special activities; and 138 Extension Homemakers gave 549 hours of service as occasional patient volunteers.

A special thank you to Mrs. Flossie Reeves who has represented the Extension Homemakers as their VAVS Coordinator of Activities at the VA Medical Center. VAVS Advisory Committee Representatives were Mrs. Reeves, Gerri Butler and Ruby Parris.

1986 Cultural Arts Exhibit Contest Winners

County Winners:

Fiber Arts, Dot Williams, Faith Club

Quilting: Myrtle Briggs, Rockcut Club

Handcrafted Toy: Polly Deal, Faith/Organ Club

Basketry: Polly Deal

Weaving: Dot Williams, Faith Club

Creative Writing, Poetry: Addie Miller, Enon Club

Needle Crafts: Myrtle Briggs, Rockcut Club

District Winners:

Quilting: Myrtle Briggs

Needle Crafts: Myrtle Briggs

Creative Writing, Poetry, Addie Miller

1986 Rowan County Extension Homemakers Scholarship Winner

The local $300 scholarship was awarded to Samuel B. Goodman, who is attending the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

Special Club Highlights; Service to the Community

Corriher Club sold greeting cards and food flavoring to raise money to provide magazine subscriptions for a rest home.

Cress Club visited and shared sunshine baskets, fruit baskets, and cards with community shut-ins and sick persons.

Elm Grove Club contributed financially to community families with traumatic illnesses and delivered 16 boxes of homemade cookies to shut-ins.

Enon Club assisted at the VA Medical Center with craft classes. Shirley Roseman purchased 30 pairs of shoes and donated them to DSS needy children project. Addie Miller coordinated the out-of-state county tour to George. Club members toured Thyatira Presbyterian Church.

Faith Club gave memorials to community churches in memory of deceased club members, gave food baskets during the holidays to needy families, and the club held two auctions and sold cards as fund raisers.

Fink & Yost Club contributed to a community center patient.

Franklin Club donated money to help a needy family, worked with the Lions Club in an all-day feed in May as a community project; held a yard sale and paper drive to raise money; gave a birthday party for nursing home patients, and raised money to supply draperies for the Franklin Community Building.

Granite Quarry Club hosted three birthday parties for Nazareth Children’s Home youths, hosted youths in their homes during the holidays, and contributed clothing to the Nazareth Home Thrifty Shop.

Happy Homestead Club offers members support through “Secret Sisters”; supplies food to family if a member is hospitalized; and gives baby showers and bridal showers for members.

Liberty Club visited shut-ins and fixed “sunshine baskets and held “show and tell” crafts.

Locke Club used their club savings and contributed to church and special funds and will continue to decorate the historical Hall House at Christmas.

Mt. Ulla Club remembered deceased members with two local church memorials, prepared and served two meals to Mt. Ulla Lions Club as a fund-raising project for the club and the Mt. Ulla Volunteer Fire Department.

Organ Club donated financially to community people with family illnesses, gave clothing to a child, made a quilt and sold it, donated to a child with leukemia, collected and sold newspapers as a fund raiser; and club members toured Old Salem in Winston-Salem.

Rolling Hills club donated toiletries to two nursing homes, gave Easter goodies to community youths, hosted trips to Myrtle Beach and Pottery, held a club Halloween party, and for certain events presents a member “Courtesy Award.”

St. Paul’s Club members assisted with services at the Lutheran Home.

Special Community Recognition

Cleveland Club: Katherine Carr was honored by Toastmasters’ Club with Governor’s Award for Excellence, inducted into their Hall of Fame and awarded a Certificate of Appreciation for Outstanding Support of Toastmasters’ International in Communication and Leadership. She also received the Helen Yandell Award for Outstanding President in District 37 in Toastmasters.

Cress Club: Mrs. Blayne Morgan received VIP Award for volunteer work at Knollwood Elementary School. Mrs. Wayne Pegram, Chairman of Adopt-a-School at China Grove Elementary School, received an award for volunteer work.

Franklin Club: Mrs. Thelma Morgan was honored by Duke Power Company Retirees Club as having the most years worked by a woman with Duke Power (47 years continuous service).

Granite Quarry Club: Mary Ponds was named Mother of the Year in Granite Quarry community.

Locke Club: Bonnie Goodnight was recognized as “Woman of the Church.”

St. Paul’s Club: Catherine Safrit was recognized for her work with the literacy program.

Union Grove Club: Gerri Butler received a plaque from Military Order of the Cootie, Honor Legion of Veterans of Foreign Wars, for being outstanding president in North Carolina.

And finally, the Rowan County Extension Homemakers expressed appreciation to Miss Amelia J. Watts and Mrs. Lillie R. Tunstall, Home Economics Agents; and Ms. De Fisher, County Extension Secretary.

Carrie Underwood Meacomes Has Been Extension Homemaker for 73 Years, 1992

“73 Years as Member” in the October-December 1992 issue of Tar Heel Homemakers

Mrs. Carrie Underwood Meacomes has been an Extension Homemaker for 73 years, having joined Bailey Home Demonstration Club as a charter member in 1919. She has held all offices and served on many committees in the club and on some county committees.

Mrs. Meacomes helped start the Bailey School Library and lunchroom, and planted trees on the campus. She helped raise money for the home demonstration clubhouse, gave materials for it, and helped put on suppers to maintain it.

During World War I, she helped make layettes and pack kits to send overseas. During World War II she served as air raid warden.

Mrs. Meacomes is also a charter member of the Virginia Dare Book Club and was active in it for 61 years. She is now an honorary member but still enjoys reading.

As a member of Bailey Baptist Church, Mrs. Meacomes was a Sunday School teacher for 35 years, clerk for 15 years, WMU president three times, Sunday School superintendent, deaconess, and served in many other positions. She still attends worship services, Sunday School and Baptist Women meetings regularly.

Mrs. Meacomes is noted for her talent in needlework, flower arranging and using seeds, shells and other natural materials in designing plaques and household items. She also writes beautiful poetry.

For many years, she has been a very successful gardener of flowers, shrubbery, and vegetables; experimenting with new varieties and canning and freezing for the family’s needs. She continues to share the fruits of her toil with friends and neighbors.

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