Mt. Mourne Extension Homemakers Hear History of Iredell Clubs, 1984

From the January-March 1984 issue of Tar Heel Homemaker

Iredell Clubs Organized in 1914

Way back in 1914, Miss Cora Bell organized three Home Demonstration Clubs in Iredell County. Fifteen members of the Mt. Mourne Extension Homemakers heard a history of their association at a luncheon meeting at Julia’s Talley House in Troutman.

Annie Honeycutt, president, greeted the members and collected the gifts for the club’s adopted daughter, Frances Connelly at Western Carolina Center, which included a watch, pantsuit and other personal gifts. They also planned to remember a person in the Mt. Mourne community.

After the luncheon, Stella Woodfin and Colleen Davis had the devotions and presented corsages to the five members who are shut in and unable to attend the meetings. They are Connie Ashley Gordon, Mrs. Fred Sherrill, Mary Bell Caldwell and Margaret Burney.

Miss Plato Kelly presented a history of the Mt. Mourne Club, stating that Miss Cora Bell, now deceased, won the first certificate ever awarded to a North Carolinian for service as a neighborhood 4-H leader and then she organized a Tomato Club for young girls, teaching them to plant and can foods, make jellies and preserves.

In 1914, she organized three home demonstration clubs, the first in Iredell County—Mt. Mourne, Shepherd and Linwood. Her next few summers were spent working for the State Extension Service, assisting county agents in organizing new clubs in other counties.

This was the beginning of the Extension Homemakers Association.

In 1924, the first clubhouse was built in Iredell County by the club members and their husbands.