Category Archives: History

The National 4-H Club Song Book

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The following story is from the National Compendium of 4-H Promotion and Visibility on the National 4-H History website at

http://4-HHistoryPreservation.com/History/4-H_Promotion/

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If the gate sign “4-H Club Member Lives Here” was one of the most popular items offered through the National 4-H Supply Service, the National 4-H Club Song Book was in that same category. 4-H songs had traditionally been offered through the annual 4-H Handy Books issued by the National Committee on Boys and Girls Club Work since the mid-1920s, however only included the words to the songs. Now, in 1929, the National Committee issued the first National 4-H Song Book that also included the music to the songs as well as a much broader selection.

4-H songs in this first edition included: Dreaming, Boys’ and Girls’ Clubs for Me, Bring the Good Old 4-H Sign, Club Work, Conference Song, The Country’s Faith, A Plowing Song, The 4-H Clover, 4-H Clubs for All, 4-H Will Shine, Greeting Song, Hail! Hail! The Clubs All Here, O Me! O My!, Parting Song, Song of Health, and Speed Away. A variety of other songs popular with 4-H groups were also included: Abide with Me, All Through the Night, Anvil Chorus, Billy Boy, The Boll-Weevil, All God’s Chillun Got Wings, Day is Dying in the West, Dixie, Dogie Song, Follow the Gleam, Levee Song, Oh Susanna, Old Dog Tray, and Old Zip Coon plus others. The song book was comprised of 64 pages and was an immediate hit. Through the decades several editions of the National 4-H Club Song Book were published, each just a bit better than the previous one, but probably none topped the enthusiasm of members and leaders that was garnered by that first 1929 edition.

 

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Clean-Ups, Gardens and Earth Day

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The following story is from the April 2016 issue of the 4-H History Preservation Newsletter

We’ve been celebrating Earth Day on April 22 for 46 years. For the early “Soldiers of the Soil”, April meant preparing for the growing season. The March-April 1919 magazine had many articles about the gardens and crops grown by 4-H members.

Champion tomato grower Corlis Stanbaugh of Ashland, Nebraska, was pictured in her garden holding a basket of her tomatoes. “I enjoy working in my garden and intend to have a better one next year.”

This issue also noted the meeting in March of state club leaders, assistants and some county leaders, and national leaders in Kansas City. Thirty-three northern and western states were represented. The article stated that 21,845 club projects were organized in 1918 involving 529,723 members. The value of food, feed, garment-making, handicraft and others was $6,019,092.06 produced at a cost of $2,447,313.54. They reported that 2,000,000 members were enrolled for 1919, so even larger outcomes were expected.

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Hands-on History

Growing gardens and crops has certainly changed since 1919. If you have club members who are growing crops or gardens, ask them to talk about what they’re planning to grow this season. Talk about what modern changes there have been in seed and plant varieties, planting methods, tools and equipment.

For a service project, your group can plan and then plant a garden. There may be a school that could have a vegetable garden as a project for students and source of fresh vegetables to serve in the cafeteria. You may find a space in your community or at your fairgrounds that would be perfect for a flower garden – try to plant some pollinator-attracting plants for bees, butterflies and other pollinators. Perhaps there’s an existing garden at a senior center or other site that could use some fixing up. Or, you might be able to do exactly like Raymond Search did; find a vacant lot that is littered with trash. You could also clean it up and plant a garden to help feed those less fortunate than your group. These would be great projects for Earth Day, too!

 

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Connect to 4-H History News

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The 4-H History News site has a feed set up that you can link to from your browser. In techie terms, we have an RSS feed.

When you add the 4-H History Preservation News to your favorites, your browser creates a drop-down list containing links to the 10 most recent articles that have been posted.

To set up you connection, please use the following link http://4-HHistoryPreservation.com/News/?feed=rss2

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Folks who Helped Make 4-H Great
R. A. Turner

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The following story is from the March 2016 issue of the 4-H History Preservation Newsletter

This is the ninth in the series of 10 articles, reprinted from 1962 National 4-H News, which featured people identified by Extension Service professional staff members as “folks who helped make 4-H great”.

R. A. Turner

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To witness the effect of Ray A. Turner’s work upon modern 4-H, one need only attend any meeting of an individual 4-H Club. For this pioneer of club work touched so many phases of the great youth movement that his influence is almost everywhere present in 4-H activity.

For example, the singing of a 4-H song reflects his work (with Fannie Buchanan of Iowa) in editing the first National 4-H Song Book in 1929 and his work on later revisions. Each use of the 4-H name and emblem mirrors his long-time chairmanship of the federal committee authorized to grant permission to use these Congress-controlled symbols.

Every entry in a 4-H record book has a link back through the years to his work in creating the original system of judging 4-H records at the national level. (This system has been revised and improved with time, of course.)

In fact, his role as one of the leaders in establishing the 4-H Subcommittee of the Extension Committee on Organization and Policy (ECOP) has had at least a remote influence on every policy in 4-H Club work today.

Visitors at the National 4-H Club Center in Washington, D. C. (the site of which he helped select) may stay in Turner Hall, named in his honor. Credit for today’s leadership recognition awards (Awards of the Clover) must go in great part to Turner’s leadership in their establishment.

Revealing to a study of Ray Turner’s work is the list of responsibilities he was carrying at the time of his retirement from the Federal Extension Service. His major assignment, as senior agriculturist, was to supervise 4-H activities in the Central States region (Midwest).

Some of Turner’s other tasks were: chairman of the Committee on National 4-H Contests and Awards, secretary of the 4-H History Committee, member of the Committee for the 4-H Division of the National Dairy Cattle Congress, member of the Board of Trustees of the National 4-H Club Foundation, member of the U. S. Department of Agriculture’s Safety Council, and associate chairman of National 4-H Club Camp (now National Conference). This range of activities reveals the broad influence Turner wielded on national 4-H affairs. In the Central States, he was a great help in strengthening club work, and encouraged regular meetings between state 4-H staffs.

Turner did early and diligent work in such projects as dairy, beef, conservation and tractor maintenance. In various phases of agriculture, he helped get state 4-H Club leaders together to confer on subject matter.

What kind of man was Ray Turner? Neat, even meticulous, for one thing. “His records were just wonderful,” says a co-worker on the Federal 4-H Staff, Gertrude Warren. His written records and reports were vital to the collection of 4-H history, another early Extension worked explained.

Although he was not regarded as an outstanding speaker or writer, his contemporaries assert that Turner was a great organizer and “doer.” For years he planned a regular series of 4-H music programs on a national radio network. They featured the United States Marine Band and Turner’s stories of the history of music, plus a 4-H message.

Born in Chase, Mich., on October 5, 1884, to Frank and Elizabeth Turner, the 4-H trailblazer grew up in a rural community. After receiving a Bachelor of Science degree at Michigan Agricultural College in 1909, he taught agriculture in Michigan high schools until 1918, when he became state 4-H Club leader in his native state. Six years of effective work there led to his move in 1924 to Washington, D. C., where he spent the rest of his working years.

 

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4-H Club Members in Spokane, Washington Become Radio Pioneers

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The following story is from the National Compendium of 4-H Promotion and Visibility on the National 4-H History website at

http://4-HHistoryPreservation.com/History/4-H_Promotion/

Club members from the Sunset community, Spokane County, Washington, organized the first radio club in the state with Claude Senge local leader. The Sunset Radio Club was composed of 12 members including Jack Adams, Gordon Brown, Helen Brown, Edward Gassman, Maude Hamilton, Halbert Hewett, Elsie Johnson, Jack Stainer, Harold Stoll, Martin Tuttle, and Mark Wells.

In writing about the club in the September 1922 issue of Farm Boys and Girls Leader, Mr. Senge states: “Some people think we can’t make a success of the club, but I believe that it can be put over all right. Although the club may not be a money making proposition at present, we will be able to get farm reports, weather reports and news out to our community.”

1922 seemed to be a key year for getting radio on its feet. A station in Atlanta in March of that year became the first radio station in the entire South. Operated by the Atlanta Journal, it was the first station in America to adopt a slogan – “The Voice of the South.” Station WEAF in New York City broadcasted the first radio commercial in 1922… starting the birth of commercial radio.

A complete section on the National 4-H History Preservation website is devoted to 4-H and Radio… Early Days, Growing Up Together, located at http://4-HHistoryPreservation.com/History/Radio/

 

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Thomas E. Wilson Day

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The following story is from the National Compendium of 4-H Promotion and Visibility on the National 4-H History website at

http://4-HHistoryPreservation.com/History/4-H_Promotion/

This picture really tells the story. DiAnne Mathre of Illinois and Dwight E. Nelson of Iowa, top Citizenship boy and girl at the 1949 National 4-H Congress stand with Thomas E. Wilson. The awards were made in honor of Mr. Wilson. The deep admiration of Thomas E. Wilson by the Congress delegates for four decades is reflected in the faces of these two winners.

This picture really tells the story. DiAnne Mathre of Illinois and Dwight E. Nelson of Iowa, top Citizenship boy and girl at the 1949 National 4-H Congress stand with Thomas E. Wilson. The awards were made in honor of Mr. Wilson. The deep admiration of Thomas E. Wilson by the Congress delegates for four decades is reflected in the faces of these two winners.

For tens of thousands of 4-H delegates who journeyed to Chicago for National 4-H Congress and the International Live Stock Exposition, you needn’t say anything more by way of explanation. Thomas E. Wilson Day says it all. The much anticipated annual event was unique. It was thrilling. It lived up to all expectations. And, no one enjoyed it more than Thomas E. Wilson – the man who planned it. The man who paid for it.

Thomas E. Wilson Day actually started before National 4-H Congress. The very first one – held by happenstance – occurred on December 6, 1916 during the International Live Stock Exposition – the largest livestock show in the world, held annually at the Chicago Union Stockyards. During that year’s Exposition Thomas E. Wilson had come to view the cattle. He owned one of the top herds of Shorthorns in the country. He happened to see a group of club boys examining the exhibits and stopped to talk to them. He saw that they were keenly interested in what they were viewing. Years later, Wilson recalled, “I thought perhaps I could help them in some way.” He started that very day by inviting the 11 boys and their leader to lunch with him.

Little did he anticipate that these few boys and their leader, breaking bread with him over lunch, would grow to an annual event with well over 2,000 in attendance and continue for over 40 years. So who was Thomas E. Wilson? In 1917 he was hired to take over the management of a failing meat packing company in Chicago, which was subsequently named after him, making Wilson and Company the third largest meat packing company in the country. In 1926 he created one of the most recognizable brand names in the world, known as Wilson Sporting Goods. He served as President and Chairman of the Board of Wilson and Company for 35 years. He was one of a small group of businessmen who created the National Committee on Boys and Girls Club Work (forerunner to National 4-H Council) in 1921 and served as the National Committee’s president for 34 years, from 1924 to 1958, the year he died. He was one of the greatest friends in the long 4-H history.

The first Thomas E. Wilson events were very low key. The January 1919 issue of “The Wilsonian,” the Wilson & Co. employee newsletter, reports that 76 boys and girls from Oklahoma, Mississippi, Indiana and Wisconsin were guests of Wilson and Co. on December 4, 1918 to celebrate their success in winning trips to th International Live Stock Exposition. “Mr. Wilson was host to the boys and girls at a luncheon in the company’s restaurant. Many of the youthful livestock raisers were attending the convention at the expense of the packing company. The boys and girls were taken through the various departments of the packing plant and were told of methods of handling food products. They were interested in noting the slaughter, dressing, chilling, cutting and shipping of beef. When Mr. Wilson explained to them the different cuts of beef and told them how certain breeds of animals produced certain grades of beef, they listened attentively and made many notes.”

By 1921 National 4-H Club Congress was established, held at the same time as the International Live Stock Exposition, and Thos. E. Wilson Day became a key event of the Club Congress. Mr. Wilson thrilled in being the special host to these boys and girls from across America and he wanted to give them new experiences for them to remember for many years to come. The dissertations on meat packing evolved in a Thos. E. Wilson Day of tours and a huge banquet, music and entertainment, and was especially noted for its guest appearances — people like Explorer Admiral Richard E. Byrd, Amelia Earhart, Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox, Chicago Bears Quarterback Johnny Lujack, professional golfer and Olympic gold medalist in track and field Babe Didrickson Zaharias, Hollywood stars Dennis Day and James Cagney and others. One of the highlights of the 1948 Thos. E. Wilson Day party was the first national preview of Walt Disney’s new motion picture, “So Dear to My Heart” with the personal appearance of the boy star, Bobby Driscoll. In later years an impressive Thos. E. Wilson Day printed program was distributed. Several copies of these have been digitized and are in the Print archives on the National 4-H History Preservation website.

 

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Canning Girls Head for France

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The following story is from the National Compendium of 4-H Promotion and Visibility on the National 4-H History website at

http://4-HHistoryPreservation.com/History/4-H_Promotion/

In 1922 Guy Noble, director, National Committee on Boys and Girls Club Work, and Bernice Carter Davis, educational director of the Hazel-Atlas Glass Company, arranged a trip to France for the national champion canners of the United States, the expenses of the trip to be donated by the American Committee for Devastated France, a committee headed by Anne Morgan, sister of J. Pierpont Morgan.

Five sectional contests were set up, and the first and second place winning teams in each section were to compete at the International Live Stock Exposition as part of the 1922 National 4-H Congress. Out of the 10 finalists, the first and second place teams would be sent to France.

The nationwide canning demonstration contest was held in the old International building at the end of the cattle barn. Only a board partition separated the demonstrators from the cattle. Despite their surroundings, the contestants, dressed in plain cotton uniforms, worked skillfully at tables, canning one fruit by either hot water or steam bath, and one vegetable by either hot water or steam pressure. The roving public, strolling past this spectacle of intent industry, noting the array of foods, kettles, and cookers, could hardly have suspected that this was a part of a nationwide system of practical education. To them, it must have seemed to be an advertising stunt. But the girls were eager to compete for the prize – a two months’ trip to Europe. The winning Iowa and Colorado teams toured France in June and July, 1923, giving demonstrations of their skills, attending French schools of home economics, and sightseeing. Their trip, which was highly publicized, did much to interest Europe in the new kind of youth Extension education being conducted in the United States.

Bound for Europe! In 1923, the Iowa and Colorado canning teams won trips to Europe. Pictured with the group and their chaperones is Secretary of Agriculture Henry C. Wallace. This photograph appeared on page 183 of "The 4-H Story" by Franklin Reck.

Bound for Europe! In 1923, the Iowa and Colorado canning teams won trips to Europe. Pictured with the group and their chaperones is Secretary of Agriculture Henry C. Wallace.
This photograph appeared on page 183 of “The 4-H Story” by Franklin Reck.


 

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Early Motion Pictures in 4-H Club Work

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The following story is from the National Compendium of 4-H Promotion and Visibility on the National 4-H History website at

http://4-HHistoryPreservation.com/History/4-H_Promotion/


In Louisiana, club work was promoted by one of the earliest known instances of the use of motion pictures. In Baton Rouge, the enterprising E. S. Richardson, who had succeeded V. L. Roy as state club leader, braved the office of Thomas D. Boyd, president of Louisiana State, with an idea.

At that time – 1914 – there were few gas buggies in Baton Rouge. President Boyd had recently taken a trip by auto to Shreveport, and the journey, interrupted by tire changes and mechanical troubles, had taken three days. As a result, the president took a dim view of the future of the automobile age.

To the president, Richardson proposed a novel and untried scheme involving extensive use of an auto. He wanted to rig a generator to the engine of a flivver. The generator would provide current to operate a motion picture machine and lantern slide projector. With this outfit, plus a couple of shovels to dig the car out of the mud, he proposed to travel the gravel and gumbo roads of the state, bringing pictures of club work to one-room schools. Much to his surprise, the president gave his assent, no doubt with certain mental reservations.

Richardson bought his car, dynamo, and projection equipment. With the help of Dean W. T. Atkinson of the college of engineering, he perfected the device, adding that marvel of modern inventions, an electric stove, with which to give cooking demonstrations in the schools.

Bravely the visual-education automobile set out on its journey with a young photographer named Jasper Ewing at the wheel. Arriving at a country school, Ewing and Richardson, with the help of the local teacher and eager students – many of whom had never seen a motion picture – took the dynamo from the car and staked it firmly to the ground with long metal pins. They jacked up the rear wheels and slung a belt drive between generator pulley and axe.

This is one of the first-known visual education trucks. It was used in Louisiana to bring the story of club work to rural schools. The Model T engine ran a dynamo that generated current for the movie machine. This photograph appeared on page 130 of "The 4-H Story" by Franklin Reck.

This is one of the first-known visual education trucks. It was used in Louisiana to bring the story of club work to rural schools. The Model T engine ran a dynamo that generated current for the movie machine.
This photograph appeared on page 130 of “The 4-H Story” by Franklin Reck.

Meanwhile, inside the school, others were hanging heavy curtains over the windows to keep out the light. Ewing then set up his movie projector and screen, and presently the hushed and awed youngsters were seeing with their own eyes the miracle of motion pictures.

The pioneering venture in visual education was a success from the start. “Louisiana School Work” reported in 1915 that “This contrivance combines two of the latest inventions – namely, the moving picture machine and the automobile.”

As for results: “During the first seven months of 1915, the Junior Extension Service of the Louisiana State University visited 140 schools in 17 parishes and rendered programs with autostereopticon and moving picture machine to an estimated attendance of 23,340 school children, school patrons, and farmers. In addition to educational movies, there were shown at each school stereopticon slides depicting the various phases of corn, pig, poultry and canning club work.

 

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4-H Council’s Board Visits The White House

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The following story is from the National Compendium of 4-H Promotion and Visibility on the National 4-H History website at

http://4-HHistoryPreservation.com/History/4-H_Promotion/


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The annual board meeting of National 4-H Council in 1984 was a special day with multiple highlights. Harold A. Poling, executive vice president, North American Automotive Operations, Ford Motor Company, was elected the new chairman of the board of trustees of National 4-H Council on May 31, 1984. Laurie Thomas, president, Amoco Oil Company, was elected a new vice chairman.

The major highlight of the day occurred when the entire board went to the White House for a session with the honorary chairman of National 4-H Council, President Ronald Reagan. The President told the group: “Today’s 4-H is built on the experience of an impressive past. I am proud to commend the large numbers of volunteers who are involved in the 4-H program and committed to its goals. Their efforts serve as an inspiring display of the American spirit.”

Council’s new chairman lived with his family in Virginia during most of his childhood and participated in 4-H there. Harold Poling not only was a 4-H member, but also a winner as part of the first place demonstration team at the National 4-H Dairy Show in 1940. During the board meeting he relived that experience when Tom Tuton, vice president, sales, Elgin Watch International, Inc., presented him with a special 4-H gold watch to replace one he had won 44 years previously at the dairy show. In reminiscing about that experience, Poling recalled that it was the first time he had traveled alone, out of state. Staying in a large hotel in Harrisburg was an experience of a lifetime for himself and Lester Harris, his teammate. The two-hour winning demonstration given by the two boys was titled “Making American Cheese on the Farm.” Poling recalled how impressed he was with the hospitality of the two donor companies involved, the Elgin Watch Company and Kraft Cheese Company.

 

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4-H History Preservation Newsletter
April 2016

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It’s April Already!

For some that means sunny spring is well underway; for others it’s time for one last snow storm; for still others, it’s the proverbial month of showers which bring May flowers. Whichever it is for you climatologically, it’s another busy 4-H month; another month when 4-H history is being made and celebrated.

First Woman’s World’s Fair

In 1925, 4-H girls exhibited ideal (for the time) standards of home decoration at this first of four-only women’s world-wide expositions, intended to showcase skills and empower women. 4-H girls did both.


April 22 is Earth Day

What better way to celebrate Earth Day 2016 than to start a garden, either productive, beautiful, or both. That’s this month’s “Hands-on-History” activity.


Jmaes Cagney loved 4-H

That’s just one of the new stories highlighted from the 4-H Promotion and Visibility Compendium on the 4-H History Website.


April 20, 1970…

…was an important and long-awaited day for 4-H. Mr. J. C. Penney, Tricia Nixon, Art Linkletter and National Conference delegates helped mark the meaningful occasion. Any guesses?>


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Tricia Nixon and Art Linkletter share podium.


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Secretary of Agriculture, Clifford Harding, J.C. Penney and Janice Glover, 4-H’er from NY share groundbreaking duty.



Who Made 4-H Great?

This month we learn about a man who had a big impact on many basics of the local 4-H Club program. And his records have helped many historians along the way.


4-H Novels

The impact, challenges, successes, and fun of 4-H are recorded throughout literature, whether academic or recreational. Here’s a list of novels written about 4-H – just the titles we’ve been able to uncover.


Whether the weather…

…is warming you in sunshine, dousing you in rain, or freezing you in snow, stay focused on the coming May flowers – and the next issue of the National 4-H History Newsletter. Whether with sunglasses, umbrellas or ear muffs, enjoy this issue.