NCSU Libraries Focus Online

Volume 23 number 3 - Spring 2003

By Michael Watts, Special Collections

In 2002 the National 4-H Club celebrated "100 Years of 4-H." North Carolina has been at the forefront of the National 4-H Program from its early years, although it is difficult to pinpoint an actual starting date or a specific place where the North Carolina movement began. The NCSU Libraries' Special Collections Department holds a significant collection of materials related to the 4-H Program, which is available for use by the public. The collection provides a comprehensive historical overview of the national 4-H movement as well as North Carolina's involvement in the program.

During the late-nineteenth century, as the American economy shifted toward an industrial base, supporters of a strong agrarian economy saw a need for a national program organized specifically for the benefit of America's rural youth. Higher wages, access to modern conveniences, and the lure of leisurely pursuits tempted many young people to leave farms for city jobs. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) cooperated with state governments to encourage young people who lived on farms and in rural communities to remain in place. A strategy was developed that promoted education and the implementation of new scientific farming methods to improve the lives of farm families.

Early in the twentieth century, the USDA formed an organization headed by Seaman A. Knapp known as the Farmers' Cooperative Demonstration Work. The organization promoted new agricultural methods among farmers and farm youth. In rural locations across the country, boys' corn clubs and livestock clubs sprang up. Competitions offering cash prizes publicly recognized successes in raising quality farm animals and producing outstanding crops. Accurate record keeping and the use of modern farming techniques were encouraged, and participants learned to make good public presentations about their projects. Out of these regional youth clubs and farm competitions, a national movement slowly evolved.

The fledgling national network of rural youth clubs encouraged boys to develop and improve skills that related to agricultural production, and it sanctioned girls' participation in club work to improve their abilities in the domestic arts. In 1909 the North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts (now NC State University) entered into an agreement with the USDA to work cooperatively with the federal government to provide demonstration programs in agriculture. This was the first such agreement in the country. The result was the formation of the Extension Department at the college. North Carolina preceded the rest of the nation in formalizing the ties among the state’s higher educational system, agricultural extension work, and rural youth.

That same year, Ira O. Schaub became the Extension Department's boys' corn club agent. Schaub later directed the North Carolina Agricultural Extension Service between 1924 and 1950. He also held positions as dean of the School of Agriculture at the college from 1926 to 1945 and as director of the North Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station from 1937 to 1940. In 1911 the Extension Department hired Jane S. McKimmon to organize girls' club work. McKimmon later became assistant director of the North Carolina Agricultural Extension Service from 1924 to 1946. In 1945 she wrote a book recounting her 4-H and cooperative extension experiences entitled When We Are Green, We Grow. McKimmon's outstanding service in extension education was honored in 1976, with the opening of NC State University's Jane S. McKimmon Extension Education Center.

The Smith-Lever Act of 1914 brought state agricultural extension work into the administrative realm of federal land-grant colleges, and the Cooperative Extension Service was established. Many programs provided by the Farmers' Cooperative Demonstration organization became part of the Cooperative Extension Service. The new extension service assimilated the rural youth clubs as part of its outreach efforts to create the National 4-H Club.

North Carolina's rural population led the nation in answering the call for participation in the 4-H program. This distinction can be credited to North Carolina because of the state's early development of an official agricultural demonstration system that involved rural youth. Additionally, there was the dynamic leadership of one amazing individual.

In 1922 Lera Rhinehart Harrill became the 4-H Club agent for Buncombe County, North Carolina. In 1926 Harrill was appointed as North Carolina's state 4-H club leader. Known as "Mr. 4-H," Harrill's forty-year tenure with North Carolina 4-H saw the organization's annual membership increase from 20,000 to 160,000, the largest 4-H enrollment of any state in the nation. Harrill provided leadership to more than three million club members during his service with the state 4-H program. Throughout his career, he stressed the citizenship and character-building aspects of 4-H, as well as the development of agricultural skills. He would often say to his staff, "It's a great thing to produce a grand champion 4-H steer, but unless you do something at the same time to produce a grand champion boy or girl, you have failed in your greatest responsibility."

That spirit served as the force behind the success of the 4-H program in North Carolina, and it drives the organization to this day. Materials documenting the history of the national 4-H movement, North Carolina’s 4-H program, and the personal papers of Harrill (MC 17) and Schaub (MC 21) are available for research in the Libraries' Special Collections Department.