USA > Kentucky > Madison County > Glimpses of historic Madison County, Kentucky > Part 22
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Once each week Exchange members meet, usually over a light lunch and discuss educational welfare that is beneficial to the com- munity, the nation and our people. The Exchange Club of Rich- mond has sponsored many worthwhile projects for individuals, par- ticularly the needy .- By Exchangite Ed Wayman.
THE RICHMOND KIWANIS CLUB
The Richmond Kiwanis Club is a local unit of Kiwanis Inter- national, an organization observing its fortieth anniversary in 1955
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and embracing 4000 clubs and 250,000 members in the towns and cities of the United States and Canada. Richmond Kiwanis was sponsored by the Berea Kiwanis Club. It held its first, or organizational, meeting in January, 1946, and six weeks later, March 12, received its charter at a dinner meeting in the Glyndon Hotel attended by many delegates from other Kiwanis clubs in this area and addressed by the Honorable Eldon S. Dummitt, Attorney Gen- eral for Kentucky.
The first president of the club was Guthrie L. Borders. Other presidents have been Dr. D. Thomas Ferrell, Ramon E. Black, Wil- liam J. Stocker, Louis H. Pigg, Dean W. Gatwood, A. M. Starkey, Dr. Porter Richmond, Dr. Max E. Blue, and H. A. Grundler. Guthrie L. Borders has also served as lieutenant governor of division six in the Kentucky-Tennessee District of the Kiwanis organization; this division is a regional group of clubs in the several towns and counties surrounding and including Richmond.
The Kiwanis Club meets once a week in a dinner meeting the year round. It is governed by a board of directors of seven elected and several ex-official members, who meet once a month. Its work is carried out largely through a number of appointive standing com- mittees, among the most important of which are those of Under- privileged Children, Boys and Girls' Work, Public Affairs, Agricul- ture, and the Support of Churches.
Funds are raised for civic and welfare enterprises, for national organization needs, and for sending delegates to international and regional conventions. Initiation fees and semi-annual dues amount to something like $400 to $500 a year. Fund-raising programs and projects are carried out from time to time. The club has raised money by sponsoring such community entertainment as a home- talent play, a circus, and magician shows; and by publishing for the past three years, on National Kids' Day in September, a special tabloid supplement to the Richmond Register, featuring the activi- ties and needs of children within the community. These projects have netted all together about $2000.
Richmond Kiwanis has shared with other civic clubs and organizations the support and sponsorship of a variety of city-wide drives and programs in health, recreation, and artistic and religious events. With other clubs it has honored achievement of many kinds, especially in connection with Scouting and farm youth organiza- tions.
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In its own specialized work, Kiwanis spends extensively for needy families and children, furnishing clothing to school children, sometimes food, and on occasion clinical and medical assistance. It has recently been giving annually a picture show to the children of the town and to selected groups, a trip to see a big-league base- ball game. It has for the past two years given citizenship trophies to students selected from the six high schools of the town and county, and has awarded tuition scholarships for the freshman year at Eastern Kentucky State College to a graduate selected from one of the six high schools.
The weekly programs of the club offer a degree of adult education in the form of addresses and films-and occasionally artistic, musical, or dramatic performance-on a variety of economic, politi- cal, civic, social, and religious problems and topics. The recreational and social needs of the club are considered in the planning of ladies' night programs, picnics, and ball games with other Kiwanis clubs from neighboring towns or with other civic clubs in Richmond.
Membership in the club is by invitation. In its first nine years ap- proximately eighty professional and business men, representing perhaps twenty-five separate professional and business areas, have been members. Several new members are gained each year and several old ones lost, as a result of the shifting tides and demands in the business and professional world. The active membership of the Richmond Kiwanis Club has ranged steadily between twenty and thirty members at any one time since its beginning. In 1955 about half of its twenty-six members have held membership in the club for five years or more .- By W. L. Keene.
MADISON COUNTY LIONS
The Lions Club, the world's largest service club, located in sixty-seven countries or regions throughout the globe, with more than a half million members, has two local clubs in Madison County, one at Richmond and the other at Berea.
The Richmond Club was organized in 1931 and since then has been an outstanding service club. About ten years later, the Club at Berea was organized. It was sponsored by the Richmond Lions Club and has outgrown its sponsor.
The two clubs have approximately one hundred members, have furnished three governors of District 43Y; The late John McKinzie
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of Richmond; Dr. W. J. Moore, Dean of Eastern State College; Dr. D. B. Settles, Optometrists at Berea. Also one International Director, Red Hukle, of Lexington, Kentucky, formerly a member of the Berea Lions Club.
Both clubs have sponsored various movements for civic improve- ment of which the most noteworthy have been the Horseshow, an Agriculture Fair, and Homecoming Festival. The Richmond Club started and sponsored an Agriculture Fair for approximately ten years at which time it was taken over by the Board of Trade. The Horseshow was taken over by a group of citizens who formed a non-profit corporation and have purchased grounds, built a splendid building, and have a nice arena for showing horses.
Berea is fortunate in having the largest number of Radio Artist of any place in the Country. The Lions Club has capitalized on this situation by sponsoring a Home-Coming Festival with its main attraction, the return of such Radio Stars as John Lair, Bradley Kincaid, Red Foley, Ernie Lee, Jimmie Skinner, Billy Bieth Wil- liams, Roland Gaines, Bill Haley, Hazel Haley, Glenn Miller, and the Coon Creek Girls.
Both clubs have as their main charity project the furnishing of eye glasses for those who need glasses and are in need of assistance in purchasing them. This work is primarily among school children. The two clubs spend approximately $2,000 per year for eye glasses and the members give a lot of time in raising money for charities and in supervising its expenditure .-- By a Richmond Lion.
The Berea Lions Club has been active in supplying some of the needs of the city schools. In 1948 they purchased seats for the first grade room at a cost of $434.25. They also provided the necessary equipment for furnishing the home economics kitchen of the high school. They are generous with the youth of the community, con- tributing to the Boy Scout banquet, sending scouts to summer camp, and giving financial aid to the Teen-Age Club .- Berea Citizen Anniversary Number, June 30, 1949.
THE BEREA KIWANIS CLUB
The Berea Kiwanis Club was organized in 1922 with thirty-six members. Their first emphasis was on making good roads. Three hundred fifty of their citizens joined them in a road building cam- paign which resulted in the construction of seven miles of the
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Scaffold Cane Road. The local Kiwanis were instrumental in raising $40,000 for this project. They initiated a town playground move- ment program. In cooperation with the farmers they purchased ten pure bred bulls to improve the dairy stock of the community. They have an annual Farmers-Kiwanis dinner which contributes to the cooperative spirit of the two groups .- Berea Citizen Anniversary, June 30, 1949.
TELFORD COMMUNITY CENTER
On June 26, 1937, Telford Community Center came into being as a corporation devoted to "civic, religious, charitable and social" activities. Its incorporators were H. Bennett Farris, Burton Roberts, A. R. Denny, A. L. Lassiter, T. H. Collins, Joseph R. Walker, H. L. Donovan, F. N. Tinder and W. F. O'Donnell, all prominent in the religious, educational and business life of the city of Richmond. The Center was named in honor of R. L. Telford, deceased, an outstanding minister of the town.
Certainly there was need for such an institution as the depression had hit Richmond very hard and there was much poverty and want among many of the citizens. And so on July 10, 1937, the corpora- tion purchased a large house and plot of ground on the corner of Hallie Irvine Street and Hillsdale Avenue and began to renovate it. It was a slow process since the money was derived solely from private contribution but by early 1938 the Center was opened under the direction of Mrs. Effie Brown. The response was very good and dozens of women from under-privileged homes came to sew and do other work for which they received clothes for themselves and their families. The children of the neighborhood, too, found in the Center a clean and decent place in which to play. Non-denomina- tional religious services and Sunday school classes were also held at the Center. When World War II came there was less pressing need for the Center but it continued to operate, particularly as a sewing center for the women.
After being closed for several years the Center was reopened in 1950 but public support was not forth-coming and in 1953 it was forced to close. In early 1954, under the inspired leadership of Mrs. W. R. Shackelford, sufficient funds were raised to again open the Center under the able direction of Mrs. C. L. Hurst. The Center continues to draw more and more children, often forty or more at a
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time, for such recreation as ping pong, jig-saw puzzles, singing, skip the rope, softball, and many, many other games. Considering its limited budget the Center is doing yeoman service, particularly for the young people of the area .- By John Bayer.
THE 4-H CLUB
The 4-H Club is the largest organization of rural boys and girls in the world, with nearly 2 million members in the United States. The purpose of the 4-H Club is to train and develop boys and girls in citizenship, leadership, and in the sciences of farming and home- making.
Membership is entirely voluntary and open to boys and girls 10 through 20 years of age. There are no dues or fees, the require- ment for membership being that each member carry an individual project.
This program is directed by the co-operative effort of the U. S. Department of Agriculture and the State Land Grant Colleges. These are represented locally by the County Agricultural and Home Agents who direct the work in the counties.
This task would be impossible for the agents, usually two and in some cases three to a county, without the help of local leaders. These are men and women in the communities and counties who are willing to contribute time to those young people to instruct and guide them in their 4-H work. They serve voluntarily, their only pay being the satisfaction of having helped these young folks de- velop into better citizens and better trained farmers and home- makers. Parents are very important members of the team working with 4-H club members. Without their co-operation and support 4-H club work would be impossible. They must help provide facilities and materials for their sons and daughters, offer encourage- ment and assume a large part of the responsibility for teaching these young folks.
There are many different activities used by the 4-H club for the training of boys and girls. The first of these in importance is the project. This is a definite enterprise selected by the boy or girl and their parents. Examples are the growing of tobacco, corn, home gardens, feeding a pig or calf, raising chickens, making a dress or other garments, canning, room improvement and learning better ways to prepare foods along with studying nutrition.
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Clubs which elect officers and carry on meetings are organized in the schools and communities. This trains members in correct ways of conducting meetings and gives them practice in performing before groups as a program given by the members is usually a part of the meeting.
Other activities include demonstrations, public speaking, judging, camps, and project exhibits.
The 4-H emblem is the 4 leaf clover with an H on each leaf. The H's stand for Head, Heart, Hands and Health. The 4-H pledge is:
I Pledge my Head to clearer thinking,
My Heart to greater loyalty, My Hands to larger service, My Health to better living,
for my club, my community, and my country!
The colors are green and white. The motto is, "To Make the Best Better" and the slogan is "Learn by Doing."
Four-H Club work as we know it today is the outgrowth of more than 50 years of thought and effort on the part of men and women in all parts of the United States. Very early in this century, some workers started organizing Agricultural Clubs among boys to demonstrate new and improved methods of farming. This was found to be very effective since these boys were easier in new methods than were their fathers. It was not long after these clubs for boys were started until similar girls clubs were organized.
Club work started in Kentucky in 1909 in Fayette County. Professor George Roberts organized some of the first corn clubs to demonstrate improved methods of growing corn at that early date.
The passing of the Smith-Lever Act by the Congress in 1914 pro- vided a permanent basis for the establishment of the Extension Service. This put 4-H Club work on a permanent basis. The rapid growth of youth work in Kentucky was responsible for the setting up of a youth department at the University in 1917. In 1930 the name "4-H Club" was officially adopted and now this is one of the largest and most important sections of the Kentucky Agricultural Extension Service.
Records in the County Agent's office at Richmond show that T. H. Collins had a boys' corn club organized in Madison County in 1915. These records also show that R. F. Spence, located at
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Berea College reported that same year boys' poultry, pig, potato, and corn clubs and girls' canning clubs as being organized. Thesc records also show that Mr. Spence had similar clubs organized the previous year.
Records for the years between 1915 and the coming of the present Agent, J. Lester Miller in 1929 are incomplete. It was with the appointment of Mr. Miller that 4-H work, as we know it today, was started with headquarters at the Richmond Office. These first community clubs were organized in the fall of 1929. These records show some of the first 4-H leaders were the late Mary Nelson ( Mrs. W. H.) Cosby, Mrs. A. C. Sharp, Mrs. Robert Cox, Miss Ethel Turner and Miss Verna Dunbar. Some of the first clubs organized were Waco, Union City, White Hall, Red House and Kirksville.
The following exerpts from a report of her 4-H leadership written by Mrs. Cosby, mentioned above, gives a picture of the beginning of 4-H Club work as organized by community clubs:
"In the fall of 1929 when Extension work in Madison County was just a few months old, our County Agent, Mr. Miller, in trying to get 4-H Club work organized in the schools was in need of a leader to take charge at Red House School. I was recommended to him as a possible leader. He paid me a visit and discussed 4-H work. I had never heard of 4-H Club and at first thought that I could never do it. I was living on a creek road that was impossible to get over lots of times."
She goes on to state that as he explained the program more fully she finally agreed, as it was her daughter's first year at school and oftentimes they had to take her. Soon thereafter she and some other leaders met with Miss Edith Lacy of the 4-H Club Department, who gave them their project literature and explained project work more fully.
Of her first project she says, "I had only high school girls that year and even thought the first project or first unit of sewing was simple, the girls were interested and did the work quickly. We also took the second unit and the girls took more interest than before because they were really making a dress. Of course the interest the girls were taking made it easier for me to go ahead even though it meant a trip down the creek road, most of the time walking through ice and snow, always once a week. By Spring our county was able to have a Home Demonstration Agent and Miss Hazel
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Graves was sent to us. So here came Mr. Miller back up the creek road bringing Miss Graves to see me." That year foods work was added to her Red House Club. In addition to her 4-H work, she helped Miss Graves organize the first Homemakers Club in the county.
During her period of leadership, she trained 3 county winning demonstration teams, 2 of which won the District Contest and one which won Ist place in the Clothing Demonstration Division at Junior Week. She had a county Style Revue winner who received a blue award in the State Contest and a State Champion Foods Judge who received a trip to Chicago. This Champion Foods Judge was her daughter, Louise, whom she had trained. Mrs. Cosby served as a 4-H leader until her death in 1951.
At the present writing (1955) Mrs. A. C. Sharp, who started as a 4-H Club leader in 1930 at Union City has the longest continuous record of 4-H leadership of anyone in the County. She has been a leader for the entire 25 years. Her Club, The Union City Hustlers, has probably won the county club championship more than any other one club. During her tenure of service as a 4-H leader, 4 of her club girls, including her daughter, have won trips to Chicago. Two of the boys on the 1947 livestock judging team that represented Kentucky in Chicago started their 4-H work under her leadership. She was also active in the promotion of the county 4-H band and has trained a number of demonstration teams and judges and has been a member of the County 4-H Leaders Council since it was formed.
Mrs. Cox and Miss Turner while not having served continuously since those first years are at present leaders in the Kirksville Club. Their first 4-H Club, which they helped organize at White Hall won the first County Club Championship. Joyce Cotton, one of the Chicago trip winners was from the White Hall Club.
In searching through these reports the writer found that 37 mem- bers and 7 leaders attended a 4-H Camp held in Lexington in 1930. Also that year a fat stock judging team went to the State Fair. High man in the county contest was Carl Todd who placed third in indi- vidual scoring in the state contest. Carl also fed one of the first 4-H Club beef calves in the county. This year Miss Hazel Graves was ap- pointed Home Demonstration Agent and took over the girls work.
In 1931 the first girls 4-H exhibit was held. This event, now known as the county 4-H Rally has grown until in 1955 there were
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just a few over 200 girls in the County Style Revue. Also in 1931 4-H members exhibited at a fair where a 4-H baby beef show and sale were held. This event continues to be one of the outstand- ing 4-H events in the county.
In 1933 the county judging team composed of Ed Congleton, Tom Jenkins, Eugene Todd and Tom Moberly won the state contest and judged in the National in Chicago. Since that time two other teams have won the right to represent Kentucky in the National, The 1947 team was composed of Joe Turpin, Alex Herndon, John M. Park, Jr., and Gordon Rupard, Jr. The other team, in 1954, was composed of Billy Parks, Charley Curtis, Joe Hagan and Ellis Helm.
In 1934 Elizabeth Cox won the State Style Revue which gave her a trip to National Club Congress in Chicago. Other winners of trips to this National 4-H meeting have been Martha Hamilton Sharp, Joyce Cotton, Elizabeth Ann Marshall, Louise Cosby, Rosa Lee Dunbar, Lucy Mae Griggs, Maude Ella Parke, Ollie Wilson and Thomas Cole Phelps. Ollie Wilson also won a trip to National 4-H Camp held in Washington, D.C.
Some other Madison County 4-H members winning high awards are as follows: State Champion Demonstration teams; Alva Hale and Harris Park, Jr. in 1941, Charles Gibson and Leon Duncan in 1942 and Thomas Burnham III and Donald Combs in 1946. Gold Medal Campers; Andrew Rucker, Alva Hale, Jr., John M. Park, Jr., and Walker Million Parke.
John M. Park, Jr., and Walker Million Parke were each elected President of the Kentucky Association of 4-H Clubs in 1946 and 1953 respectively and each won the state meat animal award spon- sored by Wilson and Company.
In the early forties, the county had a 4-H Club band organized and led by Assistant County Agent Maurice Drake. This was the only 4-H Band in Kentucky. The Band played not only in the county but was invited to other counties to play at fairs and played at the Kentucky State Fair in 1941. The band was discontinued during the early part of the war, when Drake was called into service.
From the beginning of Club work by Mr. Miller in the fall of 1929 the work has grown from 112 boys and girls completing projects that first year until 1954, when 550 boys and girls completed club work. Approximately 70 adult leaders assist each year with the work. In addition to farm and home projects there are many
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activities in which these boys and girls may participate. These include club meetings, rallies, demonstrations, public speaking, judging, project shows, contour cultivation, tractor driving contests, state 4-H week, and district camp, rally and achievement days.
During this time there have been several assistant agents who worked with 4-H clubs and home agents. The tenure for these have varied from a few months to several years. Even with all these changes of personnel the 4-H program has made a steady growth. This progress has been made through the untiring efforts of some very fine volunteer 4-H club leaders and the continued interest of Mr. Miller in the youth of the county.
There are a number of folks in the county who did 4-H work in previous years who now have sons and daughters enrolled in 4-H Clubs.
There are of course other leaders who have done work worthy of mention but in a paper of this kind it is possible to mention only a few. Hats off and a vote of thanks to these many faithful leaders and parents who have made it possible to continue 4-H Club work down through the years .- By James Thornton, Junior County Agent, Madison County.
CHAPTER XXI
Military Organizations
THE NATIONAL GUARD
The Kentucky National Guard established shortly after World War I, traces its lineage back through the Kentucky State Guard, The Kentucky State Militia, and on back to the Militia of Virginia.
To the pioneer Kentuckian, the term "Militia" meant only one thing, namely the fighting man power of the district. Nothing was implied, except that the militiaman would hazard any hardship which might confront him in fulfilling his duty to his community. From 1775 to 1850 all able-bodied men were connected with some military command. In those times every man was a soldier and was ready to respond to such call as might be made in defense of his home or in pursuit of the Indians who had invaded the district.
In this early period no distinctive uniforms appeared, in fact, adequate clothing of all kinds was lacking. Militia calls to repulse Indian raids usually required immediate response, and this meant that there was no time to permit preparation for departure other than picking up a rifle.
Daniel Boone was one of the first of these pioneers to become prominent in the military history of Madison County. Boone was the Transylvania Company's agent to mark a road through the wilderness to Kentucky and then to erect a fort. In April of 1775, the company arrived at the point later named Boonesborough in the present Madison County. Work on this Fort was begun at once and it was completed by the middle of June after several fierce Indian attacks had been withstood. The military strength of the fort was about sixty men.
Although the Kentucky County records appear to have been lost, a few documents have been preserved that concern the early organization and growth of Kentucky's Militia. Among these is the record of a commission signed by Patrick Henry, Jr., governor of Virginia, at Williamsburg on December 21, 1776. This commission names John Bowman as Colonel of the Militia of Kentucky County. Early in 1777, Daniel Boone was regularly appointed to the com- mand of the Boonesborough Fort. The ill-kept muster rolls of the
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Kentucky Militia during the revolutionary period present a very sketchy picture of the roll played by this organization during the Revolutionary War. Every Fort, however, was organized on a mili- tary basis, and these men of the Western frontier Militia were as much a part of the Revolutionary Army as those who fought at Bunker Hill or Ticonderoga.
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