"Milam 4-H to Celebrate Milestones" by Jay Ermis

Milam 4-H to Celebrate Milestones

by Jay Ermis - Telegram Staff Writer

Temple Daily Telegram - October 8, 2012

CAMERON - The Milam County 4-H will celebrate two milestones Tuesday - the 100-year

anniversary of the start of Tomato Clubs or Girls 4-H Clubs in Texas and the hiring of

the state’s first home demonstration agent, Edna Westbrook Trigg, a native of Milam

County.

The forming of the first Tomato Club and Triggs’ hiring both occurred in Milam County

in 1912, then spread throughout the state and across the nation.

The program will begin at 10:40 a.m. Tuesday during the Commissioners Court meeting in

the county courthouse with a recognition proclamation to be signed by the five-member

court.

A welcome by County Judge Dave Barkemeyer, 4-H pledge and motto, and introduction of

Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service family and consumer sciences agents who have

served Milam County will follow.

Barkemeyer said he was proud the county would be “a part of this historical moment in

Texas 4-H” and that he was glad Milam County was hosting the state celebration of this

centennial milestone.

“Texas A&M AgriLife Extension programming in 4-H, family and consumer sciences and

agriculture and natural resources is just as important now in 2012 as it was 100 years

ago,” Barkemeyer said.

The program will conclude after comments by honored guests, including AgriLife

Extension, state 4-H officials and Dr. W. Cone Johnson, Trigg’s grandson.

A Tomato Club exhibit and refreshments will be available at the Milam County Museum

after the program’s conclusion around noon. The museum is across the street from the

courthouse.

Scheduled to be on hand are new Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Director Dr. Douglas

Steele; Dr. Chris Boleman, 4-H and Youth Development Program director; Marsha Farney,

State Board of Education District 10 and State Rep.-elect for District 20.

Cheryl Walker, the 40th AgriLife Extension family and consumer sciences agent for Milam

County, said they received 250 recipes using tomatoes as the main ingredient and they

will be available in a booklet for a minimal donation.

Walker said the primary responsibility of Trigg, who began her career in 1912 as a home

demonstration agent for Milam County, was to coordinate, organize and supervise Girls’

Tomato Clubs through-out the county. She also gave demonstrations on the production and

canning of tomatoes.

Trigg died in 1946 after a long career with what is now the Texas A&M AgriLife

Extension Service. In October 1970, ceremonies at the Milam County Courthouse dedicated

a historical marker commemorating her as the first home demonstration agent. In

December 1991, she was inducted into America’s Agricultural Hall of Fame.

According to state historical association documents, initial Tomato Club efforts were

so successful that in the summer of 1912 the Milam County Girls’ Tomato Clubs

coordinated with area Boys’ Corn Clubs - both precursors to present-day 4-H clubs.

The groups presented the first-ever show in Texas to exhibit girls’ agricultural

products, which included tin cans and glass jars of tomatoes and peaches. The show drew

more than 3,000 people in Milano and the following year the girls exhibited their

agricultural products at the state fair in Dallas as well as at the Waco Cotton Palace.

“The Tomato Clubs, as well as the many home demonstration clubs and similar groups that

later evolved throughout the state, helped primarily rural Texans by providing

information and advice on vegetable gardening, canning, sewing, cooking, household

management, family health, poultry-raising and other aspects of daily life,” Walker

said.

Along with their educational mission, these clubs also provided a social outlet for

women in rural areas, Walker said. Early home demonstration agents were often viewed as

community role models due to their knowledge and self-sufficiency.

Walker said Trigg and her successors played a key role in helping make Milam County

agriculturally self-sufficient by working with area farmers. Trigg also was identified

as a proponent of education, frequently encouraging Tomato Club members to start

college savings funds and look for scholarship opportunities at colleges and

universities.

In his foreword to the Tomato Recipe Booklet, Johnson wrote about Trigg: “Occasionally,

she allowed me to go along in her Chevy coupe as she visited country families

throughout Denton County.

“In these travels, Nana taught me, by example, basic rules of kindness, common decency,

manners, and respect for all other human beings, no matter their circumstance. She no

doubt ingrained these same lessons in all those with whom she came in contact,

including her students in the Tomato Clubs and it is hoped they passed her lessons on

to their children.”

He said his grandmother would be “amazed at the breadth of outreach the Milam County

Agrilife Extension Service successfully manages today.”

“The mission, however, remains the same,” he wrote. “Service to the community, helping

residents make their lives better, healthier and more productive.”

“Today, AgriLife Extension family and consumer sciences agents do some of the same

things Edna Trigg did in her day, including working with youth, giving food

preservation programs and nutrition education,” Walker said. “But now we also provide

information and instruction on child vehicle passenger safety instruction, parenting,

financial literacy and a variety of other family-centered topics.”

Walker said that although AgriLife Extension has changed and expanded over the years,

the profession will always owe a great debt to Trigg and the work she started with the

first Girls’ Tomato Clubs in Milam County.

“She set the bar pretty high for other home demonstration agents and those of us in the

profession who came after them,” Walker said.

For information, contact the Milam County Extension Office at 254-697-7045 or visit

milam.agrilife.org.

jermis@tdtnews.com

All articles from the Temple Daily Telegram are published with the permission of the
Temple Daily Telegram.
All credit for this article goes to
Jay Ermis and the Temple Daily Telegram