4-H Feature
Clover...cont. from page 15
a canning factory in every community.
The club of 19 mother-daughter teams
won state and national honors in 1916.
In 1918, fifteen State Leaders submitted entries for a 4-H pledge contest
conducted by O.H. Benson, who had
become the Leader of Boys’ and Girls’
Work in the Federal Extension Office
in Washington, D.C. Hall’s was the
winner.
In 1920 Hall left the plains of
Kansas to become the Club Agent in
Hampden County, Massachusetts. His
salary was the second highest of any
4-H worker in the country; second
only to O.H. Benson. During World
War II, a 10,500 ton cargo (Liberty)
ship was named the S.S. Otis E. Hall
in his honor by Kansas 4-H members
who had earned that privilege by selling two million dollars worth of war
bonds. Otis Hall died in 1936 at the
age of 57.
Individuals like Riley Case and
Edgar Franklin from the communities of Shipshewana and Topeka would
play a vital role in the establishment
of LaGrange County’s 4-H program.
For years Corn School had been the
place with livestock, produce, and
the items commonly associated with
the 4-H Fair were shown and judged.
Boys’ and girls’ clubs were organized
by people like Riley L. Case who was
the vocational teacher and principal at
Shipshewana High School for 13 years.
Case coordinated club activities across
the county and received no financial
compensation. In Topeka, vocational
agriculture teacher Edgar Franklin was
providing similar leadership. In Howe
it was Retha Tibbott. On August 23,
1935, a County 4-H Achievement Day
was held in Howe with awards being
handed out. The first place division
winners received 75 cents and second
place 50 cents. The county’s Cooperative Extension did not have a 4-H Club
agent until around 1942, when Mrs.
Eva Connelly, who had been active as
a volunteer club leader, was named to
pg 20 · The Hometown Treasure · August ‘12
shewana 4-H member, remembers
that position.
showing cattle behind the old
Things really began to
Lagrange High School. Bonchange when Riley Case
trager also remembers that
was named County
4-H calves would come into
Agent on July 28,
the Shipshewana Auc1937. That year,
tion, be tagged, and then
according to the annumbers would be drawn
nual report, there
to see who got which calf.
were 254 in school
Since Edgar Franklin
and 37 out of
knew the county agent
school young people
from Whitley County,
enrolled in 4-H in
many of the 4-H pigs came
LaGrange County.
from that county. Topeka
In the Shipshe area
Edgar Franklin
4-H club member Jerry
Miss Pauline Metz
Woodworth remembers
and R.D. Lutz were
that Mr. Franklin would
the leaders with 22
let the boys pick up corn
girls and 18 boys
out of his field after the
enrolled in 4-H.
harvest to feed their
Miss Lucille Peck
pigs. The boys were also
and Edgar Franklin
allowed to run a tab
were the Topeka
for feed at the Topeka
leaders. Topeka’s 4-H
Roller Mill until after
enrollment was 24
the fair when the pigs were sold.
girls and 26 boys. Edgar
In 1946, Topeka’s Bob Miller, a
Franklin was also the boys’ coordinator
sophomore in high school, showed
for the county.
Since there was no county fair dur- a Duroc barrow that earned Grand
Champion honors at the Indiana State
ing the decade of the 1940s and early
1950s, 4-H members showed their ani- Fair. The sale tied a world’s record
bringing $7 a pound on the hoof, netmals and projects at Corn School. Edting Miller a $1,890 check. “I really
gar Franklin organized lamb and hog
can’t take the credit,” says Miller. “It
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