Officially the nickname for Illinois is the Prairie State. I like to think of Illinois as the Corn Club State because corn clubs originated in Illinois. The first corn club was sponsored by a Farmers Institute in Macoupin County, Illinois in 1900. See the Friday Footnote about Boy’s Corn Clubs (11/15/2019) to learn about how they started and operated.
Schools soon followed in sponsoring corn clubs starting in 1902 in Illinois and in Ohio. In this Footnote we will focus on corn clubs in the rural schools of Illinois and the school superintendent who played a major role in spreading the gospel of the clubs (more about corn clubs in Ohio when we get to “O”).
The Problem with Rural Education in the Early 1900s
In the early 1900s schooling in America could be described as dismal, boring and out-of-touch with the real world. Education was characterized by “book learning,” there was a zealous emphasis on classical subjects such as Latin and Greek, and rote memorization was the mode of instruction. What was learned was often of little value or of practical use in a rapidly developing industrial nation that still had agrarian roots.
Figure 1. Schools in the early 1900s.
Liberty Hyde Bailey, dean of agriculture at Cornell University, described the rural curriculum at the time as “The child lives in one world and goes to school in another world” (Bailey, 1904, p. 31).
To further illustrate this concept, he told of an experience in a rural New York school near Ogdensburg, New York: “The class in geography was on exhibition for there were visitors. The questions were answered quickly. ‘How far is it from Rome to Corinth?’ ‘From Rome to Constantinople?’ ‘From Paris to Rome?’ A visitor was asked if he had any questions to propound. He had one: ‘How far is it from Heuvelton to Ogdensburg?’ No one answered, yet the visitor said that none of the pupils would likely go from Rome to Constantinople, but that every one of them would go from Heuvelton to Ogdensburg” (1904, p. 34).
Bailey was not the only educator who saw how out-of-touch the American education system was with reality. O.J. Kern, Winnebago County (Illinois) superintendent of schools, asked: “Why not a course of training in the country school for the country boy which shall teach him more about the country life about him? Along with his study of the kangaroo, the bamboo and cockatoo, why not study the animals of the farm …” (Kern, 1903, p. 39).
So Who is O. J. Kern and What Did He Do?
Olly Jasper (O. J.) Kern was born on January 1, 1861 on a farm in Moultrie County, Illinois (Lindvall, 2008). Kern attended the county schools in Moultrie County and then spent four years at DePauw College in nearby Indiana.
Kern started his career in education as a principal of a four-room school in Cherry Valley, Illinois in 1888. In 1891 he relocated to Rockford and taught at the high school until 1898. In 1898 he ran for the position of County School Superintendent in Winnebago County. This position was an elected position and had been held by a career politician. Kern won the election. He was re-elected to the position in 1902, 1908 and 1912,
Because of his outstanding work as county school superintendent and his writings he soon developed a national reputation. In 1913 he was appointed to a faculty position at the University of California, Berkley and remained there until he retired in 1930. In addition to teaching he also wrote books focused on rural education.
Figure 2. O. J. Kern (photo from the Winnebago County Schools Annual Report)
As the Winnebago County school superintendent Kern published annual reports about the school work in the county. The annual reports were typically 50 to 75 pages in length and were published in booklet form with various chapters and numerous photographs. Each year the annual report had a different title (See Figure 3). These reports were widely disseminated.
Figure 3. Covers of Winnebago County Schools Annual Reports, 1902-1905
While the annual reports contain financial information and statistics about enrollments, books in the schools’ libraries, etc. there was also news about new initiatives such as the establishment of the Winnebago County Farmer Boys’ Experiment Club in the 1902 annual report (more about that later). There was also a lengthy discussion about involving the boys in the Farmers Institutes, school gardens, school consolidation, school beautification, and an educational excursion by train to the University of Illinois.
The 1903 annual report contained the quote from Kern about the kangaroos, bamboo and cockatoos cited earlier. The entire two paragraphs that contains that quote is as follows (Kern, 1903, p. 39):
This brief paper is a plea for a more practical education for the farmer boy. It is not the belief or wish of the writer that we should educate country boys to be farmers merely, any more than we should educate boys to be blacksmiths, carpenters or electricians. We should aim to train boys to be men in the highest sense of the term.
But what not a course of training in the country school for the country boy which shall teach him more about the country life around him. Along with his study of the kangaroo, the bamboo and cockatoo, why not study the animals on the farm and a proper feeding standard for them; the care and composition of the soil of the farm; the improvement of types of grains and vegetables; and the protection of birds beneficial to the farmer? Instead of all the boys’ arithmetic being devoted to problems, more or less theoretical, on banking, stocks, exchange, brokerage, allegation and partnership, why not some practical problems with reference to farm economics? For the boys who will remain on the farm (and eighty-five per cent perhaps will) the course of instruction should be such as will be an inspiration and help in their future life work.
It was also announced in the 1903 report that because of the success of the boys’ club work, a Girl’s Home Culture Club was established with a membership of 216 girls.
In 1906 Ginn & Company published Kern’s book Among Country Schools. This book contains 15 chapters and, in the words of Kern, is a practical treatise on interesting the farm child through farm topics (p. vii). Chapter VII of this book provides details about “A Farmer Boy’s Experiment Club.” The book is available online.
Figure 4. Kern’s Among Country Schools published by Ginn & Co. in 1906
In Chapter VII (p. 131) we learned that the Winnebago Farmer Boys’ Experiment Club was formed on February 22, 1902 in Rockford at the County School Superintendent’s office. There were 37 charter members. By 1906 the numbers had grown to 500 boys between the ages of nine and twenty-one. Kern states (p. 131) “there is no elaborate constitution and by-laws to tell they boys why they are boys and what boys are for.”
The work of the club in 1902 focused primarily on growing corn. Each year thereafter more boys grew corn and exhibited their ten best ears at the county Farmers Institute corn show.
The reason it was called the Experiment Club instead of a corn club was because the boys investigated a variety of agricultural topics in addition to growing corn. The investigations included testing the vitality of various seeds, conducting field work on oat smut, and growing sugar beets in addition to corn.
Kern concludes Chapter VII by providing examples of similar club activities being conducted in Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Iowa.
Figure 5. One of the illustrations in Among Country Schools. A prize winning corn crop from a member of the Winnebago Farmer Boys’ Experiment Club
The Growth of Corn Clubs
During the first two decades of the 1900s corn clubs were sprouting up (pun intended) all across Illinois and in other states. Crosby (1904) reported that Johnson County, Illinois had 525 boys in corn clubs in 1904. In Christian County, Illinois 400 boys entered the corn growing contest in 1907 (The Moline Daily Dispatch, July 20, 1907). Davis (1912) reported that 28 states had boys’ corn clubs with a total membership of 150,000 boys in 1909.
An article in The True Republican of Sycamore, Illinois (Feb. 20, 1907) concluded that corn clubs “are highly educational and tie the boys to the farm as nothing else will.” See Figure 6.
Figure 6. The True Republican of Sycamore, Illinois (Feb. 20, 1907)
Cats Don’t Count, Must Have a Pocket Knife and No Profane Language is Allowed
Even though O. J, Kern was against elaborate rules and regulations for the clubs, not all educators concurred. The Coles County (Illinois) educational committee issued a booklet in 1914 containing the by-laws, constitution and rules governing membership and contest for the Boys’ Corn club and Girls’ Tomato club.
For the boys they had to be at least ten years old and not more than eighteen years of age and must be a resident of Coles County. The boys had to raise one acre of corn. Additionally all members of the club:
- Shall own and keep in good order a pocket knife.
- Shall own one farm animal. If fowls are selected, a trio is to count as one animal. If a dog is selected it must be pure blooded. Cats don’t count.
- Must learn to identify by October 1 of the current year not fewer than five insects harmful to crops and five noxious weeds.
- No member of the club shall be guilty of abusing or neglecting any animal under his charge or killing or maiming any song bird or inflicting any unnecessary pain on any animal.
- No member of the club shall be guilty of using profane or unseemly language, or of using tobacco in any form.
There were no such restrictions for the Girls’ Tomato Club members other than the same age categories and agreeing to raise 1/20th of an acre of tomatoes.
Figure 7. The Journal Gazette (Mattoon), April 14, 1914.
Concluding Remarks
W. B. Otwell concluded that Boys’ Corn clubs (1910):
Keeps boys in school longer; gives teachers greater influence and power; convinces farmers that school people want to and can be useful to the farming interests, and tends to make the school the center of community life; stirs farmers to greater endeavor and to better methods of farming, and increases general interest in agriculture.
Corn Clubs (and Tomato Clubs) contributed greatly to making schools more interesting and educational in the early 1900s just like FFA and 4-H do today. The corn clubs created a demand for more education in agriculture which led to the development and teaching of agriculture at the high school level. Next week we will learn more about the development and growth of agricultural education in Illinois.
It is only proper that O. J. Kern was inducted into the National 4-H Hall of Fame in 2002.
References
Annual Reports of the Superintendent of Schools for Winnebago County
- https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b2908921&seq=7 (1902-1907)
- https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112108187003&seq=9 (1906-1911)
- https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112108186989&seq=5 (1911-1915)
Bailey, L. H. (1904, March). An Appeal to the Teachers of New York State. Supplement to Home Nature Study Course (pamphlet). Ithaca: Cornell University.
Davis, Benjamin (1912). Agricultural Education in the Public Schools: A study of its Development with Particular Reference to the Agencies Concerned. The University of Chicago Press.
Lindvall, Robert, (2008). Nuggets of History, Vol. 46, No 1. Rockford Historical Society, Rockford, Illinois. https://www.rhsil.org/uploads/2/6/4/3/26435469/2008_-_v ol_46_-_no_1.pdf
Otwell, W. B. (1910). Otwell’s Farmer Boy, December.