In the early years of our profession, biographical sketches of the founders and leaders of agricultural education were featured in The Agricultural Education Magazine. The first leader featured was Rufus Stimson in 1929.
Over the next several decades 124 individuals were featured as leaders in the “Our Leadership in Agricultural Education” column in The Magazine. It was not hard to be identified as a leader in The Agricultural Education Magazine. Basically, a colleague or friend had to take the initiative to write such an article. There were no set criteria that had to be met for those featured. Publishing biographical sketches of the leaders was a common occurrence through the 1970s.
Scholarly, research based attempts to identify and recognize the historically significant national leaders have been made more recently. In 1985 Camp and Crunkilton attempted to identify the top 10 leaders in the profession. They conducted a Delphi study that involved purposely selected teachers, teacher educators, state supervisors and retirees. A total of 30 individuals from all parts of the country comprised the sample for this research. The following ten individuals were recognized as historically significant national leaders: Ralph Bender, Clarence Bundy, Harold Crawford, Henry Groseclose, Carsie Hammonds, H. M. Hamlin, H. N. Hunsicker, Lloyd Phipps, W. T. Spanton, and A. W. Tenney.
More recently (2010) Foor and Connors undertook to identify the pioneers in the field. They conducted an exhaustive search of the existing literature in agricultural education and then identified the individuals they deemed to have been important leaders in the profession. The researchers used their judgement to determine who should be identified. They identified five teacher educators or state supervisors (Rufus Stimson, Kary Davis, Walter French, Ashley Storm, and A. W. Nolan). They also identified four high school teachers – Ralph Condee (CA), Carl Howard (WY), Walter Newlin (IL), and Jerome Embser (IL).
Recent Friday Footnotes have focused on W. T. Spanton, Larry Case and Steve Brown. These three Missourians served as national FFA advisors.
One person who has been overlooked in all of the above efforts was Paul Chapman. He is a Missouri native and, in my opinion, deserves to be recognized as a historically significant leader in agricultural education.
Introducing Paul Chapman
Paul Wilbur Chapman was born in Brookfield (Linn County), Missouri in 1891. At the age of 14, during a school graduation exercise, Paul was involved in a discussion about “Which is the Greatest Benefit to His Country, the Warrior, the Statesman, or the Poet.” Paul advocated for the Statesman, which proved to be prophetic for him (The Brookfield Argus and the Linn County Farmer, May 13, 1905).
Chapman received a B.S in Agriculture in 1914 and a B.S. In Education in 1916; both from the University of Missouri. He received a M.S. from the University of Georgia in 1931 and a Doctor of Science degree from Clemson in 1937.
After graduating from the University of Missouri he taught science at the Macon High School. However, it appears the science he taught was agricultural science. In a letter published in the local newspaper (Macon Daily Herald, December 18, 1915) about controlling scours he signed the letter as “Instructor in Agriculture, Macon High School.”
In 1916-17 Chapman moved to Queen City where he served as school superintendent. Writing about his departure from Macon the Linn County Budget-Gazette wrote (May 12, 1916) “The position carries with it a material advance in salary and is a just recognition of the brilliant young educator.”
In 1917 Paul left Queen City to become superintendent of the New London School in Ralls County. During the summer of 1917, prior to moving to New London, he was a platform manager for the Redpath Vawter Chautauqua. At New London he was also the agriculture teacher. See Figure 1.
Figure 1. An advertisement for the New London school that appeared in the Ralls County Record on August 31, 1917.
During Paul’s first year at New London the Illinois Council of Defense called on him and his agriculture class to act as agents for supplying Illinois with good seed corn. Apparently, the Defense Council had learned that Paul required each agriculture student to grow four acres of corn and his students were also testing corn for the farmers. Because of World War I, having quality seed corn was important. The agriculture students produced 2,000 pounds of quality seed corn. It should be noted that Ralls County borders Illinois.
Figure 2. From the Weekly Kansas City Star, August 13, 1919.
Another event that occurred in 1917 was the passage of the federal Smith-Hughes Act that provided federal funds to schools for the teaching of agriculture, home economics and trades. Superintendent/Ag teacher Paul Chapman submitted a request for federal funding and was successful in securing funding. It was the first school in Missouri to receive Smith-Hughes funding. See Figure 3.
Figure 3. From the Hannibal Courier Post, February 17, 1918.
Paul was a vocal statesman for the teaching of agriculture in Missouri schools. In 1919 he wrote a lengthy article in the Missouri Farmer titled the Agricultural High School where he described the activities at New London and in other high schools in the state where vocational agriculture was being taught.
With the start of the school year in 1919 the State Board of Education in Missouri created an organizational plan for the administration of vocational education in the state. Paul Chapman was selected to be the state supervisor for vocational agriculture. With his usual work ethic and administrative skills Paul promoted the development of vocational agriculture in the state.
But Missouri was not the only state that was ramping up their efforts regarding vocational education. Georgia was looking for an experienced educator to be their state supervisor for vocational agriculture. On July 1, 1920 Paul assumed a new position in Georgia as state supervisor of agricultural education. The new position paid $1,100 more than the Missouri position. Georgia’s gain was Missouri’s loss.
The Georgia Years
Between 1920 and 1933 Paul Chapman wore numerous hats in Georgia – state supervisor of agricultural education (1920-1924) and then state director of vocational education (1925-1933). He also taught at the University of Georgia. From 1934 until 1949 he was Dean of Agriculture and later Director of Resident Instruction (1949-1953) at the University of Georgia. During his tenure as Dean he had to guide the College through the depression and World War II.
He served as national president of the American Vocational Association (now the Association for Career and Technical Education) in 1929-30. In 1934 he received an Honorary American Farmer Degree from the national FFA organization.
In 1972 Chapman was inducted into the Georgia Agricultural Hall of Fame. His citation says:
Dean Chapman was recognized throughout the South as an outstanding speaker, writer and advocate of agriculture. He earned the distinction as a leader when he led the College of Agriculture through a difficult period of adjustment and limited financial support. He was named Progressive Farmer’s Man of the Year for Georgia (Curator’s Note -He was recognized twice as Man of the Year – 1939 and 1947.) His civic involvement included serving as president of the Rotary Club, Georgia Education Association and the American Vocational Association.
He died in 1953 at the age of 62 from a heart attack.
Significant Contributions to Agricultural Education
While pages could be written about the contributions of Paul Chapman to agricultural education, we will focus on two contributions.
Books Written by Paul Chapman
In 1934 Paul wrote a novel titled The Greenhand. The novel was about a backwoods rowdy, Fred Dale, who turned his life around and developed leadership skills after enrolling in vocational agriculture classes and joining the FFA in the fictitious Cedar Falls School. In 1940 the book was made into a movie and was shown in movie theaters, gymnasiums and school auditoriums all across the south. For more details about the book and movie see this Friday Footnote published in 2018.
The book was based on a true story. Cedar Falls was actually Cedar Grove, one of the first schools in Georgia to receive Smith-Hughes funding. In 1927 two professors from the University of Georgia were attending a father and son banquet at the school when a group of rowdy youngsters interrupted the banquet. After returning to the university, the professors shared their experience with Paul Chapman. This was the inspiration behind the book. For years the book was required reading by agriculture students across the country.
Figure 4. The Greenhand.
The Greenhand was not the only book written by Paul Chapman. He was a prolific writer and authored more than 15 other books. Books written by Chapman include:
- Farm Crops (1925)
- The Young Man in Farming (1933)
- Livestock Farming (1936)
- Occupational Guidance (1937)
- Southern Crops (1939)
- Better Rural Communities (1941)
- Better Rural Careers (1941)
- Round the World with Cotton (1941)
- Better Rural Living (1942)
- Successful Farming in the South (1942)
- Chicken Raising Made Easy (1943)
- Victory Barnyard (1943)
- Southern Horticulture (1944)
- Efficient Farm Management (1948)
- Pastures: Grazing, Hay and Silage Crops (1949)
Sears Roebuck Scholarships
Perhaps the greatest contribution of Paul Chapman to the world of agricultural education was the outcome of a conversation he had with the Sears and Roebuck Agricultural Foundation Representative, J. C. Haynes. In 1923 Sears and Roebuck created an Agricultural Foundation to help the farmer “farm better, sell better, and live better.” Some years after the Foundation was created, J. C. Haynes was employed by the Foundation to work in public relations in the southern states with a mandate to determine how to help the farmers. Haynes was given a budget to help accomplish this goal.
Haynes decided to go see Dean Paul Chapman at the University of Georgia to get his advice on what could be done to help the farmers. During the meeting Chapman showed Haynes a stack of letters from boys needing financial assistance to attend college and major in agriculture. Chapman suggested that the Sears Roebuck Foundation could provide scholarships to the boys. Immediately Haynes agreed to provide scholarships to 20 of the boys. Haynes liked the idea so much that he then traveled to Florida and Tennessee to establish scholarship programs for agricultural students.
Soon the agricultural scholarship program spread across the nation. By the end of 1941, the agricultural scholarship program had spread to all 48 states, Alaska and Puerto Rico with 1,132 scholarship recipients that year. By 1948 over 7,400 agricultural scholarships had been awarded. A survey of scholarship recipients revealed (Emmert & Jeuck, 1950, p. 632) “Many had become extension service workers, many were teaching vocational agriculture, and others were farming.” Later the scholarship program was extended to students in home economics. The scholarship program ended in 1998.
Figure 5. A Sears, Roebuck and Company check to fund agriculture college scholarship at Utah State. From the Deseret News, Salt Lake City, September 21, 1940.
Concluding Remarks
During this thanksgiving season we should thank Paul Chapman for planting the seed with Sears and Roebuck to fund agricultural scholarships at agricultural colleges across the nation. Many of the scholarship recipients became agriculture teachers.
Then, as agriculture teachers, they could use the textbooks written by Paul Chapman to educate the students and they used The Greenhand book and movie to further inspire the students to become active in the FFA.
Paul Chapman, the farm boy from Missouri, was indeed one the most significant “influencers” in the history of agricultural education.
Figure 6. Paul Chapman
References
Camp, W. G. & Crunkilton, J. R. (1985). History of agricultural education in America: The great individuals and events. Journal of the American Association of Teacher Educators in Agriculture, 26(1), 57-63. DOI: 10:5032/jaate.1985.01057.
Emmet, B. & Jeuck, J (1950). Catalogues and Counters. The University of Chicago Press.
Foor, R. M. & Connors, J. J. (2010). Pioneers in an emerging field: Who were the early agricultural educators? Journal of Agricultural Education. 51(3), 23-31 DOI:10:5032/jae.2010.030123