In this Friday Footnote we start exploring agricultural education in Maryland. We are going to visit the first high school to teach agriculture in Maryland. The reason for focusing on this school is based on four unique aspects (or oddities) of the school. Over the next several weeks we will learn about the Maryland Agricultural Education Foundation, the FFA Fellows program at the University of Maryland, plus more interesting Maryland agricultural education history. So let’s get started. But first a little quiz:
- True or False – The first high school in Maryland to teach agriculture was Calvert High School.
- True or False. – The agriculture teacher at the first high school in Maryland to teach agriculture was actually employed by the United States Department of Agriculture.
- True or False – Female students were not allowed to enroll in the agricultural classes.
- True or False – News articles about the school appearing in the local newspaper were often written by the students attending the school.
Oddity #1. Calvert High School or Calvert Agricultural High School
In the early 1900s in Maryland, there were two different views about the teaching of agriculture. One group thought agriculture should be taught as part of the typical high school curriculum. The opposing view was that agricultural high schools should be created to serve a geographic district, and the curriculum should emphasize agriculture, home economics and the mechanical arts. Both ideas had support and both ideas were implemented. In 1906 the State Board of Education approved agriculture as an elective course in county high schools.
According to Stimson and Lathrop in the History of Agricultural Education of Less Than College Grade in the United States {1942, p. 172) “The first course in agriculture in Maryland was introduced by the Calvert High School in Cecil County in 1905 or 1906. This was a regular public high school which added agriculture to the curriculum: thus the initial step had been made which marked the way for many followers in subsequent years.”
The problem with the above quote is that it is not accurate. The school was not named Calvert High School; it was the Calvert Agricultural High School. It was a brand new school; thus it would be hard to add agriculture to the existing curriculum as the sentence implies. It opened in 1906.
Perhaps the reason for the mistake was the Calvert Agricultural High School building burned to the ground in 1935. A new school was constructed on the site. After the school burnt down, references to the Calvert Agricultural High School disappear from the literature but there are numerous references to Calvert High School. It appears agricultural was dropped from the name of the high school around this time.
Figure 1. The Midland Journal (Rising Sun, Maryland), September 21, 1906
Even though Stimson and Lathrop are recognized as the authors of the History of Agricultural Education of Less Than College Grade in the United States, the book is really a compilation of individual state histories written by the agricultural education leaders in each state. Over 170 individuals submitted manuscripts for the book. The chapter in the book about agricultural education in Maryland was based on two manuscripts, one of which was 22 pages long and had four different authors. The amount of space devoted to Maryland in the Stimson book was 6 ½ pages and was based on what the state leaders in Maryland had submitted. At the time the state leaders submitted their histories in the late 1930s Calvert High School was probably the name of what was originally the Calvert Agricultural High School.
Information about the Calvert Agricultural High School
In the Annual Report of the Office of Experiment Stations for 1906 (True, 1907.pp. 256-258) we learn:
Upon request of the patrons in the northern part of Cecil County, Md., for the establishment of a high school at Calvert, the Cecil County school board decided, in the summer of 1906, to establish such a school and give the course of study an agricultural trend. The school board applied to B. W. Silvester, of the Maryland Agricultural College, and to the United States Department of Agriculture for aid in organizing the school. Mr. H. O. Sampson, a graduate of the Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, who had had experience in teaching elementary agriculture in a high school in Pennsylvania, was furloughed from this Office to take charge of the school as principal and teacher of agriculture. The school was opened November 5, 1906, in a small two-room school building rented from the Society of Friends, and having an available area of about 9 acres of land adjacent to it. Thirty-eight pupils were enrolled on the first day, and the number has since grown to 51. A small recitation room has been converted into a laboratory and meagerly equipped with simple apparatus, mostly the handiwork of the principal and pupils. Here experiments in which the pupils take part are performed daily. The agricultural work is popular among the pupils and is also arousing much interest among the farmers of the county. Some of the county papers are devoting part of a column each week to the Calvert school. The principal visits other schools in the vicinity for the purpose of getting their teachers and pupils interested in agricultural subjects.
Figure 2. The Curriculum at Calvert Agricultural High School. From the Annual Report of the Office of Experiment Stations for 1907.
Oddity # 2 – Was the agriculture Teacher employed by the USDA?
In the Annual Report of the Office of Experiment Stations for 1907 (p. 241) we learn:
The small agricultural high school which was started at Calvert, Md., in the fall of 1906 with Mr. H. O. Sampson, of this Office, in charge as principal, was conducted so successfully in temporary quarters with very inadequate facilities as to result in an appropriation of $5,000 from the county for the purchase of land and the erection of a suitable building for the school.
There is a growing demand for instruction in agriculture at teachers’ institutes and summer schools for teachers. Largely as a result of the work of Mr. Sampson in the summer of 1906 in the teachers’ institutes of Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Maryland the Office received fifty-one requests for similar aid in 1907. Mr. Sampson returned to the Office in June and as soon as the institute season opened he was sent out on this work, which occupied nearly his whole time up to September 1, at which time he returned to his school in Maryland
If you are an agricultural education scholar, you will recognize the name of H. O. Sampson. Sampson served as the founding principal and agriculture teacher at the Calvert Agricultural High School.
Sampson was a graduate of Iowa Agricultural College (1903 & 1904). He then taught agriculture in the high school at Waterford, Pennsylvania between 1904 and 1906. Sampson left Waterford to work for the USDA in the Bureau of Soils (his actual title was Chief, Bureau of Soils). We don’t know how much soil work he did because Evans (1972, p. 230) states his actual job was “to promote agricultural education in high school and grade schools” He was “delegated to establish an agricultural high school in an abandoned Friends School at Calvert, Maryland.” True (1929, p. 351), stated that Sampson was “furloughed” from the USDA to establish the high school. He taught at the high school for two years. So the second uniqueness of the Calvert Agricultural High School was the first agriculture teacher/principal was actually employed by the USDA.
Sampson left Calvert in 1908 to become Principal of the Agricultural School of the International Correspondence Schools in Scranton, Pennsylvania. He was responsible for preparing the correspondence course in agriculture and wrote agricultural texts for worldwide distribution.
In 1915 he accepted the position of Professor of Agriculture at the Winthrop Normal College in Rockhill, South Carolina. This was a girl’s school and he prepared the ladies to teach elementary agriculture when they became teachers.
In 1918 Samson moved to New Jersey as state supervisor of agricultural education and teacher educator. His office was at Rutgers University. He remained in this position until he retired on his 71st birthday. In New Jersey he established the Young Farmers Association in 1923, a forerunner of the FFA. He was very active in agricultural education circles over the years and was a leader in the American Vocational Association. There is an FFA award today in New Jersey named after H. O. Sampson for chapter participation in career development events and there is a student H. O. Sampson award for student hands-on skill performance in CDE events.
Figure 3. H. O. Sampson
Oddity #3 Were girls allowed in agricultural classes and
Oddity #4 – Who wrote the articles in the local newspaper about the school??
The following article appeared in The Midland Journal of Rising Sun, Maryland on February 7, 1908. Read it to find the answer to the above two questions.
Figure 4. Article from The Midland Journal, February 7, 1908.
Here is what I thought was unusual. First, the writer of the column was a first year student at the Calvert Agricultural High School. How many first year agricultural students do you know who write newspaper columns?
The next oddity was the corn show had three groups of participants – farmers, male students, and female students. Since the corn show was held in February of 1908 this means the girls were growing corn in 1907. The girls also participated in the corn essay and judging contest.
A photo of agricultural students at the Calvert Agricultural High School in 1907 on a field trip to look at Yorkshire swine reveals both male and female students.
Figure 5. Image from the annual report of the USDA Office of Experiment Stations for 1907.
Concluding Remarks
There are several lessons we can learn from this Footnote. First, we learned some interesting facts about the first high school in Maryland to offer agricultural classes. Some additional lessons learned are:
Be careful in the use of AI (Artificial Intelligence). When I searched for information on Calvert Agricultural High School the AI overview said the school burned down in 1936. That was not true, the school burned down in 1935. This is the third time I have encountered bad AI information while working on the Friday Footnote. AI does not replace thinking or attention to detail.
Teachers do make a difference. H.O. Sampson got the new school off to a great start. He cared for students as evidenced by this clipping from The Midland Journal, May 10, 1907. He was willing to go the extra mile for the students.
We should welcome all students. The fact that both females and males were studying agriculture at the Calvert Agricultural High School in the early 1900s speaks volumes.
Double check the facts. I found several bits of conflicting information while writing this Footnote. Some references said the school had 9 acres, others said 14 acres. Some reports said the school would open on October 1. It opened on November 5. One source said Sparks Agricultural High School in Baltimore County which opened in 1909 was “the first vocational high school specializing in agriculture in the country.” It wasn’t. So don’t believe the first thing you read. That applies to both historical events and information today.
References
Evans. W. H. (1972, March), H.O. Samson, A Pioneer in Agricultural Education, The Agricultural Education Magazine, Volume 44, Number 9.
Stimson, R. & Lathrop, F. (1942). History of Agricultural Education of Less Than College Grade in the United States. Vocational Division Bulletin No. 217. Federal Security Agency. U. S. Government Printing Office.
True, A. C. (1907). Annual Report of the Office of Experiment Stations for 1906. Washington: Government Printing Office.
True, A. C. (1908). Annual Report of the Office of Experiment Stations for 1907. Washington: Government Printing Office.
True, A. C. (1929). A History of Agricultural Education in the United States 1785-1925. United States Department of Agriculture, Miscellaneous Publication No. 36. Washington, DC.