This is a special weekend in Clarinda, Iowa,.

Friday, May 04, 2001

This is a special weekend in Clarinda, Iowa,. That’s the community of about 6,000 people 10 miles north of the Missouri state line in southwest Iowa where famous orchestra leader Alton Glenn Miller was born in 1904. However, the three-day event in Clarinda is instead based on the start of what has evolved into the 4-H movement in 1901.

The focus of this observance is based on the Goldenrod School and a rural teacher named Jessie Field.

A century ago Jessie was a 19-year-old farmer’s daughter who was the teacher at a rural school in Page County, Iowa. In the spring of 1901 she decided to create additional educational opportunities for the older students with lessons based on farming and homemaking. The names of these extracurricular activities were the &uot;Boy’s Corn Club&uot; and &uot;Girls’ Home Club.&uot; These two clubs are considered to be the start of 4-H in the nation.

Jessie evidently taught for just a year at the Goldenrod School. Then she returned to college, and later went to Montana to resume teaching.

In 1903 her brother, Henry Field of Shenandoah, persuaded his sister to be a candidate for election to the office of superintendent of schools for Page County. Despite her residence in Montana, Jessie’s work with the rural school children and the two clubs was remembered by the county’s voters or commissioners.

Jessie became the superintendent of 130 one-room rural and village schools in Page County. She traveled from school to school by horse and buggy and later by one-cylinder automobile. And everywhere she went, Jessie promoted her new club ideas for the students. The teachers and parents became enthusiastic supporters.

By 1906 the two growing clubs were involved in Junior Achievement Shows, county and state fairs and farm shows, and summer camps in the Clarinda City Park. In 1908 the Page County system was declared to be &uot;the best rural schools in America&uot; by the National Educational Bulletin. County superintendents and teachers were coming to this county to study the educational methods used by a lady who said, &uot;Everyone who tries is a winner.&uot; In 1909 the nation’s Commissioner of Education and 15 state school superintendents from the South came to Page County to study and later use Field’s ideas.

Right about here would be the place to explain the 3-H concept. About 1908 Jessie decided to combine the clubs for boys and girls. She used a three-leaf clover design as the new club’s emblem. On each leaf was an H, signifying Head, Heart and Hands. In the center was the design of an ear of corn with the word Page (for the county). On the stem was the word Iowa.

By 1912 the four-leaf clover was used as the newer emblem for Jessie’s club. Her idea was to have the fourth H represent Home. However, this was soon changed to Health. The tiny ear of corn centerpiece and the word Iowa on the stem were eliminated to create the present 4-H emblem. Thus, Jessie Field gets full credit for this nationwide club’s name and insignia.

In 1913 Jessie resigned the superintendency to become the National YWCA Secretary in New York City. In 1917 she returned to Iowa to marry Ira William Shambaugh. They had two children, a son and daughter. As a mother, she continued to work with both the expanding 4-H concept and the YWCA.

Jessie Field Shambaugh, &uot;the mother of 4-H,&uot; died in January 1971 and is buried in the Clarinda Cemetery.

The original Goldenrod School (built in 1873) was moved into Clarinda years ago and is now located next to the Nodaway Valley Historical Museum. And this is where this weekend’s 4-H centennial observances and reunion programs are taking place.

As a bonus, we’ll have still more information in both the May and June issues of the Ag Monthly, a joint publication of the Albert Lea Tribune and the Austin Herald.

Feature writer Ed Shannon’s column appears Fridays in the Tribune.