Extension Homemakers Stand Strong behind Durham Extension Service By Deborah B. McGiffin Durham County Extension Agent, Family and Consumer Sciences There is an old adage that goes something like “behind every successful man, is a strong woman.” The same can be said for the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service. Much of the growth and success of the Extension Service can be attributed to what was previously known as Extension Homemakers or formerly the North Carolina Extension Homemakers Association. Today this historic group is now called the North Durham County Extension Homemakers, 1929 Carolina Extension and Community Association, and they no longer consists of all women, but they continue to support Extension in the areas of Family and Consumer Sciences. From their earliest recollections Extension Homemakers have been involved in Extension and in their respective communities. Perhaps that is why that in recent years as their numbers have begun to wane, their contributions must be remembered as part of the very foundation for which Extension continues to remain relevant to North Carolina citizens. In Durham County, where Extension was once a rural program, Extension Homemakers helped to bring Extension and it services to all citizens, city and county, alike. Durham County Extension Homemakers were the strong women behind a long successful Extension history in Durham County, and their legacy still strengthens and guides the present day Extension mission. In Durham County the first Home Demonstration Club can be traced back to the Women’s Betterment Society founded in 1913 (Eubanks & Prosser, 1915). Home demonstration work began in the county in 1915 after the first home agent, Mrs. Beulah Eubanks, was hired. Eventually the Women’s Betterment Society became a platform for Extension and home demonstration work and evolved into the Oak Grove Home Demonstration Club (1953, county report). During the first five years, home extension work was done in communities around the county according to county files still in existence, but Mrs. Eubanks was succeeded by Miss Elizabeth Gainey in 1916 and then by Miss Helen Simmons from 1917- 1919. Even with the succession of home demonstration agents during the original five years of home extension work, early Extension reports stated Homemakers heeded the campaign of the United States Department of Agriculture to help supply food shipments to War World I troops in Europe. For their part in the war effort, Durham Homemakers canned 94,672 containers of fruits and vegetables (McKimmon, 1919). It was not until 1920 when Miss Anna Rowe came to Durham County to assume the role as Home Demonstration Agent that an emphasis was given to forming permanent community home demonstration clubs. During Miss Rowe’s tenure in Durham twenty clubs totaling 745 women were organized (Bryan, personal communication letter, April 23,1982). The first new club to be organized, after the Women’s Betterment Society had been taken on in 1915 as a Home Demonstration Club, was the Bahama Home Demonstration Club founded in 1919, and a year later the Nelson Home Demonstration Club was organized (Christensen,1980, p.58). The Home Demonstration Clubs were highly structured from the beginning as they remain so today. They were each established with a governing body of annually elective officers that carried out an annual plan of work. Community officers formed the County Council and served as the supporting body to the home agent. Today, this would be equivalent to an Advisory Board. Leadership skills that members developed from their association in the Home Demonstration Clubs became significant contributions to their respective communities and to the entire county. Collectively, Extension Homemakers learned and used their Home Demonstration Clubs as a dais to interface with their local school officials and government leaders. Among the most significant accomplishments of these twenty community clubs was the eventual founding of the Durham County Home Demonstration Curb Market (Stanton, 1939). The establishment of the Curb Market led to the growth of the overall Extension program in Durham County. Though little documentation was found to commemorate specific activities of the Home Demonstration Clubs in the 1920s, it can be safely assumed that these early twenty demonstration clubs remained operational and met regularly through the remainder the decade and through two more home demonstration agents who followed Anna Rowe between 1924 and 1927. In 1927 Rose Ellwood Bryan was appointed the Home Demonstration Agent for Durham County, and under her leadership, Extension Homemakers made noteworthy contributions to not only to Durham County Cooperative Extension Service, but also to the financial well being of their families. The number of home demonstration clubs grew to twenty-six. The names of the clubs corresponded with their communities: Alston Avenue Airport Bahama Belmont Bethesda Bragtown Chandler East Durham Fairview Glenn Hillandale Holt Lake Michie Lowes Grove Nelson New Hope Oak Grove Pinehill Pineland Riverview Rose of Sharon Roberson Grove Rougemont Sherron Avenue Umbra White Cross Homemakers Get Involved in Communities and Weather Depression Just as the number of Home Demonstration Clubs grew in the late twenties, so did the clubs’ community involvement. Old files indicated that regular monthly community club meetings had become routine. In fact, records show that monthly meetings were planned out twelve years in advance. A plan of work compiled for all Durham Home Demonstration Clubs recorded monthly programmatic topics that were to be covered in each club from the years1928 to1940. The topics of interest for the women of the Home Demonstration Clubs dealt mostly with improving the quality of family life and included subjects such as food preservation, preparing school lunches, infant feeding, time management, managing household accounts, clothing construction and care, controlling household pests, gracious entertaining, and home decorating (1928, county report). The club structure also gave the members a way to gain recognition through incentive and achievement programs. The program for the month of November was reserved as the annual “Achievement Day” in each club, so that exceptional club members were recognized for service and outstanding work in various project areas. Those winning awards in their local club went on to be recognized at a county achievement program. Perhaps the most unifying aspect of the Home Demonstration Clubs was the social outlets they provided for their members both locally and regionally. Although each meeting consisted of a business proportion, each meeting also allowed time for recreational activities and refreshments (1931, Durham County Council minutes). As Extension grew strong in surrounding counties, Home Demonstrations Clubs eventually saw the advantage of forming a statewide organization that became the North Carolina Federation of Home Demonstration Clubs in 1924. With the organization of the Federation, counties were paired up and began to meet regionally. According to minutes from Durham files, Durham and Wake County Home Demonstration Clubs became the Eighth District Federation of Home Demonstration Clubs and meet together annually. Though their meetings had an educational emphasis, a large proportion of time was devoted to socializing with each other (1935, Durham County Council minutes). Another highly anticipated social event started in the mid-thirties by the Durham Home Demonstration Clubs was the Annual Husband’s Night Valentine Party (1939, agenda). The consistency of planned monthly meetings enabled the women of the Home Demonstration Clubs access to informal education, the opportunity to gain greater leadership and organizational skills, and provided them with a viable outlet to socialize with others outside their communities. As the Home Demonstration Clubs became prominent community organizations, they used their status to support Extension’s youth component, 4-H. They contributed to the achievements of 4-H youth by supporting their club and project work. Between 1930 and 1939, Extension Homemakers raised funds to send 75 senior 4-H members to Raleigh for 4-H State Short Courses and 120 junior 4-H members to camp. When Durham County had their first 4-H club member win a state honor and was awarded a trip to broadcast for the National Farm and Home Hour, Durham County Home Demonstration Clubs cooperatively raised funds to help send Pearl Nichols Williams to Washington, D.C. Then later in the mist of the depression when three other Durham 4-H members won state honors and were awarded trips to National 4-H Congress, Durham Demonstration Homemakers gathered together, raised more funds, and proudly sent the Durham youth to Chicago, Illinois (Stanton, 1939). Although the county 4-H program was mostly conducted in the schools with the cooperation of the School Board in the first half of the twentieth century, Extension Homemakers still saw a need to establish fifteen additional 4-H community clubs. They trained with the Home Demonstration Agent, organized and voluntarily lead the added clubs, so that more help could be given to 4-H members with their project work. The Home Demonstration Clubs were naturally connected to 4-H through their children or their neighbors’ children, and they of course were all part the same communities (1953, county report). Extension Homemakers in Durham County had grown in numbers and fortitude by the time the Great Depression