EXTENSION CLUBS A CONTRIBUTION TO CITY'S BICENTENNIAL

The councils of Extension clubs convened today in Jefferson City to conduct two days of business pertaining to Missouri Extension Homemakers clubs.

Cape Girardeau city and county in this bicentennial year are proud that Extension Homemakers clubs in Missouri developed from an idea of Linder Miller of the Cane Creek area, where the first club in the state was formed and named Cane Creek Mother's Club May 18, 1913. Today there are 22 Homemakers Extension clubs in Cape Girardeau, Jackson and the county.

Miller read that someplace in the United States a club had been formed to help mothers learn better methods of housekeeping. Since most women married young and few had housekeeping experience, information on housekeeping would be beneficial.

She explained her idea to Greer Davis of Jackson, who with her husband were constantly promoting the Cape Girardeau area. Davis was supportive, and the two invited the mothers in the Cane Creek School area to meet to discuss the idea. Nine women attended and the club was formed.

The women in Oak Ridge organized a club in 1916 and the women in Millersville formed one in 1917.

Since Louis Lorimier started the settlement of Cape Girardeau in 1792-93, Southeast Missouri has been an agricultural area. Land granted settlers had to be improved. Regardless of a man's vocation, he was also the owner of a farm, where crops and cattle were raised and sold.

The District Fair organized in 1854 to assist farmers and encourage them to display their crops and livestock. Farmers were taught improved methods by Department of Agriculture farm agents and then by land-grant-college agents. The University of Missouri was the first land-grant college to train agents west of the Mississippi River.

C.M. McWilliams, a farm adviser, was sent to assist Cape County farmers in 1912, and he established an office in Jackson. The Farm Bureau was formed on April 26, 1913. The organization began forming community organizations. The presidents of the school districts formed the county Farm Bureau as soon as McWilliams began his work. It was natural for members of the Cane Creek club to ask McWilliams to assist them also.

One of his first talks to Cane Creek was about poultry. All farm women raised poultry, and they displayed their prize chickens, ducks, turkeys and geese at the District Fair.

McWilliams informed the University of Missouri of the homemakers' achievements and they sent Bab Dell to show them pattern-making. She told them if they would become affiliated with University Extension they would receive assistance. They agreed to join Extension, which was then in 60 counties.

Jane Hinote was sent from the University of Missouri to Cape Girardeau July 1, 1918, to instruct members of three clubs in improved methods for health, nutrition, food, clothing and poultry, and to form two business women's clubs to provide recreation for members.

On March 19, 1920, Hinote, in cooperation with teachers and school nurses in the four Cape Girardeau grade schools, measured and weighed 1,800 students. They found only 15 percent to be of normal size and 48 percent below normal. The value of giving milk and a bread-and-butter sandwich twice a day during recesses was tested on 15 of the most undernourished children. The project was followed for six weeks and the children gained from one to five pounds each. Extension clubs assisted in the pilot program for better nutrition.

Another accomplishment was installation of three restrooms in the County Courthouse, two for women and one for men.

When the Cooperative Extension Work in Agriculture and Home Economics was honored with a parade in Cape Girardeau Aug. 10, 1922, Cane Creek entered a float. The clubs' 29 members rode a truck bed under a large sign that read: "What we have gained from the agricultural service ... 10 years of growth of Cape County Farm Bureau and Homemakers Extension work."

The 40th anniversary of Cane Creek was observed May 28, 1953, at Boulder Crest, when club members, guests and representatives of 21 of the other 25 clubs in Cape County were luncheon guests of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Naeter. Two charter members attended: Mrs. August Overbeck and Mrs. Fred Loennecke, who were living then at Poplar Bluff.

Naeter recalled how his younger brother, Harry, who had died, was interested in the organization and development of Homemakers clubs. It was in his memory the Naeters wanted to entertain and honor the Homemakers for their achievements.

Susan Mills is food and nutrition specialist for Cape County and consultant to the clubs. She also visits clubs in surrounding counties. Joan Meyer of Cape Girardeau is county president of Extension Homemakers and Marian Wallenmeyer of Jackson is president of Cane Creek.

The Extension clubs in Cape Girardeau County have 250 members.

The other 21 clubs and their founding dates are: Capaha-Cape Girardeau, 1963; Cheerful Country Doers, 1973; Critesville, 1950; Delta, 1950; Eastside, 1945; Gerardette-Cape Girardeau, 1963; Gordonville, 1964; Happy Homemakers, 1985; Kage-Cape Girardeau, 1944; Lamplighters, 1965; Millersville, 1917; Oak Ridge, 1916; New Seekers, 1973; Northernairs-Cape Girardeau, 1964; Oak Grove, 1947; Pocahontas, 1941; Progressive, 1960; Seek and Find, 1965; Spring Valley, 1944; Town & Country, 1966; and Wonder Workers, 1967.