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Previous
FFA Sentinel articles have focused specifically on the early
years of FFA. Last month’s article was about the silver anniversary of
Alabama FFA which occurred in 1954. Two former state officers were
featured in the article about their experiences related to the 25th
anniversary. This month’s article features the Southeast Alabama
Agricultural School in Abbeville. The school later became Abbeville High
School.
As
in most of Alabama and the rural South, times were hard for folk in the
1880s. In 1875, cotton sold for 15 cents per pound and by 1883 farmers
received ten cents per pound. Making a living was difficult.
Farmers
in Abbeville and Henry County knew they needed more workable knowledge
and training in agricultural production and admitted so. They joined
together to form agricultural societies.
These
same farmers, approximately 800, voted and eventually the agricultural
societies became politically powerful. One member was State
Representative John B. Ward who sponsored the legislation which became
Act 579. This act, which was passed on February 28, 1889, created the
Southeast Alabama Agricultural School (SEAAS).
As
a land owner and agriculturalist, John B. Ward knew the importance of
education and the ultimate influence it would have on farming practices.
Ward met with an Alabama Polytechnic Institute’s (API) professor by
the name of Newman. (API is now Auburn University.) The two men
discussed the need for "agricultural education" and the
development of branch experiment stations and schools. (These experiment
stations are still important in Alabama because of the vast amount of
knowledge provided through the experiments conducted at various
locations throughout the state.)
The
Hatch Act of 1887 is the legislation providing the funding to establish
experiment stations. However, that is only partially correct. The Act
also said agricultural information was to be made available to the
public and this piece of the legislation was partially responsible for
the establishment of agricultural education in public schools. Norwood
Kerr author of Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station
1883-1983, said, "The trustees of API [Auburn] did not want to
share the Hatch funds with the secondary schools. In 1896 Director
Alfred True [Office of (Federal) Experiment Stations] ruled the Hatch
Act provided for the establishment of one single experiment station in
each state. However, if the state wanted to fund substations and have
substations governed by the same group that governed the main experiment
station, it was permissible. Alabama continued supporting the district
schools and accompanying branch experiment stations."
Kerr
also reported "the reason the [agricultural] schools and branch
experiment stations were combined was in an apparent attempt to finance
them out of federal Hatch appropriations. The experiment station work
was carried on at each [secondary agricultural] school under the
auspices of API."
"Many
people erroneously believe agricultural education was started when the
Smith-Hughes Act was passed in 1917. The Smith-Hughes Act simply
provided federal funds directly to states to continue supporting the
teaching of agriculture, established strict guidelines for operation of
high school agriculture programs and made the instruction more
vocational. The Smith-Hughes Act did not start agricultural education in
the secondary schools. It would be more correct to say the Hatch Act
started agricultural education of the secondary grade; the Smith-Hughes
Act merely extended the work. The ‘diffusion of information’ wording
of the Hatch Act was the foundation of secondary agricultural
education," said Gary Moore in his article on The Involvement of
Experiment Stations in Secondary Agricultural Education,1887-1917.
However,
back to the topic. Ward and Newman met with the Alabama Commissioner of
Agriculture, Reuben Kolb, and discussion focused on experiment stations
and the Abbeville community was chosen as a potential site for such a
station. Athens, in North Alabama, was chosen as another site. As stated
earlier, Act 579 established the SEAAS.
Act
579 provided an initial appropriation of $3,000 for equipment and $2,500
per year thereafter. (In 1893 the annual appropriation was increased to
$3,000 per year.) The citizens of Abbeville decided to raise the
necessary funds to purchase land for the school. The land was located
about a half-mile from the town square. The 40-acre plot was purchased
for $700.
The
school was to be administered by a board of directors. Members of the
board included the Commissioner of Agriculture, the Director of the API
Experiment Station and five farmers. The five farmers had to be
appointed by the governor and three of them had to live within 10 miles
of the school.
According
to Mrs. Margaret Tye Yance, an Abbeville High School alumnus in an
article about the SEAAS, "This secondary agricultural school at
Abbeville and the other at Athens were, with one exception, the first
such institutions receiving state aid established in the United States.
Georgia followed the example 17 years later. Alabama farmers were
exceptionally proud of the pioneering in agricultural education the
state undertook. Within 25 years, there was a secondary agriculture
school in each of the nine congressional districts."
Construction
of the school generated additional buildings for Abbeville. A new brick
courthouse and jail were also constructed during the late 1880s.
The
SEAAS facilities were not ready for students in the fall of 1889 and a
committee of five asked the trustees of the Abbeville Academy about
using its property for the first term. The SEAAS began its first
semester on September 16, 1889.
The
SEAAS was Alabama’s first school to provide free education on the
secondary level. The school emphasized scientific as well as a practical
approach to agriculture. The first fall term had students representing
five Alabama counties and three states. The school was also the first
junior college in the state as its graduates on the secondary level were
allowed to enter college without having to take an entrance exam.
More
than 100 students enrolled in the SEAAS for its first term in fall 1889.
The Abbeville Times stated more students would probably have
enrolled if suitable housing were available. Local citizens were
encouraged by the newspaper "to construct new cottages that could
be rented." Boarders paid $8-$12 per month. There was no tuition at
the school. However, tuition was charged at various times over the
years. Fees were charged for art and music. Books were available for
purchase at local drug stores usually for one dollar or less.
Because
of its rigorous academic standards, SEAAS graduates were not required to
take entrance exams to be admitted into another college in the state.
The
school received part of its annual $2,500 appropriation from the
fertilizer tax fund paid by those who purchased fertilizer. The annual
appropriation was to operate the school and experiment station for an
entire year.
Girls
were admitted to SEAAS in 1893. The school’s first brick building was
completed in 1898. Because of World War I, girls were the only graduates
in 1918. The influenza epidemic of 1919 caused the school to close for a
few months. In the fall of 1921, the stock judging team brought home
honors from the state competition.
The
SEAAS was the forerunner of Abbeville High School. FFA was founded at
SEAAS as the Abbeville Chapter in 1929 and was the first chapter
chartered in Alabama. Alabama was the 36th state to receive a charter
from the National FFA Association.
George
Santayana is credited with saying, "Those who cannot remember the
past are condemned to repeat it."
It
is inferred that if we do not remember the bad it will be repeated.
However, maybe our remembering the past will help us in maintaining the
written record of our agricultural beginnings and aid in the historical
recollections of where we as agriculturalists came from.
Jacob
Davis is the Executive Secretary of the Alabama FFA Association. |
