By listening to the members of the Merrymakers Club, you would never know they are the last of a special group of women. You would never know they are holding the last flag.
The Merrymakers Club is the last of what many people remember as a County Extension Club.
Small Extension clubs once were found in every nook and cranny, on every hilltop and in every hollow of rural America. Once each month, women gathered to socialize, learn new skills, and to give public service. They held business meetings; often had a carry-in lunch; then quilted or sewed or canned or had interesting programs. They learned child care, gardening, canning, sewing, knitting, business practices, and health and nutrition.
Extension clubs began in about 1914 when the U. S. Government established a partnership between agriculture colleges and the U. S. Department of Agriculture to provide outreach programs, mostly to farmers and farm families.
In county after county, Extension offices were opened with a county agent and what were called extension agents. These government officials were trained to help farmers with their livestock, crops, timber, waterways and land issues. Other agents, many of them women, helped establish Extension clubs where farm wives were taught to manage their homes and families just as their husbands were learning to better manage their farms.
In time of stress, such as during the Great Depression and during war time, ladies on American farms were encouraged to expand their gardens and were taught to preserve the food to prevent any waste of foodstuffs. Later, with the arrival of electric deep freezers, training in frozen food preservation was added to the lessons.
Over the years, almost every county in Missouri had several Extension clubs, but as times changed so did the clubs.
"All the women have gone to work," noted Helen Wilson, a member of the Merrymakers. "Our older ladies are either dying off or unable to attend."
As women started leaving the farm to work in town or as entire families moved to town, fewer people were left to keep Extension clubs going. Today, very few clubs (now called Family and Community Education {FCE} clubs ) survive. Many counties have no clubs left at all while other counties are still hanging on to at least one club, as Newton County has done.
Those who remain may be in the minority but there's a lot of spark left in them. At the July meeting, four members were able to make it. They spent their business meeting discussing the recent fair and bragging on the ribbons the club had won. They also made plans for a regional FCE meeting they will be hosting soon.
