In Tennessee, March is Extension month. I thought I would share a story about the first woman to begin the Home Demonstration clubs here in Tennessee, specifically within our university. The woman I am talking about is Virginia Pearl Moore. We are going to dive into her life and accomplishments to see what all she has done for the University of Tennessee and the Home Demonstration Clubs, now known as Family and Community Education Clubs or FCE for short.
Virginia was born on July 7, 1880, in Gallatin, Tennessee, to Armstead and Louisa Moore. Virginia’s father died only a few years after she was born in 1884. When Virginia grew up, she wanted to become a schoolteacher, so she attended and graduated Peabody Normal University in Nashville.
In addition to her studies at Peabody University, she furthered her education in New York at the Chautauqua Institution located along the Chautauqua Lake. This prestigious school was a fashionable spot for mostly affluent intellectuals to continue their learning outside of the classroom during the summer.
Virginia spent ten summers at this institution. She was a very well-rounded individual. Education during this time was not very common, especially in the south—children mostly received an elementary education, and that was it.
After graduation she began her teaching career in Sumner County, Tennessee. She was actually offered a teaching job in Mississippi at an all-girls school but turned it down. She took this job because she felt a call to work with the rural population of Tennessee.
I feel with her educational background she could have gone almost anywhere to teach and would have probably been one of the highest paid employees of her time. According to the journal Virginia P. Moore: Home Economics Pioneer “her wages were only a third of what she could have made in Mississippi.”
In the fall of 1908, Virginia changed career paths. She became employed with the State Department of Education and the Southern Education Board to lead school improvement work across the great state of Tennessee. Her duties here included visiting rural schools and school districts to assess the condition of the schoolhouses.
Most of the schools she visited were rundown and needed much improvement. She organized school improvement associations in the communities where she rallied teachers, parents and neighbors for help in revitalizing the school systems.
She did in fact have success, even though there was minimal funding. The school improvement associations did upgrade the schoolhouses and the areas around them as well. The upgrades included painting, creating playground areas, adding art to interior walls, upgraded sanitary conditions such as adding running water, establishing school libraries, and extended the school year.
You can thank or complain about Ms. Moore for the later enhancement of making students attend school for longer periods of time.
It is now December 1910, and Virginia is doing such an exceptional job with her current role for the state that they promoted her to state collaborator. Now she is not only helping to improve schools, she is taking on the role of organizing canning clubs, also called tomato clubs for school-aged girls. With this new role, her salary was $1,200 per year.
When I mention canning what do I mean? According to Canning Foods “canning is the process of sterilizing and sealing foods in airtight containers to preserve them.” I am sure we all know someone who has preserved foods using this technique. My wife and I have canned tomatoes the past two summers making homemade salsa. This past summer we canned spaghetti sauce and tomato starter for soup.
Recently my wife Brittany has learned to can jelly through the Hancock County Extension Office, which just shows the lasting impact of Virginia’s work. Another interesting fact about Virginia is she became the first agent in Tennessee to form the state’s first canning club in Shelby County in September of 1910.
If you work in or are around Extension, you probably know that Extension was established here in Tennessee in 1910. As you probably guessed it, she was our first female Extension employee in our state.
A couple of years later in 1912, she gave up the school improvement portion of her job to concentrate on promoting these new clubs throughout Tennessee. As she took on this new role, increasingly more canning clubs were established throughout the state. Once these clubs started becoming more popular the name changed to “Home Demonstration Work” and as time went by, the girls learned how to can other produce such as: onions, beans, corn and even fruits.
Another big year for Virginia came in 1914, when she was hired on by the University of Tennessee in the College of Agriculture to become assistant director and state home demonstration agent. Eventually, the clubs grew so much that other activities became popular, among them were sewing, cooking, cleaning, financial management, etc., leading to yearlong activities.
In 1916, the club had grown so much that the university hired 32 new agents and Virginia was their supervisor. Sadly, in 1919, Virginia had to step down from her position to move back to Gallatin to help take care of her mother who was sickly.
This did not stop her from quitting completely because her expertise helped teach children in the Gallatin community about home demonstration work. In 1923, she was back at it, but this time she took a job in Florida as their assistant home demonstration agent for the state. She continued working with rural girls and women to educate them until her retirement in 1946.
As I come to a close, I would like to leave you with a couple more facts about Virginia. She played a huge role in WWI by organizing Tennessee’s food preparedness efforts in support of the war.
While she was taking care of her mother, she ran the family home and farm, operated a tearoom, antique and gift shop. I must say the life of Virginia Moore was very inspiring and I feel she has been a pioneer for Extension.
Thank you, Virginia, for laying the foundation with your skills and dedication because without you, Extension would not be the same today.