admin – Page 18 – The Black ISC Student Experience to 1950

August 4, 2022February 27, 2023

Marshall, Lonnie Algusta, (B.S., Agriculture; M.S., Agriculture, 1930)

Lonnie Algusta Marshall was born in Milican, Texas, in 1898. The 1910 census indicates that he lived with his grandparents, Cager and Rebecca Scott. He first married Grace C. Marshall, then, in 1953, married Queen Esther Laws in Wakulla, Florida. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Prairie View State Normal & Industrial College (later Prairie View A&M University) in 1924, followed by a bachelor’s degree in agriculture from Iowa State College and a Master’s degree from Iowa State College in 1930.

Marshall’s professional career spanned multiple states and academic institutions. In 1929, he served as an Instructor of Teacher Training and Science, an itinerant Smith-Hughes agricultural teacher at Florida Agricultural College for Negroes (now Florida A&M University). In 1931, he began teaching at Princess Anne Academy, and by 1933-1934, he worked as the professor in charge of the Demonstration Farm. He was promoted to Director of Agriculture at Princess Anne Academy and continued to serve as a professor until 1940, until he returned to Florida A&M. At Florida A&M, he served as a representative of Florida A&M as a Negro Deputy on the War Bonds Staff and was later, in 1948, was listed as an Assistant Professor of Agricultural Education, State itinerant teacher-training in Vocational Agriculture.

Marshall died in Tallahassee, Florida where he was buried at the Tallahassee Memorial Gardens.

August 4, 2022May 10, 2023

Crouch, Geneva Pensola (later Peters) (M.S., Home Economics Education, 1931)

Geneva Pensola Crouch was born 23 February 1902 in Cherokee County, Texas, to George Washington “Clyde” Crouch and Mary “Carrie” Ragsdale Crouch. She attended Iowa State College, where she graduated with a Master of Science in Home Economics Education in 1931. Her brother Hubert B. Crouch also attended Iowa State in the 1930s. She and her brother Hubert Crouch were two of the many Black ISC students who resided with Archie and Nancy Martin at their home at 218 Lincoln Way. In the 1930 census, when listed at home in Smith, Texas, with her parents and siblings, Geneva is a “teacher” at the “college”; Texas College, a private, historically black Christian Methodist Episcopal college, was located in Tyler.

In the late 1920s, she left Texas College for Prairie View Normal & Industrial School (now Prairie View A& M University). By 1931, she had become an instructor of Clothing and Handicraft at Prairie View. She married Wilk S. Peters on 3 September 1932. When her husband moved to Virginia in 1933 to gain a library degree at Hampton Institute, Geneva stayed at Prairie View to teach. By 1935, according to the Federal Census, she was no longer employed. By the 1940 Federal Census, she was living with Wilk Peters in Langston, Oklahoma, where he was librarian at Langston University, the only HBCU in Oklahoma. In 1948, Wilk landed a job at Tuskegee Institute, and they moved to Alabama. She and her husband next moved to Baltimore in 1950 when Mr. Peters became librarian at Morgan State College, another HBCU. In 1958, her employment appeared in the Baltimore City Directory as public school teacher. Geneva Crouch Peters died 27 November 1993 in Baltimore, Maryland.

Iowa State College Dissertation Title: Amount of waste, time required and cost in the preparation of fresh vegetables for institutional use, 1931

Iowa State University Catalog Record:https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd/17759

Sources

Biography available at HBCU Connections at Iowa State University : Geneva Crouch ( http://hbcuconnections.iastatedigital.org/Geneva_Crouch )

August 4, 2022February 27, 2023

Simond, Ada Marie DeBlanc-Yerwood (M.S. Home Economics Education & Child Development, 1936)

Ada was an advocate. She received her B.A. from Tillotson College, where she would later become Head of the Economics Department after receiving her M.S. at Iowa State College. She never received a formal education up until she started auditing at Austin Samuel Houston College She was then able to take exams to receive the course equivalents. She would become a local legend in Austin advocating the health of many and well-known by her later married name “Ada D. Simond.”

In later life, Simond was inducted into the Texas Women’s Hall of Fame in 1986. After a career as a teacher, she worked as a public health representative until retirement and then proceeded to volunteer for food banks and other local organizations, write children’s books, and lead in the preservation of African-American history in Austin, Texas.

Iowa State College Thesis Title: Certain housing conditions and activities of Negro girls enrolled in federally aided schools in Texas as one index of their educational needs, 1936

Iowa State University Catalog Record:https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd/17754

Sources

Photo Credit Texas State Historical Association

Biography available at HBCU Connections at Iowa State University : Ada M. DeBlanc-Yerwood ( http://hbcuconnections.iastatedigital.org/Ada_M._DeBlanc-Yerwood )

August 4, 2022February 8, 2023

Perry, Benjamin Luther, Jr. (M.S., Agricultural Economics, 1935)

Benjamin Luther Perry, Jr., was born in Eatonville, Florida, on 27 February 1918 to parents Benjamin Luther Perry, Sr., and Annie Lee Perry. He received a bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Education from Florida A&M and a Master’s in Agricultural Economics from Iowa State College in 1942. He enlisted in the US Army in 1943 and was discharged in 1946. He married Helen Neomah (Shown as “Naomi” on Marriage Certificate) Harrison 12 August 1944 in Monroe, North Carolina. After serving in the Army, he completed a Ph.D. in Land Economics at Cornell University. He was struck by a car on 10 March 1997 and died eleven days later, on 21 Mar 1997, in Tallahassee, Florida.

Iowa State College Dissertation Title: Economics of agronomic responses to lime and phosphate on 48 Iowa farm unit-test demonstration farms, 1937-1941

Iowa State University Catalog Record:https://quicksearch.lib.iastate.edu/permalink/01IASU_INST/174tg9m/alma990001486320102756

Iowa State College Dissertation Title: Present status of Agricultural Departments in 17 Negro land-grant colleges, 1935

Iowa State University Catalog Record:https://quicksearch.lib.iastate.edu/permalink/01IASU_INST/174tg9m/alma990008958610102756

Sources

Biography available at HBCU Connections at Iowa State University : Benjamin L. Perry, Jr. ( http://hbcuconnections.iastatedigital.org/Benjamin_L._Perry,_Jr. )

August 3, 2022April 12, 2023

Stubblefield, Malcolm J. (Two-Year Agriculture Certificate, 1924)

Malcolm Jerome Stubblefield was born in Sioux City, Iowa, on 10 May 1898. His parents were Clarence and Camelia Stubblefield. He was briefly enlisted in the U.S. Military, enlisting in the Army from 28 October 1918 to 13 December 1918. He went to Iowa State College for two years, leaving in 1924. He then moved to New York City, where he worked for the New York Botanical Garden. He was well known for his public garden displays and his skills as a landscape gardener were highly praised. He died on 2 November 1980.