Tag: Agricultural Education

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Wells, William Tecumseh “Billie” (B.S., Agricultural Education, 1925)

Headshot of William Tecumseh Wells

William Tecumseh “Billie” Wells was born 9 September 1891 in Solgohachia, Arkansas, to Isaac Lee Wells and Jane Gorman Wells. After graduating from Solgohachia High School, William became a self-employed farmer, according to this World War I Draft Registration Card. Enlistment in the Army for service in World War I on 27 October 1917 meant two more years away from post-secondary education. Wells was discharged on 2 May 1919. Later that year, on 24 December, he married Aubra McKindra and returned to the farm.

Wells attended Prairie View Normal & Industrial College (now Prairie View A & M University) in 1921-22, where he was in the junior Division of Vocational Agriculture. Following that, from 1923 to 1925, he attended Iowa State College, where he was a member of the Agriculture Club (Iowa State University, 1925) as well as the Alpha-Nu Chapter of Alph Phi Alpha by 1924 (Tutt, 1924). During his time in Ames, Wells lived at 200½ Main Street. He earned a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Agricultural Education from Iowa State College in 1925. At the end of January that year, Wells filed for divorce from his first wife on the grounds of desertion during his time at ISC, an undoubtedly difficult situation for him as he completed his studies. When the divorce was granted, Wells married Doris Aline Hutchison on 23 March 1925.

By the 1930 census, William and Doris had moved to Taft, Oklahoma, where he took a job as a teacher and Superintendent for the Farms of the State Hospital, Deaf, Blind, Orphans, and Girls Reformatory. Known as the DB&O, the orphanage housed more than 300 African American children in the mid-1930s (“Preserving a Bit of Oklahoma’s History,” 2007). In 1935, Wells attended the banquet held for Iowa State Alumni at the inauguration of Frederick D. Patterson as President of Tuskegee. By 1946, Wells is listed in the Muskogee, Oklahoma, City Directory as a “rehabilitation officer,” and by 1957, he was a teacher at the Manual [High] School in Muskogee, where he taught until at least 1959.

William T. Wells died on 6 January 1977 in Sterling Heights, Michigan, and was buried in Booker T. Washington Cemetery, Muskogee, Oklahoma.

Sources

Photo credit: Iowa State University. (1925). 1925 Bomb, v. 32 Special Edition, p. 85. Retrieved from https://digitalcollections.lib.iastate.edu/islandora/object/isu%3ATheBomb_41631#page/100/mode/2up

“Preserving a bit of Oklahoma’s history.” (2007, Feb. 20). News on 6. retrieved from https://www.newson6.com/story/5e36891a2f69d76f6209f7b5/preserving-a-bit-of-oklahomas-history

Tutt, Harold L. (1924, June). Alpha-Nu chapter, Des Moines, Iowa. The Sphinx, 10(3), p. 17. ISSUU. Retrieved from https://issuu.com/apa1906network/docs/192401003

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Small, John Baggett, Sr. (B.S., Agricultural Education, 1928)

John Baggett Small Sr.

John Baggett Small was born 24 Jun 1895 in Bertie, North Carolina, the son of Fred Small and Luvenia Williams Small. A WWI vet, Small earned a B.S. Degree in Agriculture from A&T College in Greensboro, North Carolina, and served as a Vocational Teacher at Berry O’Kelly School in Method, North Carolina, before earning a second degree in Agriculture from Iowa State College in 1928. He also attended Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia. Small taught horticulture and held many positions throughout his life, including: superintendent of The Greenhouse at A&T; Principal of Gibson High School  in Gibsonville, North Carolina; County Agricultural Agent of Chowan and Perquiman’s Counties, headquarters in Edenton; and County Agent for Chowan County. He was a Freemason, Shriner 32nd Degree and president of Small Enterprises, Inc., in Greensboro. He died on 29 April 1986 in Chowan, North Carolina, and was buried in the Bond Family Cemetery in Windsor, North Carolina.

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Smith, Holloway  (B.S., Agricultural Education, 1928)

Holloway Smith in full body shot in a crouched position with one hand in front

Holloway Smith was born in Kentucky in 1896. The second black ISC football player, three years after Jack Trice, Smith came to ISC from Michigan State to play football and earn his B.S. in Agriculture Education. He had a successful football career despite being barred from playing in the Missouri Valley Conference, as they had an agreement with Southern schools to not allow African American students to play. This same unfair treatment would bar him from playing against Oklahoma State as well, a detriment to ISC.

After graduating from ISC, Smith moved to Marianna, Arkansas, where he worked for 20 years, serving as a teacher, then master teacher, and then as principal. Later, he served as the state supervisor for the National Youth Association in Arkansas, a New Deal program that provided education, work, and housing for youth ages 16-24 during the Great Depression. Using that experience, Smith became a National Director for the U.S.O.

Later In life, Smith moved to Monterey, California, where he operated a restaurant, before moving to Reno, Nevada in the early 1960s. He died in Reno in 1970 at the age of 73 and was buried in the Mountain View Cemetery there.

Sources

Photo Credit: The Bomb

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