Tag: Military Service

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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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Carver, George Washington (B.S., 1894; M.S., Agricultural Science, 1896)

Headshot of George Washington Carver

George Washington Carver was born around 1864 (exact year unknown) to Mary Carver on the Moses Carver plantation in Diamond Grove, Missouri. George’s father was killed in an accident before his son’s birth, so Carver never met his father. George was raised from infancy on the plantation of Moses and Susan Carver, his mother having been lost in a slave raid from which baby George had been returned to the Carvers (Fishbein, 2007).

Carver’s childhood is well documented, so we won’t attempt to cover that aspect of his life in this biography. Readers interested in his developmental years may consult the many biographies of this well-respected scholar.

Imbued with a lifelong thirst for learning and detailed knowledge about flora and plants, Carver left Diamond Grove, where there were no schools for African Americans, to pursue his education. Though frail as a child, he moved to several parts of Missouri, Kansas, and Iowa before attending Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa, to study piano and painting. At Simpson College, art instructor Etta Budd recognized Carver’s talent with plants and convinced him to pursue a degree in agriculture. With Budd’s father being the head of the Department of Horticulture at Iowa State College of Agricultural and Mechanic Arts (now Iowa State University), Carver became the first Black student to enroll at the college. During his time at ISC, evidence suggests that he lived on campus in the servant’s quarters in North Hall. After Carver completed his bachelor’s degree in 1894, Professors Joseph Budd and Louis Pammel encouraged him to pursue a graduate degree. Carver was appointed as a member of ISC’s faculty, becoming Iowa State’s first African American faculty member. Then, following attainment of his M.S. in Agricultural Science in 1896, he was invited by Booker T. Washington to work at the Tuskegee Institute. Developing 325 products from peanuts and hundreds of other products from other plants native to the South, Carver’s work gained international reputation.

Passing away in 1948, he received many honors including: the Roosevelt Medal for Outstanding Contribution to Southern Agriculture in 1939; a museum dedicated to him at Tuskegee in 1941; the establishment of the George Washington Carver National Monument in Diamond Grove, the first national monument dedicated to an African American and a non-president, in 1943; a park named after him in Winterset, Iowa, where Carver lived in 1888, one hundred years later in 1988; an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Iowa State University in 1994; and being inducted into the U.S.D.A.’s Hall of Heroes in 2000. The plaque at the George Washington Carver National Monument in Diamond Grove reads as follows: “Within this area by act of Congress of July 14, 1943, is preserved the birthplace of George Washington Carver who rose from slavery to become a distinguished scientist and a great force in creating racial understanding.”

Iowa State College Thesis Title: Plants as modified by man (bachelor’s thesis), 1894

Sources

Photo Credit: The Bomb

Fishbein, Toby. (2007). The legacy of George Washington Carver. Published for the George Washingtopn Carver All-University Celebration. Iowa State University. Internet Archive. Accessed 30 April 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20120320224324/http://www.lib.iastate.edu/spcl/gwc/bio.html

https://digitalcollections.lib.iastate.edu/islandora/object/isu%3ACarver

https://www.madisoncounty.com/george-washington-carver/

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Romm, Harry J. (B.S., Zoology, 1930; M.S., Entomology, 1934; Ph.D. Plant Morphology, 1946)

Headshot of Harry J Romm

Harry J. Romm was born 4 Sept 1899 in Navasota, TX, to Benno Romm, born in Schwarzenau, Germany, and a mother from Tennessee.

Romm was still enrolled in public school at age 19 when he registered for the WWI draft in 1918, later graduating from Galveston Central High School, Galveston, Texas. In 1920, according to the Federal Census, Romm was employed as a porter in a dry goods store in Galveston. He married Fannie B. Dunlap in Dallas, Texas, on 11 June 1927 and was listed in 1928 Dallas City Directory as a teacher.

Moving to Ames in 1923, Romm earned his B.S. in Zoology in 1930, M.S. in Entomology in 1934. In 1935, Romm was an attendee at the banquet held by the Iowa State Alumni Association for Frederick D. Patterson’s inauguration as President of Tuskegee where he was listed as the Head of Department of Biology at Tuskegee Institute. While at Tuskegee, he served as a Volunteer Weather Collector for NOAA, a position that was held prior by George Washington Carver. During WWII, he served as a Principal Correspondent for the Army Specialist Corps.

Romm went on to earn his Ph.D. in Plant Morphology in 1946 and was later listed as teaching Biology at Southern University, Louisiana, in 1952. He died on 15 November 1955 and is buried in Lakeview Cemetery, Galveston, Texas. His headstone suggests he was a Catholic.

Iowa State College Dissertation Title: The development and structure of the vegetative and reproductive organs of kudzu, Pueraria thunbergiana (Sieb and Zucc) Benth; The insect depredators of purslane (Portulaca oleracea L.), 1946 

Iowa State University Catalog Record:https://quicksearch.lib.iastate.edu/permalink/01IASU_INST/q0r84t/cdi_proquest_journals_301851928 

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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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Martin, Robert Leander  (B.S., Electrical Engineering, 1942)

Headshot of Robert Leander Martin

Robert Leander Martin was born the sixth of six children in Dubuque, IA, 9 February 1919, to chiropodist (podiatrist) Dr. Henry Ambrose Martin and his wife, Mattie A. Martin.

Robert Martin flew 64 missions with the Tuskegee Airmen in WWII, was shot down in enemy territory, and received multiple awards for valor, including the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Purple Heart, seven awards of the Air Medal, and as a surviving member of the Tuskegee Airmen, a Congressional Gold Medal in 2007 that acknowledged the unit for their “unique military record that inspired revolutionary reform in the Armed Forces.” ( https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/congressional-gold-medal-tuskegee-airmen/nasm_I20071282001 ).

Martin married Odette C. Ewell 21 August 1950, and they had four children, Gabrielle, Noelle, Dominique, and Robert Martin Jr. After finding it difficult to get employment in electrical engineering because of his race and moving from one low-wage, service job to another, Martin finally secured a job as a draftsman with the Chicago Park District (https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/robert-leander-martin-1919-2018/) Robert Martin died in Olympia Fields, Cook County, Illinois, 26 July 2018, of pneumonia. In 2019, an Act of Congress renamed the US Post Office in Olympia Fields as the Capt. Robert Martin Post Office, and in Jul 2020, the Dubuque Regional Airport Commission voted to support renaming the airport terminal after Martin. Fundraising is now underway to complete that project.

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