The Wethersfield FFA Chapter discovered Sunday at its annual recognition banquet that nine of its members represent the fourth generation of their families to belong to the organization, which was founded 90 years ago by 22 charter members. Their framed 1934 signed charter was on display. In the front row from the left are Makenna Witte and Emery DeClercq (Harold Radford). Missing was Koeyn DeClercq; Second row from the left are Elise, Natalie and Emersyn Nelson (Raymond Nelson); and on the right are Nathan, Megan and Ashley Oliver (Thomas Oliver). [Photo by Dave Clarke]

It was 90 years and counting for the Wethersfield FFA Chapter as it celebrated both the past, present and future at its annual recognition banquet held Sunday afternoon in the school’s cafeteria with parents and alumni on hand.

Farming, and in the broader sense, agriculture itself, has changed dramatically since 22 young men and their agriculture teacher, Milton C. Matthew, formed the Wethersfield FFA Chapter 90 years ago.

A search by chapter members and their advisor and Ag teacher Kate Rashid, for any of the current 60 members connected to those charter members revealed that nine current members’ families can be traced back to three of the original charter members.

In the summer of 1933, Matthew was hired as the school’s first agriculture teacher. Half of Matthew’s salary was paid by the Smith-Hughes National Vocational Education Act which provided federal funds to states to promote vocational education in agriculture, trades and industry, and homemaking.

A graduate of the University of Illinois, he had taught one year at Princeton and one at Augusta when he took the job at Wethersfield on Aug. 1, 1933. Enrollment in the school district was booming with 220 students in the high school.

One of Matthew’s first objectives was formation of a local chapter of what was then called the Future Farmers of America, changed years later to FFA to reflect the wider scope of careers in agriculture beyond farming.

By the end of the year, Matthew had 22 young men — some farm boys, some city boys — who had joined a Wethersfield Chapter of the Future Farmers.

The vocational education division of the Illinois Department of Education approved the chapter charter and, on Tuesday, Jan. 2, 1934, they all lined up to sign their names to the charter. The framed document now hangs in the ag room and includes the following signatures:

Milan Craig, Harold Radford, George Jackson, Carl Youngfeldt, William Hyer, Kenneth Martin, Donald E. Reece, Edwin Green, Leon Smith, Max Orr, Durward Purvis, Oliver Ratliff, Raymond Nelson, Harvey Jackson, Milan Layman, Earle Craig, Roy Golden, George Grier, Donald Keckler, Louis Little, and Charles Little.

Some of the charter members still have second and third generation sons and daughters living in the community, but does anyone in the current chapter, 90 years later, represent the fourth generation of membership to the Wethersfield FFA?

The answer is yes. There are nine students whose families trace back to three of the charter members. Ashley, Megan and Nathan Oliver are first cousins twice removed of Thomas Oliver, the first chapter president. Their grandfather, John Oliver, was Thomas’ first cousin.

Emery and Koeyn DeClercq and MaKenna Witte’s families go back to Harold Radford, the first chapter vice president, and sisters Emersyn and Elise Nelson and their cousin, Natalie, are the great granddaughters of charter member Raymond Nelson.

The fledgling program began with classes in the basement of the high school, then located across McClure Street from the main campus. Freshmen studied animal husbandry, sophomores crops and soils, and juniors and seniors, general agriculture. Each student was required to have a project, which today is called a Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE), including swine, beef, crops and garden produce.

Matthew started the 1934-35 school year with a bang. He was instrumental in organizing the first Section 3 Vo-Ag Fair which was held Oct. 31 through Nov. 2, 1934, as part of Kewanee’s Harvest Fall Festival celebration and featured a grain and poultry show in the basement of the Main Hotel, on the east side of the 200 block of North Main Street, now part of Good’s Furniture.

He also started the first adult evening classes for local farmers, a 10-week series of informational programs, held at the school, which began on Jan. 7, 1935 and continued for decades.

The chapter held a father and son banquet with J.E. Hill, State Supervisor of Vocational Agriculture of Illinois, one of the men responsible for organizing the national FFA six years earlier in Kansas City, delivering the main address on the importance of vocational agriculture to the future of farming.

Midway through the 1934-35 school year, however, Matthew saw greener pastures elsewhere and, resigned, effective March 4, to take a position as Ag teacher at Charleston, which had a high school enrollment of 500. He recommended Marvin Nicol, the man who had replaced him at Augusta, to take the job at Wethersfield.

The board hired Nicol to finish out the school year and continue the next full year in the position. He added farm management and farm mechanics to the curriculum.

Ag teachers of note over the 90-year history of the chapter include Max Kuster, a native of Neponset, who was hired in 1946 but only stayed one year, accepting a position in 1947 at Joliet Junior College where he established the first two-year agriculture program in a community college in the state.

He was head of the program from 1947 until his retirement in 1977 when he admitted to a newspaper reporter to having some regrets about leaving Wethersfield back in 1947, “But a young man is supposed to follow opportunity,” he was quoted as saying.

Wethersfield also has the distinction of hiring the first female Ag teacher in the state to have her own program, Mary Lincoln. Nowadays, female Ag teachers are far from uncommon but back then, it was felt that the Ag teacher “has to be a man.”

Miss Lincoln, a farm girl from Ridott, Ill., was fresh out of college when she was hired by a Wethersfield School Board composed of seven men, two of which were farmers, including Wayne Hier, grandfather of current chapter co-president Train Hier.

Women were co-teaching in high school agriculture programs with men then, but Lincoln was the first to head up a program all her own. Worthy of note is that Brian Radford, Greenhand vice president of the Wethersfield FFA in 1974-75, is the son of charter member Harold Radford. Her stay was short-lived as Miss Lincoln only lasted one year and left in 1975.

Notable chapter alumni include:

Mike Ouart, who became Director of Cooperative Extension at the University of Missouri.

Dr. Marshall Martin, who became Assistant Dean of the College of Agriculture at Purdue University.

Dennis Nelson, who played in Super Bowl V for the Baltimore Colts during his career in the NFL before returning to the farm.

Jodee Connor Werkheiser, Co-Chair of the Business, Computer, and Engineering Technology Department and Professor of Computer Applications at Black Hawk College East Campus.

Lou Little, great grandson of one of Wethersfield’s first settlers.

Co-chapter presidents Annalise Evans, left, and Traidan Hier, each received a $250 scholarship from the Wethersfield FFA Alumni at the banquet. [Photo by Dave Clarke]

Chapter and individual activities and accomplishments during the past school year were recognized and members voted Wethersfield CUSD #230 Maintenance Director Aaron Holtschult to receive the 2024 Honorary Chapter FFA Award for assisting them with many of their projects and activities. Chapter co-presidents Annalise Evans and Traidan Hier were presented $250 scholarships from the Wethersfield FFA Alumni.