For a brief period in the 1930s and 1940s, Louisburg College owned a 180-acre farm located approximately three miles north of Louisburg on N.C. Highway 39. The farm supplied vegetables, meat, milk, and eggs for the dining hall, gave students the opportunity to defray part of their expenses through work, briefly influenced the curriculum, and provided recreational opportunities.

The Great Depression of the 1930s likely contributed to the decision to acquire the farm. Faced with considerable debt and a fall in enrollment, the college in 1931 opened its doors to young men. Later it implemented a self-help program that enabled students to meet a portion of their college expenses by working on campus. When Daniel Edwin Earnhardt became president in 1937, he quickly pursued his idea to acquire a farm for the college, believing that, with student labor, it could be made a “paying investment.”

On December 2, 1937, Earnhardt purchased the W. J. Macon home place from Sallie Louise Dickie and others. The farm consisted of approximately 135 acres of woodland and 45 acres in cultivation. Earnhardt sold enough timber to cover $2,000 of the purchase price of $4,500. Subsequently, the college sold a farm in Johnston County that had been bequeathed by Miss Amy Stevens, using the proceeds to fund the balance of the purchase price and to make needed improvements to the property.

With the help of college friends and student labor, Earnhardt quickly made his vision a reality. The two-story, eight-room farmhouse was repaired, and Earnhardt stated in a letter written in December 1938 that it was being used as the home for the college president. The college built a dairy barn with a concrete floor and running water and a livestock barn. New fencing enclosed the pasture where a small herd of dairy cattle donated by T. B. Upchurch of Raeford grazed.

The farm provided needed income for male students and supplied much of the food and milk consumed in the dining hall. During the 1938-1939 school year, 23 boys earned a total of $2,331.57. The college bus transported them to the farm each day at 1:30 p.m. and they worked until 5 p.m. President Earnhardt reported in December 1938 that the farm had produced 800 bushels of sweet potatoes, half of all the other vegetables eaten by students, 24 gallons of milk each day, and 300 pounds of pork a week. Hogs enjoyed scraps from the dining hall when school was in session and milk when students were gone. A small quantity of tobacco was raised to offset farm expenses.

Dr. Walter Patten, who assumed the presidency in 1939, paid close attention to management of the farm and sometimes found it frustrating. Occasionally he commandeered male physical education students, taking them from their classes to shuck corn or dig potatoes. He purchased livestock, including hogs and chickens, hired an experienced farmer to manage the operation in return for a share of the farm products, and negotiated with the Pine State Creamery in Raleigh for the sale of surplus milk. Complaining in 1944 to a company official about the price offered, Patten declared that “we had better take our milk and feed it to our chickens and pigs.”

The farm had an impact also on the college curriculum. William Irving Shope joined the faculty in 1940 to teach courses in agriculture. According to the 1941-1942 catalog, a Preparatory Agricultural Course readied students for more advanced courses in agriculture at four-year institutions. Students who chose the Agricultural Terminal Course took such classes as General Field Crops, Feeds and Feeding, Fertilizers and Soils, Poultry Husbandry, Horticulture, Swine, Farm Shop, Animal Husbandry, Farm Machinery, and Farm Management. The latter course of study was soon discontinued, however, followed in a few years by the preparatory curriculum.

In addition to these tangible benefits, the farm provided students with an outlet for recreation. In November 1939, the Wesley Foundation Group of the Methodist Church sponsored a picnic at the farm, where students roasted marshmallows and wieners over two large fires. The girls’ Physical Education Club enjoyed a hike to the property in the fall of 1948.

Costs eventually outweighed the benefits associated with the farm in the more prosperous post-World War II economy. According to a report compiled in January 1950, the farm lost more than $15,000 between the 1937-1938 and 1948-1949 academic years. Consequently, the property was sold on January 5, 1951, for $19,200.

Published in The Franklin Times on September 28, 2017.

Maury York is director of the Tar River Center for History and Culture at Louisburg College. He wishes to thank Norma White of the Cecil W. Robbins Library at Louisburg College for her assistance in locating farm records in the college archives. He is grateful also to Mr. and Mrs. Napoleon Griffin, current owners of the farm, for inviting him to discuss Louisburg College’s ownership of the property at a gathering held at the site on September 2, 2017.