"It's not the will to win, but the will to prepare to win that makes the difference." 

                  Texas 4-H Club Beginning

Disappointment has never shown on the face of Tom Marks, newspaper editor of the Jacksboro News and part time county agent as he watched the entries arrive for the Adult Corn Show.  He had worked hard with the farmers teaching them better methods of farming in the rocky Jack County land.  He had a demonstration farm where he showed the farmers they could make poor land produce by using good farming practices.

But on the day of the Show, October 17, 1907, very few showed up with their corn.  A friend tried to comfort Tom’s feelings by saying, “Tom, you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.”  Tom gathered his thoughts and said, “Then I’ll start with the pups.”

He publicized in his newspaper the following:  ‘Boys, in writing, join the corn contest, tell your age and tell the kind of corn you wish to plant.  The kinds of corns were: white, yellow, laguna, bloody butcher, and flower corn.  We would like to have two or three hundred boys in Jack County join this contest.  There will be five first prizes on the five different kinds of corn, a second and third prize offered on each of the five varieties of corn which will make 15 prizes in all.  The father of the boy entering the contest should give the boy the corn he raises on the contest patch as a further inducement to the boys to try for these prizes.’

He began talking with his friends who had boys.  Mr. Alfred G. Smith had six boys and Mr. Marks went to see him and explained his idea of giving the boys their own bag of corn to raise and work as he instructed them.  Mr. Smith encouraged Mr. Marks.  Four of his boys were enrolled, Frank and Fred (twins), Jap, and M.L. “Boss”.  Mr. Smith went with Mr. Marks to see some of the neighbors.  The Smith boys all grew different varieties of corn.

Mr. Jim Dukes had six boys in all but one died before the age of six.  When Dave heard his cousins were going to grow corn, he wanted some too.  His dad didn’t like the white laguna corn Mr. Marks brought.  It was good a late corn, hard, and white.  Being very proud of Dave, he gave him his best five acres of land and Dave planted his corn by the check method in rows 3 feet by 3 feet for ease in cultivating.

Mr. Marks went to the schools of the county circling in his car to attract attention. In the Mountain Home School, he enlisted another set of twins, Barney and Paul Plaster and Henry Hannah.

Ardra Hannah was given yellow dent corn and planted it in 2 rows of corn and 1 row of peas.  Mr. Marks instructed the boys as to the planting and cultivating practices.  Ardra remembers running to the road at the sound of a car coming to see if it was ‘Uncle Tom’ as Mr. Marks was called.  He visited the boys to check on their progress.

Welzie Derrick planted his corn by hand and cultivated it with a Georgia stock drawn by one horse.

The day of the Show, Ardra Hannah remembers he and his brother, Olin, choosing their corn very carefully from the log crib and tying it up with a grass string as his dad hitched up the team to the wagon for the trip to Jacksboro picking up Willie Cadell and Gus Lester on the way.

Dave Dukes remembers it was a job for a boy of 11 to choose the best ears he could find and to carry his corn on a rope as his dad walked proudly beside him.

On October 8, 1908, the day of the Jacksboro Corn Show and Carnival, Mr. Marks was excited as the 43 boys gathered with their corn.  Other displays of fruit and vegetables were also shown.

The boys watched as the judges viewed their corn, judging on the length of the ears, straightness of the rows, and how well it was filled out. 

The corn was placed in four classes according to varieties.  Results of the first Corn Show were as follows:  Yellow corn: first prize, Welzie Derrick; second, Jack Allen; third, Marvin Shown.  White Corn: first, Gus Lester; second, Harry Reeves; third, Willie Martin.  Laguna Corn: first, Hubert Smith; second, Fred Smith; second, Doyle Gillespie; third, Willie Cadell.  Mixed corn: First, Otto Smith; second, Fred Smith; third, Johnnie Clark.

Capt. White, Horticulture Commissioner of the Rock Island Railway, gave 50 cents each to the boys who won first and second prize toward buying a hat.  To Johnnie Clark, an orphan boy, who won third prize he gave one dollar for the same purpose.  Perkins Bros. & Co. also gave 50 cents to each of the first and second prize boys towards buying a hat.

A button with an ear of corn on it was given to each boy to identify them as a participant.  Local merchants treated the boys after the show.

Ardra Hannah saw his first hand crank moving picture show that day.  Ardra liked the movies so well, he went back again, earning his money by selling Jack rabbit ears for a nickel a piece.

Frank Smith went to the movie and was scared to death by the train in the movie as it looked like it was coming right out into the audience.

Dave Dukes had his first automobile ride that day as Hick Hensley gave the boys a ride to the new Ice Cream Factory to get some ice cream and back to town.

Mr. Marks travelled by train with some of the boys and their exhibits to the 1908 State Fair of Texas.  Welzie Derrick won a first place on his corn and 17 pears that weighed 25 pounds.

The four Smith boys made the trip with a dollar each.  M.L. “Boss” came home with a dime change.

These boys grew up to be an asset to their community; farmer, rancher, preacher, and one county commissioner.

The Corn Club later became the present Texas 4-H Club.  It was on the organizational structure of the Corn Club that the present system was built.  Much of the procedure set-up by Mr. Marks is still used today.  Methods of making reports, used by Mr. Marks were copied by the Washington Office of the Agricultural Dept. and are still in use.  Mr. Marks was known as the “father of the corn contests”, which were then instituted in all corn-growing counties of this country by the United States government.  H. E. Savely, field agent for the United States Agricultural Dept. was glad to tell the farmers of Jacksboro, Texas that the idea was started by one of their own.

The old house that gave shelter to the very first meeting of the Corn Club still stands at 241 Belknap Street in Jacksboro, Texas.  It is now the Jack County Museum and houses historical information of the county and the Corn Club.  Much of the material that went into the buildings construction is solid oak and was built to withstand the thrust of the Indians.  The materials were hauled there in wagons from Jefferson, Texas.  The man who built it paid the carpenter in $20 gold pieces.

The Smith and Dukes boys who were the first of the original members of the Corn Kids Club are distant relatives of Kacie Hughes who is a member of the Liberty County 4-H Mounted Drill Team.  They were brothers and cousins of her great grandmother, Lanora Dukes of Jacksboro.