Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture

Interim Director: Voices from the past - C.F. Curtiss

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By MARK HONEYMAN, Interim director

We live in remarkable times. In agriculture, after a trying growing season the miracle of harvest is here. In academics, the school year has started with a swirl of lectures, students and research proposals. And in the civic arena, Iowa is awash in political candidates, media and opinion. At times, this triangle of forces - agriculture, academics and politics - seems to be veering almost out of control. In order to make sense of the present, I often look to the past.

Iowans experienced somewhat similar circumstances during the 1890s. The state was fully settled and harvests were large. There had been a deep economic recession and political unrest was widespread. Agricultural interests had issued ultimatums to the State Board of Trustees (the body that oversaw state colleges) insisting on a new “practical” curriculum. The Iowa triangle of agriculture, academics and politics was no less active 120 years ago!

One key figure from these times captures my attention: Charles F. Curtiss, dean of the ISC College of Agriculture from 1902 to 1932. He came to Iowa State in 1891, as part of the reorganization pushed by state agricultural leaders. At that time, there was one course and one instructor in agriculture. He crafted a four-year curriculum, helped form academic departments and soon rose to be department head of animal husbandry. In 1897 Dean “Tama Jim” Wilson became U.S. Secretary of Agriculture and Curtiss was named acting dean, and later dean and director of the experiment station.

In 1925 when Curtiss’ portrait was hung at Chicago’s Saddle and Sirloin Club, one of his students, C.L. Burlingham, was a banquet speaker. He recalled how “Dean Curtiss instilled in us the dignity of agriculture. He taught us to spell Agriculture with a capital ‘A’.” The dean gave a short response that praised the institution’s researchers, teachers and students and explained how he had created a major college of agriculture during difficult, rapidly changing times.

The 1890s through the 1920s saw alternating economic downturns and booms in Iowa agriculture. Tractors and mechanization on farms became commonplace. Farm size grew. Rural electrification and telephone service expanded. New crops and improved livestock were introduced. The ag experiment station started in the late 1880s, an academic milestone. The extension service and 4-H began in Iowa in the early 1900s and colleges of agriculture flourished. Politics at the turn of the century were turbulent with women’s suffrage, prohibition and populist efforts springing forth.

In Iowa, the turn of the last century was just as challenging as the turn of this century. So I looked to Dean Curtiss for insight.

Here’s what I found: a Victorian man with a celluloid collar who loved horses and livestock judging. He was “happiest making the rounds of the college farms astride his favorite horse.” He also embraced, managed and spurred change during the birth of ag research, extension and mechanization. He was an innovator, bringing soybeans and alfalfa to Iowa. He was a leader, expanding from one ag course to a major agricultural college. He was an administrator who fostered the applied ag sciences that produced future leaders such as George Washington Carver and Henry A. Wallace.

So the lesson of history is that turbulence among agriculture, academics and politics is normal in Iowa and we benefit from strong leaders to guide us. We also need leaders who are grounded in the past but can be managers of change. Soon the Leopold Center will have a new leader to do those things. And I hope that person will be a leader who understands that in Iowa we have been taught to say Agriculture with a capital ‘A’.
 

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