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Wednesday, January 17, 2018

Farmers' Dinner with J. J. Alford in 1899

Jeptha J. Alford
1830 - 1914
son of Edwin Barksdale Alford
My 2nd great granduncle

Jeptha was a prominent figure in his community and he is mentioned in several newspaper articles. He was actively involved in the Farmers' Club. In this account he hosted the club members at his home for dinner and a meeting.



 Farmers and Farming Around Osyka. The Farmers’ Club met at Dr. Alford’s on the 15 inst., eight miles southeast of Osyka, Miss., and as usual they had an interesting meeting. Here farmers are steadily improving, and most of them are entirely out of debt. They have brought up, from New Orleans this season thirty-eight car loads of commercial fertilizer, and are using some Byram marl by way of experiment. They also use home fertilizers and plant cow peas pretty liberally. They take agricultural papers and inquire diligently for agricultural truths, and are more in districts than piney woods farmers are in most places.

… [meeting notes] ...


The dinner. The club was treated to a bountiful farmers’ dinner by Dr. Alford, and the  members gave ample proofs that they appreciated it highly. And nearly every article on his table was made on his own farm. The doctor supplies butter for the Osyka market, and always has an ample supply of milk and butter on his table. He has just completed a nice dairy, and intends to steadily increase his number of cows till he has a hundred. He thinks the milk and butter and cows and cattle in the pine lands are profitable. The cattle here are now fat and in fine condition.

Source: Agricultural and Industrial Notes. (New Orleans, LA: The Times Picayune, 20 May 1880) 2; digital image, Newspapers.com: accessed Sept. 2017.

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3 comments:

  1. WendyJanuary 17, 2018 at 7:42 AM

    Wow, what a fantastic piece. Look at those farmers sharing ideas and leaning new tricks of the trade for each other’s betterment. And your ancestor was leading the way. How did you find this?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Colleen G. Brown PasqualeJanuary 17, 2018 at 8:35 AM

      Wendy, I did a search through Newspapers.com. I knew I had many Alford family members in Louisiana. I put in a span of years when many were living there and hit search. I trolled through a long list of results, looking for known family members. I found several great matches that added flavor to the facts I already know about these people. J. J. Alford is mentioned several times.

      Delete
  2. Charlie PurvisJanuary 17, 2018 at 6:23 PM

    These men pioneered what later became Farmers Cooperative.

    ReplyDelete

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