Girl's Tomato Club

The first Girl's Tomato Clubs in Texas were organized in 1912 in Milam County to acquaint young women in rural areas with tomato production and canning techniques. At the request of the United States Department of Agriculture, Mrs. Edna Westbrook Trigg, a local high school principal, agreed to undertake the project. She organized eleven clubs throughout the county, with members ranging in age from ten to eighteen. A similar program for boys, the Corn Clubs, had been instituted in Jack County four years earlier. Each member of the Girl's Tomato Clubs was to produce a tomato crop on one-tenth of an acre of land and then was taught proper canning procedures. The girls exhibited their products at Milano, Rockdale, the 1913 State Fair in Dallas, and the Waco Cotton Palace. So successful were these exhibits that several of the girls started college education funds with the money they raised selling their goods. As the state's first rural girl's organization of its kind, the Tomato Clubs were forerunners of later programs, including 4-H, that were initiated under the supervision of the Texas Agricultural Extension Service. Over time, 4-H has expanded its scope but has maintained the principle objectives of its predecessors.

Girl's Tomato Club is a historical marker in Cameron, Milam County, dedicated in 1983. It is one of 88 historical markers documented in Milam County in the Texas Historical Commission Atlas, among 151 historic sites cataloged across the county.

The site sits at 30.8494, -96.9758 near Cameron. The nearest cataloged historic site is Milam County Jail of 1895 (historical marker), about under a tenth of a mile away. Others within a short drive include Mrs. Edna Westbrook Trigg, Milam County Courthouse, and Milam, Ben.

This record corresponds to Texas Historical Commission Atlas #5331007946. Use the map below for its exact position and turn-by-turn directions.