4-H Lafayette Fliers.
The Lafayette Fliers met Saturday, May 4th, at the home of Miss Dorothy Cassidy, club leader. The meeting was called to order by Gladys Steiber, president. Ferne Steiber then read the minutes of the last meeting, which were approved. A social committee composed of Myrtle and Laurayne Johnson and Alice Mae Goettle was appointed. The club leader then gave a very interesting lesson on rug making. Recent new members are Catherine Mooney, Lucille Guider, Ruth Hammell, Marcella Hammell, Catherine Guider and Mary Mooney. There are now a total of fifteen members.
Gretchen Gruber, Pub. Chm.


4-H Busy Bodies’ Club Meeting.
The 4-H Busy Bodies’ girls club met Saturday, May 11, at the home of Lorna Fullerton. Meeting called to order by President Edna Byrnes. Sec’y Helen Hall read the minutes of the last meeting. Edna Byrnes gave a talk on and submitted samples of diqerent (?) kinds of rugs. Lorna Fullerton told us how to take care of our teeth and Beatrice Collins gave an illustrated talk on book ends and showed a home made sample. Gertrude Langheim gave a demonstration on dresser drawer arrangement, assisted by Alice McCullough. Irene Reddy presented picture memory lessons on “The Last Supper” and “Gleaners” and Nellie Orr gave a talk on planting flowers for winter bouquets. A musical selection, “The Hungarian Dance” was given by Helen Hall and Virginia Healy. Gertrude Langheim, Pub. Chm.


Little Flower 4-H Club Meets.
The Little Flower 4-H club of West Ridge met with their leaders, Miss Lena Brecht and Mrs. N. H. Fish,, on May 12th. Those present included Rita, Regina and Mary Hennessy, Mary Bird, Virginia Ryan, Leona Kilpatrick, Lorna Kilpatrick, Etta Liddiard, Lewine Drew, Alice Fish, Rebecca Vangen, Mary and Rosemary O’Neill. Mary O’Neill gave a picture talk on the “Dance of the Nymphs” and Lorna Kilpatrick on “Madonna of the Chair.” A reading was given by Regina O’Neill. Three more girls were enrolled. The visitors were Mesdames Fred O’Riley, Chas. Kilpatrick, Gus O’Neill and Miss Loretta Mellick. Lunch was served by Miss Brecht. Rosemary O’Neill, Pub. Chm.

1930 Big -Four Institute Premium Awards (new page opens)

1930

Waukon, Ia., Nov. 8 - Numerous fine animals were shown by 4-H baby beef growers here recently, as the photos of the three winners will indicate. The year's work in baby beeves has just been completed by the farm bureau. The winners were sold at public auction in Chicago.

Maynard Leppert, son of George Leppert of French Creek township, had the distinction of being the winner in Allamakee county with his black Angus calf, which weighed 960 pounds. It brought $13.25 per cwt.

Cyril Mooney, son of Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Mooney of Lafayette township, took second here with his Hereford calf, which weighed 890 pounds. The $13.50 per cwt. paid for this animal was the top price paid in the Chicago auction.

Alice McCabe, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John McCabe of Jefferson township, was awarded the third prize on her baby beef Shorthorn, which weighed 1,030 pounds. It brought $12.75 per cwt.

Miss McCabe is a graduate of the Waukon high school, class of 1930. Mooney is a student in a rural school, while Leppert drives 12 miles each day to attend the Waukon high school. All three will again compete in 4-H baby beef club work next year.

Maynard Leppert, first prize winner

Cyril Mooney, second prize

Alice McCabe, third prize

~Telegraph-Herald and Times-Journal, Dubuque, Iowa, Sunday morning edition, November 9, 1930
~transcribed by S. Ferrall

Little Switzerland FFA Passes 30-year Milestone
by Milt Nelson

Waukon - The Waukon Little Switzerland Future Farmers of America chapter passed the thirtieth anniversary of its charter date last week, and, appropriately, the daughter of one of the charter members gave up her crown as chapter sweetheart at the annual FFA dance Saturday night in the Allamakee community high school gymnasium.

She is Mary Regan, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William M. Regan, who farm six miles northeast of Waukon. Regan was the Waukon FFA's first secretary and is shown in the 30-year-old picture which accompanies this article. And the new FFA sweetheart to whom Mary Regan gave up her crown Saturday night is Joan Beardmore, freshman daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Glenn Beardmore of Dorchester, who operate a large dairy farm near the Upper Iowa river in the English Bench community. Joan's father is also pictured in the tour group above.

All told, the Regan family has had six active members of the Little Switzerland FFA chapter. Three are current members, and two others, besides their father, are former members. They are Mick, farming near his father, and Dennis, serving with the army in Vietnam. Two of the three current FFA members in the Regan family are chapter officers. They are Frank, vice-president, and William JR, sentinel.

Of the 16 charter members of the Waukon Little Switzerland FFA chapter, five are still farming, three are deceased and eight are engaged in non-farm occupations. This ratio of 31 percent farmers compares with about 38 percent in a study of vocational agriculture graduates out of high school ten years which was conducted in recent years at Manchester, Vinton and West Branch. By contrast, exactly half of the Waukon area boys who apparently were FFA members in the second year of the Little Switzerland chapter's existence are still farming. They are shown in the picture.

Seven of the 16 charter members of the Waukon Little Switzerland FFA chapter are shown in this picture taken near the Memorial Union during a tour of the Iowa State campus at Ames in the 1937-38 school year.

Kneeling in the front row, and their current addresses, are (L-R):
Millard Helgerson, Webster City; Melvin Steffenson, Waukon; Glenn Beardmore, Dorchester; Harry Jones, deceased; Francis Plein, Lansing; William M. Regan, Waukon; Gerald Ralston, Los Angeles, Calif. and John Ahlstrom, Waukon.

Standing (L-R):
Howard Hansmeier, Waterloo; Martin Broderick, bus driver and Paschal Slattery, both deceased; Lloyd V. Clark, Postville; Joe Erickson, Monona; Harold Opheim, deceased; Charles J. Ebner, Hudson; Walter Troendle and Charles Bahr, Waukon; Claude Schafer, Lansing; Albert Flage, GAinesville, Fla.; Harry Sander, Waukon; Lawrence Henry, Comanche and Ralph Helming, Waukon

The list of charter members and their current known occupations is as follows:

Charles Bahr - farming two miles south of Waukon.

LaVerne Bakkum - drowned in the Mississippi river near Prairie du Chien in 1941 when the car in which he was riding sank through a hole in the ice made by workmen who were cutting ice for summer storage.

Robert Broderick - retired from the air force as a sergeant last month at Finland Air Force radar station near Two Harbors, Minn., after 25 years of service. A son, James L. Broderick, is an army helicopter pilot at Fort Carson near Colorado Springs, Colo. The father and grandfather of these men, Martin Broderick, was a school bus driver for many early FFA trips by the LIttle Switzerland chapter. He died Dec. 3, 1965.

Robert Dunning - first president of the Little Switzerland FFA chapter, now farming five miles south of Waukon.

Millard Helgerson - working in a hotel in Webster City.

Wilbur Inger - traveling mechanic for state highway commission; lives at Rockwell.

Harry Jones - killed in action with the army in Italy during World War II.

Karl Mosier - first treasurer, now half-owner with Ambrose Welch of Hausladen's auto supply in Waukon.

Michael Norton - working in the meat-wrapping department of the Waukon Co-op Locker Association plant at Waukon.

Clare O'Meara - works for the National Brush Company in Aurora, Ill.

Gerald Ralston - first FFA chapter reporter, now living in Los Angeles and working for the Northrop Corporation, formerly Northrop Aircraft, Inc., at Hawthorne, Calif.

William M. Regan - farming in central Allamakee county.

John Seibert - farming six miles southwest of Waukon.

Paschal Slattery - died of a tropical disease in a California Naval hospital while serving with the navy in the South Pacific during World War II.

Melvin Steffenson - first vice-president, now farming two miles east of Waukon.

Past Instructors - former vo-ag instructors at Waukon, and their current occupations, are as follows:

Milo Pitcher, 1936-41, now in the insurance business at Nevada [Story co. IA]
Robert Hager, 1941-51 and 1955-58, when Waukon had a two-man vo-ag department, now a science teacher in the Waukon school system.
Milan Petras, 1951-54, now vo-ag instructor at Humboldt [Humboldt co. IA]
Alan Brown, 1954-59, now industrial arts instructor at South Winneshiek community high school in Calmar. Lives in Waukon.
D. Tom Miller, 1959-62, now district manager for Allied Chemical Company at Omaha, Nebr.
Richard P. Halstead, 1962-63, no vo-ag instructor at Bondurant [Polk co. IA]
Norbert E. Duffy, 1963-present

~Cedar Rapids Gazette, April 9, 1967
~transcribed by S. Ferrall