Mosher, Martin L. 1882-1982

MOSHER, WHITE, FORMAN, BROWN, STRAW

Posted By: Marilyn Holmes
Date: 4/20/2017 at 16:13:25

The Grinnell (IA) Herald-Register
March 4, 1982

MR. MOSHER, AG PIONEER, DIES
TUESDAY AT MAYFLOWER HOME

Martin L. Mosher, 99, Iowa's first county extension agent, died Tuesday morning, March 2, at the Mayflower Home's Health Care Center.

A memorial service will be conducted at 1 p.m. Friday in Denison Chapel of the Mayflower Home, with the Rev. Philip J. Ramstad, pastor of the United Church of Christ-Congregational, officiating. Pianist will be Deanna Acrea.

Following cremation, burial will be at the West Branch Cemetery. Memorials may be made to the Mayflower Home.

The son of Lemuel O. and Lidorana White Mosher, he was born April 12, 1882, on a farm near West Liberty. He was a 1905 graduate of Iowa State College's College of Agriculture and joined the staff at Iowa State, serving until 1912. During an 18-month period, he lived in Mexico helping to increase corn production and lay the groundwork for an agricultural extension service.

He was married to Elva C. Forman on Dec. 29, 1908, at Ames.

Mr. Mosher became the state's first county extension agent in 1912, serving in Clinton County. He became Illinois' second county agent in 1916, serving for eight years in Woodford County. During that period he conducted a carefully designed corn-yield test which discovered the Krug corn adopted by farmers over much of the Corn Belt.

In 1923, he moved to the Farm Management Division of the College of Agriculture at the University of Illinois, where he remained until his retirement in 1950. He was instrumental in designing and launching the Iowa Bureau Farm Management Service, a program of intensive analysis of farm accounts kept by farmers and analyzed by Mosher and his staff of university assistants. After three years of organizing the service and being its first fieldman working with 250 farmers in four counties, he became state director of the program as it spread over most of Illinois.

Mr. Mosher was active in the Disciples of Christ Church and the University of Illinois Y.M.C.A. He was a member of the Exchange Club of Urbana, Ill., and the United Church of Christ-Congregational, Grinnell.

He received the Award of Superior Service from the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1949 and awards from the Illinois Society of Farm Managers and Appraisers, the American Society of Agronomy, the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation and the Agricultural Adjustment Administration. He was listed in "American Men of Science" and "Who's Who in the Midwest."

Survivors include his children, Arthur T. Mosher of Ithaca, N.Y., M. Luther Mosher Jr. of Portland, Ore., Ruth Brown of Ames, Vora Straw of Dixon, Ill., and Robert F. Mosher of Wilmette, Ill.; 17 grandchildren; and 21 great-grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by his parents; his wife; one granddaughter; four brothers and one sister.