The Roots of This Family f 



Are in the Soil 



About Mrs. Will Parks of Rock Island 



County, Home Maker and Home 



Bureau Leader 



^' 



By NeU Flatt Goodman 



ITH a heritage of three hun- 

 dred and twenty acres of land 

 handed over from the Indians 

 to the government and from the govern- 

 ment to her husband's grandfather and 

 on down to her husband, no wonder 

 Mrs. Will Parks of Rock Island county, 

 Northwest director of the Illinois Home 

 Bureau Federation, wanted a better un- 

 derstanding of her job as homemaker to 

 help maintain that heritage. 



Mr. and Mrs. Parks live in the large 

 roomy house built in the time of Mr. 

 Parks' father. With some changes an 

 apartment has been arranged and is 

 now occupied by their oldest son, his 

 wife and their two children. Father and 

 son look after the land together. An- 

 other boy, 19, is teaching but expects to 

 finish one more year in college and 

 graduate in agriculture. Annie Laurie, 

 the one daughter, now married and inter- 

 ested in farming, along with the boys 

 helped to fill the house with medals and 

 ribbons in 4-H club work. The youngest 

 boy, 10, expects to start in 4-H work 

 soon with Shorthorn cattle. The roots 

 of the family are in the soil. They do 

 not expect to move to Iowa next year, 

 jjerhaps Nebraska the next, and on to 

 California after that. Their home has 

 been, and continues to be, established. 

 "The house is somewhat different from 

 the original log cabin built on the farm," 

 Mrs. Parks said. "But the spot where 

 that log cabin stood always will be of 

 interest and pride in this family. Our 

 sons and our grandsons will cherish all 

 the old family stories, history and tra- 

 ditions." 



Mrs. Parks, a happy looking, brown- 

 eyed woman is charmingly young for a 

 grandmother. In explaining the influence 

 of Home Bureau in this successful 

 family, she said, "Through Home Bureau 

 I gained a greater realization of my 

 partnership and close relationship in the 

 business of farming. When we were 

 keeping farm accounts in connection with 

 the University, I was amazed that we 

 were listed, because of the food we pro- 

 duced on the farm, in a certain income 

 group. I hadn't realized that our garden 

 produce, milk and butter, fruits ind meat 

 meant so much in actual dollars. 



MRS. WILL PARKS 

 "I hadn't realmd fhat our garden produce meant to much in actual dollara.' 



"With study of the actual job as home- 

 maker, a woman has a greater under- 

 standing of her importance in the busi- 

 ness of farming. This sense of an actual 

 place in the plan has helped many a 

 woman to be contented and take roots 

 for her family in farm life. 



"You see," Mrs. Parks explained, "I 

 lived in Rock Island or Moline, went to 

 school or taught school before I was 

 married, and I knew very little about 

 homemaking or even housekeeping. I 

 supposed one just learned that sort of 

 thing some way or another, and so I 

 Studied Latin and languages when I went 

 to Grinnell college. Then when I came 

 out here on the farm to make my home 

 I found there was much to learn. ' 



Mrs. Parks adapted herself readily to 

 the new life and soon built up social 

 contacts with her neighbors as well. One 

 of the first things she did was to organ- 

 ize a neighborhood club, the first of its 

 kind in that community. Twenty-five 

 years later, that club is still active. En- 

 deavouring to make up for lost time in 

 the scientific study of homemaking, she 

 attended the semi-annual conferences on 

 home economics held at the University 

 of Illinois. There, in January, 1924, she 

 helped to write the state constitution for 

 Home Bureau when it was organized. 



Mrs. Brigdon, now honorary president 

 of New York State Home Bureau talked 

 at that meeting. "We all were much 

 interested and before long we had a state 

 organization for Illinois," she said. "Mrs. 

 Spencer Ewing of Bloomington was pres- 

 ident and I was vice-chairman of that 

 first board. Later I was busy with the 

 children and it has been only in recent 

 years that I have been able to help in 

 an official capacity in the state organiza- 

 tion. All the time, however we had our 

 county group in which I served for seven 

 years." 



Diversified farming is the order on 

 the Parks farm. The family has included 

 many small fruits and an orchard in the 

 farm layout. Mrs. Parks also points with 

 pride to the butter which she makes and 

 delivers to special customers every Satur- 

 day morning. An electric churn is one 

 of the latest labor saving devices. 



Better farm to market roads is one 

 particular interest to the Parks family in 

 the lAA program. As Mrs. Parks says 

 "We live on a state aid road without 

 any aid." 



With all the community activities in 



which they take part they have need of 



good roads. Mrs. Parks for se^'en years 



was leader of 4-H club work. From 



(Continued on page 22) 



MARCH. 1937 



If 



