THE DEMONSTRATION WORK 



the esteem in which these co-workers held the man who used 

 their money for the benefit of humanity. Dr. Buttrick said : 

 "The public at large ought to know how great a service Dr. Knapp 

 rendered his day and generation. He was one of the greatest 

 teachers I ever knew and one of the greatest souls I ever loved." 



Dr. Knapp expressed the belief that through intensive 

 activity and organization, the boys would be able to attract 

 national attention in five years in their line of demonstration 

 work. He said, however, that before this time was half gone 

 that the demand for G-irls' Clubs would be very strong and 

 that the agents must be ready for it. 



The first club was organized in Aiken County, South 

 Carolina, by Miss Marie Cromer, in the early part of 1910. 

 Miss Cromer was a country school teacher and was also the 

 Aiken County representative of the School Improvement Asso- 

 ciation at their annual session in December, 1909, where a 

 representative of the Department of Agriculture discussed the 

 development of the Boys' Club Work, and gave tentative sug- 

 gestions for the beginning of the Girls' Clubs. Miss Cromer 

 secured an enrolment of 47 club members in different parts 

 of the county by spring. She met with quite a bit of apathy, 

 indifference and some opposition, but she aroused the girls 

 and got them started, even though she had to write letters 

 after her day's work was done in the schoolroom. Later in 

 that same year some work was undertaken in two or three 

 counties in Virginia, with Miss Ella G. Agnew in charge. 

 Altogether there were about 300 girls enrolled in 1910. 



The work of Miss Cromer and her girls in Aiken County 

 soon attracted much attention and favorable comment. Miss 

 Cromer was appointed a special agent by the United States 

 Department of Agriculture in the latter part of the summer 

 of 1910. A prominent woman invited her to spend the sum- 



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