My daddy often said that the squeaky wheel gets the grease. With that the case, family lore has it that Lillie Mae Pennington Smith (1888-1978), the mother of Samuel "Sam" Harrell Smith, Jr., knocked on the LSU president's door, seeking assistance when Sam was college bound in 1929 - the beginning of the Great Depression. A deal was struck for Sam to work, helping with the cows, for his room and board. He also toiled in the sugar cane experiment station. In addition, his older siblings helped with his educational expenses. And Sam made the most of his education.
In 1933, he received his Bachelor of Science degree from LSU, majoring in botany, agronomy, and chemistry, but he couldn't get work when he graduated, due to the Great Depression. So, he began working on, and completing, a Master's degree. During this time, the Soil Conservation Service was established, and Sam found employment. His first role was as a technical foreman in a Civilian Conservation Corps camp in Minden, Louisiana, where he trained the CCC enrollees and the foremen to do the Soil Conservation work, in an effort to reduce soil erosion.
Minden is where Sam also found love. Interestingly, it was a Franklinton connection that introduced Sam to his bride. Going to Minden with a friend, Robert "Bob" Moore of Franklinton, Sam roomed with Bob who - the small world that it is - was a friend of my folks. The husband of Hester, Mr. Bob later retired as a civil engineer and a U.S. Army colonel, and he was buried at Ellis Cemetery in June of 1999, a month before my dad, also a U. S. Army colonel. Mr. Bob was the brother of George Moore, who known to me as "Uncle George," founded what became Moore & Jenkins Insurance Company in Franklinton.
Back to Mr. Sam, it was his roommate Bob's girlfriend who convinced her friend Anna Juanita Lytle (1916-2007) to go on a blind date with Sam. Juanita was the daughter of Grover and Mattie Lytle of Minden. During their courtship Sam, who was without a car, marched a mile to visit Juanita at the Lytle family home. Date nights were often spent in the living room or on the front porch swing. On occasion, Sam borrowed his future father-in-law's automobile to take Juanita to the theater, better known then as the picture show. After a short time, the couple married in September of 1935 at the home of the bride's parents.
What astonished me was the economics of the era. According to Sam, their first refrigerator was $205, and a recliner was $40. Automobiles - Fords and Chevys - were around $800 though a basic model could be had for about $680. The cost of staples astonished - bacon for 35 cents per pound, bread for 9 or 10 cents per loaf, and eggs for 35 cents per dozen. Just this morning, I paid $5.29 for a dozen and a half eggs and $7.99 for a pound of bacon. Land, sakes, alive!
Sam's work with the Soil Conservation Service took the young couple first to Clinton, Louisiana, and then east to Kentwood where in 1935 the government had established a Civilian Conservation Corps "CCC" Camp, part of a government program which originated in the 1930s to put our country's troubled youth, some from detention homes, to work. The youth were drawn from long distances, in an effort to deter their return home. The CCC built fences, roads, and terrace rows and performed other work for the farmers. The CCC workers earned $27 per month, with a large portion sent home to their parents. Stay tuned for a future series, hopefully later this year, on the subject of the CCC.
By 1939, Sam had risen to Superintendent of the Kentwood CCC Camp. And the Smiths had begun their family. Their first son Phillip Harrell Smith was born in August of 1936 in McComb, Mississippi, as Kentwood was without a hospital. He was the namesake of his great-great-grandfather Samuel Harrell, discussed in part 1 of this series. Sam and Juanita had their second son, Kenneth Wayne, in April of 1940.
With the onset of World War II in December of 1941, most young men were joining the armed forces. Accordingly, the CCC Camps began closing. Sam became an agronomist in Baton Rouge with the LSU Sugar Cane Experiment Station, and then in 1943 he became St. Tammany Parish County Agent. It was in 1945 that "Mr. Smith goes to Franklinton." LSU opened an Experiment Station, what became the LSU Southeast Research Station, in Franklinton, and Sam was named its first Superintendent. In his own words in a manuscript, discovered in later years by his son Phillip, "I was responsible for clearing the land, erecting the buildings, hiring, training, and supervising personnel, as well as supervising experimental work." By this time, Sam and Juanita had their third son James Qua Smith, born in January of 1944.
After a short stint in Florida with Lykes Steamship Company, the Smiths soon returned to Franklinton where Sam industriously worked to help the dairy farmers. His work was invaluable to the once vibrant dairy industry of Washington Parish.
Source for this column and series: "Baywood and Beyond - Ancestors and Descendants of Samuel Harrell Smith, Sr. and Lillie Mae Pennington," by Sylvia Kelly Smith.
•Stay tuned next week for more on the life of Sam Smith, including details of his contribution to the local dairy industry, in his own words.
