Edna Westbrook Trigg in Denton County
Denton, Denton County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Edna Westbrook Trigg (1868-1946) was the first county home demonstration agent appointed in Texas in 1915, serving in Denton County from February 1916 through December 1937. She was named Denton County home demonstration emeritus from January 1, 1938, until her retirement on July 31, 1945. Previously in Milam County, she served as rural high school principal and "collaborator" for the United States Department of Agriculture as supervisor of Girls Tomato Clubs. Trigg traveled throughout Denton County teaching and advising farm women on vegetable gardening, canning, sewing, cooking, household management and other aspects of daily life. She had to overcome prejudices against government's interference in farming and a woman's interference in a man's work and home life. During World War I, she helped make the county agriculturally self-sufficient by working with farmers to grow more vegetables, attended patriotic meetings three nights a week urging people to purchase Liberty Bonds and held Saturday canning schools to show rural residents how to properly preserve and protect the food they grew. She convinced county commissioners to loan her $350 to purchase twenty community steam canners for use in the precincts. The Hawkeye Demonstration Club, organized in 1919 in the now extinct community of Hawkeye, owned the first community canner. Trigg served on the staff of the College of Industrial Arts (Texas Woman's University) overseeing courses in the methods of home demonstration and was honored in 1971 by the Texas Extension Education Association, Inc. 4-H with a scholarship in her name. On October 18, 1991, Edna Westbrook Trigg was entered into the National Agricultural Center and Hall of Fame. (2015)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1915 Edna Westbrook Trigg became the first county home demonstration agent appointed in Texas, taking up her Denton County post the next February. For more than two decades she traveled the county teaching farm women gardening, canning, sewing, and household management, overcoming resistance to both government advice and a woman working in "a man's world." During World War I she pushed agricultural self-sufficiency, urged Liberty Bond purchases, and ran Saturday canning schools, even borrowing county funds to buy communal steam canners.
Why it matters
Trigg helped pioneer the home demonstration movement that professionalized rural women's work and carried Progressive-era expertise into farm households across America.
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Related people
- · Edna Westbrook Trigg
Related events
- · World War I
Themes & tags
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