Winters FFA Chapter
Winters, Runnels County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In the fall of 1928, a Future Farmers club was organized with 30 members of the vocational agriculture class at Winters High School. The same year, a national Future Farmers of America (FFA) club was started in Kansas City, Mo. On April 10, 1930, the first Texas charter for the national organization was issued to the club in Winters. Over the years, the Winters FFA has produced award-winning vocational agriculture students on the state and national levels. Many of its members have become successful farmers and businessmen in Runnels County. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In the fall of 1928 thirty students in the vocational agriculture class at Winters High School organized a Future Farmers club, the same year the national FFA was founded in Kansas City. On April 10, 1930, the club received the first Texas charter of the national organization. Over the decades the Winters chapter produced award-winning students and generations of farmers and businessmen across Runnels County.
Why it matters
As holder of the first Texas FFA charter, Winters marks the roots of an organization that shaped agricultural education and rural leadership across the nation.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In the late 1920s rural America was changing fast. Farm families were adopting tractors, new crop methods and scientific agriculture. Meanwhile, the federal Smith-Hughes Act of 1917 had begun funding vocational agriculture classes in public high schools. For the first time, farm boys could study their future trade in a classroom as well as in the field.
Winters, in Runnels County, was the kind of West Texas farm town those programs were built for. Its economy rose and fell with crops and weather, and its young people were likely to spend their lives working the land.
The timing also carries a shadow. The Winters club formed in 1928, and its Texas charter came in 1930, just as the Great Depression was taking hold. For farm families already under strain, practical training and leadership skills were a real lifeline.
People & events
In the fall of 1928, thirty students in the vocational agriculture class at Winters High School organized a Future Farmers club. That same year, far from West Texas, delegates in Kansas City founded a national organization, the Future Farmers of America. The two efforts grew toward each other.
On April 10, 1930, the Winters club received the first Texas charter issued by the national FFA. A group of teenagers in a small Runnels County town had become the starting point of the organization in one of the country's great farming states.
The chapter did not stop at being first. Over the decades Winters FFA members won honors at the state and national levels, and many went on to run farms and businesses across Runnels County. The club's biggest legacy is in the working lives of its members.
Its place in the American story
The FFA became one of the largest student organizations in the United States, and Texas grew into one of its strongest state associations. Every Texas chapter traces its lineage back to the charter issued in Winters in 1930.
The movement showed a new idea about rural America: farming was a skilled, modern profession that deserved real education. It also held that farm kids should learn public speaking, record-keeping and leadership alongside animal husbandry and crop science. Generations of rural leaders, including legislators and business owners, learned those skills in FFA meetings and competitions.
The Winters story shows how national movements often take shape. A national charter was issued in Kansas City, but the energy came from local classrooms like this one, where students had already started organizing on their own.
If you visit
This marker went up in 1986 for the Texas Sesquicentennial. It honors something you cannot see in stone or brick: a club, and the idea behind it. Picture a vocational agriculture classroom in 1928, with thirty students deciding to form something of their own.
Winters is a quiet farm town in the rolling country of West Texas, surrounded by fields that show what the chapter was all about. Visit in spring or fall and you may see the farming year in full swing.
If you are traveling with kids who show livestock or wear the blue FFA jacket, this is a meaningful stop. Tell them their organization's Texas story started right here. The marker makes an easy detour on a drive across the Concho Valley and the farm country of West Central Texas.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related events
- · First Texas FFA charter, 1930
Themes & tags
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