Edna Westbrook Trigg in Denton County

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Edna Westbrook Trigg. Born 1868, died 1946.

Now, you might drive right through Denton County without ever knowing that a woman with a suitcase full of canning jars and a bottomless supply of determination once changed the way an entire county fed itself, but the marker on the side of the road knows, and now so will you. In 1915, Edna Westbrook Trigg became the first county home demonstration agent appointed in Texas. The first.

In the whole state. And Denton County is where she showed up to work, starting in February of 1916. She stayed through December of 1937, that's more than twenty-one years of dusty roads and stubborn farmers and kitchens that weren't hers but that she walked into anyway.

Before all that, over in Milam County, she'd been a rural high school principal and a collaborator, that's the actual title, collaborator, for the United States Department of Agriculture, supervising Girls Tomato Clubs. She knew her way around a growing season before she ever set foot in Denton County. Now, here's where the road gets a little rough, because Edna Trigg wasn't exactly welcomed with open arms.

She had to overcome prejudices, and the marker doesn't soften that word, prejudices against the government's interference in farming, and against a woman's interference in a man's work and home life. So she wasn't just teaching canning. She was pushing a door that a lot of people had bolted shut.

She pushed anyway. She traveled throughout Denton County, all of it, teaching and advising farm women on vegetable gardening, canning, sewing, cooking, household management, and what the marker calls other aspects of daily life. Which is a quiet way of saying she was helping women run their households smarter and harder than the world gave them credit for being able to do.

Then came World War I, and Edna Trigg shifted into something close to a force of nature. She worked with farmers to grow more vegetables, helping make Denton County agriculturally self-sufficient. She attended patriotic meetings three nights a week, three nights a week, urging people to purchase Liberty Bonds.

And on Saturdays, she held canning schools to show rural residents how to properly preserve and protect the food they grew. She convinced the county commissioners to loan her three hundred and fifty dollars to purchase twenty community steam canners for use in the precincts. Twenty canners, spread across the county, so that nobody had to go without the tools to put food by.

The Hawkeye Demonstration Club, organized in 1919 in the now-extinct community of Hawkeye, owned the very first community canner. A community that no longer exists, holding a record that still stands. Edna Trigg also served on the staff of the College of Industrial Arts, today known as Texas Woman's University, overseeing courses in the methods of home demonstration.

She shaped not just the women in the field but the women who would go out into the field after her. When she was named Denton County home demonstration emeritus on January the first, 1938, it was recognition that some people are too valuable to simply let walk out the door. She finally retired on July 31, 1945.

In 1971, twenty-five years after her death, the Texas Extension Education Association, Inc. 4-H honored her with a scholarship in her name. And then, on October 18, 1991, Edna Westbrook Trigg was entered into the National Agricultural Center and Hall of Fame. She started with a loan for twenty steam canners and a county full of resistance.

She ended up in a national hall of fame. That's the whole story, right there on the marker, and it still has room to grow.

What the marker says

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)