DUANE
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Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna give it its due. Now, fall of 1928, out in Winters, Texas, somebody decided thirty young folks in the vocational agriculture class at Winters High School ought to be organized. So they were.
A Future Farmers club, thirty members strong, right there in Runnels County. Thirty kids who knew the land, or were learnin' to. That same year, clear up in Kansas City, Missouri, a national organization was takin' shape.
The Future Farmers of America, the FFA, was just gettin' its legs under it on the national stage. Two things born in the same season, one in a Missouri city, one in a West Texas classroom. Neither one knowin' quite yet what the other would mean to it.
Then comes April 10, 1930. That's the date worth rememberin'. Because on that day, the first Texas charter for the national FFA organization was issued.
Not to Houston. Not to Dallas. To Winters.
That little club with its thirty original members had just become the first in all of Texas to carry the official banner of the Future Farmers of America. The first. In the whole state.
Over the years that followed, the Winters FFA kept provin' that first charter was no accident. Award-winning students, recognized at the state level, recognized at the national level. And plenty of those members went on to become successful farmers and businessmen right there in Runnels County, the same county where it all started.
Thirty kids in a vocational agriculture class. One charter. First in Texas.
Sometimes the most important things start real quiet.
What the marker says
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