By Faith Peppers
University of
Georgia
Martha Berry, founder of the Berry Schools, now Berry College, is
the 2002 inductee to the Georgia Agricultural Hall of Fame. She
is the 51st Georgian to be given the honor.
Berry, who founded the schools in 1902, used her 80-acre dowry to
charter the Boys’ Industrial School.
“This boarding school educated Southern Highlander mountain boys
in practical farming and educational skills so they could improve
their families’ small, inefficient, tradition-bound farms,” said
Juli Fields, executive secretary to the University of Georgia
College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences’ alumni
association.
“She also wanted the school to provide these boys with leadership
and efficient Christian citizenship in country communities,”
Fields said.
Educational philosophy
Berry’s approach to educating the boys and girls of Appalachia
combined practical agriculture and domestic and mechanical
applications with moral training. The Berry Schools’ seal
revealed her fourfold philosophy: “the Bible for prayer, the lamp
for learning, the plow for labor and the cabin for
simplicity.”
Her model of combining agriculture and mechanical education led
to a meeting of Georgia school superintendents in 1906. There
Berry explained her educational paradigm. And Georgia based its
newly formed agricultural and mechanical colleges on it.
Berry’s vision of education transformed a one-room schoolhouse
into a 28,000-acre campus. With supporters of the school like
Henry Ford, she was able to fund new programs and encourage
technology, efficiency and other advanced concepts.
Agricultural roots
While her school is now a liberal arts college, it still has an
active animal and horticultural science department.
Berry College has a beef research station, a growing herd of
performance-based, registered Angus cattle, an innovative new
dairy facility with an award-winning Jersey herd, a large
greenhouse and a growing equine facility.
“Martha Berry has certainly planted many seeds that have been
cultivated and grown into noteworthy achievements in Georgia
agriculture and beyond,” Fields said.
Many honors
Berry was honored for her forward-thinking principles of
leadership and education. She named a “Distinguished Citizen of
Georgia” by the state legislature in 1924. She was presented the
Roosevelt medal by President Coolidge. She was the first woman
member of the Georgia Board of Regents. And she was also given
eight honorary doctorates.
Berry’s interest in better educating Appalachian farm children
lasted until her death in 1942.
The Georgia Agricultural Hall of Fame is sponsored by the UGA
CAES. It’s designed to recognize Georgians who have made
outstanding contributions in agriculture, agribusiness, industry
and service institutions.
The Hall of Fame interactive exhibit includes a portrait and
biography of each member. It is in the CAES Activity Center on
the UGA campus. It’s open, free of charge, Monday through Friday
from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
