Woodward Byars

Life and Orange County connections

Storylines this person is part of, in date order. Each opens in the chronology.

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 13 dated events in the chronology →

1. September 1935 Grace E. Holcombe revives home demonstration work in Orange County Hired jointly by Orange and Chatham counties, with headquarters in Pittsboro and a branch office in Hillsborough, Holcombe set out first to organize home demonstration clubs. Lefler and Wager credit her with four home demonstration clubs and nine 4-H clubs within a year; in May 1936, eight months after she began, Mrs. Julian Gill of Gravelly Hill reported seven home demonstration clubs with 106 members and ten girls' 4-H clubs with 231 members. By 1941, under her successor Woodward Byars, the county had 17 home demonstration clubs. People: Woodward Byars, Grace E. HolcombeSearch the index · Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 214 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, September 13, 1935, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, May 15, 1936, p. 4
2. by August 18, 1939 Woodward Byars succeeds Grace Holcombe as Orange County home demonstration agent Miss Woodward Byars, who had worked among country people in Kentucky and Virginia and taught at Madison College, became Orange County's home demonstration agent in place of Miss Grace Holcombe. She came as the Orange County Women's Market, run by about 20 farm women on Wednesday and Saturday mornings at Rosemary Lane and Henderson Street, neared its second birthday; one member had taken in $422 from chickens and $304 from eggs since September. People: Grace E. Holcombe, Woodward ByarsSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, August 18, 1939, p. 1
3. 1942 Woodward Byars serves as Orange County's home demonstration agent In 1942 Miss Woodward Byars was Orange County's home demonstration agent, alongside farm agent Don S. Matheson and assistant agent Joe N. Howard. She handled publicity for edible soybeans, worked the wartime programs through the home demonstration clubs and wrote on the new crop for the county papers. People: Don S. Matheson, Woodward ByarsSearch the index · U.S. Department of Agriculture Extension Service, Orange and Lee Counties, North Carolina, Demonstrate How Neighborhood Leaders Can Help in Securing Participation of Rural Families in Agriculture's Wartime Programs, Extension Service Circular 387 (1942), scan p. 4 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, March 8, 1940, p. 6; Chapel Hill Weekly, March 13, 1942, p. 1
4. by March 13, 1942 The Women's Curb Market moves into the old Holiness church on Columbia Street The Women's Curb Market moved into the building that had been the Holiness church, opposite the Town Hall on Columbia Street, a roomier and more comfortable place, according to county home demonstration agent Woodward Byars. People: Woodward ByarsThe Chapel Hill Weekly, March 13, 1942, p. 1
5. April 29 to May 9, 1942 Neighborhood leaders introduce edible soybeans to Orange County farm families On their scrap calls, leaders gave a half-pound package of edible soybean seed to each family that agreed to collect scrap and sent others to stores stocking the seed, promoting the bean as a protein food that could take the place of meat. By the June survey the program had reached 96 percent of 269 families, and 78 percent had planted it. People: Woodward ByarsSearch the index · U.S. Department of Agriculture Extension Service, Orange and Lee Counties, North Carolina, Demonstrate How Neighborhood Leaders Can Help in Securing Participation of Rural Families in Agriculture's Wartime Programs, Extension Service Circular 387 (1942), scan p. 15 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, May 8, 1942, p. 6
6. November 22-28, 1942 Orange County women sell $22,775 in War Bonds in Women at War Week The newly organized county women's division of the War Savings Staff, with Mrs. Sturgis E. Leavitt as chairman and local chairmen for Carrboro, Chapel Hill, Cedar Grove, Efland, Hillsboro, West Hillsboro and University, held window displays, talks in schools, churches and clubs, and bond booths in stores and post offices, and counted $22,775 in Series E sales for the week. People: Woodward ByarsThe Chapel Hill Weekly, December 4, 1942, p. 1
7. January 16, 1943 Women's Curb Market in the old Holiness church reports $17,000 in 1942 sales Louis Graves described a Saturday opening of the Women's Curb Market in the former Holiness church on Columbia Street, now converted into a market, where 200 to 300 customers came each Saturday. Home demonstration agent Woodward Byars reported about $17,000 in sales in 1942 by the market's 23 farm-women members, with Mrs. Glenn Lloyd as president and Mrs. Jeter Lloyd as secretary and treasurer. People: Woodward ByarsThe Chapel Hill Weekly, January 22, 1943, p. 3
8. May 26, 1943 The new Chapel Hill Business and Professional Women's Club elects officers and plans a womanpower survey At a dinner meeting at the Carolina Inn the newly organized club adopted a constitution, elected Katherine Lackey president, and named a committee under Mrs. Guy B. Johnson to survey how many Orange County women could teach, nurse or do other work and what openings there were for them. About fifty attended. People: Woodward ByarsSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, May 28, 1943, p. 1
9. September 16, 1944 The Orange County women's curb market marks seven years with $30,280 in yearly sales The farm women who sell at the curb market in Chapel Hill held a seventh-birthday luncheon and heard that the year's sales came to $30,280.68, up from $7,132.73 in 1938, with fourteen sellers past $1,000. Home agent Woodward Byars gave the county commissioners the same report on October 2. People: Woodward ByarsSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), September 28, 1944, p. 3
10. November 30, 1944 Home demonstration clubs report the year's work at Achievement Day in Hillsboro At the county home demonstration clubs' Achievement Day at the courthouse, the home agent reported that women had canned an average of 350 quarts and that 94 percent made their own clothes, and that the women's curb market in Chapel Hill had taken in $30,280.68 over the past year. Clubs from Caldwell, Carr, Cedar Grove, Efland, New Hope, Orange Grove, St. Mary's, Schley and Murphy had made 699 garments and 744 other articles for the Red Cross. People: Woodward ByarsSearch the index · News of Orange County: Achievement Day report of the county home demonstration clubs (December 7, 1944)
11. December 4-8, 1944 Woodward Byars presents awards at the county's 4-H achievement meetings Achievement meetings were held in each of the county's ten 4-H clubs, where home agent Woodward Byars presented awards for the dress review, crafts and canning. Every member who had finished a project and turned in a record book got a certificate.Search the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), December 14, 1944, p. 1
12. February 5, 1945 Woodward Byars reports on farm families' outlook meetings against inflation Home agent Woodward Byars told the county commissioners she was holding outlook meetings for farm families with farm agent Don Matheson, urging them to save against inflation, while the 4-H clubs worked on a program called "Planning Stretches the Dollar." People: Don S. MathesonSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), February 8, 1945, p. 1