My grandfather, Guy Moreland Powell was County Agent for Kerr County from 1947 to 1959 when he had a stroke and retired with total disability. We lost this wonderful man too early, when he died October 19, 1960 at the age of 58. He suffered from “tuberculosis of the hip” at the age of 7, which removed a portion of his leg and crippled him and he wore a built up shoe, but this did not slow him down.
In 1927, Guy and his wife, Agnes lived in Wichita Falls when my father was born in July. He was the city milk and dairy inspector. He became county agent in Coryell County, McCulloch County and Kerr County. During his career he received The Distinguished Service Award in 1951 from the National Association of County Agricultural Agents at 36th Annual Convention. He graduated from Texas A&M College in 1924 and had been an agent for 28 years at the time of the award.
Guy was one of the organizers of the Hill Country District Livestock Show in Kerrville, honorary superintendent of the Houston Livestock Show and the Texas Angora Goat Raisers Association. He served on the management board and helped to organize the USO at Fort Hood, for which he received a Presidential citation. He helped to supervise the Austin Livestock Shows as well as those in San Antonio.
Guy Powell served as the foreman for the boat which took the load of Texas livestock to Germany in the CROP dairy project and made the presentation of the animals to the people of Germany.
He had been a member of the Lions Club for 34 years and had served as the president and the deputy district governor of the organization, and had been one of the members to work for the establishment of the Lions Crippled Children’s camp in Kerrville, Texas. He had served as a member of the Southwestern Sheep Dog Trials group and has exhibited sheep dogs all over the Southwestern part of the country. What a career!
I remember him with such joy and loved him very much!!
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November 12th, 1906 — William Stallings becomes the first county agricultural agent in Texas
On this day in 1906, the Commercial Club of Tyler, with the cooperation of Seaman A. Knapp of the United States Department of Agriculture, appointed William Stallings agricultural agent of Smith County. He was the first county agricultural agent in Texas and the first in the nation to serve a single county. After serving Smith County for a year, during which he earned $150 a month, Stallings was appointed district agent; the district comprised Smith, Cherokee, and Angelina counties. Through his efforts the cotton and corn yields of the district increased by over 50 percent. In November 1971 the Texas Historical Commission placed a historical marker on the courthouse square in Tyler to commemorate Stallings’s services.