I his picture of Miss Marcia Albertson, instructing a group of Pasquotank
County girls in the art of canning vegetables, was taken quite a number
of years ago. Today most of the group are grown-up club members
themselves.
Miss Marcia’s Work
For
тану
years she (oiled among
(he u omen of (lie Alheninrle seel ion
in (lie endeavor I
о
make (heir lives
hriglilc'r and llicdr
If»/ G. F.
PASQUOTANK County's
"Grand Old Lady" is Miss
Marcia Albertson, of Eliza¬
beth City, who soon will be ninety
years old. As northeastern North
Carolina’s first home demonstra¬
tion agent, she blazed the trail for
more abundant farm life back in
the days when most of her county’s
roads were ribbons of mud. Today
she sees most of her fondest dreams
come true with 14 clubs and a total
of 3 1
В
members carrying on her
good work.
Possessed with little other than
a new idea, an adventurous spirit
and the indomitable will of a
woman eager to get things done.
Miss Marcia was inspired by the
splendid farm home work begun
in Wake County in 1911 by Mrs.
Jane S. McKimmon, North Caro¬
lina's first home demonstration
agent.
She rented a dilapidated buggy
and an old gray mare for a dollar
a day and set out to find a few
work easier.
DEAN
farm women who’d be interested
in organizing canning clubs. The
great out-of-doors was her kitchen,
and from the fields and gardens
came all kinds of fruits and vege¬
tables to be put in it. It was no
easy job to bring raw and un¬
trained country girls through a
canning season successfully but
Miss Marcia proved to be a woman
of good, sound common sense and
one who had a young, understand¬
ing heart. Within a few months
she had all the work she could do
and from sunup to sundown she
was busy organizing canning clubs
throughout Pasquotank County's
223 square miles.
Discouragement and hard work
she found aplenty but never mo¬
notony. For instance she was
nearly a year convincing an in¬
different board of county commis¬
sioners of the value of her work.
Regularly she and Mrs. Cam
Melick, of Elizabeth City, would
appear at board meetings of the
county fathers in the courthouse
at Elizabeth City and earnestly
plead for the meagre funds needed
to carry out a season’s canning pro¬
gram.
Soon the old gray mare proved
an inadequate mode of transpor¬
tation and Miss Marcia had to have
more rapid means of getting about
the county. So the commissioners
reluctantly bought her a Model-T
Ford automobile which she learned
to drive, crank, push out of the
mud and keep in repair.
By now Miss Marcia's conquest
of Pasquotank County was com¬
plete. After canning clubs came
rug making, hat making and house
building. Curb markets were set
up in Elizabeth City and thousands
of dollars of farm produce sold.
Everywhere she stopped for a
meeting grateful farmers and their
wives would pile the back seat of
her Tin Lizzie high with ripe
melons, fresh eggs and the choicest
fresh fruits and vegetables their
farms afforded. During the height
of her canning career. Miss Marcia
supervised the canning of 3,000
quarts of tomatoes.
A more-than-convinced board of
county commissioners finally pre¬
sented Miss Marcia with a brand
new automobile equipped with a
self-starter and this she drove
many thousands of miles in all
kinds of weather and over some
of the worst roads of the times
until frail health forced her retire¬
ment from so active and strenuous
a life.
Miss Marcia, now retired and
resting on her laurels, is of Dutch
extraction. Her ancestors came to
America from the Netherlands in
1648 and settled in Pennsylvania.
The branch of which she is a de¬
scendant moved South in 1690 and
settled near Elizabeth City. Her
father, the late Judge J. W. Albert¬
son, was long one of northeastern
North Carolina's leading lawyers
and eminent in literature and
learning in the Albemarle section
for many years. On her mother's
side she is descended from Peter
Francisco, of Revolutionary fame,
who was noted for his bravery and
feats of great strength. A sister,
Miss Catherine Albertson, with
whom she lives, is widely known
throughout the State as an author
and educator. She at one time was
dean of students in Raleigh at St.
Mary’s School.
Cherokee County, which borders
on Georgia and Tennessee, is the
most western county in North Car¬
olina.
6
THE STATE. JULY 3. 1948
