Extension agents were first hired to 'see both sides of the question, give wise counsel and leadership'

County extension agents have been helping rural communities across the U.S. with a everything from farming to food preservation to finances to 4-H, for a century or more, and as land-grant institutions mark the 150th anniversary of the law that led to their creation, some are marking the 100th anniversary of extension programs in their states.

Charles Mahan, right, was hired as the University of Kentucky's first full-time county agent in 1912, two years before Congress established the Cooperative Extension Service, Katie Pratt of UK Ag News reports. By the spring of 1913, UK had hired six more agents, and the first home demonstration agents, now known as family and consumer sciences agents, were hired the following year. County 4-H agents have existed since at least 1917, though under a different title and on a part-time basis until the 1960s.

Mahan wrote that one of his top jobs was to "develop sane, safe, local leaders who can be trusted to think things through, see both sides of the question, give wise counsel and leadership." He "helped determine that extension agents' function should be primarily education, offering unbiased, research-based information to their clients," Pratt reports. That continues to be the philosophy of Cooperative Extension, she writes. Though extension's role has evolved since 1912, Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service Director Jimmy Henning told Pratt that the agency is still "seeking to find and serve people where they are and in ways they want to receive information." (Read more)