Birthplace of Texas 4-H Clubs

Tom Marks's club is the Texas start of a movement with many beginnings. The club's own records count 25 boys in the 1908 Jack County corn club. Pig clubs followed to use up the corn, then a beef calf club in Coleman County in 1910 and girls' tomato clubs in Milam County in 1912. In 1909 the State Fair of Texas held a corn rally, with 1,500 boys marching through downtown Dallas, each carrying a stalk of corn. The fourth H, for health, was added later; O. B. Martin is credited with suggesting it.

What the plaque says

Birthplace of Texas 4-H Clubs First Texas Boys' Corn Club was founded in Jacksboro, 1908, by Tom M. Marks (1865-1906), first Jack County agent. This was a forerunner of U.S. 4-H clubs, now international, and part of the cooperative extension service. Lack of adult interest in a 1907 corn show prompted friends to tell Marks, "You can't teach an old dog new tricks". Marks replied, "Then I'll start with the pups". 111 boys enrolled as demonstrators. Marks' 1908 show drew national attention, and he was called to Washington to aid in setting up extension program. Erected by Jack County 4-H Clubs. (1968)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Richardson State Park and Historic Site — 0.9 mi
  The northernmost post of the Texas frontier line, outside Jacksboro, where a stone hospital and six other buildings stand from 1867 and a later Guard unit became the Lost Battalion.
• Old Post Office Museum and Art Center — 26 mi
  Graham's 1936 Art Moderne post office, with a New Deal mural by Alexandre Hogue inside, now the free museum of Young County in the town where the Texas cattle raisers first organized.

More markers nearby

• First Baptist Church of Jacksboro — steps away
• Jack County — steps away
• Old Jack County Courthouse Cornerstone — steps away
• Butterfield Stage Line — 0.2 mi