Bradford Knapp

Knapp was born at Vinton, Iowa, on December 24, 1870, and learned farming on the Louisiana plantation his father, Seaman A. Knapp, managed from 1885. He took a chemistry degree at Vanderbilt in 1892 and a law degree at Michigan in 1896, then practiced law in Iowa. In 1909 he joined his father's demonstration work in Washington and succeeded him as chief in 1911, starting the boys' and girls' farm clubs and home demonstration clubs. At Texas Tech he began graduate studies, the first dormitories and a new library; Knapp Hall bears his name.

What the plaque says

Bradford Knapp (1870-1938) Known for his leadership in the field of agricultural education, Bradford Knapp served as first director of the U.S. Cooperative Extension Service and helped plan and carry out World War I overseas food production for the Agriculture Department. He later served as Dean of Agriculture at the University of Arkansas (1920-23), and as the president of the universities now known as Oklahoma State (1923-28), Auburn (1928-32), and Texas Tech (1932-38). Recorded - 1984

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• American Windmill Museum — 1.5 mi
  Lubbock's park of restored water-pumping windmills and early wind chargers, more than 70 of them turning outdoors and the rare ones under roof, with a megawatt-era turbine overhead.
• Buddy Holly Center — 2.2 mi
  The city's museum of Buddy Holly and West Texas music in a 1928 railway depot, with the house where the Crickets worked on That'll Be the Day moved next door.
• National Ranching Heritage Center — 4.8 mi
  A Texas Tech outdoor museum where ranch houses, barns, windmills and a depot from across the ranching country were moved one by one onto a single park beside the campus.
• Lubbock Lake Landmark — 6.2 mi
  A bend of Yellow House Draw on Lubbock's north edge where digging has found nearly 12,000 years of people on the Southern High Plains, layer on layer, from Clovis to the 1880s.

More markers nearby

• Paul Whitfield Horn — steps away
• Willie Lusk Jr. — 0.8 mi
• Mary & Mac Private School — 1.1 mi
• Lubbock Cotton Club — 1.3 mi