Winters FFA Chapter

Winters' charter belongs to a larger story of farm teaching. According to the Handbook of Texas, vocational agriculture reached Texas high schools in 1917 under the federal Smith-Hughes law, in twenty-eight white and four Black schools. By 1947 there were departments in 631 high schools, with more than 25,000 boys in daily instruction, and by 1965 the count was 1,022 departments and 48,895 students. The national Future Farmers of America dates to 1928, when state groups held the first national convention. Winters' 1930 charter came two years later.

What the plaque says

Winters FFA Chapter In the fall of 1928, a Future Farmers club was organized with 30 members of the vocational agriculture class at Winters High School. The same year, a national Future Farmers of America (FFA) club was started in Kansas City, Mo. On April 10, 1930, the first Texas charter for the national organization was issued to the club in Winters. Over the years, the Winters FFA has produced award-winning vocational agriculture students on the state and national levels. Many of its members have become successful farmers and businessmen in Runnels County. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Z. I. Hale Museum and Rock Hotel — 0.4 mi
  A free museum in a Winters optometrist's office, a 1909 railroad hotel and a 1927 implement dealership, with Rogers Hornsby's hometown memorabilia and a 1912 horse-drawn cotton picker.
• Carnegie Library of Ballinger — 15 mi
  A 1909 limestone library with an Ionic portico in a railroad town the Santa Fe created in 1886, one of the few Texas Carnegie libraries still working in its original building.
• Fort Chadbourne — 18 mi
  An 1852 infantry post and Butterfield stage station on a Coke County ranch, its fallen stone buildings rebuilt since 1999 by the descendant of the family that has ranched the land since 1877.
• Abilene State Park — 19 mi
  A pecan-shaded park on Elm Creek in the Callahan Divide south of Abilene, with red sandstone CCC buildings, a summer pool, a bird blind and yurts under the trees.

More markers nearby

• Winters Brass Band — steps away
• Winters — 0.4 mi
• Winters Lodge No. 743, A.F. & A.M. — 0.4 mi
• Chick Inn Diner — 1.6 mi