ednachanges

Edna Scene Changes

COTTON GIN DAYS LONG GONE


Juedeman Turns Attention To Current Farm Programs
BY JOHN V. YOUNG

From "The Sapulpa Herald," Sunday, October 25, 1970, Page Nine

Thirty-five years ago, this stage of autumn would have meant the busy season for cotton growers in southern Creek county.

Today, there is precious little cotton.

Late October brings the deer hunters with their bows and arrows to the Deep Fork and Little Deep Fork river bottoms. But around the once-active farm community of Edna, things are mostly quiet.

W. A. Juedeman, one of the county's best-known farmers, still resides in Edna and his brother C.W. operates the general store next door. With their wives, they are the only residents although six families live nearby.

Edna school, just across the blacktop road, was closed two years ago when a drop in enrollment forced consolidation.

But in the 1930s, 60 people lived in the town and small farms abounded. There were 28 families on farms in one seven-mile stretch to Tuskegee, the only other community farther south in Creek county's southeast corner.

It was then that W.A. Juedeman operated a cotton gin at Edna.

Creek county had about 30,000 acres of cotton in those days and 17 gins operating. Last year, there were 118 acres of cotton and no gins. Gins at Okemah and Okmulgee went out of business last year, leaving the closest ones now at Cleveland and Muskogee.

Juedeman, who started farming and ranching in Creek county in 1930, remembers the days when his gin would process 1,500 to 2,000 bales of cotton a year.

WEEVIL HURT

The boll weevil and World War II, when the great migration to California peaked, brought an end to those days, and by 1949 Juedeman ginned only 40 bales -- all grown on his own land. A year later, only 252 bales were ginned, and he called it quits.

Juedeman moved to Kress, Tex., and operated a much larger gin there, but in 1960 returned to Edna.

His land -- about 1,400 acres all told -- has been in the soil bank and his farming is now concentrated on pecans and pasture for cattle.

In 1967, the best year for pecans, Juedeman harvested 56,420 pounds. "After that, I quit keeping count," he says. But he estimates this year's crop will amount to 15,000 to 20,000 pounds.

The pecans require care. Juedeman sprays an average of four times yearly. "If you don't spray, you don't get pecans. It was the same way with cotton."

AUTOMATIC SCARECROW

As one chats with Juedeman in his comfortable home, a sound such as that of gunfire can be heard in the distance. It is his "automatic scarecrow" keeping the crows out of the pecan groves. The device, in which a flint triggers a measured amount of propane gas, amplifies the sound which gives crows the idea someone is shooting shotguns in the area. They stay away.

The general store has changed, too, of course.

There is still a plank, worn smooth by use, atop four wooden kegs which makes an excellent place to sit and visit. The adjacent stove is fed by natural gas, though, rather than wood.

Cookie bins designed to hold cookies in bulk are still in use -- although the product is now packaged in cellophane. And kerosene lamps are still found on the top shelf. Last winter when storms cut off power for five days, the lamps were a popular item.

C.W. Juedeman notes that improved roads carry the customers to other areas these days.

A far cry from when the Edna store would frequently share with a general store in a nearby community a railroad carload of flour milled at Yukon and shipped on the Oklahoma Southwestern, a rail line that extended through Bristow and Slick to Edna and Nuyaka.

The change from rural to urban life, making the small farm almost extinct, is of concern to W.A. Juedeman.

"It doesn't look good to me," he says. But being realistic, he sees no liklihood of reversing the trend. He doesn't spend his time fretting about the changing scene. He is occupied working for the farm programs which are currently available.

Earlier this month he was appointed by Gov. Dewey Bartlett to a five-year term on the State Soil Conservation Board.

It is an assignment for which he is well prepared, as he has served on the Creek County Soil and Water Conservation district board since 1940.

He has been a community committeeman on the county Agricultural Stabilization Conservation Service (ASC) for 25 years, and three years ago was named chairman of the board of directors.

He also serves as second vice president of the Central Oklahoma Economic Development District, which serves an eight-county area.

The work of these organizations is well known to farmers, and increasingly to "weekend farmers," whose number is growing.

Clearing, bermuda grass pasture establishment and farm pond construction are among the most popular programs.

Juedeman regrets that federal funds for the programs have been cut sharply -- from $1,500 per cooperator at one time to $350 per farm currently.

So, while the fall days may bring reminiscense of the days of Creek county's cotton gin days, it is not a time of lamenting the past. W.A. Juedeman is too busy working for the farmer of today and tomorrow.


From "Oklahoma Place Names," by George Shirk
University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, OK (c)1965

Page 70

EDNA. In Creek County, 6 miles southeast of Slick. A post office From February 25, 1903, to September 20, 1957. Name selected arbitrarily by local residents, probably intending to honor Ed Rice, early-day settler.



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