We’re fortunate to live in a county of townships whose residents share a sense of community. That’s how Alleghany began, and people’s lingering recollections feed its delightful character. We wave at total strangers driving by and speak to each other at every opportunity. You can’t go to town and back without seeing someone you know. But houses in big-city developments are placed a dozen feet apart, typically driving people to seek privacy, not community.

In 1859, our upside-down saddle-shaped county was pieced together from chunks of Ashe, Wilkes and Surry, gradually settling into eight townships. Each had an all-purpose store that included a post office and/or barbershop which was, for the area’s largely agricultural population, “town.”

Three years later Congress passed legislation establishing land-grant universities in every state so young people could learn about modern agricultural methods and technical matters. A second bill became law in 1890, expanding the program to create another university in states where African-Americans had been denied access to the earlier agricultural institutions. North Carolina’s efforts produced N.C. State University, and North Carolina A&T State University.

Visionaries in the newly-formed Agricultural Extension Service soon created “Tomato Clubs” to teach farm girls more productive ways to raise tomatoes on their tenth-acre, gardening-project plots. The lessons included new canning methods to eliminate the risk of bacterial contamination and end the tedious, all-day process of working outside over an open fire. “Corn Clubs” for boys introduced more efficient ways to plant and harvest, expanding into animal husbandry. Combining those clubs jump-started the 4-H program, now five million members strong.

New Hope formed Alleghany’s first club on Nov. 25, 1941. Their community projects covered seven major areas from better buying practices to upholstering. They also supported school lunch projects, health clinics, and several other local service projects. In-home Extension courses addressed food and nutrition, home furnishings, family life, arts and crafts and citizenship, among other topics. Alleghany soon had 300 members in 15 local clubs. One had a particularly interesting start.

The Roaring Gap Home Demonstration Club held its first meeting less than three months after New Hope’s. When local members outnumbered those from farther away, the group renamed it “The Cherry Lane Home Demonstration Club.” Camp Butler donated one of its small buildings to the organization; however, moving it took every cent of the $1,500 raised by the ladies. The group soon changed its name to “The Cherry Lane Community Club,” and the building became a meeting place for groups like the 4-H, Homemakers’ Club, and Coon Hunters’ Club. Unfortunately, sparks from the potbellied stove started a fire one night and pretty well gutted the place.

Cherry Lane resident Amy Choate still recalls that fire and the Sparta firemen who put it out. She also praises the Motsingers for their dedication and financial support during the rebuilding.

Soon the center was completed and the Cherry Lane community started a volunteer fire department of its own. Their firefighters met in the community center until the new fire station was finished. They’re still invited to the community’s annual Christmas dinner.

One of the club’s membership rosters reads like a “Who’s Who” in the Cherry Lane township and lists 33 members, ten of whom are men. A recipe for “Cheery Cherry Dessert” is hand-written on the back, above the names of four men: Andy Brooks, Ralph Gentry, Sam McKnight and Paul Smith.

During the 1980s, Bess Smith and Margaret Motsinger seem to have alternated years as club president of this very busy and effect service organization.

Phil Horton has a fading photograph of his grandfather standing in a narrow dirt road beside a late-1920s automobile. The road is highway 21. The difference between that road and the paved highway we travel compares the budding agricultural methods of the twenties to the food-filled shelves in your favorite grocery store.

North Carolina’s Cooperative Extension Service is the vehicle that brought local agriculture from there to here.