History of Agriculture at Goshen College
History of Agriculture at Goshen College
Mennonites
have a rich agricultural history and have been
known for their farming skills for centuries. Thus it is not surprising
that agricultural education has been a part of a school founded by
Mennonites.
The college first courted the idea for a School
of Agriculture in 1909 with the purchase of a farm west of campus across
the Elkhart River. In the early 20th century, the majority of students
who attended Goshen College were rural people and many had grown up
on farms. This farm was to keep the farm life tradition alive while
simultaneously easing the college’s financial strain. Administrators
planned for the farm to aid with dining hall supplies and provide jobs
and tuition scholarships for students taking prescribed programs.
Less than 10 years later, the farm was traded in for 60 acres closer
to home. The new farm was one half mile east of campus, along College
Avenue, and by 1916, Goshen College boasted a full-fledged School
of Agriculture. The school provided courses in dairy-farming, butter-making,
grain production, animal husbandry and horticulture as well as courses
that combined Bible and agriculture.
Early on, a major impetus for Goshen College’s School of Agriculture
was the call of church leaders such as Daniel Kauffman. Kauffman
requested that the college specialize in agriculture in order to
encourage Mennonite youth to return to rural communities where their
talents could serve Mennonite churches. Leaders also were concerned
that the college not create class distinctions. They felt the college
should emphasize the importance of trades in modern society along
with its liberal arts focus and “culture for service” motto.
Unfortunately, World War I prevented the School of Agriculture from
excelling. The government made provisions to keep agriculturalists
at their posts and maximize production in the time of war, resulting
in fewer male students. World War I hurt agriculture programs throughout
the country, and at Goshen College, that strain resulted in the department’s
eventual dissolution.
Again in the 1940s and 50s, Goshen College offered courses in agriculture
in hopes of serving Mennonite youth who would return to the farm
after a period of study. Students could take courses on soils, rural
sociology, rural economics and farm management. An instructor of
agriculture was hired in 1953.
Today, Goshen College
furthers the dream of working with the land in the context of Christian
stewardship. The College’s
Environmental Science Program and the Agroecology Summer Intensive
at Merry Lea embody this desire.
Unlike Goshen College’s earlier agricultural programs, the new
agroecology intensive will serve students from a wide variety of backgrounds,
many of them urban. Like its predecessors, the agroecology program grows
out of the conviction that the skills required to grow food are valuable
and that human beings were intended to live in relationship to the land.
P.O. Box 263 Wolf Lake, IN 46796 | Phone (260) 799-5869 • Fax (260) 799-5875