March is designated as National Agriculture Month in the United States, dedicated to recognizing the vital role farmers, ranchers, and agribusinesses play in producing food, fiber, fuel, and their agricultural contributions to the economy and daily life. In its 125th anniversary year, WVU Potomac State College is sharing the story of alumnus Dwain Wilkinson, who made an impact on the agriculture industry.
From the outside looking in, there may have seemed nothing superficially special about young Dwain Edward Wilkinson from Trout, West Virginia.
Born September 15, 1912, Dwain entered the world into a family that was already well known within their community. His father was and his grandfather had been Justices of the Peace. He even served as the recording clerk for his father.
Yet, for young Dwain, he already knew what he did not want to do for a living. He did not want to work in an office or a courtroom. He wanted to work outside with his hands. He had no desire to hold public office. Then came a fateful visit from a man who would introduce himself as an instructor from what was then known as Potomac State School. That man’s name was Raymond Dennison, who most people knew simply as R.L. Both R.L. and his wife, Edna Sturm Dennison, were teachers. R.L. would eventually become the Chair of the Department of Agriculture at Potomac State.
“Mr. Dennison came to the house to visit the family and was talking about his position at Potomac State then,” said Dwain’s son, John Wilkinson, himself a 1978 alum who graduated from the Forestry Department. (John continued his education in the College of Agriculture and Forestry at WVU Morgantown and received his bachelor’s degree in agricultural education in 1982 and his master’s degree in education in 1986. He retired from a position with the Department of Homeland Security in 2014 and lives in Hardeeville, SC. But it was one meaningful alum where he says his inspiration lies – his father.)
“Well, Mr. Dennison came to the house and ended up talking to Dad. He remained an important influence in Dad’s life for a lifetime after that. In fact, Dad thought so much of the Dennison family that when he and my mom honeymooned, they spent part of that time visiting the Dennisons at their home.”
Today, Wilkinson’s original college transcripts from 1932 and 1933 are in the Registrar's Vault, and a notebook from his time spent on campus is archived as part of the special collections at the Mary Shipper Library.
“Dad studied and earned a Dairy Production Certificate, which involved on-campus coursework for a year and two years of fieldwork experience after classes to complete his certification requirement,” said John. “He played tennis while there, not sure if it was for pleasure or on a school team. The tennis courts are where Academy Hall is now. Dad worked on the farm at PSS starting in 1932. I remember him saying he had a roommate at the college, and they lived in a house together. That house is now someone’s garage near Barnes Street in Keyser.”
But the barn on campus, where young Dwain Wilkinson studied and worked, still stands.
“Dad milked in the barn there. It has been renovated but is still there,” said John. “The bull was in a stall at the rear of the barn. The cows were in dairy stanchions for milking. Strangely, when I came home at break, one of my fellow students called me by the nickname they gave me in the fall of 1976. Dad’s face looked surprised. It was the same nickname (Wilke) he had been given in 1933 by his fellow students.”
Dwain Wilkinson as a young man.
Education remained a key component in his adult life, and he instilled the value of continuing to learn to his children.
“Dad was always big on getting your education. Even in the 1930s, when a lot of young people did not go to college and didn’t have to go to college, Dad valued education. That was because of Mr. Dennison’s influence as well,” John said. “Education was important to Dad.”
Kaye Rodgers, Dwain’s daughter and John’s sister, continues to live near the family home in Lewisburg, WV. Kaye is a graduate of the National Business College.
“My Dad used to say to me, ‘Kaye, you have to get an education so that you can support yourself,' ” she said, adding quickly that her father insisted she go to college for more than just her MRS degree. The ‘MRS’ degree is the college colloquialism made popular in the 1950s and 1960s, describing young women who attended institutions of higher learning intent on finding a husband. “He stressed over and over the importance of getting an education and supporting myself. He didn’t want his daughter to ever have to rely on anyone else. He was ahead of his time that way, too.”
Dwain Wilkinson believed in continuing education (he is student number 6).
Dwain Wilkinson accepted a position at Morning Side Farm, near Ronceverte, WV, in February of 1934 and remained there through August of 1968. He started the process of improving the overall health of the dairy herd and overcame several issues impacting the quality and quantity of milk production. In December of 1939, he was appointed as the Herdsman and Farm Manager.
“Dad was very knowledgeable in the areas of breeding, raising, and caring for cattle. He worked on the farm at the college as part of his certification studies,"said John, who decided to attend a guest lecture at WVU by a professor that was a 4-H club member that his father had mentored. “The man’s name was Gene Freeman. There was a great deal of respect between my dad and Gene. And at the lecture, Gene turned to the people attending the lecture and said, ‘This man's father is responsible for me very much being who I am today.' ”
And that recognition of a farm life well lived continues, Kaye said.
“Just about five years ago, I ran into one of the kids Dad mentored,” she said. “The man was all grown up, of course, but he told me what an impact dad had on his life.”
“Dad was a humble man,” John said. “He didn’t brag about himself. He just helped people. He just did what he did and helped. I remember one time a man wrote a book, and he was at some event Dad went to and the man read out loud from his book. Dad went up to him later and corrected some of his information and the man said, ‘I don’t know why I didn’t send you this book to read it before I had it published,’ and Dad said, ‘Because you didn’t ask me.”
Their father remained humble and kind, choosing to mentor others as opposed to marketing himself.
“Dad was proud that he developed the first-ever Gold Medal Classified Dam for both type and production. That was the first person from the State of West Virginia to produce a cow that achieved both gold medal classifications,” John said. “Dad wasn’t one to brag, but he was thrilled over those gold medal classifications.”
“Dad always taught us to think for ourselves, and to think about and learn from our mistakes,” John continued. “Every choice I have made, I have always thought about what Dad taught his kids. To think for ourselves. And to make our decisions. But Dad would also always consider someone else’s opinion and was curious to see how people saw things.”
Dwain Wilkinson also did not believe in going into debt for any reason. He worked to pay off his college tuition in the early 1930s. One of his first jobs was plucking chickens.
“When he left the Greenbrier Valley to attend Potomac State School, all his father had to give him was a single Silver Dollar. He hitchhiked to get to Keyser,” said John. “He worked a side job plucking and cleaning chickens to make money to live on. It paid one and a half cents for every two chickens processed.”
By the time he received his Certificate in Dairy Production from Potomac State School in 1936, his higher education had not cost him one dime.
“Oh, Daddy hated the idea of debt,” said Kaye. “I remember when I needed a car to get back and forth to school. We went out and got a car and had to make payments to the bank on it. Those payments worried Daddy to death.”
As part of his work, Wilkinson once rode in a livestock railcar from Chicago to West Virginia. His only company in that railcar, traveling in the dead of winter, was a stud bull traveling to West Virginia for breeding. It was Wilkinson’s job not only to keep the bull calm but to keep the bull’s reproductive parts protected from any sudden jarring movements on the train.
“Dad said that train was cold and unheated, but his job was to make sure that bull was fit for breeding when they arrived,” John said.
Then there was the matter of what he carried in a common Thermos.
“Initially, Dad would receive routine delivery of fresh bull semen shipped from the Bridgeport area in a Thermos by Greyhound bus to Lewisburgh,” said John. “How would you like that job? Later, a frozen methodology was developed, and an inseminator was hired to work in areas with significant numbers of dairy herds to support operations.”
John shared another story that he said reflected his father's character: "He had been asked to find a bull for a dairy farmer, I think near Beckley. He did, and the farmer sent Dad a finder’s fee check in the mail as thanks. A few weeks later, he learned that during transport, the bull had broken out of the truck and, because he was endangering individuals, was put down by police. Dad wrote a check refunding the finder’s fee and mailed it the next day. The farmer objected, saying Dad had done his part and was entitled to keep the fee. Dad refused by saying 'you do not compound an unfortunate situation' and insisted the farmer accept the refund. Integrity meant more to him than a few dollars in his pocket."
Job offer letter for Dwain Wilkinson from Ronceverte Ice and Produce Company.
And then World War II began. At the time, Wilkinson was solely responsible for the pasteurization and bottling of milk and cream under a contract through his employer, Guy B. Montgomery, Sr. of the Ronceverte Ice and Produce Company (RIPCO) to the US Army Ashford General Hospital. When Wilkinson was drafted, he and Mr. Montgomery attempted to convince the draft board that he was the only person at the company who was certified to process the milk correctly and that milk was served to wounded soldiers. His deferment was denied, and Wilkinson was called up in the draft.
In the brief time that he was away from his duties at the farm, the Commander of the Ashford Hospital contacted Montgomery to see why his delivery of milk was not received in time for breakfast. Montgomery informed the commander that their only certified person had been drafted, and so the company could no longer fulfil the contract to provide the milk for the wounded soldiers.
“Later in the second day of Dad's induction process an Army Sergeant overseeing the induction center called out Dad’s name,” John said. ‘He told him he did not know who he knew, and handed him his deferment paperwork. By early afternoon, Dad was on the bus returning to Morning Side Farm where he served his country for the rest of the war providing safe milk for the wounded soldiers being treated at Ashford General Hospital.”
Greenbriar dining hall, circa 1930s, with milk bottles on the tables.
Wilkinson was even later authorized to work with World War II prisoners of war, initially from Italy and later from Germany, who had been sent to the United States.
“Those POWs taught Dad how they farmed, and Dad taught them American farming. They exchanged ideas and learned from each other,” said John. “Dad would take the prisoners out in the fields. I remember he said one time all the prisoners were getting their heads sunburned working in the fields, and so Dad bought them all straw hats.”
In farming, you work by the acre, not by the hour. - Dwain Wilkinson
“Daddy had a tremendous faith. When we had a drought, he would say, just wait. God will send the rain when He knows we need it,” said Kaye. “Dad taught us to be kind to all living things – to animals and to the planet. Dad believed in being kind to everything and everyone. Dad would store the seeds from his tomatoes and tomato plants and then use those seeds the next season and get them to grow into new tomato plants. I think that it was born into him.”
In fact, if he knew his children were talking about him for an article posted on his alma mater’s website, Kaye and John said it is fair to say their father would be a bit embarrassed and humbled by their bragging.
“Dad didn’t talk about himself or his work. He just went out and did it. That was just the farmer in him. He just always did what needed done. I remember Dad saying in farming, you work by the acre, not by the hour,” said John. “And that has always stuck with me.”
Dwain Wilkinson died 29 years ago, in January 1997. He was 84 years old. But it’s safe to say that nearly one hundred years after he attended Potomac State, his legacy continues to have an impact.