Harvesting Our History Wayne County Agriculture

In Wayne County agriculture and agribusiness is the largest industry with farm acreage and forestry representing 71% of land usage. Our county ranks third in North Carolina for the total value of agricultural products sold.

Last year the Wayne County Public Library and the Wayne County Cooperative Extension started actively documenting this heritage. Original research, records, ephemera, oral history interviews, and photographs will be permanently archived in our library Local History Collection with public programs held each year. Six themes will afford endless exploration: Crop Science, Animal Science, Agribusiness, Youth Programs, Cooperative Extension, and Cultural Landscape.

There will be a booth at the fair promoting the project and our public programs start on Tuesday, October 13 at 7pm at the Fremont United Methodist Church. At the first event, Artifact Spotlight and Old Farm Tools, come learn about hard working men and women from the northern part of the county through tangible items. Last year artifacts included an 1884 crop lien book, ribbons earned at the 1927 Wayne County Fair, a 1950 US patent for farm machinery created by a Fremont man, quilts made from feed sacks, a glass rolling pin, and a country doctor’s medical bag.

Then on Tuesday, October 27 at 7pm at the public library in Goldsboro, join us to hear the North Carolina Poet Laureate Shelby Stephenson. He grew up on a Johnston County farm and many of his poems come out of that background. Shelby will engage patrons by reading farm poems, reading agriculture passages, and singing related songs.