The Story of George Washington Carver by Eva Moore
By Diane Olive Braun for Education 330
Literature for the Elementary and Adolescent Child
Diorama of the Carver cabin
in the Visitor Center at the
George Washington Carver
National Monument near
Diamond, Missouri. The
diorama depicts George and
Jim Carver playing marbles,
around 1870. [Courtesy of
the George Washington
Carver National Monument]
Son of a slave during the Civil
War
Not sure of his birth date
He thinks it was 1864
“Night Riders” kidnap baby
George, his sister, and mother
Mary to take and sell up north
Carver - his owner – agrees to
pay Bentley his best horse and
40 acres of his land to go after
them
Bentley comes back with George,
but not Mary or his sister and
accepts only the horse. No one
knows if George will survive – he
is hardly breathing
The Civil War is over.
Now Moses Carver says George and Jim are free
But George and his brother Jim
decide to stay because they love
Aunt Susan and Uncle Moses
Jim is 3 years older and works in the
corn fields
George is small, and is often sick.
His voice is high like a bird’s, and he
stutters when he talks. He stays in
the house with Aunt Susan
George walks in the woods and
listens to the birds. “All living
things!” he thought. “Where do they
come from? Why are they here?
What makes them live and grow?”
Seven years old and George is already known as:
“The Plant Doctor”
He liked to put his cheek against the
soft petals of the roses.
“What are you doing to those
flowers?” Jim asked
“Loving them,” said George
George had a lovely rose garden. Mrs.
Baynham took George to her house
and showed him her garden.
“Please m-move them, ma’am,” he
said. “Take them out of the shade. Rroses want sun.”
Quote by Dr. Carver: “And many
are the tears I had shed because
I would break the roots or
flowers of some of my pets
while removing them from the
ground, and strange to say all
sorts of vegetation seemed to
thrive under my touch until I
was styled the plant doctor, and
plants from all over the country
would be brought to me for
treatment.”
He learned to crochet
He kept his little shapes he
whittled out of wood in a small
box
At Mrs. Baynham’s home, George sees paintings for the first time
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George learned to make his own paints and drew what he loved –
flowers
George became a Christian when he was 8 years old. He loved to
sing. When he sang he did not stutter.
When he was 11 years old, George heard of a school in Neosho, 8
miles from Diamond Grove.
Aunt Susan made corn dodgers - corn bread with wild onion and
bacon for George’s trip. He walked all the way.
Mariah Watkins’ influence in the
life of George Washington
Carver is well known. Carver
came to Neosho to live with
Aunt Mariah.
She taught him homemaking
skills of washing, ironing and
cooking. He used these skills
to earn food and lodging
while he struggled for an
education.
When he learned to read, he
read the Bible to Aunt
Mariah and Uncle Andy every
evening.
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Soon George learned all that
could be taught him at the
school in Neosha
So George went to Fort Scott
in Kansas
He packed his Bible, his box
with rocks and wood
carvings (over 500), and his
blue spelling book
In Fort Scott, George had to
look after himself
He had to work so much he
could not go to school very
often
When he did go to school he
learned fast
George saw a mob of white
men murder a black man
The next day he left Fort
Scott for good
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In Kansas George would stay in one
town until he learned all he could.
Then he would travel to another town.
He worked at each place and saved
until he had an accordion. He loved
music
He met Christopher and Lucy Seymour.
Aunt Lucy had a laundry business. He
was so good with his hands that soon
he could iron as well as Aunt Lucy. He
would spend half a day ironing a lady’s
dress so it would be just right. He was
now 13
He moved to Minneapolis with the
Seymours and in one year he grew to
be 6 ft tall!
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George was now ready for
college. Highland College in
Minneapolis accepted him.
He rode the “Jim Crow” car for
Negroes
When he arrived he was
rejected – they did not know
he was black
In western Kansas the
government gave away land
and at 22 he moved there to
start a farm. But the land was
dry and sandy. 2 years later
he moved east again.
When he got to Winterset,
Iowa he stayed. At church he
met Dr. John Milholland
With Dr. Milholland’s help he rented
a little house and opened up a
laundry business
Simpson College Campus
Indianola, Iowa
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He would go to the woods
every morning at 4 a.m. to
fellowship with God and to be
with nature.
He would take samples from
the woods and go to the
library and try to identify
them
The Millhollands encouraged
George to go to college
On September 9, 1890
George became the 2nd black
student at Simpson College
George was 26 and all the
other students were 16 or 17
years old
But George was happy to be
learning
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He loved art but he believed he
could help his people come out
of poverty if he became a
scientist
He went to Ames, Iowa in 1891
and began to study at Iowa
State College
He was barred from the student
dining room and had to eat
with the kitchen staff.
He suffered this indignity
patiently, telling himself that
ignorant people would not keep
him from his duty.
The school quickly changed its
mind when, Mrs. Liston, a
prominent white woman who
admired George's paintings,
came to visit him and insisted
on eating with him in the
kitchen.
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In 1892, George took four of
his paintings to an art show in
Chicago. All 4 were chosen at
the State Fair Art Show. But
George could only afford to
send one to the State Fair
He sent a large painting of a
desert yucca plant he had seen
when he lived in western
Kansas
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George graduated in 1894. He
was the 1st black to be
graduated from Iowa State
College. Then he was hired to
work at the college in the
botany lab. He was also the
first black to be on the college
staff
In the woods he found fungus.
He classified hundreds of
different kinds of fungus
George did not stutter
anymore. He went with the
head of the Agriculture Dept to
give speeches. People loved to
hear him
Every day he wore a different
flower in his buttonhole of his
jacket.
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In 1896 George got a letter from Booker T. Washington inviting
him to be the head of a college for black people: Tuskegee Normal
School
“It has always been the one great ideal of my life to be of the
greatest good to the greatest number of my people; and to this
end I have been preparing myself these many years. I feel that
this line of education is the key to unlock the golden door of
freedom to our people.”
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Cotton crops were not good for the soil. They used up nitrogen – a
nutrient that plants need to grow. When the nitrogen is used up the
soil cannot grow healthy plants.
At Tuskegee there was a lot of work to do. His 1st year he had 13
students but no lab.
Dr. Carver took his students out to find anything that would be of use
in a laboratory – old bottles and jars, boxes, pieces of string, rubber,
tin, and wire. Soon they had a homemade lab
Dr. Carver set up a farm on the school grounds
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It was hard to grow anything in the soil of his farm he called an
Experiment Station. He had his students enrich the soil with
garbage of every sort, and cut grass, leaves, and manure. His
students added rich soil from the woods and swamps. When it had
all rotted he spread it on the plowed land.
Then he planted cowpeas, beans, sweet peas and peanuts. These
legumes take nitrogen from the air and add it to the soil through
their roots as they grow.
Cowpeas
Sweet peas
Peanuts
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Dr. Carver taught the poor black farmers how important it was to
grow legumes. He taught them to have a vegetable garden. He
read the bible to them. He taught them to pray. He taught them to
cook and sew
Dr. Carver discovered the benefits of the sweet potato and showed
his students and the farmers how to grow this versatile plant
When they planted cotton on the fertile soil it was the best crop
they had ever seen.
In 1906 he built a school on wheels. This wagon held tools, boxes
of seeds and fertilizer
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In 1906, George Washington Carver of
Tuskegee University developed a plan
for the first “movable school”—a muledrawn wagon that would carry farm
machinery, seeds, and dairy
equipment to demonstrate improved
methods to farmers. This wagon, later
named the Jesup Wagon in honor of
the New York businessman who
provided the original funding, became
the forerunner of the Cooperative
Extension System and its efforts to
take the university to the people. The
Jesup Wagon is now stationed outside
the U.S. Department of Agriculture as
a reminder of one of the strongest
coalitions for sustainable economic
progress in rural areas—the continuing
partnership between USDA, the 1890
institutions, and Tuskegee University.
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Was George thinking about when he
was taken from his own mother?
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Dr. Carver was no longer
teaching. He liked to be with
young people. He held a Bible
Class for the students every
Sunday after dinner. He read
his favorite verses to them and
talked about God and nature.
He sometimes held a special
nature class for young children.
He thought that every child
should have a little garden of
his own, and a small animal to
take care of.
Once, a little boy brought Dr.
Carver a present – a fluffy baby
bird he had taken from its nest
in the woods.
Dr. Carver took the bird and
held it in his big hand. He told
the boy all about the bird and
then said: “Now take it back
and turn it loose, my boy. It is
terrible when a young bird is
taken from its mother.
The boy Carver statue is a nine-foot high
bronze statue by Robert Amendola. It
depicts George Washington Carver as a
boy and is mounted on a large limestone
rock. The boy Carver statue was
dedicated at the George Washington
Carver National Monument on July 17,
1960.
The George Washington Carver National
Monument near Diamond, Missouri, was
approved by Congress in 1943. It was
the first national memorial to an African
American. The chief sponsor of the
legislation to create the monument was
Missouri native Harry S. Truman. He was
a senator from Missouri at the time. A
dedication ceremony of the monument
was held on July 13, 1953. A bust of
Carver by Audrey Corwin, mounted on a
brick base, was also dedicated at this
ceremony.
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People asked him what gave
him the idea to do
experiments with the peanut.
He told this story:
One morning I was talking to
God. “Mr. Creator, what was
the universe made for? I
asked Him. “You want to
know too much,” He
answered. “Your mind is too
small to know that much.”
Then I asked Him, “Mr.
Creator, what was man made
for?” “Little man,” He said,
“you still want to know too
much.” Then I asked Him to
tell me about the peanut, “Mr.
Creator, what is the peanut
for?” “That’s more like it,” He
said. Then I went into my
laboratory and tried to find
out what the peanut was and
why God had made it.
Dr.
Carver was one of the few
Americans to be voted into the
famous Royal Society of the Arts
by the scientists who belonged to
this society.
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"I never have to grope for methods. The method is revealed at the
moment I am inspired to create something new. . . Without God to
draw aside the curtain I would be helpless."
George Washington Carver died in 1943. He was 79 years old. He
had lived his life to help others, and that is the best a person can
do.
On Success
"It is not the style of clothes one wears, neither the kind of automobile
one drives, nor the amount of money one has in the bank, that counts.
These mean nothing. It is simply service that measures success."
George Washington Carver demonstrates his peanut oil-based paint
(that he developed). (Prentice Herman Polk) ca 1927
Among the products created by Carver from various foods are
the following (there were over 300) for the peanut alone:
•Meat
Tenderizer
•Adhesives
•Metal Polish
•Axle Grease
•Paper
•Bleach
•Peanut
•Buttermilk
Butter
•Chili Sauce
•Rubbing
•Cream
Oils
•Instant
•Shampoo
Coffee
•Shaving
•Linoleum
Cream
•Mayonnaise
•Shoe Polish
•Sugar
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Dr. George Washington Carver died
at Tuskegee Institute on January 5,
1943. He lay with lovely flowers
stacked all around him. The Ozark
Mountains claimed him as their
own. In the simple service of few
words the Tuskegee choir sang the
songs he loved so much. The
President and Vice President,
among many others, sent words.
The chaplain said simply: “For
God so loved the world He gives
His most beloved sons that men
shall live.” “None of the many
products of his brain can be used
to destroy – not one!” They gave
a ship his name – The Liberty Ship,
George Washington Carver.