T. Harry Williams Center for Oral History Collection

ABSTRACT

INTERVIEWEE NAME: Claude Couvillion

COLLECTION: 4700.0098

IDENTIFICATION: [1905 - 1995] Graduate of LSU (Bach. '29, Masters '35); Vocational Agriculture Teacher; County Agent for the Cooperative Extension Service;

INTERVIEWER: Pamela Dean & Everett Besch

PROJECT: LSU History

DATES: 3/24/92

FOCUS DATES: 1910s - 1970s

ABSTRACT:

Farming in Avoyelles Parish during the 1910s and 1920s; family history; discusses County Agent F. A. Swann; improvements in agriculture; enrolled at LSU in 1925; discusses trip to the campus from Plaucheville; living on the Old Campus; taking a train to classes on the New Campus; buildings on the New Campus; planting oak trees on the New Campus; vaccinating beef cattle; working odd jobs to put himself through school; free sandwiches for students; eradicating the sugarcane borer; 1927 flood; gets federal job in Ohio to eradicate the corn borer; planting trees on campus; teaching vocational agriculture in Houma and the importance of being bilingual for that job; working as a county agent in Terrebonne Parish; job as district agricultural agent for the Cooperative Extension Service; bringing electricity to Terrebonne Parish; impact of electricity on farm communities; animal judging teams; willingness of farmers to accept new technology; describes LSU President Thomas Boyd; lists his favorite professors; Newman Club dances; opening a hardware and feed store on Government Street; developing certified seed for cotton and soybeans; breeding chickens and selling them at his hardware store; impact of attending LSU on his career; looking through photographs;

TAPES: T123

TOTAL PLAYING TIME: 1.5 hours

PAGES TRANSCRIPT: 89

RESTRICTIONS: None