The Rotary Club of Hickory, North Carolina, the first service club organized in Catawba County, celebrated its 75th anniversary in 1996. Founded during the first sixteen years of Rotary International and ranked as the largest club in its district, the Club has earned recognition from its Rotary peers and other community organizations for its spirit of service. Its contributions have also given direction to the advances of the city and county it serves. In contrast to its uncommon reputation and influence, however, its origin was ordinary: its birth emerged from the vision of a single individual.
The founder of the Hickory Rotary Club was Watt Shuford (1873-1935), a member of one of Hickory's pioneer families who pursued interests in dairying and farming. He managed the Hickory Seed Company for 20 years. In 1912, he helped organize the Catawba Creamery and, for many years as its president and manager, guided its growth into one of the largest cooperative creameries in the South. Shuford served on many local agricultural boards and was appointed by two state governors to terms on the State Board of Agriculture, serving for ten years.
While in Asheville for a 1920 creamery convention, Shuford attended a Rotary club meeting and became interested in forming a club in Hickory. Members of the Asheville club encouraged him to do so, helping with their guidance and assistance.
Ten members of the Asheville club, led by International Sergeant at Arms Emmet E. Galer, attended the organizational meeting of the Rotary Club of Hickory. The meeting, held on Friday, Feb. 11, 1921, at Hotel Huffry, was attended by 18 charter members. Shuford was named president. Elected vice president was Kenneth C. Menzies, cashier of First National Bank. The position of treasurer was filled by George R. Wootten, secretary-treasurer of the First Building & Loan Association. Albert C. Hewitt, president of Hickory Ice & Coal Company, was elected sergeant-at-arms. Named secretary was Frank A. Henderson, vice president and treasurer of Hickory Overall Company.
Also elected to the board of directors were Neil W. Clark, president of Yoder-Clark Clothing Company; and George L. Lyerly, manager of Shuford Hardware Company.
The other charter members were: Fred A. Abernethy, livestock dealer; Bascom B. Blackwelder, Shuford Mills executive; John H. P. Cilley, manager of Piedmont Foundry & Machine Company; J. Lenoir Cilley, assistant cashier of First National Bank; Hugh D'Anna, manager of Hickory Hosiery Mills; Joseph D. Elliott, president and treasurer of Elliott Building Company Contractors; Sam H. Farabee, editor of the Hickory Daily Record; Rusk G. Henry, city manager; Robert E. Martin, partner of Whitener & Martin Retail Grocery; A. Alex Shuford, secretary and treasurer of A. A. Shuford Mill Company; and Jake H. Shuford, surgeon and owner of Richard Baker Hospital.
The charter for the Club, issued by Rotary International on Mar. 1, was formally presented at a regular meeting on May 12 by District Governor Buck Perrin of Spartanburg, S.C. The Club was the 485th to be formed by the international organization. It was placed in the 280th district which, in addition to Western North Carolina, included the state of South Carolina and some clubs in Virginia and Tennessee.
At its first regular meeting, over a 1 p.m. lunch on Feb. 17 at the hotel, the Club voted to meet every Thursday at the same hour except on the last Thursday of each month when it would meet at 7:30 p.m.
At subsequent meetings during the spring, the Club voted to solicit funds for the proposed Carnegie Library, to promote service to disabled soldiers, and to contribute $300 to boy's work. It also promoted support of the state Good Roads bond issue and raised $250,000 in bank loans to enable the state to hard-surface roads in Catawba County pending issuance of the bonds.
The Club staged its first dinner "in honor of the ladies" at the hotel on Mar. 31. Despite the Hickory Daily Record observation that the members were "not generally Carusos," the event opened with the singing of "America" and closed with "Good Night, Ladies." Featured music was presented by a special quartet of club members directed by D'Anna. The Rotarians and their guests wore "vari-colored paper caps, large paper boutonnieres and carried handsome mesh bags of the same material and colors."
In its first December as an organization, the new Club demonstrated its service potential. It distributed 50 cents in new 5-cent pieces to each of the 23 residents in the County Home and gave 28 baskets--consisting of flour, chicken, nuts, fruit, candy, sugar and toys--to the needy. On the day following Christmas, it treated
more than 1,000 children to a moving picture show in the City Auditorium. At its next regular meeting, the members took a collection of $34 to supply fuel and food to five families who were in "dire circumstance."
Eighteen months later, in 1923, the Club chose for its secretary Edgar L. Fox, an insurance agent. Fox later set a record for tenure in office, serving for 25 years. He set aside the duties for only one year, in 1935-36, when he served as president. One of his successors, George Warlick, served as secretary for 19 years.
Two club decisions in 1926 set precedents for many years to follow. The meeting site was shifted from the Huffry Hotel to the new Hotel Hickory, where the Club continued to gather for 44 years. The Club also engaged as its pianist a Hickory music teacher, Mary McFarland, who provided background lunch music at the meetings for more than 51 years.
In one ten-year span, the new club sponsored the organization of five other clubs: Jefferson (1928), Lenoir (1930), Marion (1934), Granite Falls (1936), and Taylorsville (1938).
The prominence of the Club in the life of the community was boosted by the publicity it received in the Hickory Daily Record. When Editor L.C. Gifford joined the club in 1930, the daily newspaper gave front-page space to the club's weekly meetings, initiating a practice which helped keep the organization in the public eye for more than 60 years.
At the tender age o
f twelve, the Hickory club in 1933-34 stepped into the District 58 spotlight by contributing the services of one of its members - H. Brent Schaeffer, president of Lenoir Rhyne College - for the position of district governor. The 34-member club also undertook the hosting of 800 Rotarians and Rotary Anns attending the 1934 conference of the district. Registration headquarters were established at Hotel Hickory, and the conference sessions were held in the City Auditorium. In later years, the Club hosted district activities in 1940, 1950, 1958, 1964 and 1975.
In 1934 President George Wooten added to the weekly agenda the report of the Sunshine Committee. He designed the presentation as a sickness report with occasional comments on publicized activities of other members. In later years, with the witty aid of Jim Whaley and Jim Mitchell, the report grew to include humorous observations on other activities as well. Over the years, the Sunshine report became a meeting feature to be duplicated in other Rotary clubs.
The year of 1937 saw the Club's erection of a stone cabin overlooking Lake Hickory for the use of Boy Scouts. The structure was dedicated to the memory of Jake Shuford, a charter member who died in 1936 following a life dedicated to the interests of youth. Later the Club contributed funds for the construction of a Scout Patrol cabin at the Piedmont Boy Scout Camp at Lake Lanier near Tryon. It was dedicated in 1940 to the memory of Founder Watt Shuford. Thirteen years later, in 1953, the Club contributed a second cabin at Lake Lanier, this one dedicated to the memory of Walker Lyerly.
The threat and the aftermath of World War II sensitized the Hickory club to international concerns. In concert with twelve other clubs, the members in 1941 sponsored a four-week Institute of International Understanding, presented in the high school auditorium. Later, as the war heated up, some members departed for military service, and the membership drifted from 55 to less than 50. In recalling the war years in the Club, James Shuford later reported that "everybody then was loaded with patriotic speeches, and we even tried to sing the Star Spangled Banner."
The Club first attempted to establish a weekly bulletin in 1941, but the publication - named "Spokes" - died after one year when the editor, George Warlick, re-entered military service. The project was revived in 1946 by James Shuford under the title of "The Rotary Spoke of Hickory." Shuford's professional approach to the task resulted in a lively publication that was quoted in other club publications throughout the world, in Rotary International magazine and in Reader's Digest. His retirement as editor in 1966 attracted more than 100 letters of tribute from Rotary leaders.
One distinctive tradition of the Hickory Rotary Club - presenting out-of-state visitors with a hickory stick - began about 1947. At one time, in the 1950s, the stick was decorated with a plastic cord manufactured by Shuford Mills.
In response to the ravages of polio in the area, the Club formed a Crippled Children's Committee which in 1948 purchased a wheel chair for one victim of the disease and donated a bed to the Polio Ward of the North Carolina Orthopedic Hospital. During the next five years, the committee financed two-week vacations for 25 crippled children at Camp Sky Ranch near Blowing Rock. Transportation to and from the camp was provided by Club members.
Under the guidance of Walter Nau, a Lenoir-Rhyne College professor, the Club in 1949 designed an international scholarship program for the Rotary district. Since then, it has led the district in the program's support and implementation. The scholarship, later named to honor Chan Gordon of the Asheville club, has funded the college study of more than 60 district and foreign scholars. In addition, the Club has operated its own scholarship program for local students and supported the Ambassadorial Scholarships of Rotary International.
The Club also initiated other projects to aid the education of youth. It helped to start the Safety Patrol Program, the Driver Education Training Program, and the American Field Service Program in the Hickory schools. In addition, it inaugurated sponsorship of three annual events: the Paul Whitener Memorial Youth Art Contest, a Career Day for high school students, and the awarding of the Wilmer M. Jenkins Award for outstanding teaching.
Nau's service to the district in 1949 was only a beginning. He gave leadership as district governor in 1950-51. Since then, he has served in other capacities for 45 years, becoming known throughout the district as "Mr. Rotary."
The year of 1949 also saw the Hickory club enter into a unique exchange with the Rotary club in Lymm, England. The project stemmed from a contact made by James Shuford through his bulletin exchanges with the Lymm Rotarians, who befriended American soldiers during the war. Meetings in Hickory were dedicated to the Lymm club and tape-recorded for replay at a meeting there; a dinner was sent to England by air mail; gifts of hosiery were contributed by local manufacturers through the Hickory club. Eventually, Shuford and his wife flew to England and visited the companion club.
