Darlington county native participates in unveiling of historic marker
Sterling Sadler of Effingham and David L. Allen of Hartsville pose with the NASCD historic marker in Spartanburg.
David L. Allen of Hartsville and Sterling Sadler of Effingham, widely recognized conservation district officials, addressed local, state and national conservation leaders during a ceremony unveiling an historic marker identifying the location of the first office of the National Association of Soil Conservation Districts (NASCD) in Spartanburg in the 1940s.
E.C. McArthur of Gaffney, chairman of the Broad River Soil Conservation District in the 1930s and president of the SC Association of Soil Conservation Districts at the time, was elected the first president of the NASCD at a meeting in Chicago, Illinois in 1946.
The first office of the NASCD was located in the Montgomery Building in Spartanburg until the death of McArthur in September 1947 as a result of injuries sustained in an automobile accident while returning from a conservation meeting. The organization eventually became known as the National Association of Conservation Districts.
The historic marker was erected at the intersection of North Church Street and St. John Street on December 3, 2015. The wording on the marker reads:
NATIONAL ASSN. OF SOIL CONSERVATION DISTRICTS
‘The first office of the National Association of Soil Conservation Districts (NASCD) was located In the Montgomery Building on N. Church Street from 1946-1947. Soil Conservation, with its focus on reducing erosion and flooding, became a nationwide effort during the Depression and gained additional funding and resources in the years just after World War II.’
Continued on other side
‘The NASCD, organized in Chicago in 1946, elected E.C. McArthur of Gaffney, SC, its first president. McArthur was instrumental in creating the NASCD as a national voice for soil conservation districts. T. S. Buie, director of the Southeast Regional Office of the Soil Conservation Service of the US Department of Agriculture, provided space here for the NASCD office.’
Conservationist Allen said South Carolina has a proud heritage of national leadership in soil and water conservation including:
• one of the first two Federally-funded Erosion Control Demonstration Projects in the nation in Spartanburg County in 1933:
• the first conservation plan in the nation developed for a farm in Oconee County by USDA Soil Conservation Service specialists in 1938;
• the first president of the National Association of Soil Conservation Districts (NASCD) in 1946; the first office of the NASCD in 1946-47;
• one of the first ‘pilot’ watershed conservation and flood control projects in the nation located in Pickens County 1954;
• and the first comprehensive soil and water conservation plan on an agricultural research station in the nation was developed for the Simpson Research Station at Clemson University in 1960 by Soil Conservation Service experts and implemented in concert with the Anderson Conservation District commissioners.
