This logo represented the 1939 National Cornhusking Contest, which was held north of Lawrence.

Editor’s note: Lawrence resident Harlan L. Miller has spent the last six months researching the 1939 National Cornhusking Contest, which some of his family members helped organize in Lawrence.

This weekend, dozens of contestants will gather in Oakley for the annual Kansas State Cornhusking Competition.

It’s an old-fashioned reminder of days gone by on the farm.

Cornhusking competitions actually started as a way to preserve old-fashioned methods – but they started way back in the 1920s.

Before cornhusking became mechanized, it was all done by hand – a time-honored tradition. Farmers would have friends and neighbors come in to share in husking a field with plenty of food and a party atmosphere. Husking took very little equipment: a pair of sturdy gloves, a horse-drawn wagon to throw the husked ears into and a hook or peg to help take off the husk.

Modern equipment and a couple of men can harvest in an hour what use to take a fleet of men all day to accomplish. As modern methods started taking over, the desire to keep alive the fading skill of husking corn by hand gave rise to the cornhusking contests, the first of which was organized in 1924 in Polk County, Iowa. Winners from state contests advanced to the national competition.

In 1937, Lawrence businessmen and farmers were looking for ways to bring more visitors to town. Brothers Al and William R. Green Sr., owners of Green Brothers Hardware in the 600 block of Massachusetts Street, suggested attracting the National Cornhusking Contest, since reports were that 100,000 to 150,000 people often attended them. The following year, Lawrence made its pitch to host a contest, and the city was awarded the 1939 competition.

Community attention

As the big day – Nov. 3 – approached, the whole town picked up on the cornhusking theme in their advertising. The Varsity Theater advertised its Saturday night Best Corn Contest with the winner, judged by 4-H clubs, to be awarded $10. A local furniture company advertised: “Are you going to have house guests during the Cornhusking Contest? Then perhaps you will want some new furniture?” And a men’s clothier said: “Look your best for the visitors to the National Cornhusking Contest. Come in today to update your wardrobe.”

The Lawrence Daily Journal-World promised a National Cornhusking Edition in the days just before the contest. It was advertised to be “the most interesting and largest issue of any newspaper ever published in Lawrence.” It turned out to be 58 pages in four sections. Eventually, copies were mailed – for 10 cents each – to every state and seven foreign countries.

The New York Times even wrote a full-page article about the contest.

Cornville on the Kaw

The competition field was planted with help from students from Haskell Institute, now Haskell Indian Nations University. It was north of Lawrence on farm property owned by Kansas University and operated by the father-and-son team of Frank H. and Lawrence Leonhard. A special 65-acre tent “village” was set up adjacent to the contest corn field, and that village was dubbed Cornville on the Kaw.

Cornville had a “village square” called Cob Square. Around the square were the concession stands, vendor stands and agricultural equipment tents. The village was outlined by the streets of Kernel Avenue, Tassel Boulevard, Stalk Drive and Hybrid Lane. A Kansas City tent businessman who was in charge of putting up the village said there was 300,000 square feet of canvas spread around Cornville.

“That’s more than it takes to handle Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus,” he said.

A Jayhawk, sitting on an ear of corn, was chosen as the symbol of the National Cornhusking Contest. Small, brightly painted, plaster models of the symbol were available for sale, with all profits going to the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce to help defray expenses.

Champion husker

The rules were fairly simple: Whoever husked the most corn in 80 minutes won. There were penalties, however. For example, for every pound of corn a husker missed on the stalk or dropped and didn’t pick up, 3 pounds were deducted from his load.

City schools and KU classes were closed for competition day. Officials estimated more than 100,000 people went to the competition grounds to check out the action.

The winner of the contest was Lawrence “Slim” Pitzer, who represented Indiana. He picked 28.39 bushels of corn – well-short of the world record of 41.5, in part because the corn was so dry it weighed less than normal.

Not everyone was pleased with the final analysis, though, especially the concessionaires. Business was slow before the cornhusking started. After the contest was over, there was a mad stampede to the cornhusking field by the spectators who were hoping to grab an ear or two of unhusked corn as a souvenir.

“They picked the field clean,” as one concessionaire put it. “After they cleaned the field, the enormous crowd disappeared like magic!”

And, likewise, this small chapter in Lawrence history has largely disappeared from the history books. It was the day the city was the center of attention – at least in the world of cornhusking.