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Many residents know Martha Neal Boardman for her role as 1981-1992 chair of the Blount County Soil Conservation District Board, for her land survey work and for the 102-acre farm which she and her husband Doug operate at 4944 Baumgardner Road, Maryville.

What many do not know is her farm background and her relationship to a man famous in Tennessee agriculture history.

Her grandfather, William Haskell Neal (1859-1934) of Wilson County (Lebanon), developed the first strain of seed corn that would produce two ears per stalk. Known as Neal’s Paymaster Corn, this achievement made it possible to increase the per acre production of corn by more than one-third with essentially the same cost and effort.

The first person elected to the Tennessee Agricultural Hall of Fame, some compared him to the famous Luther Burbank who also experimented with and improved various plants to make them more productive for mankind. Others said his achievement was even greater.

Neal observed occasional stalks with two ears of corn, saved the seed and over 13 years, by 1914, had developed the two ears-to-a-stalk Neal’s Paymaster Corn. In 1934, the year of his death, 32 percent of the 19.6 million bushels of corn grown in Tennessee were Neal’s Paymaster Corn, 2.3 million bushels more than would have been produced with regular corn.

He did not seek to develop “show corn,” but worked strictly to improve the yield. While producing two ears to the stalk reduced the size of the ears of corn, the two would shell out more corn than a single ear. He gave attention to developing a strong stalk, well filled at both ends with deep grains on a medium size cob.

Neal is among the 50 famous Tennesseans featured in a 1976 book, “Footprints Across the Pages of Tennessee History” compiled by James A. Crutchfield. The book also includes William Blount, Sam Houston, John Sevier, Davy Crockett, Andrew Jackson, Sequoyah, Admiral David Glasow Farragut, James K. Polk, and Andrew Johnson.

In 1937, the state of Tennessee had three brass plaques made in honor of Neal. One was placed in the state Capitol and later moved to the Ellington Agriculture Center; a second was placed in the Wilson County Courthouse and later moved to an agriculture building named for Neal in Wilson County; the third was in Morgan Hall at UT.

The 1998 annual report and 1999 calendar of the Blount County Soil Conservation District had a photograph on the cover of Martha Neal Boardman driving a tractor on their farm. From early days of growing tobacco and feeder pigs they moved to a beef cattle and hay operation while operating their own survey company.

The Tennessee Historical Commission recently erected a historical marker at the Maple Dale Farm, the home of William Haskell Neal when he developed the famous seed corn in Wilson County.

Dr. Painter promoted in nuclear research

Dr. Scott L. Painter, son of retired Friendsville Elementary School Principal LeRoy Painter and Carolyn Painter of Friendsville, was recently promoted to Institute Scientist of the Center for Nuclear Waste Regulatory Analyses (CNWRA) in the Geosciences and Engineering Division at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) at San Antonio, Texas.

Institute scientist, engineer or analyst is the highest technical level an SwRI staff member can attain. He was previously a staff scientist. Established in 1987, CNWRA is a federally-funded research and development center which offers the Nuclear Regulatory Commission independent assessment capability.

Painter, who joined the staff in 1998, specializes in computer modeling of flow and transport in the subsurface of the Earth. His many accomplishments at SwRI include the Time Domain Random Walk software, which received a 2008 research and development 100 Award from R&D Magazine as one of the 100 most significant technological achievements of the year.

He also has developed computer simulations of heat transport, multiphase flow and chemical transport in geological media. He is currently developing models of ice, liquid and vapor phase hydrological processes in the subsurface of Mars and has extensive experience in groundwater modeling in support of water resources evaluations.

Scott is currently leading projects assessing radionuclide migration at sites for potential repositories for radioactive waste in Sweden. He has also investigated radionuclide migration in the saturated zone near Yucca Mountain, Nevada, for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Yucca Mountain is the proposed storehouse for much of the nation’s radioactive waste.

A 1981 graduate of William Blount High, Scott attended Friendsville Elementary School and his first three years of high school at Friendsville, moving to William Blount when Blount County consolidated its six high schools into two. He earned bachelor and masters degrees at UT, then a doctorate in nuclear physics.

Barry Davis seeking State Treasurer post

Barry Davis, Blount County resident, certified public accountant and East Tennessee businessman, is among six individuals who have applied for the post of Tennessee State Treasurer.

With the recent election giving Republicans a majority in the Tennessee General Assembly for the first time since 1868, the Senate and House Republican Caucuses will select the state treasurer for the first time in many decades.

Davis is currently Chief Financial Officer of the Bridgemont development in Sevierville. The project encompasses more than 1,000 acres and includes the new city of Sevierville events center. The group, headed by Jim Calkin Jr. who has Blount roots, also brought Bass Pro Shops to the region and developed its store there.
In the 1990s, Barry was heavily involved in the Blount County Chamber of Commerce, serving four years on the board of directors and a year as vice chairman.
He was active in several United Way campaigns and is a 1995 graduate of Leadership Blount. He is a past president of Boys Club and the Alcoa City Schools Foundation.

His wife, Sylvia Shannon Davis, is vice president for strategic planning at the University of Tennessee. Many will recall Barry’s uncle, Jim Clodfelter, who served as city of Alcoa Recorder/Treasurer/Judge and then retired after serving many years as director of Legal Services for the General Assembly in Nashville.

As we understand it, the elimination of candidates will begin Monday with interviews expected to reduce the number of applicants to three.

Questions about state quarters are plentiful

With the issue of state quarters winding down this year, there is still time to learn a little history and geography by studying the coins. Here are a few more questions and answers:

— How many state quarters depict lakes?

Four: Arkansas (2003), Kansas (2005), North Dakota (2006), South Dakota (2006) and Oklahoma (2008).

— Which state quarter shows a map of the contiguous United States?

Louisiana (2002).

— What quarter’s design was chosen in a competition that was limited to the state’s children?

Massachusetts. The winning design, submitted by a sixth and a seventh grader, depicts the statue of a minuteman.

— Which state quarter is the only one with writing in Braille?

Alabama, the birthplace of Helen Keller, famous and talented blind leader. Her name appears in both English and Braille.

— Which coin bears the words from a toast written for a reunion of Revolutionary War battle survivors?

New Hampshire. General John Stark’s words were, “Live free or die; death is not the worst of evils,” and the first part became the state motto.

— What is the familiar name for the “Corps of Discovery” honored on this coin design?

Most of us know the Corps of Discovery better as the Lewis and Clark Expedition, honored on the Missouri quarter.
— Which quarter pays tribute to a trumpet and a pelican, and why?

The Louisiana state quarter’s trumpet pays tribute to legendary jazz musician Louis Armstrong and its state bird, the pelican.

For those who have nothing to do but count their state quarters minted in 2005, there are probably still a few rare quarters around. Some of the Minnesota and Oregon quarters contain extra images created by “doubled dies.” This is a rare error in coin production which creates varieties that are sought after by coin collectors and usually bring more than face value of the coin.

When a coin is struck with a doubled die, it features two or more images of some parts of the design, often a very small detail which got by the inspectors.

On the Oregon coins, the doubled images are most evident on the tallest evergreen tree on the right side of Crater Lake in which there is an extra branch line at about midway down the tree.

On the Minnesota coin, the doubling usually appears on the trees in the background with an extra tree top appearing just to the right of the map outline of the state.
Happy hunting!

Dean Stone is editor of The Daily Times