Cully Cobb
Encyclopedia
Cully Alton Cobb, Sr. was an agricultural pioneer, educator, printer, journalist, and philanthropist in the American South
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...

 who with his second wife, Lois Dowdle Cobb (August 1, 1889–August 9, 1987), co-founded the Cobb Institute of Archaeology on the campus of Mississippi State University
Mississippi State University
The Mississippi State University of Agriculture and Applied Science commonly known as Mississippi State University is a land-grant university located in Oktibbeha County, Mississippi, United States, partially in the town of Starkville and partially in an unincorporated area...

 at Starkville
Starkville, Mississippi
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 21,869 people, 9,462 households, and 4,721 families residing in the city. The population density was 851.4 people per square mile . There were 10,191 housing units at an average density of 396.7 per square mile...

, Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...

.

Early years

Cobb was originally a poor farm boy born in his grandfather's cabin near Prospect
Prospect, Tennessee
Prospect is an unincorporated community in Giles County, Tennessee, United States. The zip code is: 38477.The southern agricultural pioneer and publisher Cully Cobb was born in Prospect in 1884.-References:...

 in Giles County in rural southern Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...

. His parents were Napoleon Cobb (1849–1913) and the former Mary Agnes Woodward (1855–1932).

In 1908, at the age of twenty-four, Cobb received his bachelor's degree
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...

 from Mississippi State University, then Mississippi A&M College. Thereafter, he accepted for two years the position of superintendent of the first agricultural high school, established in the unincorporated community of Buena Vista in Chickasaw County
Chickasaw County, Mississippi
-National protected areas:* Natchez Trace Parkway * Tombigbee National Forest -Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 19,440 people, 7,253 households, and 5,287 families residing in the county. The population density was 39 people per square mile . There were 7,981 housing units at an...

 in northern MIssissippi. From 1910-1918, Cobb was director of the men's agriculture club at Mississippi State University.

Agricultural publisher

In September 1918, Cobb became editor of Southern Ruralist magazine
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...

 in Atlanta
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...

, Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...

. He was named president of the American Agricultural Editors Association for three consecutive years. In 1932, the Southern Ruralist was sold to Progressive Farmer
Progressive Farmer
DTN/The Progressive Farmer is a country life oriented magazine, published twelve times a year by DTN, a division of Telvent. The magazine is based in Birmingham, Alabama.-History:...

. Cobb was the managing editor of the Georgia-Alabama edition of Progressive Farmer.

In 1933, however, he accepted an appointment in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

, under U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...

 as director of the Cotton
Cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....

 Division of the New Deal
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of economic programs implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They were passed by the U.S. Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were Roosevelt's responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call...

 agency, the Agricultural Adjustment Administration. Cobb supervised the controversial decision to plow under cotton fields to reduce farm output in the expectation of reversing the slump in prices to farmers.

In September 1937, he returned to Atlanta, where he purchased the majority of stock of the Ruralist Press, one of the largest printing concerns in the South. He continued as president of Ruralist Press until 1971, when he sold the company. He was also president of the Master Printers Association of Atlanta and a mainstay of the Georgia printing industry.

Family

Cobb's first wife was the former Byrdie Ball of Buena Vista, Mississippi, where he had been the superintendent of the agricultural high school. The couple had two children, Cully, Jr. (born ca. 1917), and David A. Cobb (born ca. 1924). Byrdie died in 1932, the same year that Cobb's mother expired. Son Cully, Jr., practiced neurosurgery
Neurosurgery
Neurosurgery is the medical specialty concerned with the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of disorders which affect any portion of the nervous system including the brain, spine, spinal cord, peripheral nerves, and extra-cranial cerebrovascular system.-In the United States:In...

 in Nashville
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...

, Tennessee, and is presumably retired. Grandson Cully A. Cobb, III (born 1943), is a neurosurgeon in Sacramento
Sacramento, California
Sacramento is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat of Sacramento County. It is located at the confluence of the Sacramento River and the American River in the northern portion of California's expansive Central Valley. With a population of 466,488 at the 2010 census,...

, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

, and is affiliated with the Sutter
John Sutter
Johann Augus Sutter was a Swiss pioneer of California known for his association with the California Gold Rush by the discovery of gold by James W. Marshall and the mill making team at Sutter's Mill, and for establishing Sutter's Fort in the area that would eventually become Sacramento, the...

 Neuroscience Institute there.

In 1934, Cobb he wed the former Lois P. Dowdle, a graduate of the University of Georgia
University of Georgia
The University of Georgia is a public research university located in Athens, Georgia, United States. Founded in 1785, it is the oldest and largest of the state's institutions of higher learning and is one of multiple schools to claim the title of the oldest public university in the United States...

 at Athens
Athens, Georgia
Athens-Clarke County is a consolidated city–county in U.S. state of Georgia, in the northeastern part of the state, comprising the former City of Athens proper and Clarke County. The University of Georgia is located in this college town and is responsible for the initial growth of the city...

 who also enrolled in graduate studies at Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...

 in Ithaca
Ithaca, New York
The city of Ithaca, is a city in upstate New York and the county seat of Tompkins County, as well as the largest community in the Ithaca-Tompkins County metropolitan area...

, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

. During World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, Lois Dowdle had been director of Food Production and Food Preservation for Georgia as an appointee of Herbert C. Hoover, the federal Food Administrator, who became U.S. President in 1929. Between 1932-1934, she was director of the American Institute of Home Grown Fats and Oils. She worked to convince the U.S. Congress to repeal restrictive legislation against the manufacture and sale of oleomargarine. She too wore many hats: editor, writer, schoolteacher, administrator, trustee, and homemaker. She was a president of the Georgia Home Economics Association and the only woman to have served as president of the Southern Association of Agricultural Workers, now known as the Southern Association of Agricultural Scientists, Inc.,

Cobb was involved in civic and church affairs, having taught Sunday school
Sunday school
Sunday school is the generic name for many different types of religious education pursued on Sundays by various denominations.-England:The first Sunday school may have been opened in 1751 in St. Mary's Church, Nottingham. Another early start was made by Hannah Ball, a native of High Wycombe in...

 for more than three decades at the Druid Hills Baptist Church in Druid Hills
Druid Hills, Georgia
Druid Hills is a community which includes both a census-designated place in unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia, United States, as well as a neighborhood of the city of Atlanta. The CDP's population was 14,568 at the 2010 census...

 in DeKalb County
DeKalb County, Georgia
DeKalb County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. The population of the county was 691,893 at the 2010 census. Its county seat is the city of Decatur. It is bordered to the west by Fulton County and contains roughly 10% of the city of Atlanta...

 near Atlanta. He was also a member of the Masonic lodge
Masonic Lodge
This article is about the Masonic term for a membership group. For buildings named Masonic Lodge, see Masonic Lodge A Masonic Lodge, often termed a Private Lodge or Constituent Lodge, is the basic organisation of Freemasonry...

. Mrs. Cobb was of Methodist affiliation but regularly taught a class at her husband's Baptist congregation.

Cobb Institute of Archaeology

The Cobbs were patrons of charity. They assisted student ministers from Emory University
Emory University
Emory University is a private research university in metropolitan Atlanta, located in the Druid Hills section of unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia, United States. The university was founded as Emory College in 1836 in Oxford, Georgia by a small group of Methodists and was named in honor of...

 in Atlanta by providing some of them free housing in their garage apartment. In 1938, the Cobbs purchased an historic house in Decatur
Decatur, Georgia
Decatur is a city in, and county seat of, DeKalb County, Georgia, United States. With a population of 19,335 in the 2010 census, the city is sometimes assumed to be larger since multiple zip codes in unincorporated DeKalb County bear the Decatur name...

, Georgia, built by Michael Steele, a pioneer of DeKalb County, along with eighty-seven adjacent acres on which to raise grain and livestock. Upon Cobb's death, the property was donated to Emory University. The current owners bought the Steele-Cobb property in 1988.

In June 1971, the couple first provided funding for the Cobb Institute of Archaeology, which includes a study center and a museum
Museum
A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...

. Groundbreaking at the building site followed on April 14, 1973. On that occasion. the Cobbs were joined by MSU president William L. Giles. Cobb said that he was inspired to establish the institute in Starkville because of how much Mississippi State had meant to his life. Construction began in 1974 and was completed in 1975, five months after Cobb's death. Mrs. Cobb last visited the institute in 1979 on the occasion of her ninetieth birthday. She dedicated to the museum a copy of the Lion Panel from the Ishtar Gate
Ishtar Gate
The Ishtar Gate was the eighth gate to the inner city of Babylon. It was constructed in about 575 BC by order of King Nebuchadnezzar II on the north side of the city....

 in ancient Babylon
Babylon
Babylon was an Akkadian city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which are found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad...

.

Mrs. Cobb spent her remaining years in Decatur, where she died at the age of ninety-eight a dozen years after her husband's passing. The couple is interred in DeKalb County. Mississippi State University historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...

 Roy Vernon Scott
Roy Vernon Scott
Roy Vernon Scott is a Professor Emeritus of history at Mississippi State University in Starkville, Mississippi, who specialized in agricultural and railroad studies in the American South and Midwest...

 of Starkville, co-author with the late Jimmy G. Shoalmire
Jimmy G. Shoalmire
Jimmy Gayle Shoalmire was an historian of the American South originally from Shreveport, Louisiana, who specialized in Reconstruction and agricultural studies.-Early years and education:...

of a 1973 biography of Cobb, was a pallbearer at Cully Cobb's funeral.
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