George Washington Carver

Renowned as a folk hero who turned the lowly peanut into an American franchise of million-dollar peanut butter, oil, soap, and ink sales, George Washington Carver was more than a myth—he was a devout man of God whose talents and intelligence were dedicated to God's Word and work.

Born into slavery on a farm near Diamond Grove, Missouri Carver was raised by his owners after his mother was kidnapped and killed during a night raid. As a boy in the foothills of the Ozarks, he fell in love with nature and learned that plants could be used to make medicines for man and animal, clothes, soap, and more; and he learned that even the most insignificant scrap of trash could find new life and usefulness.

In his teens he decided to leave the home of his "Aunt" Sue and "Uncle" Mose Carver so he could become educated. He ended up in the home of Mariah Watkins, who took him to church, prayed a great deal with him, and instilled in him a devotion to God's Word that stayed with him all his life. Even in his 80's, Carver was still reading from the Bible she gave him.

He became a student at Iowa's Simpson College when he turned 30, fulfilling his desire to take art classes and paint with trained skill. Although impressed with his talent, his art teacher urged him to study what he truly loved—plants. He left Simpson to attend Iowa State College, where he earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in agricultural science. His work at the college captured the attention of Booker T Washington who invited Carver to chair the newly formed Department of Agriculture at Washington's Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. Carver remained at Tuskegee throughout his career.

"I realize that God has work for me to do," Carver said. And that work was to change the lives and futures of his people and country by tapping into the secrets of nature. He would arise at 4 a.m. to be "alone with the things I love the most my plants and God. At no other time have I so sharp an understanding of what God means to do with me as in these hours of dawn. Where other folk are asleep, I hear God best and learn His plan."

He devoutly believed that a personal relationship with the Creator of all things was his only foundation for an abundant life. He acknowledged that God gave him the formula to tap into the more than 300 uses for the peanut. This divine revelation turned the agriculture of the South around, and made the peanut, once a lowly, non-commercial crop, account for $200 million of American business in 1968.

He fostered soil improvement by crop rotation, bringing an end to the dependence of Southern agriculture on cotton alone. With this in mind, he developed hundreds of industrial uses for peanuts, pecans, and sweet potatoes.