Family Background
             George Washington Carver was born in the year of 1861. He was born on a farm near Diamond; Grove, Mo. George was the second son and one of the youngest of three children to Negro slave parents. When George was just a child his father was killed in an accident. Shortly after that George's mother and sister were stolen and carried into Arkansas by raiders. His mother and sister disappeared after that incident. A "bushwhacker" brought him back to his master Moses Carver in exchange for $300. George was carried and raised by Carvers wife and took the family name "Carver". He did chores around the house to earn his pay. At age 14 he left the Carver family to get an education then not available to his race in the Diamond Grove community.
             Over the next few years he worked at odd jobs an also attended grade school in Neosho, Mo., and Fort Scott, Paola, and Olathe, Kans. In Olathe he went to the Presbyterian Church, the beginning of a lifelong affiliation. George received his high school training in Minneapolis, Kans. There he took the middle name Washington. He received this name so other people could distinguish him from the other George Carver. As he grew older he showed interest in cooking, knitting, and crocheting. He also learned how to do laundry, how to grow plants, and he developed talent for music and painting. Because of his race he was refused admission to Highland College located in northeastern Kansas. He soon won admission to Simpson College at Indianola, Iowa in September 1890 and then transferred to Tuskegee College.
             The development of peanuts and sweet potatoes from noncommercial crops to leading crops in the South during Carver's career was attributed to his demonstration of their possibilities. He began about 1915 to develop special exhibits of peanuts products that eventually included some 325 items. Ranging from beverages, mixed
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