Leonidas L. Polk. Founder of the Progressive Farmer in 1886. By 1890, this publication had the largest circulation of any newspaper in the state. Polk championed the modernization of agriculture in North Carolina through the establishment of a land-grant college. He was a farmer, state legislator (at the age of twenty-three), Confederate soldier, town developer, storekeeper, patent-medicine inventor, and (in 1877) the state's first commissioner of agriculture. When politicians dragged their feet over the creation of an agricultural college, Polk mounted a yearlong editorial campaign that was relentless, blistering, and—in 1887—triumphant. The result was what is now known as North Carolina State University.

Presented by the North Carolina Office of Archives & History, in association with the University of North Carolina Press. All rights reserved. COPYRIGHT AND CONDITIONS OF USE