03/21/2026
Recently, as part of a project I’m working on, I contacted Anne Russell and asked if she had any locally produced cookbooks. The kind of hometown cookbooks that local organizations and associations publish. She kindly offered to loan me some of her collection for a few days so I could go through them.
The Coving-Bay Unit’s Home Demonstration Cook Book from 1962 caught my attention for several reasons. First, I had no idea what the Coving-Bay Unit was and why they had put together an oddly name Home Demonstration Cook Book. Additionally, there was the cook book dedication page; This cook book is dedicated to the HOME ECONOMICS CLASS, 1962 SALMON RIVER CENTRAL SCHOOL our future homemakers. It is with this thought in mind, that we, Coving-Bay Unit have compiled these recipes. Some of them are treasured old family recipes, some are brand new but every one reflects the love of good cooking that is predominant in this country of ours. This was followed by a list of the Unit’s officers and then the names of the 48 members.
I recognized many of the names, several of which were friends of my mother. I was intrigued and needed to find out more. After taking a deep breath and heading down the “old rabbit hole” I found a great story and I would like to share with you. Please forgive any holes or omissions concerning the backstory of this unique group of women.
COVING-BAY UNIT
The Coving-Bay Unit was the local chapter of the Home Demonstration Committee which was a program of the Cornell Extension Service which was in turn supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Home Demonstration Committees can trace their origin in New York state back to 1900 when Cornell professor and Dean of the College of Agriculture Liberty Hyde Bailey invited then Superintendent of Rural Schools Martha Van Rensselaer to develop educational programs for rural women. She developed one of the earliest extension programs in the United States that brought research-based, practical knowledge directly to rural families.
Liberty Hyde BaileyMartha Van Rensselaer
The programs provided information and practical implementation of food preservation, nutrition, sanitation and household management. In five years, she had enrolled over twenty thousand women throughout New York. In 1914 the Smith-Lever Act created Cooperative Extension nationwide. By this time, Rensselaer’s programs were already established and transitioned into the official system. She also co-founded the home economics program at Cornell which became the College of Human Ecology. Not only did she define Cornell’s leadership role in Extension across New York State, her values are still part of the Cornell Cooperative Extensions standards, research-based education, community outreach and improving everyday life.
Martha Van Rensselaer created home study courses for rural women, the lessons were mailed out and included practical instruction and included sewing, cooking sanitation, hygiene and other topics. This work was rolled over into the formal “Home Demonstration Committee’s” after Smith-Lever Act of 1914 was enacted. The Committees focused on teaching through hands-on demonstrations, trained agents and local “units” like Coving-Bay (Fort Coving ton and Bom Bay).
The units would host demonstrations using their own trained members or visiting local or traveling agents on various subjects related to home management. Unfortunately, I don’t have exact dates of when the Coving-Bay Unit was active, other than articles in Fort Covington Sun that show the group was well established in 1960 and continued past 1971. The influence that was wielded by these committees and units can’t be overstated. During WWI they encouraged food conservation, during WWII they supported victory gardens and household management. They built local leadership networks that circulated information throughout the community. They improved the health and welfare of their community by teaching new and improved modern safety practices for the home.
Before the internet, TV, YouTube or widespread formal training these committees and units were a “critical link between academic research and daily life”. They targeted rural families, farm households and women managing homes and modernize home economics, reduce sickness and improve nutrition across New York State.
I will also provide a complete copy of the cook book on our next posting. I hope you enjoyed this interesting sidebar of local history and thank you for reading.
