Jack McDevitt of Wells raised two hogs for auction, Jane and Pelé. Eloise Goldsmith / The Forecaster

The four Hs in 4-H stand for head, heart, hands and health. Jack McDevitt, a 4-H’er from Wells, said that raising his hog Jane for auction took a lot of heart.

“There’s a lot of physical labor, but there’s also a lot of emotions involved,” said McDevitt, 15, an hour before 294-pound Jane was set to walk the show arena at the Cumberland County Fair on Sept. 25.

McDevitt raised two hogs this year, Jane and Pelé, both named for characters in the 2004 movie “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou,” directed by Wes Anderson.

“It’s very difficult for me to auction them off because they’re very dog-like and they have big personalities,” he said. “It’s bittersweet, but mostly bitter.”

McDevitt, who has been involved in 4-H since 2018 and is a part of the local Swiners 4-H Club, said he sticks with it because he knows that Jane, Pelé and all the other creatures he’s raised likely have better lives than any animal who ends up at Hannaford.

“Jack, you got a nice hog there,” said the auctioneer to McDevitt when he entered the paddock with Jane. The two did a couple of loops with potential buyers and casual spectators eating fair food looking on. In the end, she went for $5.50 a pound to Lincoln J. Merrill Jr., the president and CEO of Patriot Insurance Co. in Yarmouth.

Merrill is himself a former 4-H’er who participated in the same auction at the Cumberland County Fair as a kid in the late 1960s and early 1970s. “It was less sophisticated than today, but the same idea,” he said.

Jacob Brown of Pownal raised the 2024 Cumberland County Fair Grand Champion steer. Eloise Goldsmith / The Forecaster

He bought one steer, two hogs and four sheep that day. Merrill comes to the auction every year to support kids participating in 4-H and to provide a professional benefit for his employees. He has the animals sent to a butcher shop in Windham and later distributes the haul to his staff during what’s internally known as “Meat Day.”

Other buyers included the contractor Slocum Custom Builders and the New Gloucester Food Pantry.

McDevitt said he’ll use the money from the sale for buying a car, but in the past he’s used money from the auction to cover the expenses that go toward raising and showing animals through 4-H.

According to Allison Pollock, the 4-H youth development professional for Cumberland County, some of the 4-H’ers selling at auction will put the money toward college expenses. And for some, it amounted to a big chunk of change.

Sixteen-year-old Jacob Brown of Pownal raised the fair’s 2024 Grand Champion steer, weighing 1,195 pounds. The steer brought in $6.20 a pound at auction, so $7,409.

Now over 100 years old, it’s difficult to attribute the start of 4-H to one person or moment, according to Franklin Reck, who published his history “The 4-H Story” in 1951.

“Club work began wherever a public-spirited man or woman did something to give rural boys and girls respect for themselves and their way of life,” wrote Reck.

At the beginning of the 20th century, progressive county superintendents began to introduce out-of-school programs focused on agriculture, and school fairs began exhibiting “products of the farm home” like produce, bread and needlework.

Local 4-H’ers sold animals they raised at the livestock auction at the Cumberland County Fair on Sept. 25. Some 4-H club members used the money they raised to go toward college costs. Eloise Goldsmith / The Forecaster

Albert B. Graham, the superintendent of Springfield Township schools in Ohio, started what some call the first 4-H club when he launched a youth group in 1902 focused on corn growing, vegetable and flower growing, and soil testing.

At the time, rural education was largely oriented toward urban life. When students learned math, their lessons used examples from banking instead of farm accounting, according to Reck. 4-H is rooted in the idea that educators should “teach rural boys and girls to accept the challenge of life around them.”

There was also a desire among researchers for the farming community to accept new agricultural methods and discoveries. These rural youth programs became a way to introduce these innovations.

In 1914 Congress officially created the Cooperative Extension System, an educational partnership between land-grant universities and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to address agricultural and rural issues. Cooperative Extension also nationalized 4-H. In Cumberland County, 4-H is the youth development arm of the University of Maine Cooperative Extension.

Dana Dotson, who grew up in rural Virginia and participated in 4-H as a youth, is today a 4-H youth community development professional in Cumberland County.

She said that 4-H has changed in the past decade to have a greater focus on STEM skills (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), incorporating things like robotics. 4-H’s website also notes that the clubs serve suburban and urban communities – not just rural ones.

Club activities will vary based on location, she said. Some will concentrate more on showing animals at fairs, others will have a greater emphasis on sewing or computer coding, she added.

These days, the 4-H members in Cumberland County also have the opportunity to go to Washington, D.C., to learn about Congress and tour monuments. There’s also a yearly “Fashion Revue,” according to Pollock, where 4-H’ers present their sewing, knitting or crochet projects – and then have a fashion show.

Tom Munroe, whose son sold a hog at the action on Sept. 25, agreed that it’s “not your grandmother’s 4-H” anymore.

Even if 4-H has innovated over time, something timeless was taking place at the livestock auction that day. Because he’s getting busy with other commitments, McDevitt thinks it might be his last year showing hogs, which makes him sad. For him, the payoff is about more than just the money. He’s learned problem solving, stress management and leadership – as his animals grew and developed, so did he.