409 SUMNER COUNTY FARM JOINS STATE’S CENTURY FARMS PROGRAM

McKee Farm is 24th in County to be Recognized for Agricultural Contributions

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 28, 2006
CONTACT: Caneta Hankins, 615-898-2947


(MURFREESBORO)—The McKee Farm in Sumner County has been designated as a Tennessee Century Farm, reports Caneta S. Hankins, director of the Century Farms program at the Center for Historic Preservation (CHP), which is located on the campus MTSU.
Just more than 100 years ago, on March 5, 1906, John William “Jack” McKee and Marcus “Mark” Lafayette McKee established the McKee Farms, which is located east of Gallatin in the early settlement of Greenfield. The farm was originally a parcel of the land grant of more than 6,000 acres originally awarded to Col. Anthony Bledsoe.
Jack married Salley Murphey and Mark married Hattie Bobo. Both of the couples had six children. The family has many stories that have been passed down through the generations that have lived on this farm. When Mark and Hattie returned from their wedding trip to Nashville in 1911, they set up housekeeping in a dogtrot log house. When the first of their children came, the doctor told Hattie that the house, which had little chinking between the logs, was a “wonderful place to raise children because there was plenty of fresh air.” This house burned in 1923 and the current farm residence was built to replace it.
One of the first cash crops produced by the McKees was hay. which was put on a railcar in Rogana, just north of the farm, and shipped to Scottsville, Ky. Because this was the best way to market, later Jack bought a small parcel of land beside the railroad tracks where he could hold his livestock until they were ready to be shipped to Louisville, Ky. In 1909, Jack constructed a stock barn. According to the family, when the barn was being raised, a severe windstorm blew through, causing the framing poles to lean. Since no one knew how to straighten the poles, the barn was built leaning, as it does to this day (though it has been braced by the current owners).
Mark McKee, while working the farm, also carried mail from 1925 until 1958 for the Castalian Springs community. During a severe drought in 1936, the farm was able to survive because a portion of Bledsoe Creek runs through the property. The family recalls that cows had to be driven to the area daily while water was carried to the hogs. During World War II, the army conducted maneuvers in the Castalian Springs area. Later, the soldiers would be among those who fought in the D-Day invasions.
In April 1952, Mark McKee Jr. bought the farm across the road from his father. Mark married Twyla Ellis and they had two children, Michael and Mark III. After Mark Sr.’s death in 1983, Mark Jr. and his son Mark McKee III purchased 181 acres. Today, Mark III lives in the 1920s house, where he and wife Melissa (Carothers) rear their three sons. Currently, the farm produces cattle, corn, wheat, soybeans, hay, pasture and tobacco.
The McKee Farm is the 24th farm in Sumner County to be certified as a Century Farm.
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About the Tennessee Century Farm Program

The Tennessee Century Farm Program, now 30 years old, recognizes the contributions of Tennessee residents who have continuously owned, and kept in production, family land for at least 100 years. Since 1984, the Center for Historic Preservation at MTSU has been a leader in the important work of documenting Tennessee’s agricultural heritage and history through the Tennessee Century Farm Program, and continues to administer this program.
The Tennessee Department of Agriculture (TDA) began the Tennessee Century Farm Program in 1976 as part of the nation’s bicentennial. Today, the TDA provides a metal outdoor sign, noting either 100, 150 or 200 years of “continuous agricultural production” to Century Farm families.
To be considered for eligibility, a farm must be owned by the same family for at least 100 years; must produce $1,000 revenue annually; must have at least 10 acres of the original farm; and one owner must be a resident of Tennessee. There are more than 1,000 Century Farms across the state and all 95 counties are represented.
“The Century Farmers represent all the farm families of Tennessee,” Hankins said, “and their contributions to the economy, and to the social, cultural, and agrarian vitality of the state, both past and present, is immeasurable. Each farm is a Tennessee treasure.”
For more information about the Century Farms Program, please visit its Web site at http://histpres.mtsu.edu/histpres. The Center for Historic Preservation also may be contacted via mail at Box 80, MTSU, Murfreesboro, Tenn., 37132, or by telephone at 615-898-2947.




• ATTENTION, MEDIA: To request an interview with the farm’s current owners, please contact the Center for Historic Preservation at 615-898-2947.