457 PERRY COUNTY FARM JOINS NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES

PERRY COUNTY FARM JOINS NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACESAND IS DESIGNATED A TENNESSEE CENTURY FARM, REPORT OFFICIALS

135-year-Old Property is 1st African-American Farm to be Founded in Perry County


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 5, 2006
CONTACT: Caneta Hankins, 615-898-2947


(MURFREESBORO)—The Craig Farm in Perry County recently was recently listed on the National Register of Historic Places by the National Park Service, announced Herbert Harper, executive director of the Tennessee Historical Commission.
The nomination for the farm was prepared by staff and student assistants at the Center for Historic Preservation at Middle Tennessee State University as part of a project that is supported by the Center's Tennessee Civil War National Heritage Area.
Established by emancipated slaves Amy and Tapp Craig in 1871, the farm is owned today by their descendant, McDonald Craig. The property, which also was designated as a Tennessee Century Farm, was nominated because it is an “excellent, intact, and extremely rare example of a historic African-American farm that has remained in the same family and been continuously operated for over 100 years,” according to information contained on the nomination.
The Perry Farm “is an important site related to post-Civil War settlement patterns by newly emancipated African Americans,” reported Caneta Hankins, director of the Century Farms Program, who notes that representatives from the state’s National Heritage Area consider the property to be very important to the state's Reconstruction history.
Additionally, Hankins added, “The farm was the first established by an African-American family in Perry County after the Civil War that still exists today.”
The historic farming landscape includes a forest of hardwood and softwood trees that have been selectively cut since the founders’ time, and Craig continues to work this timberland.
An unusual inclusion in the nomination that contributes to the significance of the farm is a 1954 Chevrolet school bus. After returning from the Korean War, Craig drove this bus each day to Lexington, Tenn., carrying African-American students to Montgomery High School, which was the nearest high school they could attend.
Craig completed his own high school education and then worked at a sawmill in Lexington while waiting to drive the students home to Perry County. During this time he met and married his wife, Rosetta Smith Craig, who is from Lexington. They built the home in which they continue to live in 1959 and reared their two sons on the family farm.
“The Craig Farm is certainly important to Tennessee history, especially our Civil War and Reconstruction legacies, and now is recognized nationally through its placement on the National Register of Historic Places,” said Dr. Van West, CHP director.


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.